FREE EP FROM HELADO NEGRO

October 19th, 2010 , by

Dear Friends. With all of last week's excitement we wanted to circle back and get in your ears the best way we know how – with music! And to that end we wanted to share with you Pasajero, Helado Negro's (a/k/a Roberto Carlos Lange) new EP, which is available for FREE download here! The album expands upon Helado Negro's musical palette and creates (in our opinion) a blissful affair of Latin textures coupled with Mr. Lange's patented delivery. We think it's pretty awesome and we hope you do too! In other news, Roberto will be performing a benefit show this Friday in support of Miami's Lotus House Women's Shelter. All proceeds will go directly to women and children in need so if you are hanging in southern Florida, swing by and show some love! Why? Because that's what it's all about.

DM STITH TO OPEN SUFJAN TOUR AND BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOME

October 10th, 2010 , by


Photo by  Ben Tousley

Good news for all of us! Sufjan has decided to bring labelmate DM Stith as an opening act for his US Tour, all the more reason to get to the show on time now so as not to miss the haunting beauty of Stith's music. There are still some tickets left in a handful of cities. See available dates here.
 
This week Reimagine Music released a beautifully curated collection of covers re-imagining Dylan's classic album Bringing It All Back Home. The collection of covers includes appearances by our own DM Stith as well as Castanets plus a whole host of talented musicians including Mirah, Peter Moren, The Morning Benders, J. Tillman, good friend Denison Witmer and more. DM Stith takes on epic "Gates of Eden," while "Maggie's Farm" is dubbed out by Castanets frontman Raymond Byron with Rafter at the production helm. You can read more about the release here.
 
Also, we now have more copies of DM Stith's tour EP back in stock. These hand-numbered and signed vinyl EPs will go fast! More info here.

NEW HALF-HANDED CLOUD ALBUM UP FOR PRE-ORDER

September 20th, 2010 , by


Photo by Denny Renshaw

Next week on the 28th we get to release Half-handed Cloud's brand new As Stowaways in Cabinets of Surf, We Live-out in Our Members a Kind of Rebirth. Frontman John Ringhofer works as a custodian in a church in Berkeley, California and that is precisely where he recorded the album.  We can't say enough great things about this album, so instead we'll just say we think it's his best work yet, and that it's available for preorder now a couple of ways: CD ($10), LP ($14), Bandcamp MP3 ($8).

HHC is also going on a tour of the west coast. Dates here

Or just open your ears:

TOO MUCH FROM SUFJAN STEVENS [FREE MP3]

September 9th, 2010 , by

The internet is an amazing place, yes? We are able to transmit music quickly and efficiently in ways previously unheard of.

Here, for example, is "Too Much," the second track from Sufjan Stevens' The Age of Adz

If you preorder the album now, you can get the entire album similarly transmitted in digital form two weeks early. Do that right here.

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND RELEASES MUSIC AND HUMAN BOY

September 8th, 2010 , by

Asthmatic Kitty is pleased to announce that Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond) has released two limited edition items. The first is a hand-numbered split 7” with the lovely and dynamic Dayna Kurtz. For the 7" each artist covers the other, Shara taking on Dayna’s “Postcards From Downtown”, and Dayna covering “Gone Away” from Bring Me The Workhorse. The 7” is on Kismet Records and you can stream the two tracks via their myspace page. You can purchase the two songs from itunes here and here.

The other release is a human boy. Constantine Jamesson Worden was born on 19 July 2010 at 10:58pm, healthy and happy to equally healthy and happy parents! Read all about it here. Fortunately this release is not for sale on itunes.

My Brightest Diamond will be performing in rock trio formation at some select shows in September and October. Click here for dates.

THE AGE OF ADZ, A NEW ALBUM FROM SUFJAN STEVENS

August 26th, 2010 , by

Last week we had the pleasure of releasing the All Delighted People EP (available for download for $5 and free stream right here). And the week before we announced a fall tour (tickets are still for sale here, but selling quickly).

And today, we are proud to announce the upcoming release of The Age of Adz (pronounced Odds), the first song-based full-length from Sufjan Stevens since 2005's Illinois. The Age of Adz will drop on October 12th (CD, MP3) with a double-LP following on November 9th.

For the next three weeks you can preorder the CD and LP  and receive an MP3 download on September 28th, two weeks before the release date. 

Preorder it all right here.

It’s much too soon to cast descriptive lots, but we can say the new album sounds nothing like the All Delighted EP (although it shares similar themes of love, loss, and the apocalypse). Nor is this new album built around any conceptual underpinning (no odes to states, astrology, or urban expressways). 

We can say it shows an extensive use of electronics (banjos and acoustic guitars give way to drum machines and analog synthesizers), and an obsession with cosmic fantasies (space, heaven, aliens, love), to create an explicit pop-song extravaganza, augmented by heavy orchestration, and maybe even a few danceable moments. Enjoy Your Rabbit meets the BQE. But with songs. Verse, chorus, bridge, backbeat. Gated reverb. Space echo. Get your boogey on. 

The “Adz” of the title loosely refers to the apocalyptic paintings of outsider artist Royal Robertson (1930-1997), whose work is used for the album cover, interior design, and as general inspiration for the tone of the album. 

TRUMANS WATER RETURNS, TODAY [FREE MP3]

August 24th, 2010 , by

If you're a Trumans Water fan, and if you are savvy about independent rock and roll you are most certainly one, you will be happy to know that TW has returned. Triumphantly. With bears on the album art.
 
O Zeta Zunis is their 13the release in their nearly two-decade existence. The album finds the band skronkily uncompromising but direct and – dare we say? – catchy. Please don't hit us.
 
And what's an album release without a tour? Expect to see them in Portland, Bellingham, and Seattle. Short, and sweet. Details here.
 
You can buy the limited edition for $15 here

“We Fish” (Download)

A NEW EP FROM SUFJAN STEVENS

August 20th, 2010 , by

Raise your hands if you’re delighted to hear the good news that Sufjan is releasing an 8-song, 60-minute EP for digital download! Available immediately right here! As in right now! For only $5! From this up-and-coming-indie-DIY website, Bandcamp! (It will be available on iTunes, Amazon, and other corporate entities on Monday.)
 
The EP, All Delighted People, is built around two different versions of Sufjan’s long-form epic ballad "All Delighted People," a dramatic homage to the Apocalypse, existential ennui, and Paul Simon’s "Sounds of Silence." Sounds delightful, yes! The song was originally workshopped (oh we hate making workshop a verb, but time is money!) on Sufjan’s previous tour in the fall of 2009. Other songs on the EP include the 17-minute guitar jam-for-single-mothers "Djohariah," and the gothic piano ballad "The Owl and the Tanager," a live-show mainstay (and Debbie Downer if you ask us; what’s it doing on a "Delighted" EP?). The full track list is available right here.
 
If you don’t have five dollars, you can stream the EP for free right on Bandcamp. Or if you're into tactile sensations, we are making All Delighted People available on single-CD and double-LP formats later in 2010 (we’re aiming for December, fingers crossed). 180-gram vinyl. With Big Pictures. Where’s Waldo? Leo?
 
OH! In case you haven't been reading along, Sufjan is also on tour in the fall. Tickets are selling furiously, so we recommend you order them soon, as in now! Seriously! Do it! Urgency! Haste! Right here!

FOL CHEN: VISCERATED

August 19th, 2010 , by

ZACK BENT EXHIBITS NEW WORK

August 11th, 2010 , by

This Thursday our good friend, artist Zack Bent will present a new work at Vermillion Gallery in Seattle. Zack Bent’s new mixed-media installation, Fort Branch, continues the tradition of his previous series at Gallery 4Culture, Buffalo Trace, where he and his family collaborated as a tribe of scouts.

“In this series,” Zack says, “many of the works walk the line between play and catastrophe in the face of an unwieldy natural order. The exhibit is filled with a series of artifacts, including a full-scale dilapidated Lincoln Log cabin, drawing on the nearly 100-year-old toy designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son John during the Progressive Era. The toy’s early packaging described the contents as ‘interesting playthings typifying the spirit of America'. Also among the works are a mummy bag sarcophagus, a flag-burying kit and a selection of photographic documents and occurrences.”

The opening reception is tomorrow, August 12th, from 6-11PM and the show runs until September 4th. For more details go here.

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