ASTHMATIC KITTY AND A HAPPY ENDING
March 10th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
No, don’t worry, we are not ending, but we are happy to announce that we have partnered with writer/culture-provocateur Amanda Stern and her Happy Ending Music and Reading Series to present a night of…well, what else…music and reading. On April 2nd at 9:30PM Asthmatic Kitty’s Michael Kaufmann and Amanda Stern will be hosting this event at Joe’s Pub in New York City. The music will be presented by My Brightest Diamond, accompanied by strings. Also presenting will be three very fine writers: Alec Bemis, Daphne Carr and Rob Sheffield.
We are very thankful to BOMB Magazine for their sponsorship and Joe’s Pub for staging the event. Click here to visit Joe’s Pub website to purchase tickets. And you can read more about the series and writers by following the more link below.
Alec Hanley Bemis lives in Brooklyn, NY and spends a lot of time in California. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, LA Weekly, The New Yorker, and our own website and many other fine publications. Among his many music-related activities, he founded the Brassland label with The National and Clogs in 2001, and currently acts as general manager at Bang on a Can’s Cantaloupe Music label.
Daphne Carr is a music journalist, critic, and ethnomusicologist living in New York City. She is the Series Editor of Best Music Writing (Da Capo 2007, 2008), author of Nine Inch Nails Pretty Hate Machine (Continuum 2007), contributor to the books Marooned: The Next Generation of Desert Island Discs (Da Capo 2007) and Listen Again (Duke University Press 2007).
Rob Sheffield is author of Love Is A Mix Tape (Crown, 2007). He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, where he writes the “Pop Life” column. He’s written about music and pop culture for the Village Voice, Spin, Details, Mojo, Radio On and other publications. He frequently discusses the Bananarama legacy on MTV and VH1. His karaoke jam is the Commodores’ “Easy.”
The Happy Ending Music and Reading Series, chosen by New York Magazine and NY Press as the best reading series in NYC, and singled out by the New York Times Magazine for helping to "Keep downtown alive," features the most interesting storytellers, writers, musicians, raconteurs and personalities, and requires the readers to take one public risk, while the musicians, who perform two short sets with their original, lyric-driven music, are required to play one cover song and try to get the audience to sing along.
ENCYCLOPEDIA ASTHMATICA DVD CHECKED IN
March 8th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Dear Library Patron,
This is a friendly reminder that the Encyclopedia Asthmatica "Digital Versatile Disc" is now available for checkout.
From,
Your neighborhood imaginary library.
(pssss: our DVD is out! Click here to pick it up for $14+SH, here for some reading on the DVD, or here to watch a video by artist Deborah Johnson set to Sufjan Stevens’ "Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake.")
Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.
MUSIC FOR VIDEOGAMES V1
March 6th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
As some of us here at the label are avid video gamers but with little time to spare, we keep a close eye on the independent video game scene as it often yields a higher creativity-to-time ratio than most other videogames. It was with piqued interest that we watched a game called AudioSurf move from almost-finished to the rare "completed" status just a month or two ago. The game takes an MP3 or CD and turns it into a playable video game level, with colored blocks appropriately tied to the tempo of the song. Its integration of pure color on visual dimension with the experience of sound into one unified, synesthesia game space seemed quite fascinating. And plus, it was really fun.
We decided to round-up a few friends of the label and put together a compilation designed especially for play in AudioSurf. The call was quickly answered by signed and unsigned alike, including folks from Anticon Records, Sounds Are Active, and imputor. The end result is a driving, definitive, compilation comprised of previously released and some unreleased material that is cohesive if only because our criteria was playability in addition to quality. Apparently, there is a mathematical and musical beauty in that.
We’re releasing it for free as a digital download, to be enjoyed with AudioSurf, or without. Download it here, or stream from AKradio here. If you have a Windows PC, you can play a demo of AudioSurf here, or buy it for a mere $10 here. You can also read a review of AudioSurf from Nathan Smart, our in-house video games correspondent, right here.
UNUSUAL ANIMALS EMERGE IN LOUISVILLE
March 5th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
The Unusual Animals series of events has spawned many mutations from its now year-old Austin ancestor, including species in Indianapolis, Houston, and Portland. Now a particularly strange variant will emerge from the warm cocoon of Louisville, Kentucky on April 5, at the 930 Gallery, 6:30pm.
One attribute that makes this particular Animal so abnormal is that it will incorporate an active pollination from the public at large. Along with the 930, we are requesting art from you or someone you know. You can read the call for entries here, but you only have until the 15th of March.
Attendance to this particular evolution will merit observations of music explorator Shedding, old-timey modern rockers The Town Criers, the non-android sound making of Squeeze-bot, and hip-kraut Ultra Pulverize.
Cost to this phenomenon is free, save perhaps what it wears away from your scientific assumptions.
SXSW MUSICAL PREVIEW
March 1st, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
We’ve already announced our lineup for SXSW 2008 in Austin, Texas (see here for details). But what we haven’t done is update AKradio with the appropriate musical goodies. So Austin-bound and non-Austin-bound alike, please enjoy music by our various friends who will be joining us at our showcase and parties! Click here for activate the appropriate AKRadio playlist, or here to download a zip file for portable or offline use. Gala Bent, whom you might recognize as one of the artists behind the Encyclopedia Asthmatica, also designed a really great poster for our showcase at Central Presbyterian Church. Download a color pdf here, or a b&w here.
UAPS TWO
February 26th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
The Unusual Animals Project Space is pleased to announce its second exhibition. Indianapolis based artist Stuart Snoddy presents Impromptu Compositions, a collection of works that explore and call attention to naturally occurring phenomena. The exhibition is open now and will run until mid-April. For those of you in the area, be sure to stop by for a reception Friday March 7th from 6-9PM. The Unusual Animals Project Space is located in the basement of the Harrison Center for the Arts. Curator Michael Kaufmann investigates the "simultaneously progressive and strategically humorous" art of Snoddy with a brief dissection and an interivew, which you can read here.
MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND SHINING ON INDIE EAR, AND BROOKLYN
February 21st, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
IFC has just launched a new independent music blog they’re calling Indie Ear. Spearheaded by Jim Shearer, formerly of MTV’s 120 Minutes and Subterranean, the site looks very promising. We’re of course very honored that Indie Ear chose Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond to inaugurate its Q&A section, wherein Shearer grills Shara on cheerleading, stage costumes, and being mistaken for a hiphop DJ. You can visit Indie Ear here, and read the interview with Shara here.
Also, consider this a reminder to those of you that might have been lucky enough to buy tickets already: MBD is opening for The National at the Brooklyn Academy of Music to sold-out crowds on Friday and Saturday night. The National always put on a fantastic show, and Shara will be playing with string quad Osso, so it should be quite a round. For those that bought tickets of course.
CRYPTACIZE: CD, LP, AKRADIO
February 20th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Cryptacize’s first album is now available, either here on the website or at your favorite independent record store. We’ve had the pleasure of listening to it for some time, and we think you’ll enjoy it’s swirling simplicity.
In case you need something to listen to until your album arrives via mail, or the bus arrives to take you to the record store, Michael, Chris, and Nedelle of Cryptacize have carefully created a playlist of some of their friends’ music. You can listen to it right on AKradio by clicking here.
Click here to order the album from website, or on more to view Cryptacize’s "Cosmic Sing-a-Long" in video form.
Cryptacize – Cosmic Sing-a-long from Asthmatic Kitty on Vimeo.
AK AND FRIENDS IN AUSTIN FOR SXSW
February 18th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
We have some grand plans for South By Southwest 2008. Last year we organized a showcase as well as a day party at Okay Mountain Gallery that featured local bands and businesses, including some phenomenal performances and equally delicious chocolate. Well, we’ve upgraded this year! The day party was so successful that in addition to […]
Read the Rest...OSSO VIA AIRWAVE
February 15th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
If you’re reading this you’ve probably heard Osso, even if you haven’t heard of them. They recorded on Sufjan Stevens’s Illinois and Songs for Christmas, as well as My Brightest Diamond’s Bring Me the Workhorse. They have toured with both. The luckiest amongst us have even heard Osso play live with both Sufjan and My Brightest Diamond from time to time – perhaps at Cincinnati’s Music Now Festival 2007, when they converted Sufjan’s electronic 2001 ode, Enjoy Your Rabbit, into string form.
Since the festival, the quartet’s repertoire has grown to include four more of these electronic pieces. After their debut show at Barbes in Brooklyn, Osso was approached by WNYC radio host, David Garland. He entreated the group to record some material for "Spinning on Air" and on Super Bowl Sunday this small feat was accomplished. The show, featuring performances of eight arrangements from Enjoy Your Rabbit as well as an interview with the group, will air at 7pm on Sunday, February 17th. New Yorkers can listen on the radio at FM 93.9 or AM 820 and anyone can stream the show live at WNYC’s website, here. A streaming version of the show will be subsequently available at Osso’s new
website.