Browse by Label: ASTHMATIC KITTY

Artist:	STEVENS, SUFJAN
Title:	Michigan
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	2LP
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	AKR 007LP

"Asthmatic Kitty and Sounds Familyre announce the vinyl edition of Sufjan Stevens' Michigan. On two LPs, this special edition includes alternate versions of 'Vito's Ordination song,' 'Romulus,' and five out-takes not included on the original CD release. Also new to this edition is an essay on the songs by Sufjan Stevens. Composed as a geographical tone poem, Michigan follows a Metaphysical expedition through the idiosyncrasies of middle America. Drawing from personal anecdote, regional history, and state heritage, Stevens mixes social and political grievances with songs about snowmobiles, Henry Ford, the Detroit riots, and love."

Artist:	STEVENS, SUFJAN
Title:	A Sun Came
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	AKR 009CD

"Asthmatic Kitty announces a new edition of A Sun Came, the 1999 debut album by Sufjan Stevens. Widely acclaimed for Michigan (2003), and Seven Swans (2004), singer/songwriter Sufjan Steven's first solo collection has been skillfully re-mastered, with two previously unreleased tracks and new art by Stephen Halker. Recorded on 4-track while still in college, A Sun Came first demonstrated Sufjan's eclectic instrumentalism -- he plays over a dozen instruments here -- noted production skills, and heartfelt songwriting. Though little known until listeners and reviewers discovered Michigan last year, A Sun Came foreshadows Sufjan's later work, and stands on it's own as an expression of his unique talents."

Artist:	JANES, LIZ
Title:	Poison and Snakes
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	AKR 010CD

"The long awaited follow-up to Liz Janes' acclaimed debut, Done Gone Fire (2001-produced and arranged with accompaniment by Sufjan Stevens), Poison & Snakes combines punk, gospel and country music elements to document Liz's progression as a seasoned singer, songwriter and performer. Her mellifluous blues-tinged voice and unexpected phrasing are set against eclectic and unpredictable arrangements in collaboration with producer Rafter Roberts."

Artist:	STEVENS, SUFJAN
Title:	Illinoise
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	AKR 014CD

"Asthmatic Kitty announces the second installment of Sufjan Stevens' 50 State Project, Illinois, a 22-track anthemic tone poem to The Prairie State. Following the 2003 collection of songs for his home state, Michigan, Stevens presents an emphatic answer to the question: Can a songwriter express the spirit of a state he's never called home? With his most enterprising project to date -- the result of extensive research, travel, meditation, and countless days and nights in the studio -- admirers of his previous work and first time listeners will agree that the answer is yes. On this second state tour, Sufjan weaves variegated musical styles (jazz, funk, pop) and instrumental textures (from oboe to church organ) into a tapestry of persons famous, infamous, and anonymous, and places iconic, obscure, and ghostly. The musical road trip takes you through ghost towns, grain mills, hospital rooms, and the City of Broad Shoulders, with guest appearances by a poet, a president, and a serial murderer, to name a few."

Artist:	CASTANETS, THE
Title:	First Light's Freeze
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	LP
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	AKR 016LP

"With First Light's Freeze, Castanets return with a dark mutant-country sound infused with strands of free-jazz and a late-seventies Nashville big-radio strut hijacked by post-post-punk unravelers. The result is a beautiful mix of somber reflection, destination-unknown travelogue, and subversive anti-war boogie. Castanets' unrelenting creative pioneering delightfully befuddles, as they simultaneously honor and dismantle 'New Americana.' While Cathedral (Castanets' debut) explored the themes of domesticity and the architecture of conflict, First Light's Freeze confronts the mythology of war and friendship. Morphed from a strictly literal and chronological song-cycle to a more broadly sketched reading, the wraith of narrative structure still lurks in the shadows, creating an eerie tale with shifting perspectives and evading resolution. The story ends up resembling an ancient documentary on relationships (others loved, feared, distrusted yet needed), the close proximity of things painful and pleasurable, and the complications of this as a paradigm for the world."

Artist:	HALF-HANDED CLOUD
Title:	Halos & Lassos
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	AKR 020CD

"Armed with the psalms of David, an acoustic guitar, and the electronic Omnichord, Half-Handed Cloud assails nineteen new pop songs outside Eden's gates on Halos & Lassos, the latest album on Asthmatic Kitty Records. With hints of fitness music and video game soundtracks, Halos & Lassos tromps through 19 songs like a mostly-sunny afternoon in Berkeley, California-home of bandleader John Ringhofer. With the modal purity of Moondog, symphonic elements of Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue,' and the ancient art of punning, the album boasts pop melodies arranged around the ambidextrous Omnichord -- a vintage '80s kidney-shaped electronic auto-harp/drum machine/synthesizer."

Artist:	STEVENS, SUFJAN
Title:	The Avalanche
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	AKR 022CD

"The little secret behind Sufjan Stevens' acclaimed Illinois is that it was originally conceived as a double album, culminating in a musical collage of nearly 50 songs. But as the project began to develop into an unwieldy epic, common sense weighed in -- as did the opinions of others -- and the project was cut in half. But as 2005 came to a close, Sufjan returned to the remaining songs on his 8-track. What he uncovered went beyond the merits of nostalgia. Sufjan gleaned 21 tracks from remaining material; some songs were in finished form, while others were merely outlines. Most of the material required substantial editing, new arrangements or vocals, and much of the work was done at the end of 2005 or in January the following year. As the title song 'The Avalanche' bemuses, 'I call you once my friends,' Sufjan took in the odd musical misfits and gathered them together like a party of good friends."

Artist:	MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND
Title:	Bring Me The Workhorse
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	AKR 023CD

"My Brightest Diamond is Shara Worden, a trained opera singer turned pop songwriter. Her debut album, Bring Me The Workhorse courageously gathers all the essential elements of classical and pop music to fashion an album that reflects upon the sublime elements of both worlds. These songs are simultaneously gentle and urgent, evoking moments of tremendous joy and sorrow with the magnitude of Italian opera and the modesty of a Japanese haiku. The songwriting blurs the lines between rock show and recital, incorporating the contrapuntal elements of a baroque love song alongside love ballads and rock anthems. Her vocal lines reached for Puccini, while her guitar style is more akin to Blonde Redhead or PJ Harvey. The center of gravity here is the workmanship of a woman whose imagination has no limits."

Artist:	SHAPES AND SIZES
Title:	Shapes and Sizes
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	AKR 024CD

"Shapes and Sizes self-titled debut album brings together an unlikely assortment of sounds. Placing smart, catchy pop hooks beside chaotic experimentation, slower, more melancholy songs, and even flirting with straight up rock, the quartet juggles contrasting moods with ease. Caila Thompson-Hannant commands vocal range and control uncommon in the world of indie-rock, a purity perfectly balanced by Rory Seydel's raw, emotional voice. The quartet is rounded off by the drums and bass of Crellin and Gage, long time professional musicians whose experience brings elements of textural complexity to a band that can build castles in the air, then reduce them to atoms."

Artist:	STEVENS, SUFJAN
Title:	Songs For Christmas
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	5CD
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	AKR 028CD

"In December 2001, Sufjan Stevens set out to create a Christmas gift for his friends and family. The result was a 7-song recording that he called, Noel, Vol. 1. Over each of the next few Christmas seasons Sufjan would create a new EP to add to the collection. As he was recording Peace : Volume V (in the summer of 2006), he considered how best to 'officially' release this music. He said he was, 'determined to present the EPs in their original form -- flaws, blemishes, mistakes and all. A compilation would have been a cumbersome compromise. A 'Greatest Hits' would have been heartbreaking (how to choose?).' In addition to the music he wanted to add a 'lavish display of ornamentation' to coincide with the spirit of excess and overindulgence that is the hallmark of Christmas."

Artist:	MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND
Title:	Tear It Down
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	AKR 030CD

"My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden has decided to set loose her bobby pins and let her hair fly on the ambient dance floor. Her latest semi-collaboration with 13 different remixers, entitled Tear It Down, reworks songs from the highly acclaimed album, Bring Me The Workhorse featuring tracks by Alias, Lusine, Murcof, Stakka and Gold Chains. Oh, it's international too! With diplomatic representatives from Belgium, France, Mexico, The UK and America, the remixes range from drum-n-bass, to glitchy ambient, minimalism, and get-your-booty-on-the-dance-floor club music."

Artist:	SCHLARB, CHRIS
Title:	Twilight & Ghost Stories
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	AKR 404CD

"A work of personal identity and deep catharsis, Twilight & Ghost Stories is a dense 40-minute modern composition featuring a disparate cross-section of musicians from the avant-garde, independent folk, jazz and electronic communities (including Dirty Projectors, Sufjan Stevens, Walter Kitindu, Castanets, Parker Paul, Bhob Rainey, and Mick Rossi). A creative and accomplished jazz guitarist, Chris Schlarb cut his teeth producing hip-hop tracks, teaching music workshops and co-founding the free music collective, Create (!). Chris Schlarb is also one-half of I Heart Lung, which Tiny Mix Tapes called 'some of the most energetic free-jazz to spit out of America.' Spanning all of these endeavors, Twilight & Ghost Stories finds Schlarb playing acoustic piano, organ, electric and acoustic guitar, as well as tapes and percussion."

Artist:	I HEART LUNG
Title:	Interoceans
Label:	ASTHMATIC KITTY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	AKR 408CD

"On Interoceans, I Heart Lung blends first-take methods with Oblique Strategies: carefully composed, meticulously recorded pieces rooted in improvisation, revised and augmented over time. The results are a compelling vision of chaos and beauty as Chris Schlarb's electric guitar drones and Tom Steck's free-jazz drumming hold and flutter with shimmering acoustic guitars, soaring pedal steel and beautifully captured field recordings. When Kris Tiner's trumpet follows Nels Cline's electric sitar three minutes into 'Interoceans II,' it's like Don Cherry's loving spirit doting on universal music drones."

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