CMJ 2010: This is How You Know You Are in New York

New York suffers from  its own fair share of stereotypes. Jaded scenesters, a certain taking for granted what may be an unusual scene around you if you were located just about anywhere else. Take for instance, the two videos Modern Mystery Blog shot of Golden Bloom and Neutral Uke Hotel outside a grocery store in Williamsburg. Not only will you see two very fine performances in my humble opinion, you'll also see the coming and goings of grocery shoppers without a blink of an eye to a group of six guys performing on the street. Not even drummer, Andrew Laubaucher, playing on a guitar case phased them.




And then there was the Green Room Music Source Showcase on October 21st where Golden Bloom continued to prove they are a band who knows how to go with the flow as melophobe demonstrates in their live review of the showcase, "The guitarist in Golden Bloom uses a butter knife for a slide; the drummer used a Rice-A-Roni package as a shaker. Those kind of facts give you an indication of the type of band this is - a fly by the seat of your pants, use whatever you’ve got on hand type of outfit, just looking to make music."

Limewire reviewed the set saying: "I came in for the tail end of Golden Bloom’s set, featuring lead singer Shawn Fogel’s crystal-clear, earnest voice and comfy power pop dance tunes. But what we were truly waiting for was Neutral Uke Hotel, also headed up by Fogel and consisting of two ukes, baritone, trumpetini (tiny trumpet!), snare drum, one very large mustache, and a whole lot of singing along. It’s exactly what it sounds like: a re-imagining of Neutral Milk Hotel’s music, as realized by the ukulele. Neutral Uke Hotel played indie rock’s magnum opus In the Aeroplane Over the Sea in its entirety, but rather than re-interpreting the record, it felt like a tribute and celebration as most of the room sang along. A Jeff Mangum sighting is on par with a UFO these days, but trite as it sounds, if he’d been present, there’s no way he couldn’t have been somewhat charmed by a crowd of people singing his album, word for word. After finishing the record, Neutral Uke Hotel finished the set with “Song Against Sex” from On Avery Island."


Neutral Uke Hotel @ Green Room Music Source Showcase - Cameo Gallery, Brooklyn from heidi vanderlee on Vimeo.

Encore Magazine also gives a little background behind Neutral Uke Hotel and the progress on the follow-up to Golden Bloom's Fan the Flames. And you can see and hear a little sneak peak of one the new songs that were performed at CMJ here.