I wander into Arlene's Grocery around 10 and Nashville singer-songwriter Brooke Waggoner is on stage: red hair, virtuosic piano, sweet, delicate voice. With strings and bass, it all sounds very much

Oh boy, Friday's turning out to be a whole other ballgame at CMJ, with Pianos, Cake Shop and Merc Lounge all claiming to be sold out. Excuse me, but where

I've heard a fair amount of buzz about San Diego's The Muslims, so was pleasantly surprised to see them on tonight's opening slot at Bowery Ballroom. An ecstatic wail of

Sometimes, you need to sacrifice music for Geography, and so instead of schlepping out to Ft.Greene on the slim hope of getting into tonight's Broken Social Scene show at the

I was walking past Music Hall of Williamsburg, which hosts weirdo doo-wop-a-billy fiend King Kahn and postpunk vets Mission of Burma tonight in a non-CMJ show. But, a little chat with

I don't know how many bands from Denmark are invading New York this week, but rather than default to gimmickry like last night's WhoMadeWho, The Blue Van seem content to

Day 3 of CMJ begins across the street from work, where Montreal's The Dears are playing forthright, slightly-twanged rock in local opium den Hiro Ballroom. It's a professional setup here: totally tricked

There are countless correspondents covering this year's CMJ Music Marathon (including, in typically half-assed fashion, your's truly), but for quality and insight, you can't beat the battery of Times critics (Jon