Without getting all Almost Famousy, what I love about music is that it celebrates what is real and messy and honest. School and society are often preoccupied with perfection and having it all together (it‰’s stressful, man!) but CMJ and more specifically, Atlas Sound at CMJ was a good reminder of what‰’s beautiful and right in the world.

Atlas Sound played a warm and soothing afternoon set in the lobby of the Ace Hotel on the third day of CMJ. Atlas Sound is the solo side project of Deerhunter‰’s Bradford Cox, named after the tape recorder he used to record songs as a child. Less structured than the five-piece setup of Deerhunter, Atlas Sound has a lo-fi “recorded in your living room‰Û-type feel.

The lobby of the hotel seemed to perfectly cater to Cox’s bedroom rock stylings as fans formed a semi-circle around him, sitting by his feet and crammed on every available surface. Cox helped the homegrown vibe by showing up in pajamas and moccasins.

Under warm tungsten lights Cox played a sampling of songs from his most recent release, Parallax. What’s most impressive about Atlas Sound, especially live, is how Cox can make such a deep and layered sound with just an acoustic guitar and some pedals. The music is simultaneously complex and delicate and somehow very relatable, which translates well to Cox‰’s strange yet endearing stage presence.

While tuning his guitar Cox told anecdotes about how he had recorded a few tracks of Parallax in his room at the Ace Hotel when he had run out of studio time. He thanked the nice Indian family living next door for letting him be so loud.

Dressed in his pinstripe pajamas, sporting bed head and looking a bit sleepy and spaced out, Bradford Cox and his music seemed to express that you don‰’t always have to make sense or be on top of your shit to make something beautiful and eloquent.

(ALSO Bradford Cox is super nice. Maeve and I met him and have a grainy cell phone photo to prove it!)