Arthur Russell contest #1

So I have a couple copies of the recent Arthur Russell compilation, Love Is Overtaking Me, to give away. The songs were culled from hundreds of reels of tape he left behind when he died in 1992. Stylistically they veer toward Americana, but many have his signature electronic beats and complicated rhythms.

You can enter to win a copy by sending me an email answering the following trivia question correctly: The Kitchen, the experimental performance venue for which Russell served as music director, was started in the kitchen of another downtown performance venue, located at 240 Mercer St. What was the name of that venue? Send the answer to bew2@nyu.edu for a chance to win one of three copies of the CD. You must be at the showing Tuesday night to receive the prize.

Here's how Rolling Stone described the release when it came out last year:

Arthur Russell was the secret link between New York music scenes of the Seventies and Eighties — an experimental composer, a pathbreaking disco producer, a rocker in Talking Heads' orbit, a wildly original singer. His downfall, though, was a perfectionism that kept him from finishing his recordings. Culled from his ample archives, this set collects unheard pop songs from 1973 to 1991, a year before his death from AIDS-related complications. Russell's lighter-than-air voice, murmuring about big-city love, recalls Nick Drake, and his filigreed melodies are stingingly gorgeous. These bashed-out renditions sound open-ended, as if he meant to tweak them later. Still, lapidary songs like "Don't Forget About Me" are even more precious for having been snatched from the mouth of oblivion.

And here's The Onion's AV club review.