NEW MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND VIDEO, REMIX ALBUM, TOUR
November 2nd, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
In other meta MBD news, iTunes just started selling the first volume in a series of remixes of Shark’s Teeth. Alfred Brown takes to Shark’s Teeth in volume one, his quirk managing not only to playfully tweak the music like a toy, but also reveal the album’s sublime, expansive nature.
Read more about the album here, or you can go ahead buy it on iTunes for just $5.99 by clicking here.
MBD is on a very wide tour right now, stopping just about, well, everywhere. And you may not even have to pay to get in, if you manage to win the contest they’re running over at mybrightestdiamond.com! Read about it right here.
GRAMPALL AIRS ON THE TUBE OF YOU
October 30th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Day 3 of week of Grampall Jookabox, thanks to the impending release of Ropechain.
If it were 1988 instead of 2008, and Grampall Jookabox had been born 20 years earlier, you might have been able to catch Jookabox’s Moose Adamson on your cable access channel around 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning.
Times have changed though, and while you can now watch his eclectic antics anytime and anywhere, his YouTube channel is tucked away in the obscure corners of its wide search tentacles. Well, no longer. World, meet the YouTubed Moose Adamson. View his videos here.
You can pick up the new album here. On tour now! See dates here.
GRAMPALL IS NOW INTERACTIVATED
October 29th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
The new Ropechain from Grampall Jookabox is as interactive an album as one can get. As you listen, you will dance. You will think. You will feel.
But in this day and age, sometimes you need a video game to earn the adjective, "Interactive." So, with the help of Internet Game Genius Tom Deslongchamp, we made one. We call it "Preggers." It’s easy enough: hurdle over babies to get money, then feed them bottles of milk, all set to the folk-stomp-beat of Grampall’s "Girl Ain’t Preggers" (note: this is not the first time "Girl Ain’t Preggers" has starred in a video game, cf. AudioSurf). Play "Preggers" here.
ANNOUNCING HABITAT
October 28th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Asthmatic Kitty is pleased to announce Habitat, a two disc compilation covering the various manifestations of "electronic music" as a benefit for Habitat for Humanity. This collection has been a long time coming. Label directors Lowell Brams, Sufjan Stevens, and Michael Kaufmann are all fans of electronic music and have wanted to release a compilation of this nature for some time. Here, electronic music is represented in its many forms: electro-acoustic experimentation, hip-hop, glitch, field recordings, ambient, electro-pop, etc. The artwork includes photographs by architect and photographer Craig McCormick, with layout by DM Stith.
You can buy the CD here for $10 (+S&H).
A VIDEO OF GRAMPALL BEATING A DRUM
October 27th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Ropechain, the second album from Grampall Jookabox is out next week. We love this album so much, we wish we could just send it to everyone. Unfortunately, that is prohibitively expensive.
Instead, we’re presenting a week of mutli-media, multi-format Grampall Jookabox. It starts today with this video of "The Girl Ain’t Preggers," and a new, free, MP3 from the album: "The One Thing." View the video above (or here at Vimeo), and download the MP3 here.
Enjoy this week of All Grampall Jookabox, all the time. For now, you can preorder the CD here for $10 (+S&H), and/or the vinyl here for $12 (+S&H).
MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND LOOKS DOWN
October 25th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Rooftop concerts have a long and celebrated history in rock and roll, and so it’s no surprise that the recently launched (and very watchable) Pitchfork.tv brought the rooftop concert to the living room laptop with their Don’t Look Down series of video.
For the show’s newest installment, Don’t Look Down convinces My Brightest Diamond, in string quartet formation, to haul their instruments and equipment all the way up to a brickly rooftop in New York City. Once there, they play four perfect rooftop selections: "Golden Star," "Apples," "From the Top of the World" (from the recently released EP), and "Black & Costaud."
And boy, does My Brightest Diamond really ring it out. Even if you’re afraid of heights, we think you’ll enjoy hearing Shara Worden’s voice ring out across the skyline. Part one is here, and part two is right here. (You don’t see it on tape, but we bet MBD broke the rule and looked down. Shame!)
WE CHOOSE WINNERS
October 23rd, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Last year, we sent out a call for submissions for Independent Exposure, a yearly film festival presented by Microcinema (and presented in some strange places, including Mount Everest!).
We carefully guest-curated a DVD with the Best of 2008 submissions and are proud to announce the winners. It wasn’t easy; apparently there were more submissions this year than ever, and the quality was exceptionally high. But someone has to do it. And we did.
DAYTROTTER, TOUR CREAK OPEN THE CRYPTIC CRYPT OF CRYPTACIZE
October 20th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
"It’s an easy thing to remain calm, cool and collected throughout the listening of these songs," writes Sean Moeller, "but there comes a time when the reflections start to happen and you see what Cryptacize has just done to you and you’ve being given an opportunity to cast off into some serpentine waters."
Not only does Daytrotter write and illustrate about Cryptacize, but somehow they coerced four unreleased songs out of Cryptacize’s goody bag. One’s about a witch! Go, listen, read, look here!
We all know though that MP3s do not convey the entirety of good music. That’s why Cryptacize is beginning a "tour," something like an MP3, but live, as in, in real life. And they’re performing this magic of de-digitiziation with the very Masters of The De-digital: Danielson. See tourdates here.
SWEATY RECAP
October 14th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
A couple of weeks ago, we released Sweaty Magic, an EP from Rafter that has kept us shaking our boots and booties since we first heard it. Now, we know EPs get a bad rap sometimes. But trust us, this gem is worth it.
Or don’t trust us. Trust other people. Pitchfork reviewed it yesterday: "Songs ooze with sleazy sensuality . . . its clattering beats and madcap synths ride a propulsive rhythm that fulfills his goal of shameless danceability."
Paul Zimmerman over at First Coast News writes that "Sweaty Magic is short and sweet and a fantastic sweat inducing dance beast from the electro netherworld." The fact that this is a "mere" EP getting you down? Cokemachineglow would beg to differ: "This may find itself more often reached for than anything so self-consciously legitimate as a ‘real’ album."
Finally, Some guy on iTunes perhaps said it best: "This is delicious cereal pop with sugar stars!" Buy the EP from us for $6 (+S&H) and listen to a few mp3s here, or from iTunes here.
I HEART LUNG IN MYRIAD FORM
October 13th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
I Heart Lung is playing twice this week. Tonight they’ll be with Mike Watt and Widow Babies at Pehrspace. It’s just $5, or $3 with the purchase of the many album releases being celebrated that night. Doors at 9pm.
Then on Thursday, IHL is playing in Long Beach with jazz legend Cooper-Moore, who is performing in California for the first time in 40 years. They’ll be playing at {open} bookstore, with a suggested donation of $5. Music is at 8pm.
And if you can’t catch them live, IHL’s full-length, Interoceans, is beautifully improvised and almost as good as seeing them live. You can pick it up and listen here for $10.
And/or, you can check out the IHL new video by visual artist, Cristopher Cichocki by clicking more or visiting Pitchfork.tv. If you’d like to do more than just see the video broadcast via internet to your computer screen, you can purchase it on mini-DVD form from video label Table of Contents. They’ve included the video alongside Seth Kasselman’s hypnotic Warm Climate. It’s $8, and details are here.