NEW YORK — Day Two of CMJ was a stellar one for music, one that will set a high bar for the rest of the week. With so many conflicting shows, we weren’t able to see everything we wanted to (My Jerusalem and Wild Nothing were among the acts that fell by the wayside), but the gigs we got to were more than satisfying.

Fences: With several performances scheduled for the week, Seattle’s Fences is one of the hot tickets this year. Blast was lucky enough to catch an early performance yesterday afternoon at the tiny Rockwood Music Hall, whose coffee shop atmosphere and excellent acoustics lent themselves to the band’s moody, intricate aesthetic. Fences, whose self-titled debut album was released at the end of September, is the brainchild of singer/songwriter Chris Mansfield. On stage, Mansfield gives off a slight Michael Stipe vibe — or at least, something akin to Stipe’s heavily tattooed, rebellious younger brother. His confessional lyrics are Elliott Smith-like in their sensitivity, but the guitar and piano-driven sound overall evokes the darker sensibility of bands like The National or The Middle East. Move this act high on your list for what to see for the remainder of the week.

Parallels: When we caught Parallels at Backstage Bar a little after 10 p.m., singer Holly Dodson described the show as merely a “soundcheck rehearsal” for a later show that night in Brooklyn. But you’d never know it. The Toronto duo, consisting of Dodson on keyboards and former Crystal Castles drummer Cameron Findlay, plowed through a polished set of danceable dark wave.  The group stands out for Findlay’s use of a live drumkit rather than an electronic one or pre-programmed beats. The cherubic Dodson is an unassuming stage presence, but her high-pitched voice is the perfect fit for Parallels’ shimmery synth-pop sound Think New Order fronted by Cyndi Lauper.

Empires: Rounding out the evening was the Gig Maven showcase at National Underground. We caught the tail end of Empires’ set, which hearkened back to the grunge boom of the 1990s. Singer Sean Van Vleet’s gravelly snarl bears more than a passing resemblance to Eddie Vedder. It’s refreshing to see a modern rock band that doesn’t rely on a shtick to enhance their music — and Empires doesn’t need to. Their straightforward rock was more than enough to entertain the crowd.

Photos by Sarah Be for Blast Magazine.

NEW YORK — Coed electro-pop duo Parallels craft intricate ’80s-influenced synth rhythms reminiscent of upbeat Depeche Mode.

Consisting of former Crystal Castles’ drummer Cameron Findlay and frontwoman Holly Dodson, Parallels are riding a wave of hype on the heels of their debut album, “Visionaries.”

Dodson recently shared some of her personal music tastes with Blast.

BLAST: Describe your sound in 10 words or less.

HOLLY DODSON: Dreamy dance floor pop with electronic undertones.

BLAST: Which three artists are your biggest influences?

HD: Of all time it would be Kate Bush, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury.

BLAST: What’s your favorite album of 2010 so far?

HD: Besides “Visionaries” (ha!), Arcade Fire put out a real good album (“The Suburbs.”)

BLAST: If you were going to spend the rest of your life on a desert island, which three albums would you bring with you?

HD: “Rumours” by Fleetwood Mac, “Cosmo’s Factory” by Creedence Clearwater Revival and “Two Suns” by Bat for Lashes

BLAST: Name a song you wish you’d written.

HD: There are lots, but right now I’d choose “Pet Semetary” by The Ramones, so we covered it!

BLAST: Name something non-musical that has inspired your songwriting.

HD: I always read something from the Romantic era for inspiration whenever I need a fix.

BLAST: What was your first concert?

HD: I think it was Neil Diamond. One of my childhood friends was weirdly obsessed with him so her mom got some tickets and brought a bunch of 7-year-olds.

BLAST: What’s the number one thing you can’t live without on the road?

HD: Some good books.

BLAST: If you could ban one artist from ever making music again (or ever having made music), who would it be?

HD: Ke$ha. No offense …

BLAST: Which other acts are you hoping to see during CMJ Week?

HD: I’m excited for the High Rise/Pop Culture Showcase that we’ll be playing, with Natalia Kills and ArpLine, just to name two. Plus lots of other amazing artists!

Parallels plays Backstage Bar at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday and The Bell House at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.

You’ll soon be able to play with your Windows programs on your Apple portable device with an app from Parallels.

Announced at the DEMO Fall 2010 conference in Santa Clara, Calif, the new Parallels Mobile app will be free. It will allows users of Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac and Parallels Desktop 6 Switch to Mac Edition to use their iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch to access and utilize Windows applications running on a Mac from any network, from anywhere, at any time.

The app is available now.

Parallels also makes it possible for iPad users to do things like print, view Flash material, and use work programs like Outlook and Lotus Notes.

“With the popularity of mobile devices skyrocketing, our customers overwhelmingly desire the ability to do more from anywhere without the restrictions that usually come from working remotely,” said Serguei Beloussov, Chairman and CEO, Parallels. “With our new Parallels Mobile app and MyParallels service, we make it possible for Parallels Desktop 6 customers to access and utilize their Windows apps wherever they are.”

With elections coming up CodeWeavers is trying to make sure people don’t forget about them amidst all the hoopla.

CodeWeavers is a Windows emulation tool that lets users run W32 applications in Linux or MAC platforms.

The challenge is that if President Bush can achieve any of their goals before leaving office the company will give away a free copy of their software to anyone who wants one for 24 hours. The goals are:

Reduce the Price of Gas: “Gas costs about $3.79 a gallon in the Twin Cities, (Minn.) a full buck more than this time last year. If the average price here drops below $2.79 per gallon, this goal is met.”

Reduce the Price of Food: “With the rise of fuel prices has come a similar rise in food prices. A gallon of milk is about $5 these days. It was $3.50 a year ago. If the average price of a gallon of milk comes down to $3.50 gallon in the Twin Cities metro, this goal is met.”

Create More Jobs: “We started the year with 138,002,000 people in the U.S. working non-farm jobs. Since then, total non-farm employment has decreased by 366,000. If so much as a single job can be created this calendar year – meaning if employment can be at least 138,002,001, this goal is met.”

Rejuvenate the Housing Market: “Median home values in the Twin Cities have fallen 12 percent year over year – from $233,000 to $205,000. If that median returns to $233,000, this goal is met.”

Bring Osama Bin-Laden to Justice: “Every American would like to see Osama Bin-Laden captured or terminated. We won’t be picky about how President Bush gets him. If it happens, this goal is met.”

CodeWeavers is a virtualization software company with a product similar to VMware, Parallels or Microsoft’s Virtual PC/HyperVisor. It’s based on the open source Wine application for Linux, but CodeWeavers is released for Linux and Mac OSX.

Code Weavers emulates the Win32 API for other systems, not the entire system. This tends to leave them with less compatibility since they may have missed part of the spec, but results in much greater speeds. The speeds of CodeWeavers games or apps tend to be closer to the speeds of the native applications, since they don’t actually emulate the system they basically are writing the windows api’s for other systems.

More information on the details of the challenge can be read at, http://lameduck.codeweavers.com/