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Tuesday, Jan 29 2019, 6AM
Frontman Kevin Shields spent 2018 teasing the imminent release of two My Bloody Valentine EPs — one that was scheduled to drop over the summer (but never did), and a second slated for this spring. Speaking on the planned summer EP that never came to be, he said: “We’re trying to finish a short album of material… it was going to be an EP in the summer, but we decided not to and decided to make it longer.” Shields added, “So it will be seven tracks or eight tracks, hopefully will be finished in the end of November [2018].” Still waiting and we'll try to be patient!
This song was cited as a turning point by Billy Corgan in an interview about Siamese Dream: "I can remember bringing in 'Rhinoceros', which didn't sound like anything else we had. But after a while you get used to playing 'Rhinoceros', so you bring in something that's a little weirder."
A Cadillac commercial that used this song, which was released before the members of Hum were aware that a deal had been agreed upon. According to frontman Matt Talbott, he only learned of its existence when he was at a hotel and the commercial was playing. Suddenly, Talbott received a call from his wife, who informed him that others had seen the ad and were phoning their house.
While supporting Diary, the band allowed only one publicity photo and granted just a single interview, though strangely the band posed for an advertisement for Nordstrom. Sort of. In a 1998 interview, Hoerner explained that the band made up a fake band name and brought in a fake lead singer for the ad shoot, only to have the store stick their real band name on the ad. For most of its early days, the band also refused to play a show in California, for reasons that were never fully explained.
In the film Dark Secrets: The Stories of Rubberneck, Toadies frontman Vaden Todd Lewis told the story behind this song. "I was dating a girl and I had this dream that she had invited me to a party, so I'm going to go to this party. I'm walking down the street and as I get closer to the party there's a mailbox on fire, then there's a trash can on fire and then eventually there's just whole houses engulfed in flames. So, I'm getting closer to the party and I get to this house and I kind of walk around the back where the party is and it's all these people jumping around and dancing around. There's music, there's drums and there's a giant bonfire and one by one these people are throwing themselves into the fire.
The idea is that they were going to transcend their physical bodies by immolation, so they were going to burn themselves in order to become some higher power, something bigger outside the physical realm. And that's what 'I Burn' is about. That's taking the voice of somebody who was in that cult or whatever you want to call it."
The new album is just around the corner and you and preorder it on their bandcamp page: businessofdreams.bandcamp.com
The songs on Closer were drawn from two distinct periods. The earlier guitar-driven compositions were written during the latter half of 1979: "Atrocity Exhibition", "Passover", "Colony", "A Means to an End" and this track, "24 Hours". All were played live during that year, with some being recorded for various radio sessions. The album's other songs were written in early 1980, and included more prominent use of synthesisers: "Isolation", "Heart and Soul", "The Eternal" and "Decades".
Pitchfork referred to this album as "a mix of motivation and despair with sheer bombast." Find their review here: bit.ly
The B-side to "Moderation" is "Haunted House" and you can hear it here: bit.ly
Tori Amos explained "God" in an interview: "There's a division of power, male and female power, and there's a division within my own being. There's been a dishonoring of us with each other, and us with ourselves, and women against women, and men against men, and women against men... and that's how the song 'God' got written. The institutional God who's been ruling the universe, in the books, has to be held accountable. I want to have a cup of tea with him and just have a little chat. I feel like the song is a releasing, a sharing. It's honest and loving. And it's sensuous. It's the goddess coming forth and saying, "Come here, baby. I think you've had a bit of a rough job, and I don't mind helping out now." Which I think is really cute."
Lux Prima arrives March 15 via BMG, and is led by the new single “Woman.” “I like to write songs that anyone can relate to but this one felt especially for the inner child in me that needed the bullies out there to know you don’t fuck with me,” Karen O said in a statement.
You can find Brooks & Dunn performing the original version live here: bit.ly
"The year leading up to Historian, with its electoral disasters and other assorted heartbreaks, has been a rough one for many of us," Dacus wrote. She found solace in crafting a thoughtful narrative arc, writing a concept album about cautious optimism in the face of adversity, with thematic links between songs that reveal themselves on repeat listens. “It starts out dark and ends hopeful, but it gets darker in between; it goes to the deepest, darkest, place and then breaks,” she explains. “What I’m trying to say throughout the album is that hope survives, even in the face of the worst stuff.”
I appreciate that the vinyl edition of Big Colors is only available in plain old black. bit.ly
The lyric was written by Woody Guthrie, but Guthrie never recorded it or wrote music down for it. Nora Guthrie said that the the lyrics for the song contained the location where it was written. "He was living at a friend's house in Long Beach, 827 Cedar Avenue, the lyric says," Guthrie said. "So whoever's living there now, this song is yours. I don't have an exact date but I believe it was the late '30s."
Pixies have announced a brand New Album due this September. The as yet untitled album was written over the course of 2018 and recorded in December at Dreamland Recordings near Woodstock, NY. No Seattle date on their spring tour but you can catch them in Portland on April 6th!
Frank Black had a specific motivation for writing this song: An executive from his record company 4AD was flying in for a listen, and Black needed something to play him.
A puppet Aesop Rock plays with his real life cat in the most adorable thing you'll see today: bit.ly
In its opening week, Comfort Eagle sold about 72,000 copies, debuting at number 13 on the Billboard 200.
Bob Mould will be at Neumos on Saturday April 6th! Tickets & info: bit.ly
Jellyfish "The King Is Half Undressed" live on MTV's Spring Break 1991: bit.ly
Yes, they did perform "With A Cantaloupe Girlfriend" live on Conan O'Brien: bit.ly
Can't believe it is Thursday already! We're only a Friday song away from shutting this week down.
KEXP's song of the day for August 1, 2012. Just a reminder you should be subscribed! blog.kexp.org
Remember Dial-A-Song? TMBG have morphed it into an online version: dialasong.com
Bobby Bare Jr. performing "Rock and Roll Halloween" live on KEXP back in 2009: bit.ly
Nada Surf have announced 'Standing at the Gates: The Songs of Nada Surf's Let Go', an album of covers by an awesome group of artists including The Long Winters, Aimee Mann, Rogue Wave and many others as a part of Nada Surf's 'Let Go' 15th Anniversary. The album benefits the ACLU and Pablove Foundation.
The Long Winters have covered the track Hi-Speed Soul. Info & preorder: bit.ly
The Twilight Sad are coming to The Crocodile on Sunday, May 26th! bit.ly
Keep Your Eyes Ahead is 11 years old today! Check out The Helio Sequence performing "Hallelujah" live on KEXP from the Bumbershoot Music Lounge on September 2, 2012: www.youtube.com
We tried to go on a hunger strike here in the booth but then there were vegan ding dings from La Marzocco so...
The band's line-up was composed of vocalist Shawn Smith, guitarist Stone Gossard, bassist Jeremy Toback, and drummer Regan Hagar. The band originally wanted to go by the name Shame, however the band found that the name was already taken by a band featuring musician Brad Wilson. Instead, the band took the name Brad and decided to name its debut album Shame.
The Rural Alberta Advantage perform live in the KEXP Studio, with a set of tunes from their 2014 album, "Mended With Gold." Recorded 10/24/2014 - 4 songs: On the Rocks, Runners in the Night, The Build, Terrified. bit.ly
The music video was conceived by Terry Gilliam and Kate Bush as a short film. The video features Donald Sutherland playing the role of Wilhelm Reich, and Bush in the role of his young son, Peter. In 1950s Oregon, Reich and his son are trying to make his rainmaking machine work before the government agents arrive to arrest him. Watch it here: bit.ly
Mesa Luna is fronted by Justic McLellan who explained: "The song is about a person who's relationship is in a repetitive rut and they're trying to communicate to their partner, "Let's get away from this together." The opening line of the song, "If you feel nothing when you hold me in your arms / I wouldn't ask for you to lie," sets the honest tone of a very late night conversation and leads up to the romantic chorus and idea of escaping: "Let's leave this town / Grab your bags and lets go / The sun's coming out.""
The song is about past sour relationships, and was originally written and sung by Aimee Mann to a woman. 'Til Tuesday rehearsed that format in Boston the previous summer, but Epic was unhappy with the lyrics; they thought that it was a "very powerful, commercial song", and wanted to "remove the lesbian components to appeal to the mainstream market."
Uncle Anesthesia is 28 years old today! This was the last Screaming Trees album to feature drumming by original member Mark Pickerel.
NILÜFER YANYA are opening of Sharon Van Etten at The Neptune on February 23rd! That show is sold out but there are still tickets for the Portland show on the 21st: bit.ly
David Bowie was such a visionary that way back in 1977 he named this song for KEXP's new two-hour public affairs program will air on Saturdays 7 AM - 9 AM with the fabulous Emily Fox! How'd he know?
The song is a duet with Apollonia Kotero, and was originally intended for the Apollonia 6 album, but was pulled for the Purple Rain soundtrack.
Johnny Greenwood told NPR how the group recorded the track. "This song was one of the rare chances of getting our hands on an unfinished song, so we could put strings on right at the beginning," he said. "Usually strings are an afterthought, decoration on the end of a song. I've been saying for years, wouldn't it be great to start with strings."
"So this song was just Thom singing in a drum machine and nothing else," Greenwood continued. "And then I wrote strings to that. So you're hearing an orchestra play - they're strumming their violins with guitar plectrums, that's the rhythm."
The "Barbara, Barbara We Face a Shining Future" album title was something that Rick Smith's late father said to his mother said not long before he passed away. Karl Hyde told Billboard magazine: "His father was a great man, very inspiring and as soon Rick said that, before we got halfway through writing this material, it was just instant, 'Yeah, that's the title.'"
After a series of singles and an EP, "Candle" appears on Balms' self-released debut, Mirror, which the band describes in a press release as a "double-sided concept album":
"The album's narrative is a journey-of-self; an exploration confronting the shadow-aspect of the soul. That being said, the only two characters in this story are the Self and the Shadow. With this comes the introverted drama and solitude of the ego. And while this was a source of contention for us in terms of perception, it is our genuine hope that this album can exist as a place of reconciliation, revitalization and growth. It is a place that has been built for you because we had to make it and to make it the best we can." Mirror is out February 1st.
Here you can watch Operators performing "Cold Light" live at The Triple Door as part of KEXP's VIP Club concert series from April 4, 2016. bit.ly
The band licensed this song to the National Football League (NFL) to use in the 2010 Super Bowl. It was agreed that all proceeds from the license would be donated to Partner's In Health's relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake that devastated the country in January 2010.
The Joy Formidable performed "Whirring" live from Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop during KEXP's broadcast at SXSW on 3/17/201. Check it out: bit.ly
In 1985, Sonic Youth created a band called Ciccone Youth to glorify their obsessions with Madonna (Ciccone is Madonna's surname). Ciccone Youth released one album, The Whitey Album, but never toured.