Every once in a while we get an email from someone wanting to help us promote our artists or just help out. We’re always humbled and thankful when we get this kind of email, but never really quite sure how to answer.

Well, we think we figured it out.

As of today we are announcing The Noisemakers. We envision this volunteer but selective group of people as those who are not just fans of our label, but also friends.

The Noisemakers will have several levels of involvement for its members, from casually putting up posters at businesses already frequented, to managing label and artist profiles across the web. Some of you may be doing this already. This will just make the deal legit.

For the next few weeks we are opening up the application process for this deputized, inner circle of Asthmatic Kitty fans. You can apply by clicking here.

At Asthmatic Kitty we believe that music and literature go hand in hand. Our good friend Adam Gnade (a frequent contributor to ye old side bar) thinks so too! That’s why we wanted to let you know about his book, Hymn California. Adam’s first book, which is being released via Rhode Island’s Dutchmoney Books, is a novel that has just as much to do with music as it does prose. “The only way I could pull off doing both was to integrate them as much as possible; immerse the songs in the books and the books in the songs.”

Hymn California is not for the weak of heart.  It is an intense ride through death, drugs, depression and the sweaty underbelly of this beast America.  Yet despite this darkness, there are glimmers of hope and beauty.  It’s pages voyage through childhood’s innocence and safety to the freedom of living on the most ragged edges of our culture.  It’s simultaneously full of truths and fairy tales, strange cities, suppressing suburbs, and all of the spaces and places between, with the songs to carry you.

Adam’s music will continue as well.  Gnade is currently working on his full-length record, Trailerpark, which will be released with Try Harder Records in Late 2008. His past works include the Collaborative EP with Youthmovies, “Honey Slides,”  and the limited edition 60-page novella Seasons Loving Nothing. Adam’s next tour will be in the UK and Europe in November with Youthmovies.

You can buy Hymn California here for $16.

Several weeks ago, Zack Bent, half of the husband-wife team that has designed a good deal of Asthmatic Kitty visuals (not the least of which is their outstanding work on the Encyclopedia Asthmatica DVD), embarked on a journey he’s entitled Home on the Range.

A collaboration between Zack, his wife Gala, and their children, their work at Crawl Space in Seattle questioned the lines between art and the taming of wilderness. Replete with references to Daniel Boone, leisure camping, and survival, the Bents built a covered wagon, played with rope, and discovered a dead animal. Yuck?

If you missed it, that’s ok. You can view some videos (dead animal-free) from the exhibit here, or read some glowy reviews in The Stranger or the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.