The annual CMJ conference, dedicated to indie music and college radio, is currently going on in New York, with hundreds of artists playing all over the city. Among them are four bands that record for Cleveland-based Exit Stencil Records: avant-rockers Home & Garden, featuring former Pere Ubu members as well as Exit Stencil head Ryan Weitzel; Weitzel’s own band, the Velvet Underground-influenced Mystery of Two; the red-hot, high-energy post-punk quartet Hot Cha Cha who released their debut album, The Hardest Working Telescope and the Violent Birth of Stars, last weekend; and Like Bells, featuring three Oberlin Conservatory graduates. They’ll all be playing at the Charleston in Brooklyn (174 Bedford Avenue, with Home and Garden kicking off the evening at 9 p.m. if you’d like to rush to the airport or happen to be in New York already). Hot Cha Cha wraps things up starting at midnight. Added incentive, in addition to great Cleveland bands: Free pizza with each drink. — Anastasia Pantsios
