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Tuesday, May 17 2022, 7AM
New sounds out of London. alabasterdeplume.bandcamp.com
Hi.
Just arrived from Montreux, Switzerland! First flight since pandemic!
I would have been a happy person in Montreux jazz festival some years ago! :)
Anything from Nina Simone would be sweet.
Many thanks,
Patrícia
A preview of tomorrow on the morning show, which will be FULL ON 1980 in celebration of KEXP's 50th birthday. It's a crazy great year to celebrate with music. Truly. Punk, hip hop, reggae, ska...it will blow your mind.
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An anti-apartheid protest song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel, inspired by the death of black South African anti-apartheid activist, Steve Biko, at the hands of police on September 12th, 1977.
These are the words, they're as old as the hills
Cooked on a diet of mushrooms and pills
One man's crime is another man's thrill
spiritualizedband.bandcamp.com
Luxembourg-based Jana Bahrich, aka Francis of Delirium, has recently released a new EP, which she shares "was largely a way for me to process and adapt to the chaos that continued to be more and more present in our everyday life. As I was writing the EP, it felt like every moment got weirder along with my headspace. I was inspired to mimic that mayhem by using heavier guitars and darker tones, leaning into drum sounds that were massive and bombastic, drawing from bands like Slint and The Smashing Pumpkins."
“Mirrors” definitely leans into that vibe, with Bahrich singing over heaving, shoegaze-tinged guitars. bit.ly
From Florence + the Machine’s new record, 'Dance Fever', out now. The band will be performing in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena on October 6th, 2022.
This song was the album's leading single and was first teased in a letter sent out to some fans in February, that read “CHAPTER 1” and had a card inside. On the following day, billboards throughout London had the same card displayed, and the band’s website was updated with 15 cards, the first one being the “KING”, and an announcement that new music would be coming soon.
The National released I Am Easy to Find on this day in 2019.
The National have long performed this song live before releasing it on any album; the album version includes vocals from Gail Ann Dorsey (known for residency in David Bowie's band and Tears for Fears) and Irish vocalist Lisa Hannigan, whose distinctive husky velvet voice once backed Damien Rice.
Here is The National's in-studio session Live on KEXP back in 2017: youtu.be
The debut from Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, and drummer Tom Skinner’s new project.
The latest from Kikagaku Moyo's fifth and final album, Kumoyo Island. The band announced they will be taking an indefinite hiatus following the new record.
Kikagaku Moyo began in 2012 as the duo of drummer/vocalist Go Kurosawa and guitarist/vocalist Tomo Katsurada. While spending time in the U.S. during college studies, they attended their first DIY house shows, which contrasted strikingly with venues in Japan charging musicians $300 to perform a 30-minute set. This inspired them to write lyrics in an imaginary language of invented syllables in the attempt to make their music universal, as they played early gigs busking under cherry-blossom trees and outside of train stations. Later on, Go's brother Ryu joined the band and bassist Kotsuguy was recruited after the bandmates heard him recording the sound of vending machines for his drone project.
bit.ly
The song's single version was a live version, recorded at Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, from the soundtrack of their 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, named for a lyric from the song.
"Big Baglama’ is a beautiful instrumental piece that captures the sound of an Acoustic Diwan Saz - known as a baglama - integrating it in a series of riffs connected by a funky groove. The baglama gives off a fresh and lively feeling, despite the vintage flavour provided via the spacey synth and rippling drums."
satellites-tlv.bandcamp.com
Paul McCartney released "Ram" on this day in 1971, but it wasn't released in the UK until May 21st, 1971.
New collaboration out in August also features MF DOOM, Raekwon & Kid Sister, Joey Bada$$ with Russ & Dylan Cartlidge, Conway the Machine, A$AP Rocky with Run the Jewels and Michael Kiwanuka. Smooth sample on this tune from Hugh Masekela's '68 recording of "Stop."
“About Damn Time” is Lizzo’s first release in 2022 after a brief short hiatus from her previous collaborative single, “Rumors”, with rapper Cardi B.
The song was first revealed and teased on The Late Late Show with James Corden earlier this year, which featured a snippet of the pre-chorus and chorus. The following day Lizzo teased the first lines through a TikTok video.
The new Lizzo album will be out July 15th and she will be playing in Seattle on November 9th at Climate Pledge Arena!
www.lizzomusic.com
“‘Anniversary’ is a special song for us,” John Taylor said in a statement. “Obviously we were conscious of our own impending 40th anniversary of making music together, but we wanted the song’s meaning to be inclusive in the broadest possible way. After playing and working together for so long, we very much appreciate what ‘being together’ and ’staying together’ can really mean, it’s not something we would have thought song-worthy 40 years ago but we do today! It was also fun to build a track with hints of previous Duran hits, they’re like Easter eggs, for the fans to find.”
The Psychedelic Furs and X will be playing in Seattle at the Woodland Park Zoo on August 7th!
From the recording of Evel Knieval attempting to canyon jump across the Snake River on his specially engineered rocket motorcycle in 1974.
You MUST watch this. It's sooooo 1974. www.youtube.com
We've just gotten ahold of the latest from Built To Spill. It's a song called "Understood" from their forthcoming release When The Wind Forgets Your Name, out September 9th via our Sub Pop pals.
The song is inspired by Evel Knievel trying and failing to jump his rocket-powered motorcycle over the mile-wide expanse of Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls, Idaho. Knievel’s parachute malfunctioned, and it took him safely down to the bank of the river below. Martsch, is a native of Twin Falls, and likely had the KICK ASS Evil Knievel toy chopper cycle. Ahem.
Since we’ve all agreed that you’re not always on my mind, just mostly all the time.
Quivers for the spring win!
Shayne in Calgary
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Here's Quivers performing "You're Not Always On My Mind" live in the KEXP studio in 2019. - www.youtube.com
Belle and Sebastian say 'Unnecessary Drama' is “about a young person experimenting in being a human again after a forced hiatus."
bit.ly
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Belle and Sebastian play in Seattle at The Paramount Theatre on Tuesday, May 31st. belleandsebastian.com
belleandsebastian.bandcamp.com
Soccer Mommy will be in Seattle for Day In, Day Out Festival on August 12: www.dayindayoutfest.com
Soccer Mommy performed live in the KEXP studio in November 2021. youtu.be sopharela.bandcamp.com
New music from Stella Donnelly, the new album, Flood, is out on August 26th. Stella will be playing in Seattle at Neumos on September 17th.
“For us it’s a song that completely captures this record and us as a band. It feels like the perfect development from our previous releases to our debut album and exactly how this record should be introduced. The balance of driving guitar riffs and the groove of the drums and bass is sort of a snapshot of the album.”
bit.ly
theloungesocietyhb.bandcamp.com
“We named the song Tennis as a logical (but unrelated) sequel to our two previously released sports-related songs,” the band added. “To us, this felt like a natural ending to that idea. Dynamically, the second part of the song is supposed to represent a shift in tone for the character in which they realise their own worth and leave the situation that is set within the first part of the song.”
bit.ly
courtingband.com
McLusky released The Difference Between Me and You Is That I'm Not on Fire on this day in 2004!
A happy birthday to Trent Reznor, American singer-songwriter, musician, composer, and producer (Nine Inch Nails, How to Destroy Angels, and Tapeworm), born on this day in 1965!
Second single from the band's upcoming album Fear Fear.
workingmensclub.bandcamp.com
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Here's Working Men's Club performing live on KEXP At Home - www.youtube.com
Rush & Fever was selected by John as KEXP's Song of the Day back in 2020.
www.kexp.org
nationoflanguage.bandcamp.com
Here's the story of this theatrical industrial/dance group out of Chicago: www.allmusic.com
mylifewiththethrillkillkult.com
"White Rabbit" is a song written by Grace Slick and recorded by Jefferson Airplane. It draws on imagery from Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass.
The Black Angels are an American psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas. Formed in May 2004, they took their name from the Velvet Underground's "The Black Angel's Death Song.
Chris Carroll is a local singer-songwriter and producer based in Seattle, WA. crscrl.bandcamp.com
Hey John and colleagues,
I hope you're all doing ok today. I'm wondering whether you can fit in Orville Peck's cover of "born this way" this morning.
I have been thinking a lot recently about how vulnerable non-binary individuals are in our society, and that they are under attack right now. It's got me feeling pretty down. It boggles my mind that so many people are actively working to create a hostile world. I wish that more people would want to live in a compassionate society...
Thanks for the work you all do toward creating that world, and giving us so much good music to listen to.
Eastman
Valerie June's dazzling cover of Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You.”
valeriejune.com
The Hunt covering Zola Jesus' "I Can't Stand."
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For comparison, here's the original 2010 song from Zola Jesus: www.youtube.com
