Indie Lables: Asthmatic Kitty

The year was 1999 and a man uniquely named Sufjan had just found a way to link three relatively unrelated thing together that would ensure his stable future in the indie scene. Those unassuming items where; A stray cat called Sara, His step father and an album for each American state.



Asthmatic Kitty was formed and while his step father and (apparently) the cat remain in good health the 50 album plan fell by the waste site after only 2 states. but the success of those albums and others has ment that Asthmatic Kitty has survived to collect a few other bands and open an office the New York.

The theme of the Label so far seems to be indie and folkie with an underlying Christianity in parts. While the labels silver bullet remains it's founder they've found a few new acts that might grow to help to pay the bills.


The Welcome Wagon released they're début album at the end of last year and while i generally wouldn't have listened to a band boasting the eclectic tunes of a Reverent and his Wife, i was surprised that i quite liked what i heard.
Rafter Roberts who is touring at the moment is also one to look out for.



But for me what this label really has going for it is the music created under "Unusual Animals" which according to the label is a little place for the labels artists and friend for "conceptual and experimental projects", and it's great! listen to it on Asthmatic Kitty Radio and take a look at the other artists, your bound to find something that puts a smile on your face.

Indie Mix Tape

A while ago, back before the new year I talked about Indie Mix Tapes. Well, after many long hard hours, pouring over the best indie stuff I've heard in the last while, Seb and myself have come up with one ourselves, along with some help from the awesome people that are Carrie and Kev.



So now, whether you need a mixtape for your favorite person, or just like indie music here's a helping hand...

Side A:

Tokyo Police Club – In A Cave
The Moldy Peaches – Lucky Number Nine
of Montreal – Touched Something's Hollow
John Shelly and the Creatures – Tiger Tales
The Hedge Schools – Butterfly
Broken Social Scene – 7/4 (Shoreline) ((Shoreline))
Iron & Wine – 16, Maybe Less
The National – Secret Meeting
The Presets – Girl and the Sea
Camera Obscura – Swimming Pool
The Organ – It's Time to Go
Elbow – One Day Like This

Side B:

Future Bible Heroes – Mr. Punch
The Olivia Tremor Control – The Opera House
Pavement – Shady Lane
Acid House Kings – This And That
The Seedy Seeds – Calliope
The Hi-Life Companion – You're the greatest
Cherry Ghost – Thirst For Romance
Band of Horses – Is There a Ghost
Asobi Seksu – Thursday
Miracle Fortress – Whirrs
Fleet Foxes – Mykonos

Some of the tracks are available as free downloads, full track previews or 30 second previews over on last.fm, so head over there if you like and feel free to leave comments and suggestions. Nothing's set in stone here. If you'd like a copy for yourself, just leave a comment and you can be the proud owner of a lovely mix tape.

Today's nice photo is from Erica Marshall, who has an awesome photography site muddyboots.org.

Coconut Records, Returns

Jason Schwartzman, The uncrowned king* of Indie, this year will be releasing his first movie with writer/director Wes Anderson since The Darjeeling Limited. which is certainly enough to be happy about. But until Fantastic Mr. Fox surfaces what can we entertain ourselves with? Well it seems that Jason has thought of that and has release a second album under the band name Coconut Records.




It's called Davy and (if you didn't read my post last week) you can download it on iTunes. It's a pretty good little album.
compared to the first album here isn't as much diversity in the songs. With the first, when a song ended you have no idea what was coming next and it could have been a homage to stadium rock or an intimate acoustic track. Davy is more consistent with the genre. This means that when listening to the album there isn't a track the stands out to much or catches your attention.

All in all a good album, but maybe not as good as the first

and if i was to rate it... 66%

*i'm going to say king because as an indie person i believe that democracy decides the most mediocre of things and until i can think of something better than monarchy thats how it's going to be

Give Blood

Bon Iver, aka awesome indie folk,Wisconsin singer-songwriter Justin Vernon is back. This time with an EP, Blood Bank.



His first album, For Emma, Forever Ago was a brilliant example of indie lo-fi folk, and just how far raw talent and a cool indie label will get you these days. This new 4-track EP shows Mr. Iver trying a few different things this time, even going as far as to use autotuned vocals on one track. I'm not normally a fan of those, since they seem to be used exclusivly by overly commercial rappers who want to make themselves sound like robots. He does however, use them to great effect. The track he has up on MySpace, Blood Bank is a song more along the style of his album. Definatly worth a listen. Although the standard of songs on the EP is not as good as For Emma, it is only an EP, and does point towards good things in the future from him. Indie has a future, and it's name is Bon Iver.

Today's lovely photo is from Rich Thane, and man who loves his music, film and art apparently.

Conserning the Suckyness of iTunes.

When i first entered the world of Indie music, i had a great collecting of CD's that i was very proud of showing off to people, i still have those CDs (somewhere) but while the music they held lives on, they no longer hold the same place in my heart. These days CD's are just another type of shopping bag, once you get the music off it, you just want to put it away safe, knowing that perhaps one day you'll have a use for it.

These days, instead of showing people my music through a carefully stacked and sorted on a (particularly indie) CD rack, i open up my laptop and show them through their now homely digital medium. There is a problem. Due to getting a welcome gift of an iPod, i found myself shackled to the bulky, over bearing, user-hating iTunes and i know a lot of people have the same problem so PLEASE do yourself a favour...


Get Songbird.
This wonderful, free, open source creation comes to you from the same guys who brought you Firefox (remember when you didn't think internet explorer was shit?). It's final version has been released recently and it works brilliantly. Have no fear it's not iPod exclusive (thats just what i use it for). It also has a very highly customizable user interface and a load of great plug-ins to install. so free yourself from terrible software!
My hope is that if enough iPod people get songbird then either apple will finally bring out some software that doesn't constantly harass it's user or maybe even disappear completely, either suits me.

Three Bands, Randomly Found

Again it seems, looking for random indie gigs has paid off, and a whole three new indie bands have been discovered. They're all playing Whelan's on the 7th of February, so get yourself a ticket if you can. Even if you don't live in Dublin, they're touring Europe over the next while so get yourself to a gig.

It's a Musical. Poppy indie. I mean, really poppy happy stuff. Bits of every instrument thrown together. You really have to hear it, because I don't think they've come up with a word for it yet.

Kid Dakota. Less poppy, less happy. Lots of delay, and echos and the like. More downbeat lyrics, and a lot slower. His Myspace describes it as rock/indie/country and you can certainly hear the country influence. Quite nice really, a lot like people Sun Kil Moon at times, but has a certain quality to it that makes it something very much it's own.



Ter Harr. Experimental indie from Berlin. Has a certain lo-fi sound to it, with a touch of early 90's/late 80's British indie rock to it. So indie, Flickr couldn't find a picture of them.

Today's photo of Kid Dakota is by Stacy Schwartz who has some really awesome photos, so check them out. On another note I've finally found time to do my review of the gigs I've been to in the last three months, so head over to last.fm and check them out.

Forgotten Indie Films

Back in 2007 i watched a danish movie called Dark Horse, about a week later i had sadly forgotten it existed. Luckily my keen memory collaborated with my tingling indie sense and i found myself in front of the DVD, i decided to buy it and headed off to watch it with an eclectic group of friends. generally it was liked and it was actually as good as i remembered which was nice.

here's the trailer:


Positives:
it's unique for it's story and style, but it also has something that i find makes me love this for more than just the arty black and white shots. It can make you laugh when you least suspect it. I love when movies are clever enough to throw in a punch line before your even realize your being told a joke, it's a gift!

Negatives:
Perhaps for some, it's a little too arty. It may not feel like it's trying to be arty but it's obvious in a throughout the movie that a lot of work has gone into each shot. it's also very character driven, which is the nice way of saying that not a lot happens.

if i was where to score it i would give it 70%

Agitated Radio Pilot

One of the good things about working in a record shop is that there's lots of opportunities for finding good obscure bands. I came across these by accident really. Only for the name and the artwork I would have just ignored them, instead I bought it, listened to it and liked it.



Agitated Radio Pilot is the solo project of a man called David Colohan, who's been in many Irish folk bands apparently. The album, World Winding Down, is quite the mellow album, very relaxing. Plenty of melancholic guitar songs. The album itself if 2 CD's that have a symmetry in them, one brilliant piece of songwriting. It's well worth checking out.