Sunday Night Swank

Even after a muddy, musically soaked weekend at APW, I decided to meet my friend Sunday night for a prospective music and dancing adventure in the city. We met at Broadway East, a small restaurant and bar in the depths of Chinatown. (See dining reviews on Yelp.) The party is one that apparently changes venues for each event. While the party at Broadway East last night featured a relatively sparse crowd, it was a lively, hip group of cool cats who danced and jived to the jazz, soul and funk music of the night. The highlights: the candle-lit passageway to the bar, the outdoorsy feel of the venue, the exhuberance of the party-goers, and the live saxophone player to complement the DJ's tunes. The best fun I've had on a Sunday night in quite some time.

(above: my friend, and the seating above the bar and dance space))

When I find out the name of this party, I may share it... but then again, some of the best things are left better largely undiscovered to revel in their underground status.

This Thursday - Party at Glasslands

Hmm, if I go out late Thursday night, I may go to this -- the featured event of myopenbar:

Camp Wanatachi Dance Party

well vodka, $6 cover / 10pm-11pm

Glasslands Gallery
289 Kent Avenue,
at South 1st
Williamsburg

Ah, summer camp. Such sweet memories! Donkey Lips. Psycho killers in hockey masks. That handsy, handsome counselor who liked to visit after lights out...

In honor of all that goodness, GlassLands is throwing a serious summer camp-themed blowout. Crazy-in-the-best-way Unicornicopia invites you and all your nostalgically horny friends to a dance party of epic proportions with music by DJs Caroline Polachek (of Chairlift), Machinedrum, Ben Bromley (of Fischerspooner) and Sam (Z's).

Live performances of "We All Need Jesus in Our Lives" and "Let's Ride Bareback," songs from a new musical about two 13 year-old girls who fall in love at a Christian summer camp, will keep you and the Holy Spirit jazzed big time. Summer camp classics – s'mores, friendship bracelets and hair wraps –and a strictly camp dress code.

S. Williamsburg Evening: Mixel Pixel/Dam, Stuhltrager Gallery

After I met my friends at Rose Bar, a cute, semi-hidden bar on Grand and Marcy with regular live music, we proceeded to an art gallery I hadn't previously known of, on Marcy Ave and Hooper St., described by my friend as the store-front with an old Coca-Cola banner up top. The gallery, which I later learned is called Dam, Stuhltrager Gallery, consisted of a series of rooms with captivating and well-done -- if generally somewhat generically post-modern and hipster -- sculptural/installation art (see pictures above).

After wandering alone in the inside of the gallery while my friends had made a beeline to the outdoor area where the crowd waited and mingled and the band was preparing to perform, I made my way 20 minutes and several pictures later to find my friends (with some difficulty) outside. The band, Mixel Pixel (www.mixelpixel.com), soon began; and their giant projection onto a brick wall behind them, initially displaying a psychedelic black-and-white spinning image foregrounded by a "LOADING" logo, soon showed similarly psychedelic, avant-garde, disjointed video clips. After a short detour away from the intensity of the scene, which was fun but slightly overwhelmingly crowded, warm and loud, I returned to relax more and absorb -- and appreciate -- the music and video clips. I was taken aback when I realized how intricately the videos were designed to perfectly correspond to and complement each song. While the music was pure pop-fun and somewhat endearing, it was the videos that most blew me away. www.youtube.com/mixelpixelvideos The specific video/song combination that impressed me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wdvU-oPfL8

I asked two friends how they would describe Mixel Pixel's music after having pondered over it for a bit myself and deciding that they sounded like a contemporary, hipsterfied version of the B-52's, with vague hints of similarity to current bands like CSS and Sonic Youth. Without first telling my friends my initial impression of their sound, the first one responded, "Um, electro-pop?," to which I agreed and told him my own analysis. He agreed on the pop-music label but wavered on the B-52's attribute, saying that he would argue that it sounded like something derivative from the Cure. This comment was punctuated with: "But then, doesn't everything?"

A while later, I asked my other friend there the same question; incidentally, she hadn't heard our discussion yet so far. She seemed a little uninterested in answering and then replied, "Um, post-modern?" So, finally: Mixel Pixel is: a post-modern, electro-pop hipster band with hints of the Cure and the B-52's. According to their Myspace profile (www.myspace.com/mixelpixel), their band's style is "freestyle"; and according to their Youtube profile, their style is "mariachi."

I didn't see any of the other bands that performed that night, though after checking out the gallery's website tonight, I learned that the music performances and parties are a regular summer feature there. If you have interest in checking out local, indie and under-the-radar bands and visual artists, as well as enjoying a low-key gallery/outdoor party, I recommend checking out future events at this space. By the way, the title of the summer music series: garden of earthly delights.