As you may know, I spent the last few days at the CMJ Music Marathon. Think of it as New York’s version of South by Southwest, only it’s bitterly cold, attracts more hipsters and there’s no such thing as a free taco.

I crammed as much music as I could into the festival, and I made a few delightful discoveries. (On the flip side, I also spent several hours waiting for late-night sets to start and saw a few ridiculous acts that you’ll never hear about on this blog. But it’s all part of the process!)

In any case, here are my favorite bands of the bunch. By all means, hear their music now and see them when they come to town. All put on inspiring performances during a very chaotic week.

8. Alina Simone. I’ve written about Alina before — she released this great album called Everyone Is Crying Out to Me, Beware, and it’s full of songs by a Siberian punk-folk singer named Yanka Dyagileva, so the lyrics are in Russian. Even though I don’t know what she’s saying, the music is powerful, and I think she’s headed for big things. And look, she just did an interview with Mark Everett from EELS.