Last night served as a proper warm up to the next few days that should prove to be absolutely crazy. It all started with some post work additional cleaning to the amazing job Grace did on our apartment. Kyle somehow has a connection to a nice lady who comes in and cleans our place before our company arrives. It’s a luxury I don't mind paying for ever so often. After a brief visit from Xtina, I headed to Key Food's so there would be some munchies in the house, (rolling out the red carpet). Upon my return, Builder and I ate dinner and talked some shop before going to our respective parties.

Around 9pm I stepped into the Mercury Lounge and was immediately welcomed by Beach, Shannon, Lucy and Tumbleweed. We picked up some drinks and made our way to the back corner for a set by SOUNDteam, (I haven't been able to pick out the proper way to type their name. It's listed so many different ways, but last year I worked merch at one of their Bowery shows and can remember it looking like this).

My first impression was SOUNDteam sounded like the Walkmen if they'd picked up Brit Daniels off of free agency and traded Hamilton back to The Recoys, (for a Hugh to be named later). This was a definite plus because I'm a huge fan of both Spoon and The Walkmen. It also makes sense because SOUNDteam has a direct link to each band; they are from Austin along with Brit and they are now under the same management that helped jumpstart The Walkmen's career, (at Big Hassle). The beautiful part about this whole connection was the six-piece's ability to rise above it and stand beyond these obvious check points.

Visually speaking, SOUNDteam are a somewhat shaggy bunch of college types. They have an even ratio of T's to collars, but each guy recalls a friend you may have shared notes with during your years in higher education. One of the guitar players even looked like Oveis with a porn star moustache and a Texas kissed tan. Sonically speaking, they produce sophisticated pop so layered one might get lost in the sound. The band features the standard trio of guitar-drums-bass, but they also add a lead singer who splits time on a piano and guitar along with another keyboardist and a moog player. Their songs are anchored by at drummer who's fondness for the overused Neo-Brooklyn 4-on-the-floor beats actually keep the songs light and bouncy while Bill, the artsy bass player (they said he stitched up their t-shirts), climbed up and down the neck of his guitar playing lines that felt rooted in early funk.

Halfway through the set, their piano fell off its stand and subsequently knocked a few of their songs off the set list. It didn't matter much to me as this was the first time I'd heard most of their material. The songs were so dynamic that each member seemingly followed their own groove, but each track was grounded by a different musician. I'd highly recommend you getting to the Arcade Fire show early (you'll need to anyway) on Thursday because SOUNDteam is definitely worth your time.

We milled about in front of the club for a few minutes before heading over to Scenic with the hope of catching the tail end of King of France's set. We were way late as The High Strung neared completion. There were a pile of kids out front so we stood around talking to the like of Durant, Brett, Zach, Rosie, Donnovan and Xtina before stepping into the club. We were under the impression that Robbers on High Street was up next, but that wasn't the case. Mark, who looked awfully sharp, told me it was a displaced, New Orleans singer/songwriter who moved to the city on Monday. She sounded good, but that’s not my bag so I broke out in the direction of Tonic.

I ran into Dave and his friend (name I can't piece together) around the corner from the club. This reminds me, Dave IM'd me a joke yesterday. Sure its sensitive material, but its a dig on Bush so enjoy:

Q: What is President Bush's stance on Roe V. Wade?
A: He doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans.

Speaking of Katrina, the three of us stepped into Tonic for Brooklyn Vegan's BMJ. A portion of the proceeds were donated to the hurricane relief so I had no problem paying the cover charge. We'd just missed Doveman's set which was a bummer because I'd like to see why they had a bunch of lamps on stage. After a beer and some hello's to Jeff Village among others, we did catch a short set by Aziz Ansari who had a couple solid jokes about Kanye West (not as topical as you would think), Googling himself and trying to turn back the clock so he could fuck with cops in Chinatown. At the close of his set, he introduced the Minneapolis based five-piece (plus a Bob Ross style interpretive painter?) Cloud Cult.

Now I'm not to savvy or keen on the whole MP3 thing so this was my first time hearing the band. The first song was an acoustic jam featuring the lead singer and the cellist (??? - didn't see what she was playing). The song was endearing, but not what I was looking for on a sleepy Tuesday night. Fortunately they stepped up their game on the second track with some sparse, hollowed out drum sounds and fuzzy yet danceable bass lines. They managed to keep the pace for the next few songs, but I had to bail out to make sure Hilary wasn't waiting outside my door.

Builder and I spent the next hour watching whatever was on FOX. He eventually crashed and somewhere around 1:30am Hilary showed up. Her flight from Chicago was on time, but the damn airport shuttle kept fucking her over. We got her settled, went over today's CMJ plans and eventually crashed out.

This was only the being. If you don't get regular updates the next couple days, don't fret - I'll return to form next week.