Jeff The Brotherhood

This weekend in New York City was the CMJ Festival. The College Music Journal is a publication for the music industry and college radio stations, and their festival is one of the biggest industry-oriented events of the year, spanning across venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Basically, next to South By Southwest in Austin, TX, CMJ is where bands make their mark with the music industry, journalists, and record labels.

With all of the commotion going on this weekend, it was hard to pick and choose which shows were worth attending. Instead of planning out specific shows to attend, I decided to just roll with whatever was blowing through Death By Audio in a hurricane of activity. Out of Nashville, Infinity Cat Records was having a showcase on Friday night. Their headliner? Jeff The Brotherhood.

Two brothers from Nashville, Jeff plays a blend of psychedelic garage rock, similar to The Wipers or Sonic Youth. I make an effort to see them every time they come to New York, and every time it is an amazing show. This time, they played in the basement of the Charleston on Bedford Ave.

As a grungy basement with low ceilings and poor ventilation, the Charleston was the perfect venue for the Brotherhood. Packed in well past capacity, the crowd swelled with the music, almost overtaking the band. The low ceilings were attractive for crowd surfing, and almost twenty people watched the band from this vantage point, clinging to the ceiling pipes.

With all of the music happening this weekend, I'm sure there were other amazing shows and other amazing bands. In my opinion, Jeff the Brotherhood was the band to see at the 2009 CMJ festival. With 7 shows over the course of three days, I'm sure they'll get the press they deserve.