by Jim Fusilli, Nov. 1, 2008
If you were rattling around here beginning Tuesday, Oct. 21, particularly in downtown Manhattan, you had a pretty good chance of bumping into a show by one of the 1,100 artists who performed at the five-day CMJ Music Marathon, which, since 1980, has introduced fans, music-industry pros and the media, including bloggers, to promising musicians and established artists seeking a new audience.

It’s a big deal. CMJ was a springboard for Eminem, Feist, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Run-DMC and U2. An invitation to play CMJ gives an artist additional credibility and exposure, even today in the flat world of rock that’s open to almost any recording musician via countless distribution channels.

“At first, I was treating it as just another New York gig,” said singer-songwriter Alina Simone, who’s based in Brooklyn. “Then I got a call from a journalist in Ireland. My album’s unavailable in Ireland. I’ve never played in Ireland.”

Born in Kharkov, Ukraine, Ms. Simone at age 1 moved to the States with her family. She has a graduate degree in international development from New York University and a part-time day job at an international consulting firm in Manhattan. Last year, she released “Placelessness” (54 40 or Fight), an album that evokes Bjork and P.J. Harvey. Critics noticed, and a career path appeared. She followed with “Everyone Is Crying Out to Me, Beware” (54 40 or Fight), a tribute to Siberian underground rocker Yanka Dyagileva, who died at age 24. It’s bold, modern rock sung entirely in Russian. Needless to say, it’s not the stuff of Top 40 radio. If she had a manager, he might have dissuaded her from confusing the marketplace.

“One of the things that’s comforting about everything being blown to bits in the music business is that you can do what you want,” she told me. “The only thing I have is the ability to be myself.”

It’s a sentiment shared by many young musicians at CMJ. “You have to have a massive amount of faith in what you do,” said Mike Rosenberg of the U.K. band Passenger…(read more)