I’ve long been a fan of the sweet a cappella tunes of the Vermont trio Mountain Man, and this video, recorded by Vincent Galgano in NYC, just reaffirms my love for the group:

Jimmy over at the great tumblr blog Head Underwater recently unearthed this killer video for Marissa Nadler’s “Thinking Of You” from two years ago. Amazing!

Speaking of amazing music vids, check this one for His Clancyness’s latest single “Summer Majestic”, as first premiered on Delicious Scopitone:

I always love the ingenuity of creative music listeners and the stuff they’re able to come up with. Take this weather channel heavy fan vid for Ariel Pink’s track “Reminiscences” for example:

Another cool archival video snipped together, this time for Baths’ track “Maximalist” [via: yvynyl]

Lastly, here is a great stripped-down version of the Norwegian electro-pop group Casiokids performing in Austria, recorded by the folks over at They Shoot Music:

I’ve been a big fan of the Norwegian electro-pop group Casiokids since I caught them live during one of the warm-up days at the 2008 Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Half art show, half dance party, this Bergen-based band certainly knows how to have a great time while on stage. After catching all of their thirty minute set, I said at the time that “the only direction I see them moving is up” — and boy was I right!

After signing to the famed Polyvinyl label a little over a year ago, the band is slated to release their first LP stateside, entitled Topp Stemning På Lokal Bar, and with it comes this potential B-side Stereogum-premiered Prins Thomas remix of their hit “En Vill Hest”. Also for your listening pleasure, I threw in an old Casiokids remix of Lindstrøm’s “The Long Way Home”. Check them both out below:

Casiokids // En Vill Hest (Prins Thomas remix)

Lindstrøm // The Long Way Home (Casiokids remix)

At this time, I thought I would share some of the more popular things about the site over the past year in a nice little “in a nutshell” post.

Most Popular Concert Videos:
1st // Casiokids Live at Roskilde in 2008 (12,772 views)

2nd // New Song from The National (11,458 views)
3rd // MGMT performing “Weekend Wars” Live at Roskilde 2008 (7,719 views)

A bit surprising when I went to check the stats on my flickr page, but the most viewed concert photos by far were some terribly grainy shots I took at a Tegan and Sara show almost two years ago. Most likely due to getting picked up by some fan forum, it’s nevertheless still sad to see some of my better photo sets be dwarfed in comparison. Oh well!

Most popular Concert Photos:
1st // Tegan & Sara Live in Copenhagen (1,267 views)

2nd // Wavves Live in Munich (206 views)

3rd // Neko Case Live in Munich (64 views)

Most Popular Posts:
1st // PT Music’s Top 41 Albums of 2009 (1,526 page views)

2nd // Keyboard Sample Pad (1,322 page views)

3rd // Guest List: Burgers’s Top 30 Songs of 2009 (862 page views)

The next section I have no solid numbers on, but based on page views of track reviews as well as the number of referenced sites, I think I can gauge roughly which mp3s had the most downloads:

Most Popular mp3 Download:
1st // Moonface: Dreamland EP

2nd // Rainbow Bridge: Big Wave Rider

3rd // PT Music’s Laid & Paid Weekend Mix

Well that does it for the concise recap of the past year or so. Here’s to a musically prosperous 2010!!

The first one is an incredible music video from Sierra-Leonean Janka Nabay. He has an upcoming 12” on one of my favorite labels True Panther entitled Babu King. Here’s the video for the excellent and highly publicized track “Eh Congo”:

At this point, I’m starving for any sort of new National material. Although I’m usually current with any latest developments (even filming a new song myself in Copenhagen), somehow I missed this live footage for another unreleased track called “Blood Buzz Ohio” that was filmed back in August:

The next two videos are so amazing that you can’t believe they are fan produced. The first is “When I’m With You” from a track off of Best Coast’s impossible to get Black Iris 7” while the second is a take on Memoryhouse’s “Lately”:

“Our Love Was Saved By Spaceman” is the first single off of The Pipettes forthcoming album. Probably due to all the recent lineup changes, their sound has taken a turn from 50s to 70s inspired. Take a listen for yourself:

Finally, the full video of Casiokids’s brand spanking new track has finally surfaced. I talked a little about the teaser for “En Vill Hest” earlier this week, and the full cut seems to be just as weird as the 15 second snippet:

Saw on their rarely used twitter account that experimental folk band Coquelicot unveiled two new teaser tracks on their myspace page simply titled “1″ and “2″. The “songs” themselves sound more like a wire framework composed of musical bits and pieces stitched together, something akin to jj’s “5 minuter med jj”, but regardless they make me excited to think of what might come with their new stuff.

It’s amazing to think how much this band has accomplished at such a young age. Just starting out college with already two amazing EPs to their credit and new material looming on the horizon, these guys seem to be following the Smith Western’s rulebook on how to get popular before turning 21. Check out the track “I Was Not Hurt” off of their Tree Friend EP, and if you like it you can download the rest of the album for free from their last.fm page:

Coquelicot // I Was Not Hurt

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Speaking of teaser tracks, my favorite Norwegian band Casiokids just posted on their facebook page a 14 second snippet from their music video for “En Vill Hest”, a track off their recent Norwegian-only released single. If the video is to be trusted, the song will be more widely distributed February 15.

I was elated when I heard the news that my favorite Bergen-born act Casiokids was slated to open for the popular electro-pop outfit Hot Chip on their UK dates. By Norwegian standards, I was probably a little late getting on the Casiokids bandwagon, but I think it’s safe to say that I was one of the first Americans to tout how great a band they are after having my mind blown catching their performance at Roskilde Festival ‘08.

So far, they’ve made a big splash in Europe after signing to famed label Moshi Moshi, but thusfar their exposure in the US has been kept to a minimal with only a handful of East Coast shows and a couple of SXSW gigs from last year. I really hope that these upcoming UK shows with Hot Chip will springboard them into the stratosphere of blogbuzz, making it easier for them to extensively tour the US. It would be nice to see their wildly creative art-filled show here in the comfort of my hometown rather than having to travel across the Atlantic to the fjords of Norway.

Although not a replacement for their live act, here is an mp3 of one of my favorites “Fot i Hose”:

Casiokids // Fot i Hose

Although the original post is just under a year old, Norwegian electro-pop/art-outfit Casiokids recently brought to my attention a remix they did of Lindstrøm’s “The Long Way Home” with a post on their facebook page. Although abridged from the original 16 minute opus, the Casiokids version doesn’t skimp on quality. The remix eliminates the sharp background bloops & bleeps which are so distinct in the original and morphs the song into a more soulful, funkadelic rendition more ready for the stadium than the club. Take a listen:

Lindstrøm // The Long Way Home (Casiokids Remix)

Lindstrøm // The Long Way Home

Half concert, half art-show, Casiokids stage performance was nothing I’ve ever witnessed in my life – blowing out of the water even the headlining acts at the festival. Giant papier-mâché heads of the band members: check. Brief appearance of a giant fuzzy monster: check. Unparalleled audience participation: double check. They certainly pulled out all the stops on their largest performance to date, converting most casual observers into fans.

But where most acts would mask their lack of musical talent behind a unique stage show, Casiokids have the songs to boot. Equipped with a slew of electronic equipment and live instrumentation (old school Casio keyboards not surprisingly distributed throughout), the band was able to churn out song after song reminding you of the pleasantries of childhood. Sweet passive vocals with an extra touch of softness combined with interjecting airy melodies certainly had me thinking back to the time where everything was much simpler.

However, to imply that Casiokids was just a “sit back, relax, and reminisce” type band is certainly inaccurate. For the entire show I was moving around whether it was to the momentum carried by the buzzed bass line in “Fot i Hose” or the chiming keyboard entry on “Gront Lys i Alle Ledd”, the whole set just seemed so fluid, effortlessly taking me from one song to the next. Before I could really take in the whole concert – POOF – the unnecessarily short thirty minute time slot was over and the band was taking down their gear to roaring chants of a much deserved encore. Alas, the organizers were having nothing to do with altering the schedule, so I must be content with living vicariously through my friends who’ll be able to catch their amazing show in Austin.

Casiokids // Fot i Hose

Casiokids // Gront Lys i Alle Ledd

Casiokids // Verdens Storste Land

A video from their performance I saw:

I think you can tell how much fun everyone is having.