OBLIQUE, A NEW ROBERTS & LORD VID FROM MATT WELLS

January 23rd, 2012 , by

Matt Wells directed the above video, a visual rendeition of "oblique" from Roberts & Lord's Eponymous album. The video, which looks like Buffy meets any other Friday night high school party, is amazing. Do watch, then you can listen and buy the album by click right here.

A NIGHT AND A DAY FROM PEPE DELUXÉ OUT NOW, PREORDER QUEEN

January 17th, 2012 , by

A few weeks ago, we released an astounding alchemy of a music video, replete with magic, mysticism, lazers, dancing, and Ms. Dominican Republic 2008.

Today, using the magic of the internet, you can take the song and its many iterations home by purchasing the second single from Pepe Deluxé’s forthcoming record,  Queen Of The Wave. “A Night And A Day” is up on iTunes now, right here.

The song features an international cabal including lead vocals from Johanna Försti, a Finnish soul/funk singer who has sung for the President of Finland; backing vocals from Australian Boi Crompton, Gulf War vet who toured with Cat Stevens on his EU tour; Finnish film composer Ville Riippa plays transistor organ and percussion; and Pepe full-time member, the Swedish-born Manhattan-residing Paul Malmström handles much of the rest. The song also includes double speed guitars, a glockenspiel, and a modular synthesizer.

In addition to “Hesperus Garden,” another track from Queen Of The Wave, the single also includes remixes courtesy of A-R-K (aka Andy Spence from New Young Pony Club), K-X-P (producers of Annie), Mex Luthor (also know as Catskills artist Black Grass), Zumo, Echo Park, and Obi Blanche.

You can preorder Queen Of The Wave on iTunes here.

JULIANNA BARWICK 2011 ROUNDUP

January 13th, 2012 , by

 We’re going back over our releases from last year and trying to pack a year’s worth of happenings into one post. Here are our thoughts on Julianna Barwick’s The Magic Place. Before we get started, you should know that Julianna Barwick is touring Australia starting this Saturday. She’ll be at several festivals, including the Sugar Mountain Festival, […]

Read the Rest...

PLEASE WELCOME DENISON WITMER TO THE AK FAM

January 12th, 2012 , by

 All of us, staff and artist roster alike have loved Denison Witmer and his music for a long time. Most of our roster has appeared at least once on any number of his eight albums, or hit the road and toured with Denison. He’s basically family around here, so maybe it’s about time we just made it official-like. Well, ok! Let’s!

Please, welcome Denison Witmer to the Asthmatic Kitty family! (You can even tweet your welcome by clicking here.)

Maybe we should have done this sooner, because it feels like he’s come home.

Of course, there’s always business to be done and the first order thereof is to release his latest album, The Ones Who Wait. Label Mono vs. Stereo released it last year on a limited basis, but when we heard the record we wanted a shot too. A big thanks to them for letting us at it.

We’ll be releasing the record in early March. Between now and then expect some more Denison-related announcements, but for now just know that we’re glad he’s around. We hope you are too.

Read the story behind the new album here.

YEARLY ROUND-UP: HELADO NEGRO

December 30th, 2011 , by

We’re going back over our releases on the cusp of 2012 and trying to clump together a whole year’s worth of happenings into one post. Here's the one on Helado Negro's Canta Lechuza. We released Helado Negro’s Canta Lechuza in May. Roberto Carlos Lange – the brain and brawn  behind Helado Negro – is one […]

Read the Rest...

AK ARTISTS ON SOUNDS FAMILYRE XMAS COMP

December 20th, 2011 , by

 Our good friends over at record label Sounds Familyre have put together a remarkable and lovely Christmas compilation, and it includes music from lots of terrific artists – including several of our own! John Ringhofer, of AK artist Half-handed Cloud, created the gorgeous cover art, and contributes “The Cloud Became a Baby To Be With Us.” Liz Janes, along with several special guests, sings, “Shepherd's Song.” And DM Stith sings a haunting, "I Stay Still."

Other great friends of AK make appearances, including Joshua Stamper, Danielson, Soul-junk, the Roches, and Vesper. You can listen and download it for free via Bandcamp right here, and previous volumes here. Thanks for the great present, Sounds Familyre!

LAZERS, MAGIC, MYSTICS IN NEW VIDEO FROM PEPE DELUXÉ

December 19th, 2011 , by

Lazers, guitars, and magic have a long, proud history together, and this brand new video from Pepe Deluxé proves it  indubitably, using historical footage pieced together by Pepe member Paul Malmström.

We'll be releasing the track and some remixes of it on January 17th, but you can also find it later on Pepe's fourth album, Queen of the Wave, due January 31st. In the meantime, do enjoy the show.

NEW LIZ JANES POSTER, INCLUDES MP3

December 15th, 2011 , by

 It’s been just about a year since we released Liz Janes’ Say Goodbye. About six months ago, Argentinean graphic designer Leandro Castelao contacted Liz. He was so inspired by the album that he offered to design a poster based on one of the songs. When Leandro delivered a final version based on "Firefly," and Liz showed it to us, we knew we had to share it with her fans. It’s terrific!

The poster is 12×15, and Liz sees as a great way of wrapping up the last year since release! Purchase the poster and we'll also email a link and code to download the full MP3 version of Say Goodbye. See more pictures of the poster here, or you can buy it for $25 by clicking here (sorry, we only ship posters to N. America).

HAPPY 10 BRASSLAND!

November 23rd, 2011 , by

 Our good friends over at Brassland are giving away a song a day, but without good reason: they’re 10 years old!

Back in 2001, Brassland was just a sparkle in the eyes of Alec Hanley Bemis and Bryce and Aaron Dessner. They released records by The National and The Clogs and the rest is history. Watch the above video for a nice recap. It’s a highly accurate re-enactment of the rise of Brassland from haphazard record label to Galactic Overlords Of Quadrant Earth.

Congratulations to Brassland on this fine achievement!  You guys make us all proud to be in the business. Here’s to ten more years of Brassland domination!

There’s just a week left in the celebration though! Go, post-haste, and grab some free tunes at Brassland’s expense. Set your iTunes to play and read a slightly more accurate accounting of Brassland at the Guardian here.




HELADO NEGRO PLAYING IN MEXICO

November 22nd, 2011 , by

 Helado Negro is currently undergoing a short but sweet minitour of Mexico. Last week he played at Festival Norte Sonoro en Monterrey, alongside DJ Rupture, White Rainbow, Grupo Esencias, and many others. You can see the tour poster and more info on that here.

If you missed him, you can catch Helado Negro this Friday, the 25th. He’ll be playing in Cuauhtémoc, Mexico at Caradura, as part of Nuestras Noches de Arts & Crafts México.  More details are here.

For those of you that are in Mexico, make sure you run by Starbucks. You might able to pick up a free track courtesy of iTunes (see here for example).

« Previous PageNext Page »