FOL CHEN RELEASES NEW ALBUM, TOURS W. COAST, PARTIES

July 7th, 2010 , by

Part II: The New December, the second album from Fol Chen, is out right now. East Bay Express wrote that the band has "fashioned a clever, ambitious album with a wee touch of majesty." NPR's All Music Considered featured them today in their summer music preview here.
 
You can of course buy the album now, in CD form for $10 by clicking here, and in vinyl format for $15 here. But should there be any reluctance in you purchase, there are also myriad ways to experience Fol Chen. One is by watching Fol Chen's most recent music video viewable here, filmed among volcanic ash and directed by Chris Wilcha.
 
And if you live on the left or right coast, you can see them play. They'll be in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver. They will then head out to the east coast in early August. Details for those dates are here. Fol Chen is an elusive beast, so we recommend catching them while you can.

TRUMANS WATER RESURFACES STATESIDE [FREE MP3]

July 1st, 2010 , by

I refuse to be humble or subtle on the matter. Trumans Water is one of the greatest band you have never heard, and if you have heard you don’t need to be reminded. But here is a reminder anyways; they are alive and well and still damaging rock at every corner. They haven’t released an album since 2003, but on August 24th Asthmatic Kitty has the wonderful honor to release their newest, O Zeta Zunis. You can read about the band here and the OZZ here. Stay tuned.

"5-7-10 Split" O Zeta Zunis (Download)

RAFTER CAREER ON MOUNTAINTOP, AS IN HE IS PLAYING ON ONE

June 29th, 2010 , by

 
Of course we have all seen the music videos wherein the band is helicoptered in and plays on top of a mountain. Lovely, all of them, but just an illusion, yes? Bands don't actually play on mountaintops.
 
Or do they? An elite few actually do – an elite few that will soon include our very own Rafter, for Peppermill Fest 2010, held August 13-15th!  In prep for the mountaintop fest, Vancouver's Peppermill Records are scouting Shangri-La Basin in the majestic Rocky Mountains. Although they've confirmed Rafter, the lineup is still in the works so keep checking here for details. Tickets are $200 (this is a good deal!) and includes all kinds of great stuff like food and drink and music, so you should buy tickets from here soon – Rafter promises a "1 of a kind set;" listening to Rafter on a mountaintop should not be missed.

IN RUINS, VISUALIZED BY CHRIS WILCHA

June 21st, 2010 , by

Fol Chen sent director Chris Wilcha (This American Life Showtime series / The Target Shoots First) to Iceland to film amidst the volcanic dust from the erupting Eyjafjallajökull for their new music video, "In Ruins."

Two Icelandic youth wander through an apocalyptic wasteland wearing masks just to breathe and see amidst the dust.

NEW ALBUM FROM HALF-HANDED CLOUD

June 18th, 2010 , by

Those who've been with us since the beginning remember that Half-handed Cloud's debut was reissued by AK in 2001. This was our second release as a record label, preceded only by an album by the label's co-founder. Since then, Half-handed Cloud has released three more full-lengths, plus an EP/singles collection.

Today we are so proud to announce the fifth album, entitled As Stowaways in Cabinets of Surf, We Live-out in Our Members a Kind of Rebirth (or Stowaways for short).

Recorded on half-inch reel-to-reel in the sanctuary and custodial quarters of a church in Berkeley, frontman John Ringhofer recorded most of the parts himself, joined occasionally by friends. Daniel Smith (Danielson) mixed the record at his studio in Clarksboro, New Jersey. 

Stowaways' tunes splash about in cavernous spaces opened up by irregularly measured rhythms and pocket-orchestra arrangements integrated with creaky pianos, sound-loops, a tugboat of a church organ, guitars, and billowing banjos. In other words, they are real gems.

Stowaways will be out September 28th, 2010 in CD, vinyl, and MP3. More details here.

"Armstrong's Line" (Download)

AK ARTISTS TO HELP OPEN INDIANAPOLIS ART PARK

June 12th, 2010 , by

If you wander around the White River in Indianapolis long enough, you'll eventually stumble across something new and phenomenal: the 100 Acres, part art-park, part nature reserve, part lake. When it opens this month as a section of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), the 100 Acres will be one of the largest art-parks in the country. The IMA is inaugurating the park with eight site-specific installations including a vector-based basketball court, a submerging/reemerging park bench, gigantic human bones, a floating livable island pod, and Eden II, a modern apocalyptic ark.

Several AK artists will have the honor of aurally christening the park on Saturday June 19th. These include Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond), Liz Janes, and Roberto Carlos Lange (of Helado Negro and Epstein). They'll perform alongside Dayna Kurtz, DJ Kyle Long, Arrington de Dionyso, Jordan Munson, and The Outside Orchestra.

At a VIP event that Saturday, Liz, Shara, and Dayna will debut a new musical piece written specifically for the 100 Acres. Following that, they will all perform from 7-9:30pm at the opening party. Tickets $80 for general public and $50 for IMA members; you can purchase either here.

The grand public opening for 100 Acres, which is 100% free, is the day after. It will have throat signing, park tours, drumming, team-building exercises and DJing by Kyle Long and Epstein. Details on that event are here.

More info on this amazing space is here. Map of 100 Acres is here.

 

SHARA WORDEN WITH THE BLIND BOYS

June 10th, 2010 , by


Aired on Australia's sunrise.

SHAPES AND SIZES ARE BACK

June 4th, 2010 , by

It has been three years since Shapes and Sizes released their sophomore album Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner, and in that time they have managed to squeeze in quite a bit of living and working. They have been getting married, opening record stores, starting and joining other bands (Elfin Saddle, Think About Life, Miracle Fortress), not to mention moving to Montreal and learning a new language.  They toured with The National and Yeasayer, and opened for Sufjan Stevens and the Silver Jews. And alas, they managed to write and record their newest album A Candle To Your Eyes. The album is simultaneously more subdued and more dangerous than Split Lips. It is ambitious, confident and fiery and we think you will have a hard time resisting it. A Candle To Your Eyes will be released on August 3rd, but in the meantime you can listen to the lead off track below. Details here.

“Tell Your Mum” (Download)

900X ON LAMINAR EXCURSION MONTHLY

June 4th, 2010 , by

Of course you have used 900X's Music for Lubbock, 1980 for a variety of life-purposes; mowing, oystering, folding, reversing, dissecting, etc. Upon reflection you may have dug deeper in, where you would have realized that 900x is drummer James McAlister, also of Ester Drang, and also drummer on Sufjan Stevens' Illinois.
 
You may want more. Lukcily, McAlister is appearing on Laminar Excursion Monthly, a 24-disc 3" CD subscription series from Flannelgraph Records and Crossroads of America Records. The contributors receive two new 3" CD's a month from contributors the likes of Richard Swift, Cotton Jones, Damien Jurado, J. Tillman, Vollmar, Bexar Bexar, Joe O'Connell (Elephant Micah), Everything, Now!, Homecomings (DM Stith collabrator Mike Dixon), etc., etc. And of course, James McAlister.
 
You can order said subscription here.

ANNOUNCING A DUECK FILM

May 28th, 2010 , by

Jonathan Dueck is no stranger to the Asthmatic Kitty family. He has created several album covers for us and has also released music under his own imprint from Half-handed Cloud and Asthmatic Kitty friends spazz-hop gospel rockers soul-junk. More recently, Dueck took part in the We All Owe tour in which he collaborated and toured with Julianna Barwick and Roberto Lange presenting an evening of experimental film and music. So we have decided to make it official and invite Dueck to our roster.
 
Dueck's first official release is his collection of 20 short, beautiful, color saturated, hand-painted 16mm films entitled IN TRANSIT Presents: 16mm. For this project he collaborated with musicians I Heart Lung, Chad VanGaalen , DENEIR, and Son Lux who each responded to the films in their own unique compositional language. These films were created using old 16mm documentaries that Dueck was given when the Calgary Science Centre was purging itself of obsolete media. Part or all of the existing film was scratched/scraped off and layers of ink were painted, stamped, dripped, and splattered over top. The resulting visuals follow in the tradition of abstract/experimental film-makers such as Norman McLaren and Stan Brakhage. More importantly, the resulting visuals are a wonderful whirl of colors, a living canvas somewhere between the abstract expressionism of Kadinsky, the color fields of Rothko, and the raw textural work of Cy Twombly. The footage has recently been making the rounds with the Dessner brothers (of The National). It was selected by Jessica Dessner for screening at Big Ears Festival as well as The National's Annex series next to Other Music. For these screenings the films were accompanined by Bryce and Aaron Dessner. 
 
The DVD will be released on August 3rd. The soundtrack will also be available digitally. You can read more about the release here.
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