THREE NEW LIBRARY CATALOG MUSICAL ENTRIES
April 12th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
The Library Catalog Music Series is not for the casual music buyer. It is instead music directed at those with very particular needs and desires. For that reason, when we roll out a new set of these albums we avoid fanfare and ego embellishing. The Library Catalog requires no fanfare because it is fanfare. The people who need to know, know.
And those who know, know that the Library Catalog Music Series can help sell something. Or provide a soundtrack to the birth of a child. Or the background music for cubical efficiency implementations. The Library Catalog is Epcot Center (TM) in its creative approximations, and the Grand Canyon (C) in its magnitudinal awe.
The newest additions, volumes 15, 16 and 17 are no exception.
They include the dubbed out mouth beats of Ero Gray ricocheting off of ancient subconsciousness of our planetary ancestors, the shimmering waves of Alfred Brown melting symphony halls and mausoleums walls returning the orchestra to a place of grandeur and hope, and the deep sonics and nuance wizardry of Effacer wielding sound as the sound of sound itself.
These are albums that do not only occupy the airwaves and the shelves of record collections, they occupy the annals of history. They rapture consumers from plundered FM assimilation. They circumvent subpar creative directors and medicore agencies, rescuing listeners in retail storefronts and movie-goers from the mundane needle-drop of uninspired hacks with high end synthesizers.
Rest. Listen. Breath. And feast your ears on these new and fresh audio delights, now available for all your licensing and listening needs in both the original physical needle drop form of vinyl records or in instantly gratifying digital stream or download compatibility.
Listen and purchase here.
GET DENISON WITMER ALBUM FREE ON NOISETRADE
April 10th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
We released Denison Witmer's The Ones Who Wait a few weeks ago, and it's just as good sounding today as it was then. You can listen and buy here.
But Denison has a robust back-catalog, and that includes one of our favorties, Are You a Dreamer? Our own Shara Worden and Sufjan Stevens and the Library Catalog's James McAllistor make appearances on the album, as well as Karen Don Peris (of Innocence Mission).
As of today Are You A Dreamer? is available via Noisetrade and all it takes is your email address and zip code to download the album. You can also leave a support Denison with a "tip" if you like.
Do so below, or visit the page on Noisetrade right here.
DENISON WITMER, CASTANETS ON DAYTROTTER
April 6th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
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Illustrations by Johnnie Cluney
We've been listening to Daytrotter for a while, and have loved every moment. Their recording sessions are some of the best in the biz. The sound quality and engineering is incredible. The writing and illustration always capture the essence of an artist.
All that to say: Daytrotter gets it.
So when one of our own artists pops up with a session, we rush like lemmings (do lemmings rush?) to the site to hear and download and read. When two our artists go up in one week? Things get a little crazy.
Of Denison Witmer, Sean Moeller writes, " The one thing that must keep him going is getting to play the songs that he writes every night – these songs that are so filled with deeply personal anecdotes and sentiments. They are the intimate thoughts that he can't bottle up."
And speaking about Ray Raposa of Castanets, Sean wrote that he "never ceases to mystify when he writes. He never seems to give it all up and for that, he's a master of the form."
If you're not already a subscriber – hey why aren't you? – you can try Daytrotter for free and snag these sessions. Castantets is here, and the Denison session is here.
Stroll Along Hondarribia’s Past
April 5th, 2012 , by
Have you ever heard of Hondarribia? If you have not, you should be paying more attention because this resort surely deserves it. Hondarribia is one of those special places in the world where history and modern excitement join each other along the seashore. You may miss the excitement of casinos, but you should not worry […]
Read the Rest...A WELCOME REMEDY FROM THE WELCOME WAGON
March 23rd, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
It is March, in the two-thousand-and-twelfth Year of Our Lord. The economy is still in the tank, our gas tanks are emptier, jobs scarcer still than gas, and don’t even ask about health care. White House hopefuls are bickering and backbiting like there is no year after this.
We are sick and tired of it all. Heck, we’re just sick and tired, period.
We need some good medicine. Something a lot like Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices from The Welcome Wagon.
Not the 17th century Puritan classic by Thomas Brooks that you’re thinking of – though that book’s a fine place to start – but the new album of the same name by The Welcome Wagon, the musical duo of Vito and Monique Aiuto, a Presbyterian pastor and his wife.
The 13 tracks on Precious Remedies, which we’ll have the honor of releasing come June 12th, provide a much-needed healing balm, very much like the one Brooks describes in the preface to his old devotional: “A special salve for every spiritual sore, a special remedy against every spiritual malady…Food to nourish you, a staff to support you, a guide to lead you, a fire to warm you, and springs of life to cheer and refresh you.”
We’ll have a way for you to join The Welcome Wagon in a few weeks. For now you can get a head start by signing up for their mailing list on their website, watching the first single and debut video on Relevant Magazine here, or listening and downloading the song below. More info on the release is here.
SUFJAN TO PLAY EINDHOVEN, AMSTERDAM, & LONDON WITH BRYCE DESSNER AND NICO MUHLY
March 22nd, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Sufjan Stevens is collaborating with good friends/old haunts Bryce Dessner and Nico Muhly to create a song-cycle loosely based on the planets. The trio will be performing their work in just a few select venues, accompanied by a trombone choir, string quartet, and drums/percussion/drum machine (played by the indefatigable James McAlister). Selections from the song-cycle will be “live workshopped” at Music Now festival in Cincinnati on March 30. Official performances are scheduled in Eindhoven, Amsterdam, London, and Sydney. More details here. Performances in Europe will be preceded by short string quartet works by each collaborator, including two selections from Sufjan’s Run Rabbit Run project.
No other performances for this project have been scheduled and all dates are sold out except Amsterdam, April 8th. Last chance to see cosmic history happen here.
NO NEED TO WAIT FOR DENISON?S NEW ALBUM, OUT TODAY
March 6th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
We welcomed Denison Witmer to the AK Family just a couple of months ago. We’ve been listening to his latest record, The Ones Who Wait, for a while now, and we’re honored that we get to release to the wide world – which means you!
This record is really something special. You can read the whole story here, but suffice to say that The Ones Who Wait represents the culmination of several significant life experiences, ones that we all go through at some point. And this is what Denison has always done best: he writes and sings songs that are markedly intimate, yet appeal to all of us. They are human events, captured on tape for all of us to share.
You can buy the album on Bandcamp here or on iTunes here, or order the CD from our shop here.
Denison is touring with William Fitz Simmons – tourdates here – but he’s also touring via Skype (yes, Skype!). You can win a Skype tourdate on My Old Kentucky Blog right here.
NEW EP FROM HELADO NEGRO
February 28th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Photo by Angel Ceballos
Roberto Lange of Helado Negro loves to explore. And it is his intrinsic sense of discovery that transforms the traditional structures of pop music into a celestial playground. Because his energy and enthusiasm is hard to restrain within the recommended release schedule, we have decided to forgo with conventional wisdom and follow Helado Negro through the extensive galactic archipelago, losing ourselves amongst the many islands that orbit the brain of Lange and his many collaborators.
Today we are excited to be releasing Island Universe Story One, the first in what he promises as an infinite series of chapters in this musical journey. The result of experimentation with a Scully 280 ¼” tape machine and the Teenage Engineering OP-1, the first island is a collection of tape loops and edits. It is a deep breakfast buffet of star paste and quabbernautic brunchings. Listen and take part by purchasing below, or read more here.
The music is visually represented by the micro-maximalist art of Kristi Sword and succinct design of Mexico City’s NRML.
And don’t miss Helado Negro at the Bowery this Friday night, when he plays with Matthew Dear and Blondes. Buy tickets here.
PEPE DELUXÉ UPDATE, AMAZING REVIEW
February 17th, 2012 , by Asthmatic Kitty
We have a rule around here about posting news items about reviews – it’s a bit gratuitous don’t you think? Too meta for meta? – but rules are made to be broken. And if there’s an example of rules being broken, that example is Pepe Deluxé’s genre-tesseracting fourth album Queen of the Wave. So let’s break some rules, shall we?
Vancouver music writer Alan Ranta, who writes for PopMatters, just penned what is less review, more director’s fan’s commentary of Pepe’s new album. Pepe Deluxé shrouds itself in mystery, but Alan cuts through the fantasy and finds a reality that is just as amazing and weird.
How does one take six years to make an album? How does one make a record that sounds like samples, but doesn’t contain a single one? How does one coordinate an army of multi-national musicians? And what is up with Zailm and his 500,000 volt Tesla Coil anyway?
Consider Alan’s review your guide to the universe of Queen of the Wave – and oh what a universe it is. Sit down, grab a coffee (or Dr. Pepper), and proceed with your reading right…here.
Speaking of firsts, Pepe Deluxé is officially now the first AK band to have released an iPad app! You can download (for free!) here.
And as for the album, you can be listening to it in just a few minutes after you buy it from iTunes here.