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MICRO-PIXEL-RITES Presents!
A girl blogger rock and roll party! We are doin’ it for ourselves with this ass kicking, female-powered unofficial SXSW Showcase. Check our first video below for details.
BANDS…
Campfires, Cloud Nothings, Rangers, Pill Wonder, Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, Coasting, Pure Ecstasy, Twin Sister, Big Troubles, Family Portrait… perhaps some SURPRISE GUESTS!
LOVE,
Visitation Rites (Emilie), PIXELHORSE (Elise), Microphone Memory Emotion (Mme)
more about “MICRO-PIXEL-RITES’ SXSW PARTY “, posted with vodpod
Weed Diamond from Denver, Colorado. This music has been in me for about a year now. Inter-spatial mind jams, slow and mellow… but furiously created. Tim Perry hasn’t played on the East Coast, so SXSW it is! To get ready, here’s a new track, “Nothing to Write Home About.”
This song is off a split 7″ with Ancient Crux, released on Half Machine (you can check out the A.C. track and order the record on the site). It’s out April 5.
This may be my favorite Weed Diamond song yet. It sounds like it could be right outta a scary bar scene in “Twin Peaks” or something. The classic melody is all hazed and fuzzed out, and the delicate meandering feels like a whisper on the back of your neck.
Weed Diamond: Nothing to Write Home About
Schreifels makes me feel like i’m back at Hampshire listening to Ben Kweller and 90s alternative bands. I love the infectious beat of this song. And his voice is just so amiable.
“Arthur Lee’s Lullaby” is off the forthcoming An Open Letter to the Scene, out May 4. It’s a largely acoustic effort, which stands in contrast with Schreifels’ past work in Gorilla Biscuits and Youth of Today. This is Schreifels’ first solo record.
Walter Schreifels: Arthur Lee’s Lullaby
Cloud Nothings came out of nowhere and are the biggest thing right now. To have two premieres in one day on two of the biggest music sites on the internet (Gorilla vs. Bear and The Fader)… that can only mean one thing. OK, it could mean two things.
a) You’re a buzz band.
b) You’re good!
In this case, both are true. I saw Cloud Nothings first show. They opened for Real Estate and Woods at the Market Hotel. It was fun, energetic, and they played loud and ferociously. (Big Up’s to Todd P. He heard the band and booked them on that show.) I saw them play again less than a month later, opening for Alex Bleeker and the Freaks and others. Also a great show.
The band is playing SXSW and MtyMx. I’ll be seeing a lot of them and will report back.
Here’s one new song, off a Group Tightener release. (BTW, Group Tightener is the label run in part by Sam Hockley-Smith, an editor at The Fader. Conflict of interest?) CLARIFICATION: See Hockley-Smith’s comment. There will be no conflict.
Cloud Nothings: Morgan
TONIGHT
Jeff the Brotherhood, Screaming Females, Stupid Party at Death by Audio, 8ish
WEDNESDAY
Electric Tickle Machine, Hooray For Earth, The Creeeps at Cake Shop, 8ish
Loren Connors, Alan Licht, Lee Ranaldo at Issue Project Room, 8ish
Golden Bloom at Mercury Lounge, 9ish
THURSDAY
Toro Y Moil, Twin Sister, Grandchildren at Cameo Gallery, 8ish
FRIDAY
Twin Sister at Matchless, 8ish
Noveller, Sisters, Knight School, Lame Drivers at Bruar Falls, 8ish
Lemonade, Class Actress, Brahms (formerly Cale Parks) at Exit Art (in 212), 8ish
A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Acrylics at Mercury Lounge, 10:30
SATURDAY
Surfer Blood, Turbo Fruits, Beach Fossils, Grooms at Market Hotel, 8ish
Glenn Branca at Le Poisson Rouge, 7
SUNDAY
CD-R Showcase: Oneohtrix Point Never, Sun Araw, No Fun Acid at Coco66, 8ish
MONDAY
Pop Jew’s Purim Party featuring The So So Glos and more at Death by Audio, 8ish
Pikelet is Melbourne, Australia’s Evelyn Morris. A pikelet is what Australians call small pancakes.
“The Weakest Link” shimmers with electronic notes and is accented by the high squeals of Morris. This is actually an odd song. At points it verges on being just too cute, too saccharine, but then it circles back with a slightly more bitter taste. Sometimes songs create conundrums in your head. This is one of those songs.
Morris used to play drums in hardcore bands. Let that affect your listening.
She has certainly surrounded herself with an impressive pedigree of musicians. She has toured with Lucky Dragons, Ruby Suns, Devendra Banhart and Tiny Vipers, and will be opening for Dirty Projectors, handpicked by them.
“The Weakest Link” is off the recently released Stem, on Chapter Music. Pick it up.
Pikelet: The Weakest Link
adam smith
I don’t think this bee stings. In fact, honeybee’s never sting. They drink nectar out of flowers and then make honey comb and honey with their huge family. What a sweet, sweet image…
Emily Reo sings “Honeybee” and it feels like a movie where you’re sitting in a hazy window, gazing out at a world that is ready for you. The sun is shining and inviting. It’s almost a throwback track, to the 50s. A soundtrack for ironic ambivalence, maybe.
Reo is from Orlando, Florida, and “Honeybee” is off her new album Minha Gatinha, available here. The whole album features fuzzy songs, but they are all different kinds of songs. Some are pop, some are ballads, some feel like memories and some feel like the future. Honeybee is a future track…despite the familiar feeling.
Emily Reo: Honeybee
Jason Boesel took the stage at the Bowery Ballroom not showing any nervousness. For someone who has spent his entire and somewhat lengthy musical career behind a drum kit, this was a little shocking. And he performed the entire set in what could be described as a state of quiet confidence.
But Boesel, who just released his first solo album, “Hustler’s Son,” was also all alone on a stage with four other people. The headlining band, Dawes, served as his backing band. They played sturdily, but they were hardly invested in the music. (Yes, the guitarist made extreme concentrated faces while soloing, but it seemed generic.)
This is not to say they weren’t a suitable band– they played well. But for Boesel, newly a front man on an acoustic guitar, this band was far, far away from those he’s played in before.
Rilo Kiley and Bright Eyes/ Conor Oberst/ The Mystic Valley Band were close knit bands. MVB especially. In those bands the members were not only friends, they were collaborators.
But Boesel didn’t mind, or he didn’t seem to be bothered, by the lack of musical connection. For him, it was his debut in a brand new role, with his first batch of songs.
His album fits like a snug sweater, the songs aren’t extremely memorable, but they’re clever and endearing. Each one is a tightly wound, country inflected pop song. There are no missteps or offbeats, just direct ballads, for the most part. He made his way through about 7 of them on Friday night, most memorably “Hand of God,” “Miracles” and “French Kissing.”
The Boes, as he is sometimes called, has a ways to go, but it’s very possible that he could be a front man. And as much as I wish him luck though, his drumming and role as an assistant, as the backbone in a band, is more important. As a drummer, he adds so much oomph and variety to a pop song, you won’t believe it. It’s like, always off beat, in a good way. Syncopated.
Jason Boesel: French Kissing
Hearing Thurston Moore utter those words today is so funny, it’s sad. Seeing what Sonic Youth has become as a cultural product, dare I say, as a brand…Anyway. It’s only the intro to this song by The Radio Dept. I’d never heard this Swedish band before, but this is a really good example of pretty pop, feel good pop that you don’t have to feel guilty about listening to. Don’t get me wrong, i like gentle sounds, but sometimes I get a little too gooey from my own good and I forget about what matters. Hey, it’s a Friday, feel this song and smile. I wonder what these guys think about Sonic Youth “selling out,” or whatever you want to call it. They could just be being ironic in using that clip in their song….
“Heaven’s on Fire” is off the band’s new album, Clinging to a Scheme, which is coming out on April 21st on Labrador.
The Radio Dept.: Heaven’s on Fire
The Thurston clip, by the way, is from the Dave Markey rock documentary. “1991: The Year Punk Broke,” one of the best movies EVER.
Dana Jewell, why are you doing this to me? As if gray Friday mornings weren’t strange enough… Wow, the sun literally just came out and my computer screen is now covered in light. I can’t see.
I’m a sucker for lovelorn acoustic songs. It’s just the folkster in me. It’s the Bob Dylan, the Mary Lou Lord, in my bones.
“We’d settle down, put some roots in the ground.”
Isn’t that what we all want? Transient people eventually, too, grow downward and not just outwards.
“Learned to Write a Song” is one of two gems that I now can call my own. Dana just recorded them yesterday, and they are part of an apparent set/album? called “Songs ‘or The Broken Hearted.” I will share the second one, too, eventually. Good morning and welcome to the bright world.
Dana Jewell: Learned to Write a Song
