HAPPY YEAR OF THE RABBIT

February 3rd, 2011 , by

Today, February 3rd, 2011, is the first day of the Year of the Rabbit. People born this year will be articulate, talented, and ambitious. They will be most compatible with those born in the years of of the Sheep, Pig, and Dog.

To commermate the Year of the Rabbit, we are offering Sufjan Stevens' Enjoy Your Rabbit for $5 in MP3 form for a limited time. You can buy it here. We hope you enjoy it.

JELLYFISH. FOAM. VIDEO.

February 2nd, 2011 , by

VIEW A VIDEO OF A VISUAL FROM EPSTEIN

February 1st, 2011 , by

SURPRISE! RAFTER UNLEASHES A QUIET STORM OF AN ALBUM

January 28th, 2011 , by


Surprise! A new album from Rafter?!? OH YES.

Rafter sprang Quiet Storm on us this week and we loved what we heard. He wanted it out and about, right now, pronto STAT. So we said, OK BOSS! And here it is! Take Rafter's yoga-like swagger, his pop sensibilities, then throw those out the ducktaped window of your 1987 Honda Civic Hatchback. Throwthe nearest unlabeled CO2 cassette in the car's $44 SoundATech stereo (and complimentary speakers!), turn the broken knob as high as it goes, and you will get Quiet Storm. Thuuunder!

Rafter, on Quiet Storm, which originated while touring for Animal Feelings: "we listened to a lot of black metal demo tapes in the car… it was really inspiring, extreme, blown out, ridiculous but heartfelt… i made this album, fed by those inspirations and a wave of existential freakout, human mind explosion. in my fantasy, it's like darkthrone meets the kinks meets lee perry…"

Stream the new record for free, and if you love it as we do, name a price ($0.69 or more) here. The rest of Rafter's catalog (here) is similarly you-name-it priced, for a limited time. If there was ever a day to indulge yourself in Rafter, today is that day. 

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND WITH NEW MUSIC IN NYC, OTHER PLACES TOO

January 21st, 2011 , by


My Brightest Diamond (aka Shara Worden) is touring, albeit briefly but in some really terrific venues. She’ll open the tour in the Allen Room in New York City at the  Time Warner Building on Columbus Circle on January 27th as part of the Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. Chamber ensemble yMusic will be playing alongside, which basically means this is a not-to-miss show. Buy tickets for it here. She’ll then be playing in trio or solo form in Ithaca, Rochester, Cleveland, Holland (MI), Chicago, Madison, and Minneapolis. Details here. 

If you do go, you may hear lots of brand new material. You can sample some of it in the video above courtesy of Studio 360, or in Kurt Anderson’s interview with her. Click here to listen.

Even if you can’t get to one of the shows, you will probably hear her somewhere. For example, she’s on Owen Pallet’s recent, free EP (downloadable here). She recorded “I’m on Fire,” a duet with Stateless’ Chris James for their new album, Matilda. Colin Stetson’s forthcoming album features her on ?Lord I Just Can?t Keep From Crying Sometimes? and ?Fear of the Unknown and the Blazing Sun.” Finally, Murat Eyuboglu’s forthcoming multimedia release, Letters to Distant Cities, features poetry recitation and a song by Shara. So. Shara, everywhere. That’s a good, great thing.

FOL CHEN: THEY TOUR

January 15th, 2011 , by

We think we know Fol Chen. We receive communique from them. We may have seen them live before, taken an impromptu fuzzy photograph with our cellphones. We've heard Samuel Bing in an interview. Maybe we've listened to a new song. We may even have caught them on tour in their mid/west tour as they pass through cities like Minneapolis, Salt Lake, Vancouver, Portland, and others. We think we know Fol Chen.

But we do not.

LIZ JANES ON TOUR THIS WEEK

January 11th, 2011 , by

Tonight, Tuesday January 11th, Liz Janes is playing in Seattle with Bridges and our own Shannon Stephens at The Shafer Baillie Mansion. Tomorrow she’s in Portland, then Olympia on Thursday. Then on Saturday she’ll be back at Liz Janes HQ in Indianapolis with an in-store at LUNA at 4pm. Details here.

Liz’s latest album, Say Goodbye, has been floating around since December and it seems to have stuck. Olympia’s Weekly Volcano says that it’s “pretty close to flawless.” You can find out for yourself by listening below, and if you like, you can buy the CD for $10 (+S&H) here, or the MP3s for $8 here.

JULIANNA BARWICK TOURS [FREE MP3]

January 7th, 2011 , by

 
Julianna Barwick’s headlining tour with the Ghost of the Saber Tooth Tiger featuring Sean Lennon started a couple days ago. For the second half of the tour, Barwick will open for Sharon Von Etten. See those dates here. They may well be near you.
 
Barwick's new album, The Magic Place, comes out in late February. She will likely play songs from that album on this tour but we offer no guarantees save one: the show you attend will be well worth your time. In fact, you may find it quite amazing. 


“The Magic Place” (Download)

SOUNDTRACK FOR NIGHTSKY OUT TODAY

January 6th, 2011 , by

Years in the making, the PC video game NightSky is out today and is expertly scored by none other than Chris Schlarb. The game is excellent of course, but Schlarb's soundtrack stands on its own as sublime, careful, and thoughtful.

It's $5; stream and buy below or by clicking here.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM AK

December 23rd, 2010 , by

Well folks, this is it. We are officially knee-deep in the holiday season. So, from everyone here at Asthmatic Kitty Records Headquarters, we wish you well and hope you spend the next bit of time happily and with loved ones. 

Because it's Christmas, there is, of course, plenty of music to go around. NY Mag has two songs from Sufjan Stevens and the Dessner Brothers (of The National). Those songs are here. Also, Sufjan, along with our own Helado Negro and Half-handed Cloud, contributed to this year's volume A Familyre Christmas. You can stream and download for free here. Sufjan's own Christmas collection is here. You can stream it for free or download it for $12.
 
If the Ghost of Christmas Past were here, he'd remind us of the Great Sufjan Song Xmas Xchange from a couple years back. You'll recall that Sufjan picked Alec Duffy's phenomenal "Every Day is Christmas" as the winner. You can hear it here. We also created a mighty fine AKradio playlist of the runners-up, culled from over 600 original Christmas song submissions. Kick that into Christmas cheer gear by clicking  here. And finally, there's a sled-full of AK/Sufjan Christmas goodness including a tinseltastic flash game by Tom DesLongChamp, right…over…..HERE. There kids, that should keep you busy for a while.
 
Once again, Happy Christmas and thanks to all of you out there for making our Christmas bright. 
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