SUFJAN TO PERFORM AT TIBET HOUSE BENEFIT
December 6th, 2007 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Sufjan Stevens will be participating in the Tibet House Annual Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday, February 13, 2008. Sufjan will join Philip Glass, Nawang Khechog, Marisa Monte and others yet to be announced, for an evening of music in support of a good cause. Please check Tibet House website regularly for updates: www.tibethouse.org
TWILIGHT HAS DAWNED
December 4th, 2007 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Chris Schlarb’s Twilight and Ghost Stories is now available in your local independent store, or here from our own site for just $10. The forty-plus-collaborator composition is also featured on iTunes’ Alternative page today, so you can easily buy it there as well. This is a project that nearly all Asthmatic Kitty artists have contributed too, so we’re all very proud of it.
Don’t forget that you can catch Twilight in quadraphonic sound this weekend in cities across the U.S. See here for details.
LIZ JANES AND CHRIS SCHLARB AT NEXT TO LAST
December 2nd, 2007 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Our very own Liz Janes and Chris Schlarb are performing at Athens Georgia’s Next to Last Festival on Saturday, December 8. This remarkable event is a breath of fresh air to the increasingly corporate affair of music festivals. Instead of overcharging and overcrowding, Next to Last is an affordable ($20 for both days!), comfortable, professional all-ages festival that includes not only music, but speakers, performance art, a vendors’ market, a farmers’ market, and a community info center.
Liz and Chris will be performing separately; Liz with some new material (!) and Chris with a rare live selection from his Twilights and Ghost Stories composition. Then they’ll play together. See here for fest details.
With over 15 other artists manning the stages, file this under not-to-miss.
PEN RESCHEDULED
November 30th, 2007 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Sufjan Stevens’ performance at Southpaw, Brooklyn to benefit the PEN American Center has been rescheduled to December 17.
SCHLARB QUADRAPHONES AND VIBRATES
November 30th, 2007 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Chris Schlarb’s Twilight and Ghost Stories should appear in your local record store next Tuesday, and is already available for preorder and full preview on our site here. But even though the nearly 50-collaborator composition is in the can and out the door, Chris hasn’t slowed down.
In a testament to the vast net that Chris cast to create Twilight, collaborators from across the U.S on the album will be appearing in their corresponding cities to perform and present a specially crafted quadraphonic version of Twilight. Cities include Long Beach, Indianapolis, Brooklyn, Austin, Chicago, and Bogart. See details here. Chris will also perform Twilight live, along with Liz Janes, at Next to Last Fest in Athens, Georgia on December 8th and 9th.
Finally, Chris has taken section IV of his composition and untangled all the contributions from artists like Sandy Ewen and Aaron Russell of The Weird Weeds (as the Macaroni Band), Dave Longstreth (of Dirty Projectors fame), avant reedmen Lynn Johnston and Bhob Rainey, Patagonian, uber-bassist Orlando Greenhill, Languis, Sebastian Krueger (of Inlets). He’s set them free into WAV or GarageBand format for the Internet-at-large to rearrange and remix. That means you! Go here and give it a shot.
SUFJAN XMAS ENDS DECEMBER 1, MIDNIGHT
November 29th, 2007 , by Asthmatic Kitty
ADVENT CALENDAR NOW AVAILABLE
November 24th, 2007 , by Asthmatic Kitty
The practice of using a calendar to count down the days until Christmas – an advent calendar – supposedly began in 1851 in Austria with carefully handmade versions. Since then, advent calendars have taken all forms, from chocolate to jello to Lego.
Along with illustrator Tom Eaton (who animated Sufjan Stevens’ "Put the Lights on the Tree" video), we thought it might be nice to celebrate this year with a very special Asthmatic Kitty advent calendar. And Tom Eaton really came through on this one, detailing the scene with all kinds of nice Christmas surprises. Just don’t open them early!
We’re giving this away free to anyone who purchases Sufjan’s Songs for Christmas boxset before December 25, 2007 ($19 for 5 CDs, here), or you buy the calendar separately for $5. To do so, or see a larger image of the calendar, click here.
TWILIGHT NOW A STREAM
November 20th, 2007 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Chris Schlarb’s Twilight and Ghost Stories is out December 4th, but you don’t have to wait. We have released the entire, 39 minute composition available for free streaming until the album comes out. You can preorder and listen here.
HALF-HANDED CLOUD IN GATEFOLD MATTE
November 20th, 2007 , by Asthmatic Kitty
If the phrase Gatefold Sleeve and Matte Finish mean anything to you, or you love Half-Handed Cloud like we do, then you’ll want to know that as of today, The Seven Inch Project has released his six-song Winding Currents on a Spool EP as a hand-numbered vinyl pressing in a limited edition of 500. For those of you with turn-tables in storage, MP3’s are included with each purchase. You can only buy these gems from the Seven Inch Project website, or from John of Half-handed Cloud at one of his upcoming shows (details here) when he opens for Why? this weekend.
Speaking of Why? – Half-handed Cloud recorded a multi-part cover of Why? songs for the US version of their Hollows 12" single. You can find-out more information and pre-order this vinyl on Anticon’s website here.
LISTEN TO TWILIGHT IN QUADRAPHONIC SOUND
November 11th, 2007 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Pitchfork recently reviewed Chris Schlarb’s new album, Twilight and Ghost Stories, and remarked on the way it pulls off being intimate and connective at the same time, by being both about Chris’ life, but also involving around forty collaborators.
Chris decided that the best way to accomplish this same effect live was by holding Listening Events in various cities when the album comes out. Collaborators will open each listening event with a performance, and a quadraphonic presentation of Chris’ album will follow. Cities include Indianapolis, Long Beach, Brooklyn, Austin, and Chicago. Chris will also perform himself, along with Liz Janes, at Next to Last Fest in Athens, Ga. Click here for details and collaborators.
Twilight and Ghost Stories releases December 4th, but you can preorder now right here.