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.
DIG THAT TREASURE UNCOVERED
February 13th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
It has been a while since Chris Cohen and Nedelle Torrisi brushed their teeth and happened upon Cryptacize, along with the help of Michael Carreira. Since then the trio has toured, made a video, and even recorded an album!
This miniature journey, free fantasia, dreamy habitat they called Dig That Treasure is now available for purchase from our store, in both CD and LP formats. Click here to buy the CD ($10), here for the LP ($12), or here to read more about the album. The album will be available in your favorite independent store on Tuesday the 19th.
40 BANDS 80 MINUTES!
February 12th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
If you haven’t noticed, all the money is in ringtones these days. The major record labels love charging their fans $3 for 30 seconds of music. And, apparently, some fans love paying for them. Welcome to the future.
So take the concept of the ringtone, and add in a little Mad Max/Waterworld/Planet of the Apes and multiply. What you get is 40 Bands 80 Minutes!, the visual record of a night in which forty L.A. bands emerged from their underground shelters to perform in 2-minute bursts; shared equipment, no second chances. Among the those Beyond Thunderdome: No Age (in their final performance as Wives), HEALTH, Abe Vigoda, Bizzart and Rob Williams, who breaks his own Guinness World Record by making a sandwich with his feet.
RAPOSA IN LE MARAIS
February 7th, 2008 , by Asthmatic Kitty
The superb online music video site, La Blogothèque, has covered a few of our artists before (namely Sufjan and My Brightest Diamond). But they’ve never taped anyone like Ray Raposa of Castanets. In these cuts, the rough of Raposa meets the refine of Le Marais; he even plays "First Lights Freeze" for three French gentlemen in berets who yelled at Ray as he passed by, wanting only a birthday song. They don’t stick around. In another video, a mysteriously-shaven Raposa holds company with strangers and empty glasses, and in a third, a couple kids carelessly massacre some hedges while he dons guitar and amp to play "Cathedral 4."
These videos are only available for download in a variety of formats for a limited time, so do so with haste here.