First stop on Thursday night of CMJ was Pianos — for a short set by Juiced Elfers, the new band from Nick “Diamonds” Thorburn, erstwhile member of the Unicorns and Islands. While it was our “CMJ Bingo” contestant Isaac, from Alaska, who drew the ball from the bin with name Juiced Elfers on it — a risky way to choose a band to see — it was a good time.

As the name (and can you really say it enough?) Juiced Elfers suggests, this is a band that is all about a laugh — danceable throwback party rock with tongue firmly in cheek, a song about loving eggs, a Troggs cover and some artwork. That’s right, during the four-song set, Thorburn worked on a small hidden painting, which he claimed would be a portrait of the audience, the way he saw us. Yucks ensued when at show’s conclusion, Nick Van Gogh revealed a crude rendering of various naughty bits, the sort you might see drawn by a 13-year-old.

Not, however, if that 13-year-old’s name is Ivan. Because rather than drawing boobies, around 9 p.m. last night he was joining his sister Ada, 11, onstage at one of New York’s premier venues, Bowery Ballroom, for the second of three CMJ gigs this week by their band, the Tiny Masters of Today.

The pint-size punk kids — along with the hulking grown-up presence of ex-Jon Spencer drummer Russell Simins — have been building their profile here in New York now for most of this year, thanks in no small part to high-profile collaborations with Karen O, Kimya Dawson and Fred Schneider; opening slots for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs; plus a glowing endorsement from David Bowie. And I gotta say they do seem to be a lot more comfortable up there than when I first saw them live 10 months ago.

While Ivan is still something of a shoegazer, and Ada strikes a punk nonchalance that borders on the disinterested, it all works, somehow, and the kids’ rudimentary rock has a refreshing realness. They tore through their mostly two-minute-long tunes that cover topics from lame friends to general ruckus-raising to politics. Oh yeah, politics. Ada introduced the song “Bushy” thusly: “We wrote this about President Bush and how we don’t like him.” And when I talked with the kids earlier in the day, Ada told me she came up with “Bushy” three years ago, when she was 8. Eight. Years. Old.

Tiny Masters say that so far, the U.K., where they played the Underage Festival in August, has actually been kinder to them than their home country — but maybe their U.S. profile will be upped thanks to CMJ. Or not. As Ivan told me, he feels like that other weeklong music festival in Austin, which Tiny Masters also played back in March, felt more to him like a real festival.

And from a band born in the 1990s, to a band named after that decade …

Following the Tiny Masters onstage at Bowery were 1990s (no “the,” says their MySpace profile), and if the night weren’t already fun enough, this much-talked-about trio of Scots delivered.

With Michael McGaughrin’s drum kit moved down to the front of the stage, it was a visual and sonic assault by the threesome — one bluesy, power-chord-driven party tune after another. “I don’t care about the clothes I wear, or the style or the color of my hair,” sings Jackie McKeown in “Cult Status,” and the boys practice what they preach. While their name evokes the Clinton era, as their recent album Cookies proves, it’s more the no-frills, sweaty, horny, booze-soaked rock of the ’60s and ’70s that this band is about. Bassist Dino Bardot’s vintage Rolling Stones tee was the ideal touch, as 1990s make music to do Mick and Keith proud.

There were songs about getting high (”Weed”), getting busy (”You Made Me Like It”) and underage girls (”Arcade Precinct”), but more than anything, a good time. There’s a place for think bands, but not at the expense of party bands. As one dude down front turned to me and said, “This is what we need more of. Just real rock and roll. Whatever happened to that? Give me more of these guys and the Hold Steady.” Last night, it seemed most of Bowery Ballroom agreed.

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