Today’s Friday Mix Tape represents a special edition of sorts, as we head into another year of New York City’s music industry extravaganza next week, the CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival. The CMJ Fest provides industry mavens with a look at what is next on the indie music front and always spawns a good dozen or so big name acts for the years to come.

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What I find amusing about the showcase is that in order to weed through the literally thousands of bands vying for slots, the evaluation process essentially becomes an exercise in 15-second music criticism.

In fact, once an acquaintance asked if I wanted to make some extra cash by using his login and get paid fifty cents per album/demo to provide a few words and a thumb up/thumbs down as a first line of defense. It wasn’t actually for CMJ, but rather another one that involves a lot of BBQ. Anyway, this dude told me his friend made over a $1,000 doing it the year before, so you do the math. I never did it, hence I cannot actually say for sure if that actually occurs or not, but given the sheer numbers, it is probably pretty spot on. Really, what other options are there; hire an army? Regardless, these folks do a pretty darn good job at it one way or another.

Anyways, after playing a game of darts with the CMJ Music Festival’s easy-to-read lineup, we’ve sorted through and come up with ten pretty damn good songs from some of the most compelling bands making the rounds. Keep in mind; this is just a tiny sample of the full list, so if you like digging up new music, poke around the lineup and drop by the various MySpace pages. You really can’t go wrong.

READ ON for the playlist and to listen to the mix…

Alright, on to the music:

Still Flyin’ - The Hott Chord is Struck: We kick of with this what looks like a contender for year’s addictive guilty pleasure pop song. This one could do for clapping what Peter, Bjorn and John did for whistling.

Cymbals Eat Guitars - …And the Hazy Sea: Probably the best true rock song on here, these guys seem to have a knack for distinctive melodic guitar riffs. The name of the song fits the sound here, spot on.

The XX - VCR: One of the few bands I actually already like quite a bit. This group tends to get tossed in the annoyingly vague category of “dub-step,” mainly based on their South London roots, but this tune just feels more like a good Cure song. The XX debut album “xx’ previously ranked as the most downloaded album on EMusic (my go-to source for good indie picks), and still remains high on the list.

Floating Action - To Connect: Tough band to categorize from song to song, but this mellow singing definitely strikes a chord. Most of the articles I have seen, including this nice glossy (page 16), tend to split them somewhere between funky-old Motown and calypso, which seems like a terrific combo.

Late of the Pier - The Bears are Coming: Late of the Pier craft great headphone music with serious computer skills and bonky synthesizers. Good luck figuring out what to do with yourself while you listen. If Lost ever decides to use a soundtrack, this band gets my vote.

Bobby Long - Being a Mockingbird: From the singer-songwriter camp, HT fave Bobby Long should turn up ears at CMJ (as opposed to eyes from his usual tweener Twilight fans). Planning to catch him next Saturday at the Bitter End.

Budos Band - Chicago Falcon: - Daptone’s Staten Island stars bring their crime-fighting Afro-Soul sound across the river to shake up some of these head-nodding rooms.

School of Seven Bells - My Cabal: Another local, Brooklyn’s School of Seven Bells play awesome easy to fall asleep to spaced-out shoegaze.

Fanfarlo - I’m a Pilot: Pound for pound, former Pullin’ Tubes alum Fanfarlo gets my vote for the band to see at CMJ (so far). With their multi-instrumentalist approach and deft songsmanship, they seem to be the total package.

Zac Brown Band - Toes (Live at Bonnaroo): I think Zac Brown gets to come to CMJ just to taunt all the other hopeful rock stars with his top 40 album and massive fanbase. Teaming up with longtime jamband distributor Homegrown Music Network, Brown continues to sell heaps of albums and win fans with his easy-breezy country Jimmy Buffett sound.

Bonus Track: Fanfarlo - The Walls are Coming Down: This is what it might sound like if Andrew Bird was a band. Fanfarlo’s official showcase comes next Wednesday at the Bowery Ballroom. Tickets are still available as of now.

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Ryan Dembinsky

Ryan Dembinsky is a contributing editor for Hidden Track, where he focuses primarily on longer-form content and interviews. Ryan has contributed to a wide variety of music and sports publications such as Sports Illustrated, AOL Fantasy Football, Jambase, and Relix to name a few.

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