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Oct 16, 2014 By Austin Trunick Courtney Barnett

CMJ’s annual Music Marathon is about to descend upon NYC. In the calm before the storm, we anxiously pick apart the festival’s lineup to try to find any possible configuration of overlapping shows that will allow us to catch every band we’d like to see. In the end, it’s just not possible to see them all without a cloning chamber, and your schedule only winds up making Rust Cohle’s storage unit look neatly organized.

As with any sprawling music festival, the easiest way to approach scheduling is to make a list of the artists you just can’t miss. Figure out which bands will leave you feeling like an empty husk of a human being if you don’t see them, and prioritize those ones. That’s the best advice we can give you for coping with such an overwhelming range of musical options.

Check out the official CMJ lineup and schedule here to start whittling down who you absolutely need to see. In the meantime, here are a few of my personal picks. Full disclosure: I’m highly biased toward bands that I like.

Casual Sex – This Scottish quartet is far and away one of my favorite new bands, and one I had the pleasure of crossing paths with several times at South By Southwest last spring. (Fact: When you cross paths with Casual sex, magic happens. Often raunchy magic, but magic nonetheless.) The lead singer, Sam Smith, traded an audience member a band t-shirt for a tube of lipstick during one of our SXSW parties, so make sure you keep one handy in your jeans pocket if you plan on catching them. Read our feature here and have a listen.

The Wytches – This British band plays gothy blues. It’s pretty much how you imagine the White Stripes would have sounded had Jack White grown up listening to Sisters of Mercy and The Cure instead of whatever crusty 78rpm records he found behind his great-grandfather’s sofa.

San Fermin – New York’s own Ellis Ludwig-Leone leads a massive band of musicians under the name San Fermin. More than 20 played on their debut album, but only around half that many need to cram themselves onto a stage to perform live renditions of their orchestral pop songs. You can hear a few of those over at their website, and read an interview right here.

Slowdive – Like Neutral Milk Hotel, My Bloody Valentine, Pixies, and The Replacements before them, this is a band that was never supposed to reunite. But they have, and we’re all grateful for it. You can read our recent interviews with the shoegaze legends here and here, and catch them in their only NYC-area gig on Saturday night. If we all chant “new album” loud enough for them to hear us over their amps, perhaps that will help get them back into the studio…?

Ballet School – Three amazing, FAN-TAS-TIC films come to mind that take place at ballet schools: Powell and Pressburger’s immortal The Red Shoes, Dario Argento’s colorful horror classic Suspiria, and the unheralded 2000 classic, Center Stage. (I almost included Black Swan here, but it’s no Center Stage.) Anyway, what I meant to say was… Ballet School are a trio of Germans who make some outstanding, Cocteaus- and Missing Persons-channeling pop music. (Rosie Blair’s vocals steal the show.)

The Horrors – Little needs to be said about Under the Radar cover alumni The Horrors, other than that if you live in the greater NYC metropolitan area and want to catch them, you’ll have your first chance during CMJ. The U.K. five-piece play the marathon during a tour in support of their fourth LP, Luminous. (You can read our fuzzy feelings on that album here.)

Bo Ningen – When I first encountered this nutso band of psych-rockers during the Austin Psych Fest showcase down at SXSW, I tweeted the below:

… I just don’t think I could find a better way to say it now. Bo Ningen were climbing amps, screaming, suspending themselves out over the audience and otherwise engaging in all sorts of loud, controlled mayhem. What I’m trying to say is that they put on a good live show. Bo Ningen put out a rock-solid debut album earlier this year, and are putting out a new record with Savages, which is a 100% appropriate pairing. Catch them at CMJ before they head back to London.

MONEY – This Manchester-based pop act makes some of the most nefariously romantic indie music you’ll find today. Singer Jamie Lee’s vocal powers are Bryan Ferry-esque; I challenge you to listen to two or three of their songs and just try not to get cozy with your special someone. You won’t be able to do it.

With songs this overtly seductive, you’d probably assume they were all about getting freaky, right? Wrong. You can read about the breadth of MONEY’s lyrical inspiration in this chat with Under the Radar writer Paul Bridgewater.

Hundreds – This German sibling duo made us wait four years between albums, but we’ve forgiven them. The haunting, electronic sound of their debut was switched out for a sweeter, more organic feel on their second LP, because this is a band that won’t be put in a corner. Take advantage of this rare chance to catch them stateside.

Courtney Barnett – This Australian singer-guitarist has blown up since she blew critics’ minds at CMJ just one year ago. (Last year she played smaller venues such as The Delancey and Baby’s All Right; this year, she’s headlining Webster Hall.) She totally deserves all of her success, in any case; she’s an impressive – and refreshingly unusual –songwriter. Check out our 2013 feature on her here, won’t you?