From Jake Saunders report of Day 5 of the CMJ Music Marathon 2014: "Show Me The Body opened for Denzel Curry and Ratking at the Letter Racer/Mass Appeal showcase at Trans Pecos. I missed Geronimo!, Baked, Two Inch Astronaut and Krill as well as Roomrunner, all amazing bands worth looking into. It was a shit show, with two hundred drunk kids packed into the tiny venue where I'm used to seeing weird experimental acts play to an empty room.  My boys in Show me the Body killed it, conjuring the craziest mosh pit I've seen since Death Grips.  I say "seen" because I would have died or seriously injured myself had I participated.  SMTB has been pushing their limits further and further, with bassist Harlan Steed adding an immense amount of mass to the sound as he experiments further with looping and pedal mashing.  Keep an eye out for this band; they've certainly got a crafted image, but it never subtracts from the attention they pay to the music, always pushing things further, challenging their audience and enjoying themselves on stage.  And by the way, yes I am biased, having watched this band over the past five years or so evolve into what they've become, but now they're getting props form bigger whigs than me.  I had a very firm realization at this show; SMTB is not "my" band anymore… they've got a fan base that doesn't include the friends we grew up with. "

My last day of CMJ was my most anticipated.  Started off by getting my ticket in advance for Exploding in Sound's 3rd birthday bash at The Silent Barn, where almost every EIS band in some form or another would be playing.  After that I headed over to the warehouse spot over on Hart and Wyckoff known as Hot 97.4 for the 1.21 Gigawatts issue release (read some of my words in the new issue).  There I caught the tail end of Journalism, a tight band of Brooklyn cats who sound like a cross between My Bloody Valentine and Ty Segal, a good combo in my book. - Keep reading Jake Saunders' report of Day 5 of the CMJ Music Marathon 2014.

As you may have noticed, our blogger Jake tends to favor bands with a DIY punk philosophy and an unpredictable, often uncompromisingly noisy sound. And that's what you are going to get at the show he organized - under the moniker "The Colonel Presents..." - at Palisades on October 2nd.  The show is headlined by noise rockers Honduras and The Gradients (check out album opener 'Growing Pile,' streaming), who are actually not that noisy, but play a brand of poppy post punk that's as good as (and in part reminiscent of) that mind blowind phenomenon that was early XTC. On the bill also macabre Brooklynites Show Me The Body (pictured, check out their bizarre but engrossing track 'One Train' below) and fast paced fuzz pop quartet Heeney. 

Show Me the Body is a band that's generally hard to categorize.  Operating mostly under a punk DiY ethic, they cross territories; something hard to miss during their live sets.  Last night I caught the trio at Baby's All Right at the 1:30 AM slot, where naturally most of the club had moved on to whatever it was that people do at 1:30 on a Wednesday night. Although the venue may not have been preferred to their usual basement/loft space, the incredible presence that Show Me the Body never fails to bring mustered up the remaining twenty people to an exciting energy. By the middle of their set everyone was dancing.  After their last song people were hugging and handing out daps, unified by the performance that we had just witnessed.  Although one could certainly say that Show Me the Body is a sinister and dark punk band, the trio never fails to invite audiences into their darkness, sharing an experience that always comes out as a satisfyingly stress-relieving.  These boys love and embody their music, and people can feel that, creating a space where preoccupations of where we are, who we are with, and how many people are in the audience go out the window.  You can stream their EP, Yellow Kidney, here.  And stream the excellent and self-produced new video for their song, "Steep Rock", below.  -Jake Saunders

The no wave/art-punk movement pioneered by bands like The Lounge Lizards, Art Brut and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have paved the way for the current up and coming sonic experimenters that continue to push the boundaries of what punk music is and what it can sound like.  Bands like Guerrilla Toss, Sediment Club, Show Me the Body have been re-contextualizing an already well known punk sound and aesthetic, turning it completely on its side, and traveling to further and further reaches of sonic experimentation.  One of the latest additions to this crew is a quirky, all female Brooklyn based trio of multi-instrumentalists who go by the name of Palberta.  Here are some reasons why we love Palberta: They like to push peoples buttons, they all swap instruments on each song, and they're not afraid of the patriarchy.  Their sound covers a lot of territory, but each song has this whimsically dark personality completely unique to Palberta. The band fearlessly switches between off-kiltered, yet quite catchy, indie-rock melodies to monstrously static-ridden blasts of noise.  They recently released a split EP with New England Patriots, a band which exists in a similar realm. Stream below their interoperation of Hot Cross Buns, it's a real treat. - Jake Saunders