Sufjan’s Enjoy Your Rabbit Set to Ballet by Justin Peck
September 19th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Selections from Sufjan Stevens’ electronic album “Enjoy Your Rabbit” are featured in a new ballet by up-and-coming choreographer Justin Peck. “Year of the Rabbit” will premiere Oct. 5 at New York City Ballet, programmed with new works by Benjamin Millepied (“Black Swan”) and Christopher Wheeldon (The Royal Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet). Conductor and arranger Michael Atkinson has expanded the quartet adaptations of this music from Osso’s “Run Rabbit Run” for string orchestra. Selections for this non-narrative ballet for 18 dancers will include Year of the Ox, Rabbit, Tiger, Rooster, Dragon Boar, and The Lord. There will be two matinees on Oct. 6 & 7 and a final evening performance on Oct. 13. The ballet will also appear in the winter season next year (January 29 & 30 and February 1 & 2). Tickets are available from the NY City Ballet website.
Sufjan also joins Peck and Aktinson for the Guggenheim’s Works & Process series on Sept. 23 & 24 (at 7:30) in the Guggenheim Theater, where a string quartet will play excerpts from the ballet, with principal dancers performing. Participants will also discuss the odd evolution of Sufjan’s electronic hobby project- composed and recorded in an apartment closet- from the drum machine to the ballet theater. Tickets are no longer available for this event (the theater only seats 285) but the Guggenheim website has a link for live streaming.
You can read about Justin’s previous ballet “In Creases” from the New York Times review here, and learn more about this young dancer/choreographer’s work with the city ballet here has a link for live streaming.
New Album Out From Raymond Byron & The White Freighter
September 4th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Raymond Raposa – aka Raymond Byron – can song-write. It shows in his latest project, entitled Little Death Shaker, from band Raymond Byron & the White Freighter. The record is out today.
You’ll remember Ray from Castanets, who carved out a rugged slice of American folk rock from independent music in the 2000s by releasing a series of records replete with some of the best-written songs we’ve ever heard.
Though under a different moniker, Little Death Shaker is no exception. The music sheds its avant-country for something a little more roadhouse blues ala Patrick Swayze. It’s the kind of music playing from an early 90s Chevy, staying late in the parking light of the bar, Bud Light blues and reds casting an eerie 3am glow on cracked pavement.
The record is available in a number of ways. Pick your poison here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGeY3033Qwk[/youtube]
Dots Will Echo’s New Album Out Now
August 21st, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Drunk is the New Sober/Stupid is the New Dumb, the latest recording from New Jersey duo Dots Will Echo, releases today. The fruit of three days’ labor, the 23-track album serves up a mix of garage rock, post-punk, and power pop-infused tracks. It features a smattering of instruments, from guitar to glockenspiel to autoharp.
For a brief Dots Will Echo history and interview with singer/songwriter Nick Berry, read the recent article on Ourstage.com.
Stream the album below, read their intriguing story (it involves both the divine and the absurd) then order a copy over here.
OMBRE’s Believe You Me is Out Today
August 21st, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
On one hand, you have lush, verdant-voiced Julianna Barwick, whose AK-release The Magic Place garnered a slot on the BBC’s list of top 2011 albums. On the other, there’s AK artist Roberto Carlos Lange, AKA Helado Negro, the Latin-influenced kinetic sound sculptor who’s collaborated with the likes of David Ellis and Prefuse 73.
Bring the pair together and you get OMBRE, whose anticipated debut release Believe You Me is out today. The ten track album meshes Barwick’s ambient, angelic vocals with Helado Negro’s warm-hearted, urban psyche folk.
The labelmates sparked a friendship after touring together in 2010 and opted to give recording a go at Helado Negro’s studio Island Universe Space. After kicking around riffs and vocal snippets, OMBRE began laying down tracks. The result? Believe You Me, spanning from bare-boned space melodies to indulgent, infectious soundscapes. The recording is a series of connected dots carved out of seemingly contrasting musical styles resulting in something altogether fresh and new.
The BBC says of Believe You Me, “Sultry summer nights following somnolent summer days, you’ve just found your new soundtrack.” Best order a copy now – do so by clicking here. September is coming soon.
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Free Shannon Stephens EP On Noisetrade; Named Seattle’s Best Female Vocalist
August 14th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Pick Your Favorite Albums for Pitchfork’s People’s List
August 11th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Pitchfork is asking readers to choose favorite albums from the past 15 years for The People’s List. That starts the year Beck released Odelay and ends last year, when (ahem) My Brightest Diamond released All Things Will Unwind. While you can write in any Asthmatic Kitty release, Pitchfork staff picks are pre-listed to make the process simple. To vote, submit your selections before midnight on August 17.
We’re Number Two!
July 30th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Asthmatic Kitty came this close to dominating the Best of Indy 2012 poll for top local Indianapolis label. We join other venerable Hoosier-based runners-up in the annual Nuvo survey, including second best pork tenderloin, Edwards Drive-In; second best place for ‘hooking up’, the Alley Cat; and second best local pro sports team, the Pacers.
We’re already preparing to dominate next year’s readers’ poll. People of Indianapolis, brace yourselves.
Dots Will Echo’s Infectious Debut Releases Later This Month
July 11th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Nick Berry and Kurt Biroc make music prolifically while keeping day jobs. The duo that form the New Jersey-based band Dots Will Echo move back and forth between the half-lit world of kicking around ideas, dreaming up sounds, and playing riffs in a garage to the office-lit reality of finishing a project, checking a box off a to do list, and turning out the lights. Dots Will Echo’s debut release Drunk is the New Sober/Stupid is the New Dumb is available July 24th on Asthmatic Kitty. Recorded over the course of three days, the album ranges from perfectly impulsive to transcendent.
Berry and Biroc work together (Biroc is Berry’s boss) and make music as Dots Will Echo on their off hours. Berry plays everything from Andean charango to hammered dulcimer and Biroc plays drums on the album. The duo tease out irregular, tattered post punk-infused pop hooks that move between capricious and infectious. “I meant this to be a very raw recording, capturing the way we sound live,” says Berry. He describes Dots Will Echo’s sound as, “A little bit The Incredible String Band, a little bit AC/DC. A little bit Nick Drake, a little bit Cheap Trick.”
Before forming Dots Will Echo in 2004, Berry played with the power pop trio DWE Mk I, recording a single that made it to No. 4 on Sweden’s rock charts. In 2001, Berry contributed to the Will Ackerman track “Fear Not, Mary.” The song appeared on Ackerman’s Grammy nominated album Hearing Voices.
Drunk is the New Sober/Stupid is the New Dumb comes in at an epic 23 tracks. The CD was originally slated to be split into two disks. The double LP includes a code to access digital bonus track downloads.
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Raymond Byron & the White Freighter; New Band, New Album
June 28th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Going on five full-length records since 2004, Asthmatic Kitty’s Castanets has given us a wide-lens look at deconstructed Americana. Come September 4th, Castanets’ Ray Raposa will debut a new band, Raymond Byron and the White Freighter, and a brand-new full-length, Little Death Shaker.
Where the ‘Nets trafficked in improv and avant-country gone coal black, Raposa’s new stuff is pure roadhouse blues. Stripped of all noise influences and focusing on straight-up songs, Little Death Shaker is a record evocative of late nights and dusty parking lots, long drives and boozy hookups. This is the work of a dude who’s spent his youth and young manhood on tour and it comes through in both the music and the lyrics.
One of Little Death Shaker’s real charms is you can close your eyes and see these 13 tracks played live; you can see the drummer leaning over his kit with his brushes, the backup singers standing around the mic, beers in hand, eyes closed, swaying side to side, the lights crisscrossing the stage. In a world of records that bands can’t duplicate live, it’s crazy-refreshing.
Meet Raymond Byron and the White Freighters and their record Little Death Shaker. Here’s to the new.
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Precious Remedies For Everyone; New Welcome Wagon Out Now
June 13th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices, the Welcome Wagon’s second album, is out today! The follow-up full length to their 2008 debut, Presbyterian minister Vito Aiuto and his wife Monique present a brand new collection of folk-infused gospel gems.
Precious Remedies was recorded over the course of a work week in an old Brooklyn rectory. The tracks were produced by Alexander Foote and feature musical contributions from friends, including Foote and Sufjan Stevens. Spanning from sweet to transcendent, the record is the perfect summer soundtrack for lazy afternoons and back porch gatherings.
Above is a fantastically filmed video of a rehearsal of “Remedy,” a David Crowder cover. Friends of the Welcome Wagon Alex and Aaron Craig do the honors.
You can help yourself to some Precious Remedies on CD, LP, or MP3 by clicking here.