VIDEO: New Villager - "Say the Code"

PIXELHORSE not too familiar with New Villager. PIXELHORSE likey. PIXELHORSE hungry! ARRGGGHHH FEED PIXELHORSE!

Uh, anywayyyy, this is "Say the Code" by New Villager at the Underwater Peoples/Chocolate Bobka/twosyllable CMJ showcase at the Delancey on 10/23/09. BUNNY first told me about these bros back when the album was available for free download on Pitchfork. (Now avail for purchase from their label and iTunes. #movin'onup) She was all hot-n-bothered cos of their song "Ghengis On." She'd be all, "Yo bitch I'ma get my GHENGIS on toniiiiight for REEEALZIES!" Which usually meant, you know, a coupla Jäger shots, leading the Mongolian Empire into battle and maybe even occupying a large chunk of China. Just another usual Friday night in Jersey.

Uh, anywayyyy, New Villager put on a really energetic show at the Delancey, going on just after Frat Dad, but before the giant music-making furries that I now am thinking may have been just another high school acid flashback. (Does no one else see them??? Stop telling me it's all in my head!!#$@^!!) Their jams were totally danceable and made me feel like I might one day learn how to love again. Except dancing was impossible in a venue jam-packed with stomachs full of Late Night Taco Doritos® - the chiller's chip. (Remind me to sue this blog for jacking my life story rights.) I guess I never will fall in love after all.

Uh, anywayyyy. Please excuse me - partying has rendered me braindead and talking like a caveman. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Get New Villager's 7" "Rich Doors" here.

Get Holiday Shore's 7" while you're there.

VIDEO: Real Estate - "Younger Than Yesterday"

A newer track "Younger Than Yesterday" by NJ jammers Real Estate, performed at the Underwater Peoples/Chocolate Bobka/twosyllable CMJ showcase at the Delancey on 10/23/09. With their first full-length barely released yet (11/17 via Woodsist but currently available for purchase at their shows), Real Estate has already got fans salivating with news of an upcoming EP Reality from Mexican Summer by the end of the year. With tracks like "Basement" (see Ray's vid) and the one above, a taste of Real Estate's reality is something we could all dig on. Like most, we cannot wait for the EP and have been devouring new songs with the ferocious appetite of a breast-feeding lioness. These boys can barely crank them out fast enough!

Check out more sweet CMJ vids by Ray Concepcion/Fury, Chocolate Bobka's c. axel, and yourrrs truly PIXELHORSE, at the Chocolate Bobka Takes on CMJ Channel.

Pre-order Real Estate's full-length.

Happy Halloween (Tom Petty - "Zombie Zoo")

Tom Petty - "Zombie Zoo"

VIDEO: Frat Dad - "Morning Tape" @ the Delancey

Gotta say, if there's one band a fucking dirty-ass lens works for, it's probably Frat Dad. The audio is also pretty degenerate. But after their first song they hit my girlfriend Flear in the face with a bag of Doritos. So then she started a mosh pit, got in a fight with this big fat guy in a goofy sweater, and got kicked out for trying to sell selling drugs to the bathroom attendant chick upstairs. So that was pretty cool I guess.

Check out more sweet CMJ vids here!

VIDEO: Real Estate - "Atlantic City"

So apparently we at PIXELHORSE have decided to become an all-Real-Estate-all-of-the-time blog. (Who has the time or patience for other bands really anyhow?? They're always doing silly shit.)

This is Real Estate performing their jammiest jam "Atlantic City." This stellar newer version of the song appears on the new full-length (!) which you can buy at their shows right now. "AC" is the kinda jam that flows through yer headphones like liquid happy and makes you unabashedly dance down the street in a state of total elation.

Shot this on standard for no apparent reason. (But Charles over at Bobka has some really top-notch stuff, so be on the lookout.) Oops. M'eh, was a looong (and totally fun) night. A night that involved some frat bros from Long Island pouring a drink down my back, dudes dressed like furries, and losing some of my footage... CMJ I love you but you're hurting me. Aren't we over yet??

Real Estate Extends Tour Cross-Country! Big! Huge! Massive!

For the release of their new full-length, Real Estate's leaving Jersey for a while to tour the country. They've got the van up and running great and have added new dates, extending the span of their tour to reach the mid-west and west coast. Whether it's your first time or your umpteenth time, seeing Real Estate just plain makes you feel good. They closed the Oh My Rockness showcase at Santos Party House last night and it was definitely superfunmakeoutparty. They were stellar. If you're in NYC, catch them at their remaining CMJ shows before they peace.

10.22 Brooklyn, NY @ Glasslands (Death and Taxes CMJ Party) 9pm *
10.23 New York, NY @ The Delancey (Underwater Peoples Showcase) 1am
10.24 Brooklyn, NY @ Mark Hotel (Pitchfork Showpaper Benefit) 7pm
10.24 Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (Mexican Summer Showcase) 11:15pm
10.25 New York, NY @ The Living Room (Kidrockers) 1pm
10.30 Storrs, CT @ University of Connecticut $
11.02 Hoboken, NJ @ Maxwell’s %
11.03 Washington, DC @ Black Cat %
11.04 Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie %
11.06 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom %
11.07 Boston, MA @ Great Scott %
11.08 Ithaca, NY @ TBA
11.09 Montreal, Quebec @ Il Motore %
11.10 Toronto, Ontario @ El Mocambo %
11.11 Detroit, MI @ Majestic Cafe
11.12 Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle %
11.13 Madison, WI @ Der Rathskeller / U of W
11.14 Iowa City, IA @ Public Space One
11.15 Denver, CO @ Hi-Dive &
11.16 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
11.18 Seattle, WA @ The Funhouse
11.19 Portland, OR @ Holocene
11.20 San Francisco, CA @ Hemlock
11.22 Santa Cruz, CA @ Crepe Place
11.23 Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland
11.24 San Diego, CA @ TBA
11.25 Phoenix, AZ @ Modified Arts
11.26 El Paso, TX @ Black Market
11.27 Austin, TX @ Mohawk
11.28 Dallas, TX @ The Cavern
11.29 Little Rock, AR @ Sticky Fingerz
12.01 Atlanta, GA @ 529
12.02 Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
12.03 Baltimore, MD @ TBA

* with Japandroids
$ with Vivian Girls
% with Girls
& with Grant Hart
(via the tripwire)

This is bittersweet for us. P-horse contributor BUNNY recently relocated to Austin and has been waiting for these guys to come out and see her. But Brooklyn and Jersey will surely feel a good bit colder without em.

CMJ Tonight: Group Tightener Showcase @ Monster Island

As I always do, without fail, I threw away all regard for plans the next day and totally overdid it last night by raging til 3:00 AM. After waiting twenty minutes for the G train, I glimpsed two lights down the tracks in the distance but was horrified to realize it was two surly-looking MTA employees with flashlights, casually lumbering down the tracks. Took a cab. Feeling pretty heavy at work today. Business as usual. Let that be a lesson to ya.

Uhh point is, I'm counting on this funtastic show tonight at Monster Island to totally revive me. Alex Bleeker, Ducktails, Best Coast, Highlife, Fluffy Lumbers! You know, Todd P and the gang. Don't skip it to go see some other shit. Unless maybe you're at the OMR showcase securing your spot to see Real Estate. Even still, you could just suck it up and see them at one of the other umpteen rad shows they're playing this week. Don't fuck it up.

Alex Bleeker and the Freaks - "Never Goin' Back" (via Bobka)
(video here. This jam was formerly "King of the Mountain.")

Best Coast - "Wish He Was You" (stream)

See ya later skaters!

MP3: Memory Tapes - "Walk Me Home"

New creepalicious song from Memory Tapes via ARAWA:

Here's what's been making my walks home after dark all the more exciting, his all original 17 minute epic and love letter to the art of horror movie scoring, Walk Me Home. Turn off the lights and enjoy my pretties.

Memory Tapes - Walk Me Home

MIX: "Undead and Lovely" (Halloween mix)

Check out this sweet Halloween mix by our bud, the luscious Lena Vee:

Undead and Lovely

1. A Ghost Story / Atlas Sound
2. Marrow / St. Vincent
3. Halloween / Sonic Youth
4. Casper the Friendly Ghost / Daniel Johnston
5. My Beloved Monster / Eels
6. My Old Haunts / Dream Syndicate
7. Gravedigger Blues / Beat Happening
8. Little Ghost / The White Stripes
9. The Curse Of Millhaven / Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
10. Ozzy / Beck
11. Fake Palindromes / Andrew Bird
12. Sukie in the Graveyard / Belle & Sebastian
13. Tuff Ghost / The Unicorns
14. The Hungry Saw / Tindersticks
15. Code Blue / TSOL
16. Dead And Lovely / Tom Waits
17. Deadly Nightshade / The Only Ones
18. The Sinistrer Exsagerator / The Residents
19. Whistle Past The Graveyard / Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard
20. Zombie Boy / The Magnetic Fields
21. Ghost In the Graveyard / A Sunny Day In Glasgow
22. Nights Of The Living Dead / Tilly & The Wall

(Download here.)

VIDEO: Kanye West - "We Were Once a Fairytale" dir. by Spike Jonze

This makes me uncomfortable, but visually it's wonderful.

P.S. - Check out this sweet lil psychoanalytical analysis of the vid.

VIDEO: Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - "We Swam"

(via Stereogum)

The new vid from TWTGDSD is totally lovable.

VIDEO: Duck Sauce - “aNYway” (Surface To Air Version)

(via the FADER)

The Dodos (with the Ruby Suns) @ MHOW 10/14/09

"Two drum kits! Two!" My enthusiastic friend kept shouting over the din of the crowd and into my ear, her sweet whiskey breath on the side of my face. The Dodos played a sweet show at Music Hall of Williamsburg this past Tuesday night. (Oy, sweet show at MHOW... I smell an oxymoron.) The crowd, who were lifeless at best, almost killed my buzz throughout the entirety of the show. But the band played a great set! With new hits like "Two Medicines" and "Fables" they balanced it out by closing with the older fave "Fools" - ahh! I can still hear Meric Long's reverberating oooh!-oooh!-s ringing out into the abyss. Despite their fans' obvious reluctance to accept the new tri-member format, the Dodos continue to be one of the most fun live shows around.

ALBUM: Thao with the Get Down Stay Down - Know Better Learn Faster

First thoughts on Know Better Learn Faster? I have to bite my tongue here, cos what I want to say is that "The Clap" is the best track out of the lot. It's just the album's 30-second intro that has Thao & co drawling and shouting "If this is how you want it - okay okay!" But my love for this charming woman makes me give it another shot.

In terms of structure, the band has definitely progressed from the last album. Thao's song style has definitely gotten more experimental since We Brave... The syncopated rhythmic patterns that made her songs on WBBSL so darn enjoyable are still present in some tracks on KBLF like "When We Swam," but a certain characteristic cuteness is absent on this one. This is a break-up record. And as sweetly euphonious as Nguyen's voice is, it can't hide the fact that these songs are super bitter. Leaving behind themes of childhood mirth and nostalgia, KBLF is about sex, being used, sex, and being scorned.

“The record is primarily a response to the end of a relationship, so a lot of it is pretty reactionary. It’s trying to be introspective, but there’s always got to be a little “fuck you” in there – or, sometimes there’s a lot.
The album is named ‘Know Better Learn Faster’ because you can’t. By the time you realize you should, it’s too late. And I enjoy the predicament and the totally devastating, unfunny humor of that.” - Thao (interview via I Am Fuel You Are Friends)

Yowza! I love it. She's scorned and sexy and not just this demure little Vietnamese-American chick with an acoustic guitar anymore. She's gonna make it in this "man's world," ya know? Are you getting that vibe from her, too??

But despite Thao's newly indurated heart and the group's ostensible progression and maturation as musicians on Know Better Learn Faster, it's just missing something that flowed in abundance out of We Brave...

Download the title track "Know Better Learn Faster" via MBV. Or... the whole album here.

VIDEO: Girls - "Laura"

(via NME)

The song's about Chris Owens' ex-girlfriend Liza's bff Laura. (Was that confusing enough?) Laura felt estranged when Liza started dating Chris and had no time for her anymore. Sounds like an episode of Degrassi, right? Love this song, though. "Touch me I'm right heeeere!"
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The vid is pretty sweet too. Nine channels dripping with film that's fuzzy enough to call it nostalgic. Sun, sand, beach, babes. And boobs! Well, almost.

The Dodos @ Music Hall of Williamsburg toniiight

The Dodos are playing tonight with the Ruby Suns at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Doors at 8, $17!

Seeyathereokaybye!

Micachu and the Shapes @ Littlefield 10/02/09

(photo via Holly Habstritt, cool chick)

Micachu and the Shapes played Friday night at Littlefield in Park Slope with Julianna Barwick and Mon Khmer. Avey Tare was totally there - no lie! Ray Concepcion shot some great videos, like this one of Micachu:


(Watch in HD.) Also watch his sweet, flamin' Julianna Barwick video.

MIX: The Lumberjack Special (Zig's Mix)

(photo by Lauren Troyer)

There are hardly words to describe Ziggy Gurnick - the man, the myth, the legend. He was the funkiest, grooviest cat who ever lived. His moves will live on in all of us, and these songs are intended to act as a conduit through which we can each channel him... on the dance floor.

"The Lumberjack Special" is for all of us who danced with him and felt his funk touch our hearts... or any other body part, and for those of who frequented the diner with him on mornings after partying all night long. Sometimes it was necessary to call ahead and give the kitchen some warning. Zig could devour an entire Lumberjack Special before you could say "pass the fake syrup and pre-packaged jam and butter, please," and then move on to your short stack.

The Lumberjack Special (Ziggy's Mix)

1. David Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
2. Thin Lizzy - The Boys Are Back in Town
3. Edwin Starr - War
4. Stevie Wonder - Superstition
5. Queen - Under Pressure
6. The Beatles - Two of Us
7. Doobie Brothers - Listen to the Music
8. The Bee Gees - Night Fever
9. The Four Tops - Bernadette
10. Al Green - I'm Still in Love with You
11. Led Zeppelin - Tangerine
12. The Beatles - Here Comes the Sun
13. Pink Floyd - The Show Must Go On

[Download here.]

Bundles and bundles of love for all y'all budz who sent me suggestions.
<### O

"Thee Oh Sees & The Fresh & Onlys played Mercury Lounge, playing Death by Audio w/ The Beets after the Bell House" (via bkvegan)

(Image via NME)

Tuesday night I ran into Jose and Juan from the Beets at Bushwick Country Club and they told me how they'd double booked themselves this Friday night - they had scheduled a Santos Party House show with Monotonix and Turbo Fruits the same evening as a show with Thee Oh Sees and the Fresh and Onlys. The latter two are playing another show tonight too, with Golden Triangle, at the Bell House, where I last saw the Beets. The Bell House is a sweet chillers hunting lounge spot, unfortunately plunked down in Gowanus, in the middle of nowhere, and nowhere - as we all know - is a place only accessible by the G train.

The Beets and Thee Oh Sees? I almost choked on my whiskey pickleback! They showed me the sweet goodies they had just picked up from Captured Tracks, and said Thee Oh Sees' new album is radical goodness. So last night I was making plans to shoot at this killer event when I realized I couldn't find the second show listed anywhere. Maybe this event at BCC had been, like most there, just a beautiful, beautiful dream? WRONG!

This morning Brooklyn Vegan listed the second show, which will be at Death By Audio after the Bell/Santos Party Houses shows, probly pretty late. Except, uh, Thee Oh Sees aren't on the bill. Tonight playing at DBA are the Beets, the Fresh and Onlys, and "special guests the Ghosties." The title of the post is totally misleading. Well, oh well. Looks like I'll be running from Gowanus to Williamsburg. Because running there carrying a bunch of vid equip would still be faster than taking the G. Just kidding I got love.

Prior to all this, I am filming an awesome performance for NYU called "Memefactory" by some friends who happen to be the handsome gents of What We Know So Far. The event starts at 7:30pm at Warren Weaver Hall, Rm 109, 251 Mercer St. I'll be there before heading to the Bell House and then Death By Audio. Don't miss any of it! If I can make it all work, then you'd surely have no excuse.

VIDEO: Alex Bleeker and the Freaks -"Animal Tracks" @ Union Pool

More goodies from that maaagical night at Union Pool. Man, never thought I'd see those terms all in the same sentence. At least not since that one summer night when I witnessed a group of kids shotgunning PBR's, making out, and vomiting all over the backyard fountain. Oh, Union Pool, how we love to hate thee.

Er, anyway. Here's Bleek and the Freaks makin' magic, makin' magic magic. Watch the Freaks cover "Animal Tracks" by the lovely women of Mountain Man. Martin Courtney from Real Estate is chillin on bass, Alex "the Gator" Steinberg on guitar. See Matt Mondanile (Ducktails, Real Estate) frrreak on drums. In the farers he reminds us of Guy "Shades" Patterson. (It's pronounced "oh-need-ers" remember?) And of course, feast yer eyes on Bleek-the-Freak Bleekalicious Bleekditty himself.

Woo... is it hot in here or is it just us?

VIDEO: Horse's Mouth @ Union Pool

Boy oh boy oh boy was this night magical! Horse's Mouth (formerly Tavo Carbone) show with Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, the Extraordinaires, and the Armchairs at Union Pool 08/19/09 for Horse's Mouth's self-titled record release celebration hearty party. So many goodies for your eyes n ears to come.







** Camera work by Connor Kammerer and Elise Oh.
Edited by Elise Oh.

Special thanks to Conny Kam!

Dirty Projectors - "When the World Comes to an End" (live acoustic backstage)

Dirty Projectors performed "When the World Comes to an End" on Jimmy Fallon last week, and they stopped by the Roots' dressing room afterwards and did an acoustic version of the same song. ?uestlove posted it on Twitter:

Soooo tiiiight!

I WANT TO BREAK FREEEEEE

Found this sweet vid while searching for the right Queen hit for Ziggy's mix. <3