*they are corporate brit-emo-rock, like busted, if busted were SHIT

Others in a similar vein: Sara Watkins is (er, was) the fiddle-playing member of Nickel Creek. Swati is a singer/songwriter with a distinctive guitar style, similar to Kaki King.

Other names to bold from the list above
-sBACH: underwhelming side-project by Spencer Seim of Hella, released by Suicide Squeeze.
-Skillz: ghostwriter for your favourite rappers, released the very solid ‘Million Dollar Backpack’ album a few months ago.
-Skyzoo: another great up-and-upcoming rapper.
-Sole and the Skyrider Band: one of the many fantastic releases on Anticon Records this year.
-Sylvie: Canadian band who just released a pretty enjoyable new album produced by J. Robbins (Jawbreaker).

@elvissinatra: None of my bands has ever made it in (well, with me in the band at the time). Maybe I’m cursed, but we’re not totally crappy, I swear.

When we started our record label, we took our two bands to CMJ and they were very cool and gave us a “mini showcase” on a weekend night with a pretty cool headliner: Drums and Tuba.

That said, the venue was in Brooklyn (the Hook), and we got absolutely no foot traffic, and the people who showed up all stood outside and smoked outside while our bands played. We sold a couple of CDs and t-shirts (literally, like two). It was a fun trip, but totally pointless.

Not sure if it made any difference that we purchased a $500 ad in the guidebook.

Also, CMJ’s publicity guy has the best name in the business: Johnny Chiba.

That is getting in via the club. I’ll keep my story reasonably anonymous, although it wouldn’t be TOO hard to figure out if someone cared.

Getting in is half the battle. The other half is getting in on a good bill. First year my band got into CMJ we had an awful showcase at a club no one who has been in NYC more than 5 minutes would EVER go to. The next year we hooked up with a band bigger than us who REQUESTED we be on their showcase and we got a much better show, although in one of the Knit’s smaller subterranean rooms. At this point we were playing a lot at one of the hipper, consistently sold out East side venues where I had a professional friendship with the booker. The last year we played CMJ before breaking up he pulled us onto a showcase BEFORE CMJ formally accepted us. Who knows if at that point we would have still gotten in otherwise, but yes clubs can dictate to CMJ within reason who will be showcasing there.

We were definitely one of the “in between” bands Matt McDonald, who we dealt with back then around the turn of the century, talks about. One year we got in, but were orphaned without a showcase to hook up with and he ended up shafting us on a show. But he was classy enough to give us all free badges for making the cut anyway.