NEXT TO LAST FESTIVAL

November 4th, 2009 , by

The Next to Last Festival, a charitable, independent music, film, and arts festival based in Athens, GA, is presenting a series of compilations featuring live and exclusive recordings by the likes of Daedelus, Themselves, Phosphorescent, Circulatory System, Diane Cluck, and Asthmatic Kitty’s Liz Janes, JOOKABOX and Chris Schlarb. These compilations are part of their effort to raise funds for their third fest currently slated for Halloween weekend 2010. To date, they have showcased over 30 unique musical acts from all over the country. They have also hosted independent film screenings, progressive speakers, performance art, a vendors market, a farmer’s market, and a community info center for creatures of all ages and species in the great North Georgia outdoors. You can support the festival and its promoters now by purchasing tickets for next year’s fest and compilations via kickstarter.com.

HALF-HANDED CLOUD TOURS, ALBUM OUT NEXT WEEK

October 29th, 2009 , by

Photo by Brandon Buckner
Next Tuesday we’re releasing Cut Me Down & Count My Rings, the 46-track rarity and b-side collection from Half-handed Cloud. It’s a real treat for anyone that’s a fan of HHC, but it will also make a nice introduction as well.
HHC, whom you may know rarely tours outside of homebase, is embarking on a frantic tour between tonight and Thanksgiving. He’ll start in California, move through Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Chicago, and then back again. You can see details of the tour here.

Sojourners has a short but sweet interview with John Ringhofer (HHC) and a terrific, exclusive MP3 from the album. Read and listen here.

SUFJAN STEVENS TO INTRODUCE SELECT SCREENINGS OF THE BQE

October 28th, 2009 , by

Photo by Denny Renshaw
If you didn’t already know, The BQE cinematic suite by Sufjan Stevens is out now. You can buy it here in myriad ways. Of course, we here at AK have been feverishly listening to and watching it non-stop, like vigilant commuters on the BQE. And just like the actual Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, there’s a whole lot of stuff to this project: a comic book, a film, a soundtrack, hula-hoops (which our First Lady apparently loves), a 3-D Viewmaster reel, etc, etc, et al, etc. We just might as well add some t-shirts to the mix. (Actually, that’s not a bad idea.) It’s dizzying, as in just-being-whalloped-by-a-Hooper-Hero-dizzying.
What to do?
Well, you could go to any number of American cities in the next few days and hear Sufjan introduce the film in person. He will not be playing any music (Osso and DM Stith make fine work of that), but he will be appearing in five select cities to introduce the film. This will occur in Minneapolis on October 29th, then in Madison on the 30th, Indianapolis on November 1st, and Cincinnati on November 3rd. He may also make it to Louisville on November 2nd. If you’re looking for details, you’ll find them on Osso’s tour dates right here.

EAST SIDE FROM JOOKABOX VISUALIZED

October 28th, 2009 , by


Created by Sean McDonald and Matt C. Hale
(Special thanks to George Romero).

THANKS, JOOKABOX, FOR OUR FIRST GLOW-IN-THE-DARK SKULL TSHIRT EVER

October 27th, 2009 , by

What is more awesome than a t-shirt? A t-shirt with a skull. Yes. And what is more awesome than a t-shirt with a skull? A t-shirt with a skull…that glows in the dark.  You read that right: Asthmatic Kitty has its first and probably not last glow-in-the dark t-shirt! Designed by David Stith and blatantly ripped from the cover of Jookabox’s nearly-out album Dead Zone Boys.  Buy the shirt here for $14!

JOOKABOX WILL RELEASE A RECORD; WE PARTY

October 26th, 2009 , by

We think we have made it clear how excited we are about Dead Zone Boys, the love story meets psychedelic zombie-musical and third album from Jookabox. But just in case we haven’t, we’ll throw a release party! 

And, we’ll invite 11 Central Indiana artists to
create a piece of original art to correspond with each song on the album, including works by fellow Asthmatic Kitty musicians, DM Stith, and Liz Janes. The art show slash release party will go down on October 30th at Big Car Gallery in Indianapolis. Five bucks (that’s $5) will gain entrance. Normanoak and Grey Granite will perform, and
dj jessicka will spin through the course of the night. Jookabox will then embark on an extensive tour in support of
the group’s new full-length. See tour dates here, or click more to see the list of artists displaying work on the 30th.

1. Phantom Don’t Go — Jessica Sowls
2. Don’t Go Phantom — Jim Walker
3. You Cried Me — NERS
4. Gonna Need the Guns/Doom Hope — Liz Janes
5. East Side Bangs/East Side Fade — John Clark
6. Glyphin’ Out — Erin Drew
7. Evil Guh — DM Stith
8. XXXiawn Shell — Ryan Irvin
9. Zombie Tear Drops — Craig McCormick
10. LIGHT — Casey Roberts
11. F.I.T.F #1 — Tom Streit

SEE MORE OF SUFJAN STEVENS BQE AND RUN RABBIT RUN

October 25th, 2009 , by

Run Rabbit Run and The BQE are hardly solitary affairs, and an art show that opened Saturday at 92YTribeca in New York City will acknowledge as much. Run Rabbit Run, which is a take on Sufjan Stevens‘ 2001 Enjoy Your Rabbit by string quartet Osso, employed the artwork of Jessica Dessner. Dessner’s original pencil drawings that adorn the Run Rabbit Run album will be on display. So too will the urban landscape photographs of Denny Renshaw that Sufjan included in the BQE CD and LP inserts. And you may have seen the projection work of Deborah Johnson at one of Sufjan’s shows (or you can watch it on Vimeo here). Her star drawings will find a temporary home on the walls of 92YTribeca for the duration of the show. 
The show is free. You can get more details on 92YTribeca’s website right here.

THE BQE AND ITS MYRIAD FORM

October 20th, 2009 , by

Sufjan Stevens The BQE is out today. Suffice it to say, the number of product options is multiplicious. To catalog them all in one place, we made a nice handy summary right here. This page lists purchase options for digital video, including the only way to get the film in QuickTime HD and iPhone/iTunes playable. Read more about The BQE right here.

YOUR MS PAINTING ASTOUNDS US

October 17th, 2009 , by


About a month ago, we asked for volunteers to tackle a daunting task: recreate our album covers in Microsoft Paint. No small feat. Well, you all rose to the challenge beautifully. You can see the results of all that work right here.
But the cream of the crop has to be one of the last ones we got in by Karl Hutchison of Portland, Oregon. Karl fired up the ole MS Paint and decided to take one what is quite possibly the most complex album cover in our repertoire, the very nearly released BQE from Sufjan Stevens. You can see a larger version right here. And you should, because it is absolutely amazing. Karl, a BQE super-incredible-pixelriffic prize package is on its way to you. 
Thank you Karl and to everyone who entered. We’ll be closing the doors on this little promotion but if you want to squeeze in an album cover this weekend or somehow outdo Karl and tackle Land of a Thousand Rappers, we won’t say no.

TIGER SAW PUBLISH BOOK, APPEARANCES BY LIZ JANES AND CASTANETS

October 17th, 2009 , by

Long time friend of Asthmatic Kitty and lovely troubadour, Dylan Metrano, has released a book entitled All My Friends Are Right Here With Me: A Decade in the Indie Rock Underground. Dylan Metrano founded Tiger Saw in 1999, and has since played over 700 shows in twelve countries. He currently lives in Maine, continues to play in Tiger Saw, as well as the band Tiny Fires. The book is the story of the first decade of the indie-folk collective Tiger Saw. Based on tour diaries and dozens of interviews, it tells of a community of bands in this DIY, post-Nirvana era. It features first-person accounts of tours with Kimya Dawson, Jason Anderson, Viking Moses, and our own Liz Janes and Castanets. Part travelogue, part studio diary, and part oral history; All My Friends tells of an exciting time of collaboration, mutual inspiration, and perseverance in the ever-changing world of indie rock. It features detailed remembrances by members of Dirty Projectors, White Hinterland, Little Wings, Songs: Ohia, Tarentel, and many others. Each chapter also includes concert fliers, tour photos, as well as comics and illustrations by Pat Corrigan, Tom Eaton (illustrating a Liz Janes / Tiger Saw tour), and Alan Bull. The book also comes with an exclusive 13-track CD of Tiger Saw covers performed by some of their friend including Jason Anderson, White Hinterland, Picastro and more. Purchase the book here from Burst & Bloom.

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