Asthmatic Kitty releases encyclopedic DVD :: Music News :: Articles

In addition of being the presumed moneybags behind the charming line of Sufjan Stevens performance stagewear, Asthmatic Kitty Records has always leaned heavily on visuals. Not only has the label established an installation at an art gallery in Indianapolis and co-presenting a film festival, but now wheezing felines are taking their visuals to a DVD player near you. Entitled Encyclopedia Asthmatica, Volume 1, the collection is the label's first visual compilation.

Nearly all of the Asthmatic Kitty Records' roster, and many of those in the extended family, make an appearance somewhere on the DVD: from the playful choreography of the Think Dance Collective frolicking in shoes made of bread to the music of Half-handed Cloud, to the lovely abstraction of Sufjan Stevens' music by video artist Deborah Johnson; from the haunting and raw post-apocalypse video fuzz of live Castanets, to the crisp color footage of My Brightest Diamond at Northsix. The label's patent homemade aesthetic is here too, with Bunky's bizarre yet appropriate space alien video, and a selection from Liz Janes that employs found footage.

With over 30 videos, the DVD clocks in at over two hours. While the disc hits stores on March 4, you can click here to preorder it now.

From A to Z, full tracklisting:

BUNKY
"Hippopotamus" (Live, SXSW 2005)
"Baba"
"Space Alien"

CASTANETS
"A Song is not the Song of the World"
"Smallest Bones"
"Good Friend, Yr Hunger" (Live, SXSW 2007)

HALF-HANDED CLOUD
"You Wouldn't Embarass Me Would You?"
"Tongues Possess the Earth Instead"
Think/Dance Collective performance

LIZ JANES
"Jesus is a Dying Bed Maker"
"All the Pretty Horses"

MY BRIGHTEST DIAMOND
"Freak Out!" (Live @ Northsix)
"Dragonfly"
"Gone Away"
"Magic Rabbit"

RAFTER
"Adventurers"
"ZZZPenchant"
"Gentlemen"
"Hope"
"Monsters"
"Encouragement"

SHAPES AND SIZES
"Teller/Seller"
"Jinker/That Fat Hand"
"Can't Stop that (Sinking) Feeling"

SUFJAN STEVENS "Jacksonville" (Live, Calvin College 2007)
"Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake"
"The Undivided Self (for Eppie & Popo)"
"The Vivian Girls..."
"Put the Lights on the Tree"

THE CURTAINS
"Go Lucky"
"Spinning Top"