Sufjan Stevens to Release New Christmas Boxset
October 2nd, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Happy Holidays! On November 13, 2012, Asthmatic Kitty will release (another!) Christmas box-set extravaganza by Sufjan Stevens—Silver & Gold: Songs for Christmas, Vols. 6-10, a compilation of 5 EPs recorded between 2006 and 2010.
Expanding on the tradition of the first box-set (Songs for Christmas, Vols. 1-5 from 2006), Silver & Gold is a generous document of five more years of holly-jolly jubilee undertaken by Sufjan and his various musical cohorts. Originally intended as gifts for family and friends, these musical snapshots have been re-mixed and re-assembled in an exquisitely-designed gift box containing all the Yuletide pleasures money can buy: Christmas stickers, temporary tattoos, lyric sheets and chord charts, a paper ornament, an apocalyptic pull-out poster, photos, illustrations, and extensive liner notes—a veritable Christmas feast for the eyes and ears.
The album features collaborations with a running line-up of friends and musical peers, including Aaron and Bryce Dessner (The National), Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire), Cat Martino (Sufjan’s right-hand woman on all things Age of Adz), Sebastian Krueger (Inlets), Gabriel Kahane, Vesper Stamper, and members of Danielson (Daniel, Elin, Lilly, and Ida). Sufjan’s indelible aesthetic maintains the album’s center of gravity, resulting in an abundant compilation (nearly 60 tracks) that investigates the canon of devotional hymns and holiday pop songs with reckless abandon (totaling nearly three hours of music).
Silver & Gold will be available in digital download, and as a CD box-set containing:
1. Five CD EPs (Gloria, I Am Santa’s Helper, Christmas Infinity Voyage, Let It Snow, Christmas Unicorn)
2. Christmas stickers
3. Temporary tattoos (non-toxic & safe for children)
4. A paper ornament (self-assembly with directions)
5. An apocalyptic pull-out poster
6. Song lyrics and chord charts (sing along with your friends and enemies)
7. Hallucinogenic photographs and psychedelic graphic design (by Sufjan Stevens, drug-free since 1975)
8. Extensive liner notes (essays by Sufjan Stevens and Pastor Vito Aiuto)
Silver & Gold will be available in a big and beautiful, limited-edition LP gift-box containing the following (due to elaborate manufacturing, release date pending):
1. Five EPs on 6 vinyl discs
2. Christmas stickers
3. Temporary tattoos
4. A paper ornament
5. An apocalyptic pull-out poster
6. A 40-page Christmas songbook with vocal and piano reductions
7. A Christmas coloring book
8. Hallucinogenic photographs and psychedelic graphic design
9. Extensive liner notes
Both the CD and vinyl boxset will be available at your local record store.
Read more info about the boxset here.
You can also preorder a special version of the Limited Edition Boxset, which will include some extra holiday gifts shipped before Christmas. Do that on Bandcamp here (available to US/Canada/EU subscribers only please).
Best Practices for Trying, with The Welcome Wagon
September 20th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Sometimes things don’t work out the way you planned. And if you’re someone like Vito or Monique Auito of The Welcome Wagon, that’s a good thing.
Read the Rest...Sufjan’s Enjoy Your Rabbit Set to Ballet by Justin Peck
September 19th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Selections from Sufjan Stevens’ electronic album “Enjoy Your Rabbit” are featured in a new ballet by up-and-coming choreographer Justin Peck. “Year of the Rabbit” will premiere Oct. 5 at New York City Ballet, programmed with new works by Benjamin Millepied (“Black Swan”) and Christopher Wheeldon (The Royal Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet). Conductor and arranger Michael Atkinson has expanded the quartet adaptations of this music from Osso’s “Run Rabbit Run” for string orchestra. Selections for this non-narrative ballet for 18 dancers will include Year of the Ox, Rabbit, Tiger, Rooster, Dragon Boar, and The Lord. There will be two matinees on Oct. 6 & 7 and a final evening performance on Oct. 13. The ballet will also appear in the winter season next year (January 29 & 30 and February 1 & 2). Tickets are available from the NY City Ballet website.
Sufjan also joins Peck and Aktinson for the Guggenheim’s Works & Process series on Sept. 23 & 24 (at 7:30) in the Guggenheim Theater, where a string quartet will play excerpts from the ballet, with principal dancers performing. Participants will also discuss the odd evolution of Sufjan’s electronic hobby project- composed and recorded in an apartment closet- from the drum machine to the ballet theater. Tickets are no longer available for this event (the theater only seats 285) but the Guggenheim website has a link for live streaming.
You can read about Justin’s previous ballet “In Creases” from the New York Times review here, and learn more about this young dancer/choreographer’s work with the city ballet here has a link for live streaming.
New Album Out From Raymond Byron & The White Freighter
September 4th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Raymond Raposa – aka Raymond Byron – can song-write. It shows in his latest project, entitled Little Death Shaker, from band Raymond Byron & the White Freighter. The record is out today.
You’ll remember Ray from Castanets, who carved out a rugged slice of American folk rock from independent music in the 2000s by releasing a series of records replete with some of the best-written songs we’ve ever heard.
Though under a different moniker, Little Death Shaker is no exception. The music sheds its avant-country for something a little more roadhouse blues ala Patrick Swayze. It’s the kind of music playing from an early 90s Chevy, staying late in the parking light of the bar, Bud Light blues and reds casting an eerie 3am glow on cracked pavement.
The record is available in a number of ways. Pick your poison here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGeY3033Qwk[/youtube]
Dots Will Echo’s New Album Out Now
August 21st, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Drunk is the New Sober/Stupid is the New Dumb, the latest recording from New Jersey duo Dots Will Echo, releases today. The fruit of three days’ labor, the 23-track album serves up a mix of garage rock, post-punk, and power pop-infused tracks. It features a smattering of instruments, from guitar to glockenspiel to autoharp.
For a brief Dots Will Echo history and interview with singer/songwriter Nick Berry, read the recent article on Ourstage.com.
Stream the album below, read their intriguing story (it involves both the divine and the absurd) then order a copy over here.
OMBRE’s Believe You Me is Out Today
August 21st, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
On one hand, you have lush, verdant-voiced Julianna Barwick, whose AK-release The Magic Place garnered a slot on the BBC’s list of top 2011 albums. On the other, there’s AK artist Roberto Carlos Lange, AKA Helado Negro, the Latin-influenced kinetic sound sculptor who’s collaborated with the likes of David Ellis and Prefuse 73.
Bring the pair together and you get OMBRE, whose anticipated debut release Believe You Me is out today. The ten track album meshes Barwick’s ambient, angelic vocals with Helado Negro’s warm-hearted, urban psyche folk.
The labelmates sparked a friendship after touring together in 2010 and opted to give recording a go at Helado Negro’s studio Island Universe Space. After kicking around riffs and vocal snippets, OMBRE began laying down tracks. The result? Believe You Me, spanning from bare-boned space melodies to indulgent, infectious soundscapes. The recording is a series of connected dots carved out of seemingly contrasting musical styles resulting in something altogether fresh and new.
The BBC says of Believe You Me, “Sultry summer nights following somnolent summer days, you’ve just found your new soundtrack.” Best order a copy now – do so by clicking here. September is coming soon.
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Free Shannon Stephens EP On Noisetrade; Named Seattle’s Best Female Vocalist
August 14th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Pick Your Favorite Albums for Pitchfork’s People’s List
August 11th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Pitchfork is asking readers to choose favorite albums from the past 15 years for The People’s List. That starts the year Beck released Odelay and ends last year, when (ahem) My Brightest Diamond released All Things Will Unwind. While you can write in any Asthmatic Kitty release, Pitchfork staff picks are pre-listed to make the process simple. To vote, submit your selections before midnight on August 17.
We’re Number Two!
July 30th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Asthmatic Kitty came this close to dominating the Best of Indy 2012 poll for top local Indianapolis label. We join other venerable Hoosier-based runners-up in the annual Nuvo survey, including second best pork tenderloin, Edwards Drive-In; second best place for ‘hooking up’, the Alley Cat; and second best local pro sports team, the Pacers.
We’re already preparing to dominate next year’s readers’ poll. People of Indianapolis, brace yourselves.
Dots Will Echo’s Infectious Debut Releases Later This Month
July 11th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Nick Berry and Kurt Biroc make music prolifically while keeping day jobs. The duo that form the New Jersey-based band Dots Will Echo move back and forth between the half-lit world of kicking around ideas, dreaming up sounds, and playing riffs in a garage to the office-lit reality of finishing a project, checking a box off a to do list, and turning out the lights. Dots Will Echo’s debut release Drunk is the New Sober/Stupid is the New Dumb is available July 24th on Asthmatic Kitty. Recorded over the course of three days, the album ranges from perfectly impulsive to transcendent.
Berry and Biroc work together (Biroc is Berry’s boss) and make music as Dots Will Echo on their off hours. Berry plays everything from Andean charango to hammered dulcimer and Biroc plays drums on the album. The duo tease out irregular, tattered post punk-infused pop hooks that move between capricious and infectious. “I meant this to be a very raw recording, capturing the way we sound live,” says Berry. He describes Dots Will Echo’s sound as, “A little bit The Incredible String Band, a little bit AC/DC. A little bit Nick Drake, a little bit Cheap Trick.”
Before forming Dots Will Echo in 2004, Berry played with the power pop trio DWE Mk I, recording a single that made it to No. 4 on Sweden’s rock charts. In 2001, Berry contributed to the Will Ackerman track “Fear Not, Mary.” The song appeared on Ackerman’s Grammy nominated album Hearing Voices.
Drunk is the New Sober/Stupid is the New Dumb comes in at an epic 23 tracks. The CD was originally slated to be split into two disks. The double LP includes a code to access digital bonus track downloads.
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