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Tuesday, Jul 16 2019, 6AM
San Fermin frontman Ellis Ludwig-Leone had this to say about the song in a press release: "'The Hunger' is the result of a late-night discussion with a female friend about the difficulties of dating in the city. There's a line, 'why'd I wear these fucking shoes,' that's basically lifted right from that conversation. I think there's something heroic in the process of getting your hopes up time and again, even in the face of constant disappointment. " San Fermin will be at Neumos on November 2nd!
According to Nick Launay, one of the two producers, the recording of It's Blitz was unusual for being largely written and created in the studio at a time when record labels had cut back on production budgets. Launay described a typical session as follows:
Brian Chase would play lots of different drumbeats and we'd record it, chop it up and then make a groove loop out of it. Nick Zinner would then just jam to it, and we'd come up with an interesting rhythm part. Karen O would listen to that and come up with a vocal melody and then suddenly everything would fall into place.
Brandi Carlile is playing three nights at Benaroya Hall with the Seattle Symphony in December! Friday the 13th (!) through Sunday the 15th
First Aid Kit performed "Waitress Song" live in the KEXP studio on November 15, 2014. See it here: bit.ly
Kurt Vile played an amazing show in the Gathering Space last December: bit.ly
Welcome back, David Berman, a literary indie-rock great who’s been gone way too long. Berman’s debut with his new band Purple Mountains is his first release since retiring his beloved band the Silver Jews eleven years ago. At the Neptune September 13th!
Calexico + Iron & Wine will be at The Thing festival in Pt Townsend August 24th - 25th: thingnw.org
Tiny Changes: A Celebration of The Midnight Organ Fight review – astounding tribute to a lost talent. Read all about the album here: bit.ly
Black Francis said of the lyrics to the song, "It's folklore based; the Rosicrucians of 1920s San Jose California had some pretty interesting ideas." We had to look up Rosicrucians too: en.wikipedia.org
On this cover of "Cactus", Bowie plays all the instruments except for bass and it is his only recorded drum performance.
Wilco has announced it'll release the band's 11th studio album October 4th. Drawing its title from the poetry of Friedrich Schiller — and Beethoven's Ninth symphony — Wilco's Ode to Joy will feature what frontman Jeff Tweedy calls "really big, big folk songs," including the album's first single, "Love is Everywhere (Beware)."
Happy birthday to Jeremy Enigk! He performed “Abegail Anne" live at Little London Plane during Upstream Music Fest, May 11, 2017. See it here: bit.ly
This song stems back to Eric "Wreckless Eric" Goulden's days of studying fine art at Hull Art College and was inspired by words of encouragement from his mum. (She told her son that one day he'd find a girl in the world just for him). Goulden recalled to Mojo magazine June 2014: "I was trying to avoid this girl I was going out with. I went to the university bar because I never went there, had a drink, then I sat on a bench on the Cottingham Road and wrote most of the words to the song on the back of an envelope. I had this melody and I was sure I could just use two chords in the song," he continued. "I kept on singing the song on the way home to try and remember it: 'When I was a young man. My mother said to me....'
I got home and found the girl sitting on the doorstep," Goulden added. "She said where have you been? We were meant to go out.' I told her I'd been busy and I rushed inside. I didn't have an amp in my room so I had the bass wedged up against my wardrobe so I could hear what I was playing trying to work out the two chords."
"I suppose I split up with her while I was trying to write the song, which makes me a bit of a heel," he concluded.
So many opportunities to see Black Belt Eagle Scout coming up.. Yəhaw̓ August 1st, Pickathon Aug 2nd & 4th, Summer @ SAM Aug 22nd, and the Thing Festival Aug 25th!
Lucy Dacus is at Neumos on October 22nd! Tickets & info: bit.ly
Generationals are playing The Crocodile with Pure Bathing Culture on August 28th! bit.ly
This song was inspired by the North American ice storm of 1998, which left Montreal in a blackout for over a week. bit.ly
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots is the tenth studio album by The Flaming Lips, and was released today back in 2002.
Left at London performed live on the Morning Show March 27, 2019. Just posted: bit.ly Catch Left at London on Sunday at 4:30 from the Wild Rose for the Capitol Hill Block Party
Diamond Life, Sade's debut album was released on this date in 1984 in the UK. That's 35 years! The US release had to wait for February 27th, 1985.
Originally intended to be recorded by Apollonia 6, "The Glamorous Life" is the title track and closing song on Sheila E.'s debut solo album, and reached number 7 on the U.S. pop charts, as well as number 1 on the U.S. dance charts, as well as two Grammy Award nominations and three MTV Award nominations.
There’s zero information about the band, except that they are part of independent label Forever Living Originals.
Two months ago they shared their first single “We Are The Sun”, followed by “Don’t Waste My Time”. Now the mysterious band dropped an amazing 14-track debut album with funk and soul infused feel-good alternative rock. You can find the album here: smarturl.it
Since I Left You is the debut studio album by Australian electronic music group the Avalanches. It was produced by group members Robbie Chater and Darren Seltmann (under the pseudonym Bobbydazzler), and uses sampling extensively, containing an estimated 3,500 samples from various genres. The album was recorded and produced at two separate, near-identical studios by Chater and Seltmann, exchanging audio mixes of records they sampled.
Karen O told Rolling Stone regarding this soundtrack: "My job was to come up with simple, childlike melodies reminiscent of hooks of great old pop songs that you can't shake." Job done.
Happy birthday to Stewart Copeland, drummer for The Police. What was it like for The Police having their first hit be a song about a prostitute? Stewart Copeland: "To the extent that there was cause for concern would be the extent to which we got a thrill from it. We were a punk band, officially. That was our mission, that was our purpose."
When the "Klark Kent" album came out, The Police had just released Zenyatta Mondatta and were at the peak of their success, and as such it got a lot of media attention. It was widely assumed that this was Copeland working under a pseudonym. Copeland initially denied being Klark Kent, stating that Kent was just a friend and that he helped him making the album. In an interview on Australian TV in 1981 he stated that Kent was a young Hungarian ballet instructor trained by the CIA.
Stef Chura will be live on KEXP at noon on August 1st! Get signed up starting 90 minutes before to see her
Gang Of Four singer Jon King told Clash Magazine: "The song was on our debut Fast Product EP, which became a big indie hit. But we weren't paid a cent for our work, majorly ripped off, so we re-recorded it for Entertainment!. I regret not punching out the bloke who ran the label. (Note to self: do this before you die) We're often asked "why did you sign to a major label if you're so alternative?" One answer: EMI at least paid us for the records it sold."
You could take Dan Boeckner for granted. In fact, you probably are taking Dan Boeckner for granted. Over the last two decades, most of us first got to know Boeckner as one of Wolf Parade’s primary songwriters, then as the leader of Handsome Furs, then as Britt Daniel’s partner-in-crime for Divine Fits, and finally as the frontman of Operators.
Fever Ray has dropped two new versions of “I’m Not Done”, originally from the project’s self-titled debut. One rendition is a live performance taken from the forthcoming Live at Troxy LP, while the other is a complete update called “I’m Not Done (Still Not Done)”.
The live recording of “I’m Not Done” is taken from a March 2018 concert in London and features Fever Ray’s Karin Dreijer alongside Helena Gutarra and Maryam Nikandish. That rendition ended up being the basis for the new “I’m Not Done (Still Not Done)” mix, which Dreijer described in a press release as “a track from the first album in new costume.” It’s also said to signify “the beginning of the end of another Fever Ray cycle of work.” Live at Troxy will be released digitally on August 2nd via Mute.
"A quiet Friday afternoon by London’s Regent’s Canal. Two dads who have known each other since they were 11 – they’re now 39 – are having lunch without the kids. One is a smiling, broad-shouldered bear in a pink T-shirt. The other is smaller and bespectacled, hiding under a baseball cap. They look slightly hipsterish, but blend into the background seamlessly. A huge yellow bag and rucksack under the table contain their rather different outfits for later that day." The Guardian sat down with Hot Chip: bit.ly
Disintegration was Robert Smith's thematic return to a dark and gloomy aesthetic. Smith deliberately sought to record an album that was depressing, as it was a reflection of the despondency he felt at the time - because he was tuning 30.
New Age Healers' album release party is at The High Dive on the 19th! bit.ly They'll also be live on KEXP on the 25th at noon!
Andy Bell of Ride: We were rehearsing one day in a cavernous room in Oxford, with a really big natural reverb. When we started to play this song out, and flesh out the arrangement, there was this huge drum sound – which was the Dreams Burn Down drum sound. At the time it wasn’t the beat that started the song, but because that beat sounded so great in that room we decided ‘let’s start it with that sound’ and then it became a production thing, ‘When we record it we’ll make sure it has that big reverb’. Loads of things like that happened, on the way from the first verse and chorus on a cassette to being a finished, produced record. This part of the track listing does confuse me, I’ve got to admit. There’s two really fast songs and then there’s a couple of really slow songs, but it definitely made sense at the time. We saw the album as two separate sides – we were very conscious it was four and four. Having a really strong song at the beginning of side two is something we did talk about a lot, so that’s probably why it ended up here.”
When you have a voice like Brittany Howard, just about anybody looks good singing along. But when that person singing along is former NFL player, current Brooklyn Nine-Nine actor and generally beloved human being Terry Crews, it's all the more sweeter. Watch the official video here: youtu.be
“Over time, we really just give less of a fuck,” says singer and bassist Julia Cumming. “That’s what rock needs in 2018, and that’s what the EP is saying. We’re free to be aggressive and fun and weird.”
The track for this song was based on a sample of "Bring It Here" by Wild Sugar. By 1988, sampling had become commonplace on many hit songs and there was still no legal precedent for clearing the samples. This song almost became the test case, as Wild Sugar came after The Beasties for compensation, but the case went away, most likely settled out of court. It was in the best interest of the Beastie Boys and their label Columbia Records to keep the big test case out of court so they could continue rhymin' and stealin', which they did for a few more years. It wasn't until 1991 that the big lawsuit happened: Gilbert O'Sullivan suing Biz Markie for sampling his song "Alone Again (Naturally)." This is when the law came down that all samples had to be cleared.
In addition to the Beasties, this song was sampled by NWA on "Quiet On the Set" and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince on "You Saw My Blinker"
Celebrating the music and influence of Desmond Dekker on what would have been his 78th birthday
"Rudy" (or Rudi, Rude boy) is Jamaican slang for criminal juveniles.
Jimmy Cliff's first producer, Leslie Kong, used to run an ice cream parlor and restaurant in Kingston, Jamaica. The shop was called Beverly's and it also sold records. One night, Cliff was walking by the store late at night as they were closing. On a whim, he decided to go in and ask Kong if he'd be interested in making records with him. Kong agreed and Cliff's career started taking off soon after.
Lead singer Angelo Moore and keyboard/trombone player Chris Dowd on "Everyday Sunshine":
"That's a Sly Stone influenced song. Chris Dowd wrote that one. He wrote the first half and I wrote the end. It was a church-style song. We were just going into it, man. Because back then we were emulating a lot of our favorite bands: The Specials, Sly Stone, Funkadelic, James Brown, Led Zeppelin, all those people. All those different styles would pop up while we were doing different jams. Rick James was another one. We be playing Rick James up in there."
Born in Zambia, raised in Botswana, and now based in Melbourne, her upbringing continues to bear an influence on her music. Moving to Australia six years ago, the connections she made there have propelled her to where she now stands. Living in Sydney when she first arrived, it was the shock of losing a close friend which prompted her to take the leap to try to become an artist. Going to the city’s weekly Jazz Hip-Hop Freestyle sessions for the first time, she went onstage to join the band and continued to go there each week, building up a network of like minded music heads.
There is really no information online about Sault. Even their instagram is 9 copies of their album cover and 1 of a t-shirt. www.instagram.com
Floating Points is the electronic project of UK producer Sam Shepherd. “I started going back to my early records and all the sounds I loved playing at clubs like Fabric and Plastic People. I wanted to capture the immediacy of that music and the feeling that I got when I was on the dancefloor, of being immersed in a track that pulls you along instantly,” Shepherd said in a statement. “I actually made these tracks quite quickly, which helped to get rid of any desire to overthink the music – it’s essentially the sound of me having loads of fun with the machines in my studio and going back to basics.”
The song is a somewhat fantastical biography of Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, who flew to Great Britain in 1941 in an attempt to negotiate a peace between Germany and the UK, supposedly because of his disillusionment with National Socialism.
"C·30 C·60 C·90 Go" is the debut single by Bow Wow Wow. It was the world's first-ever cassette single.
Find Pitchfork's review of Amyl and the Sniffers here: bit.ly
An early Nirvana song about being trapped in middle-class America, this was a song the band developed during live performances in 1989 when they toured Europe with their Sup Pop labelmates TAD. In an interview, Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt explained that this song was "hypnotic," and a stylistic breakthrough for the band. "Audiences would become ecstatic," Pavitt said. "They were experiencing Nirvana. And when you're experiencing really good, primal rock n roll, you break into a trance."
See Avalanche Party performing "7" live at Studio 9294 in Hackney Wick, London, during KEXP's International Clash Day broadcast. Amazing performance! bit.ly
You can purchase Mirror Ferrari's "Vater" at their Bandcamp page: mirrorferrari.bandcamp.com
'Sun so bright that I'm nearly blind...." Read the disconcerting lyrics to this song: songmeanings.com