Second El Perro Del Mar album swims ashore

So CMJ has officially been over for two days, which means the slow, agonizing process of reconstruction has only just begun. I'm getting all my ducks in a row and will have a rundown of the standout bands soon enough, but there's one thing that couldn't wait: a mention of El Perro Del Mar's record-release party last week at Esopus Space, a gallery in Greenwich Village.


El Perro is Sarah Assbring, a velvet-voiced Swedish chanteuse who also writes and records all of her own music. Her second album, Love Is Not Pop, is a simple, elegant collection of ballads about heartbreak and disappointment -- and it sounds all the more spare and devastatingly beautiful when it's just Sarah and her twelve-string in front of a room of about twenty-five people. Add to that the revelation that she wrote the songs on Love Is Not Pop a year ago in this very city, immediately following (shocker alert) a soul-crushing breakup, and you've got a recipe for one of the most memorable shows of the CMJ lineup. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure this was an official CMJ show, but what the heck -- this post is already written.