Heaven's Gate playing the Phoenix/WFNX CMJ show at 285 Kent.

Two Sundays ago, the Phoenix and WFNX presented an unofficial CMJ showcase at Brooklyn's 285 Kent. If you missed it -- no worries -- we'll be rolling out a stream of videos over the next couple of days. First, here is a video of Brooklyn noise-pop 5-piece Heaven's Gate playing "Screams".

Lorely Rodriguez is a former Allstonian who now lives in Brooklyn and sings with experimental pop group Celestial Shore. Most recently, she has also started a solo recording project, EMPRESS OF, posting 1-minute YouTube videos she calls “colorminutes” -- snippets of her gorgeous, ethereal pop songs set to different color screens.

Last month, Brooklyn's CULT OF YOUTH released their second full-length for Sacred Bones, Love Will Prevail. For an experimental band that plays with minimal psychedelic folk and gothy, monotone post-punk, the songs on Love Will Prevail are unusually hooky. Tonight, the band -- which is mostly the songwriting project of Sean Ragon, who has been writing and recording under this name for five years -- brings those songs to Boston, as they launch a North American tour with a show at the Middle East.

In the March 30th issue of the Phoenix, I profiled Brooklyn's Friends -- discussing the band's ability to write songs about sociopolitical topics in subtle ways. "It's easy to fall for Friends without ever picking up on their politics," I wrote. "The group's glam-pop '80s-New-York-inspired jams themselves are catchy as hell."

VIDEO: Back home from Brooklyn, it's the Toothaches! Motion pictures and words by P. Nick Curran and Addison Post

Well past midnight on a Saturday, Rose Blakelock and Zimmy Ayer of THE TOOTHACHES descended through a busted basement bulkhead, past piles of scrap wood and discarded abike frames, into a single-lit room where several people sat Indian-style on a rotted carpet.