Space 15 Twenty has been killing it lately! The L.A. event/retail space that hosted our super fun Where the Wild Things Are photo exhibit and pop-up shop in September has since brought David Kramer’s mind-blowing video art show, Main Street, to glorious fruition, presented a free Girls concert last weekend, and are about to open a fantastical exhibition of DIY fashion designer Susan Cianciolo’s work, called Mountains and Flowers. On top of that, the opening of Mountains and Flowers this Saturday will also feature the debut solo performance of the ethereal Aska.

You loved her as the leader of Moonrats, David Scott Stone’s counterpart in AsDSSka, and an Aaron Rose co-conspirator in The Sads– and now you get to experience the pure, unfettered Aska. With a voice like a sunbeam melting a glacier, you’ll feel like an owl being cooed to sleep by its mother. Check out a cozy acoustic performance by Aska below, and don’t miss her first live show tomorrow at 4pm!

Aska Matsumiya of The Sads and Moonrats + David Scott Stone = AsDSSka (much like celebreviations “TomKat” or “Brangelina,” but with a deluge of unyielding consonants blocking futile attempts at pronunciation). Quoth the AsDSSka MySpace: “Matsumiya is a classical trained pianist and the single, ‘25′, features a slow debussy-like piano refrain accompanied by her delicate voice and Stone’s ethereal modular synthesizer drones.” Delicate and ethereal is right– other acceptable descriptors would include “otheworldly” and “exquisite.” The gorgeous video for “25,” seen above, was directed by Spike and fellow VBS.tv contributor Crystal Moselle.

If you’re in the Los Angeles area, come check out AsDSSka at Family Bookstore on May 24th, backed by Becky Stark’s 14-dame strong ensemble, The Ladies Choir. Here’s a clip of The Ladies Choir covering Yoko Ono’s “Sisters O Sisters”:

Art Rock is a genre you don’t hear much about these days. I guess mostly because it kind of goes without saying that if you are in a band in 2009, you are probably an artist of some degree and have likely experimented with all forms and derivations of music-meets-installation type shenanigans and therefore qualify to post your album under the art rock banner. That’s why we like The Sads so much. They are approaching art rock with the fervor of a militant straight edge band from Orange County.

Hosting shows in museums and gallery spaces across the US and throughout Europe Aaron Rose, David Scott Stone, Aska Matsumiya and Dan Monick (each link-worthy art stars in his/her own right) have been pretty much blowing the lid off the how-awesome-can-weird- music-be/how-weird-can-awesome-music-be scenario. 

For proof one needs not look any further than their concept for the “Silent Show.”
Weird? Totally! Awesome? For sure!