10 Bands to Watch at CMJ 2011

Caroling carrot-top Pat Grossi admitted to me in an interview that he's still "working on" turning Active Child, his quasi-canonical electro-pop project, into a live band. When he threw out a handful of Active Child MP3s early in 2010, he never expected anyone would ask him to play a show; and after some growing pains when touring last year, he's starting to get more comfortable and confident on stage. That sounds like a backhanded compliment at best —not exactly a glowing recommendation— except, um, the debut Active Child LP, You Are All I See, is brilliant; equal parts resplendent and slightly-troubling. It's easily one of the year's best records; so, an Active Child live-show that can measure up to it is something to recommend, indeed.

Braids have been, as I suspected before the year began, one of the breakout bands of 2011. Their debut disc, Native Speaker, is one of the albums of the year, having earned a Polaris Prize nomination in the Montréal combo's homeland. Even their new jam, the leftover b-side "Peach Wedding," is awesome. As Braids have gone on their merry way, inquisitive listeners have found their way to Blue Hawaii, the side-project of Braids front-lady Raphaelle Standell-Preston. The duo put out one of the best overlooked LPs of 2010, Blue Gowns, in which the hypnotic trance-outs of Braids were shelved for something resembling pop music. Braids and Blue Hawaii will double-bill it at the BrooklynVegan showcase, giving you all the Standell-Preston you could hope for in one eve.

The debut Class Actress LP, Rapprocher, arrives just in time for CMJ, and Elizabeth Harper's shows here, in front of her hometown crowd, will function as celebratory coming-out party. After the impressive Journal of Ardency EP last year, Rapprocher makes good on its every promise, delivering a playful, smart, seductive set of electro-pop filled with giddy melody and sharp hooks. But for all its instant fizz, the record doesn't fade away; having a depth of flavor —persistent sweetness and unexpected saltiness— that makes it long-lasting. It's one of the year's best records, but given it's not out 'til October 18 (CMJ week!), the world is yet to flip out about it. But, by CMJ, oh how the party will be on...

EMA's towering debut disc, Past Life Martyred Saints, has grown in stature as the year has progressed. Its powerful mixture of scorched-Earth noise, bleakly-funny poetry, and brutal beauty made an immediate impression, but as the days have marched on, there's few better LPs from 2011. Going hand-in-hand with her arrival at the top of album-of-the-year countdowns, Erika M. Anderson is having a breakout as performer. Having long prowled stages in apocalyptic Los Angelino duo Gowns (and, at times, having played in noise crusaders Amps for Christ and with Carla Bozulich in Evangelista), Anderson has taken to her new star-of-the-show role in style. On stage, what's lurking in the LP's sonic landscapes is put forth front-and-center: Anderson is terrifying and hilarious in equal measures.

Forest Fire picked up some blog buzz in 2008 when their debut LP, Survival, was issued online for free, and found various tastemakers drawn to its charming sound. But, three years later, the New Yorker crew seem set to truly take off, and not just due to their love of saxophone seeming perfect in this, the year of the sax. Freshly signed to Fat Cat, the release of Forest Fire's second record Staring at the X coincides with CMJ. And the polished-off record shows their smudgy, gnarly, psychedelic Americana in glorious vintage fidelity; the smoky woodwinds, twanging guitar, and sweet/sour vocals of Natalie Stormann and Mark Thresher resounding with the same kind of pleasing tone that's made The Walkmen beloved indie elder statesmen.

So this is a pretty easy pick. Long-indefinable New Yorkers Gang Gang Dance come return to CMJ at the end of a year spent touring behind Eye Contact, their fifth —and, for many, their best— LP. GGD have been a perennially awesome live band since ditching the noise shenanigans for dancefloor freak-outs circa '04, and in form following a year of playing festivals and/or cranking out "MindKilla" for braying masses, they should be in peak form. Sure, sure, shindigs like CMJ aren't for taking-no-risks and known-commodities and bands-you've-already-seen-a-billion-times, generally speaking. They're times of trial and error, discoveries both hotly-tipped and unexpected. But, like, dude, this is Gang Gang. Go find your dancing shoes.

Though they're all of three songs into their career, Canadian mutant-pop stylists Purity Ring have caused an online furore in 2011 with their boinging, wonky, cutely-frightening chopped-and-screwed sound. Their first single, "Ungirthed," dropped from out of nowhere at the beginning of the year, instantly entering the discussion for pop song of the year. They've just dished out a new jam, "Belispeak," which is just as good; from here, anticipation for the Purity Ring LP is only skyrocketing. They've been touring with chillwave don Neon Indian, honing a liveshow that's been earning the same kind of exclamatory excitement as their songs have. Oh, and, on stage, there's more than three of them.

Noisy San Francisco trio Weekend play a giddy, joyous brand of white-hot, shoegaze-blasted garage fuzz, funneling a love of My Bloody Valentine, the Jesus and Mary Chain, and early Sonic Youth into a set of exceptionally noisy pop-songs. Their debut LP, Sports, came out late 2009, but it wasn't some immediate buzz-magnet. Instead, Weekend's growing rep —succeeding in spite of sharing their name with the post-Young-Marble-Giants English outfit of the early-'80s and finding confusion from warped R&B crooner The Weeknd— has come the old-fashioned way: touring their asses off. Their new EP, Sixteen, shows a band of growing confidence; peeling away the swarms of fuzz and experimenting, between-albums style. Live, though, they're righteously loud.

With anticipation building to Zola Jesus' Conatus LP, CMJ could be the peak time to catch Nika Roza Danilova. The wailing electro-goth queen's first LP since her 2010 breakout seems set to be the definitive statement of her arrival as bonafide indie headliner; a towering electro-pop record built from booming beats, stadium-synths, looming noise, and Danilova's powerhouse vocals. It's one thing to hear Zola Jesus on record, another entirely to witness her on stage; to experience that monstrous voice coming out of such a tiny frame. Where last year's CMJ caught Zola Jesus mid-breakout, this time she arrives as one of the festival's known commodities, and her shows are bound to be one of the festival's hottest tickets.