Year of the Kitty

The rise of the "indie" record label has been a welcome sight to music lovers everywhere. It doesn't really mean anything to many people anymore, thanks to the expanses and find-ability provided by the world wide web. For the true indie labels, it's more about your love than your money (though your money would be nice). It's a matter of priorities, a hierarchy of wants and needs, but at the top of it is love. For the music you believe in. For each other.

Asthmatic Kitty owes a lot of notoriety to their diamond in the rough Sufjan Stevens, but their stable now includes a solid lineup of artsy-folk folks like Castanets, My Brightest Diamond, Shapes and Sizes, Half-Handed Cloud, and Rafter. And now they're expanding again, and giving us a free taste of the goodies therein. 6 new musical acts and 1 artist (Laura Park, artwork shown above). The label is one of those rare jewels I'm talking about. It has an identity, it wants to get next to you, it wants to make you smile. They don't feel like you should feel obligated to support them, but they want to make you want to. And I'm fairly confident you're going to want to.

Listen:
Osso - Year of the Boar
Shannon Stevens - So Gentle Your Arms
[from Works In Progress|stream|download]