Exit Stencil Showcase at Spike Hill's Tomorrow Night: My Pick for CMJ Day 1

I told myself that I wasn't going to do CMJ this year...Oh well, I guess some resolutions are meant to be broken. Tomorrow night, Exit Stencil Recordings is doing a showcase at Spike Hill in Williamsburg with some great bands from the Cleveland area.


Here are some details, videos, mp3s, etc. on the bands that are playing:

8pm - Spanish Prisoners: "...one of those squirrelly artists that runs le gamut from a weird freak folk (with spry banjo, dobro, accordion, Wurlitzer, Neil Young-ish harmonica, etc.) to an even more skewed inversion of rough-hewn, '70s influenced indie-rock. No wonder he once backed Daniel Johnston; they've both got a nice artistic screw loose." -
The Big Takeover

Spanish Prisoners backing Daniel Johnston @ Highline Ballroom, Feb '08



9pm - Mystery of Two: "Not quite post-punk, not quite New Wave, this
Cleveland trio nonetheless shares traits with both (angular guitar parts,
occasional synth bleeps), but adds other components Sonic Youth noise
and Feelies guitar drive to come up with something less derivative.
Occasionally the embers ignite into conflagration, which is when the band
rises above the rabble." - Creative Loafing

"Desolate" - Mystery of Two

10pm - HotChaCha: "This all-girl Cleveland foursome packs a helluva
punch, with loud, edgy pop/rock and no apologies. The tracks are huge and
in your face and frontwoman Jovana Batkovic¹s vocals are spot-on with any
other female lead in the business." - Slug Magazine

"J'accuse" - HotChaCha

11pm - The Dreadful Yawns: "Folk rock with a shade of psych, The Dreadful
Yawns swathe the genre with more boy-girl singing adorableness than the
Mommas & The Poppas on a Corey Haim-sized prescription drug binge."
-Verbicide Magazine

"Kill Me Now" - The Dreadful Yawns

12am - Home and Garden: Classic Cleveland avant-rock featuring a rare on
stage performance by both original Pere Ubu member's, Scott Krause and
Tony Maimone!

Shwa Losben - Spike Hill's, Brooklyn, NY 1-11-08 (Shwa Music, ShwaMusic)

Shwa Losben and his band (Shwa) played Spike Hill's in Williamsburg last weekend. Shwa has been playing around the DC scene for a few years to rave reviews and is a recent transplant to NYC.

Musically, Shwa falls somewhere between indie-rock and folk/alt-country. Lyrically, Shwa is a classic storyteller and good point of comparison would be Paul Kelly (and the Messengers) or Elliott Smith.



Shwa was kind enough to let me film some video at Spike Hill's (below).



Shwa's first full-length CD, Chop Chop, will be released on February 12th and he has a record release party on February 2nd at Rockwood Music Hall (196 Allen Street).

Links:
Shwa's MySpace Page