CMJ 2009 highlights

Hockey at SPIN rooftop

Next to South by Southwest, CMJ is the music industry's second biggest annual gathering of up-and-coming indie bands and recording artists. This year's lineup runs 1,200 bands deep and is long on trendy electro-poppers and earnest, plaid-wearing folk-rockers. Among the biggest draws: Atlas Sound, the spacey solo project from Bradford Cox of Atlanta noise-rockers Deerhunter; the xx, a youthful U.K. quartet sporting a fresh, Brit-rock-meets-dubstep sound; L.A. all-female dream-pop trio Warpaint; and Hockey (pictured), a catchy, synth-heavy crew in the vein of MGMT or Passion Pit from, of all places, Portland.

For Metromix's complete CMJ coverage, including photos, band interviews, show reviews and more, visit our New York site.

Photos by Ryan Muir, Gabi Porter and Natasha Ryan; interviews by Matt Rodbard and Andy Hermann.