Sufjan Stevens, All Delighted People

Last month, seemingly out of the blue, indie darling Sufjan Stevens released his All Delighted People EP. Almost simultaneous was the announcement that he would release a full-length record as well. Titled Age of Adz, the album will be released on October 12, 2010.

I have downloaded All Delighted People and was, indeed, delighted by it. A couple singles from Age of Adz have also hit the airwaves, and that project seems just as promisingly wonderful. Alternative radio stations are abuzz about Sufjan, and so it's made me wonder, "Who is this person, creating such a stir and so recklessly purging all this music out to the masses?"

Sufjan certainly is an intriguing figure. I've compiled some interesting facts, gathered from careful research (Wiki really). Read on to find a bit more about the man:

• Sufjan's label, Asthmatic Kitty, is a family affair. He and his stepfather founded the label in 1999, and named the business after their kitten Sara. Both the label and the kitty were based in Lander, Wyoming due to the latter's need to breath thin, dry air.
• Sufjan (SOOF-yahn) was not named by his parents. The founder of the spiritual community Subud gave him his name, meaning "comes with a sword." Sufjan's parents later gave him the option to change it, but he couldn't think of anything better.
• Sufjan seems to have a strong fascination with animals. Label name aside, his work was greatly effected by the sudden death of his childhood dog, and he's written a song about the supposedly extinct ivory-billed woodpecker.
• The title of his new LP is easy to mispronounce. The last word in the title "Age of Adz" should be pronounced like "odds," not what Don Draper does.
• "Age of Adz" was inspired by the schizophrenic artist Royal Robertson. Much of Royal's work depicts his vivid dreams of aliens & apocalypse and uses media like cardboard, markers, and glitter. Sufjan made a conscious decision not to create a Royal biography but, rather, focus on broad themes like love, anxiety, and death.
• Sufjan's older brother, Marzuki, is a nationally recognized marathoner.

Check here for news on Sufjan and other Asthmatic Kitty artists: http://www.asthmatickitty.com/

Download singles here and here:

http://sufjanstevens.bandcamp.com/track/too-much

http://sufjanstevens.bandcamp.com/track/i-walked

At Least MGMT Got Something Right

This post is dedicated to the contemporary artist Anthony Ausgang. I discovered his work when all the hype surrounding MGMT's latest release, "Congratulations," was swirling about. For better or worse, the cover, which Ausgang designed, turned out to be the most fruitful component of that entire creative venture.

Ausgang is influenced by an intriguing array of sources. Hot-rod car culture, specifically the animated rodent cartoon character Rat Fink, and his mother's love of high-art forms like the symphony and classic European fine art were impactful to Ausgang. Looking at his stuff, it's clear to see where and how his ideas were formed. His work is bright, full of movement, and psychedelic. While most of his product is blatantly cartoonish it is still articulately crafted, and Ausgang quite clearly puts significant thought and effort into his paintings.

Also reflective of his diverging artistic influences, Ausgang uses both old- and new-school media. He begins the design process on his computer and then finishes the work on an easel with paint. The result is eye-catching, unique, and mind-bending (see "Congratulations" album art above).

Ryden High

Mark Ryden's art is some of the trippiest stuff I've looked at in a while. He paints beautifully intricate and delicate images with recurrent themes of femininity, pop culture, life & death...and bloody meat. His work lures you in with beautiful colors and baby-like subjects and then throws you off balance with an unexpected twist, like a raw pork shank; see his "Incarnation" above.

His stuff is wonderful, perplexing, and disgusting all at the same time. The parallels to Hieronymus Bosch, of the 15th Century, are fairly endless, and I'm sure that Ryden is fine with that. (See below for Ryden's "The Magic Circus," 2001 and Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights," 1504)

Hi-Fructose is Eye Candy

Hi-Fructose is a quarterly contemporary art publication I somehow happened upon. I initially discovered the magazine through their webpage and was so transfixed by the art that I immediately bought a subscription for $26/year...I just had to.

As an Art History major, I feel ashamed to say that I rarely concern myself with the happenings of the current art world. I felt instantly reinvigorated and fascinated by what I spent the better part of four years doing: looking at interesting images.

The stuff featured in Hi-Fructose has a coherent theme: vivid colors, graphic line, fantasy-like characters, and twisted situations (Take a look at Alex Pardee's "Digested Rainbow" above). Sure, there is social/political commentary if you're into analyzing that sort of thing, but, if not, the art is just plain cool to look at.

Browse or subscribe here: http://www.hifructose.com/home.html