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Monday, Aug 20 2018, 6AM
"Kind of Blue" was released 59 years ago last Friday - on August 17, 1959. Often cited as the greatest album of its genre, the record was highly influential not only for jazz musicians but for artists across many disciplines. The album includes performances by saxophone players John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley, pianist Bill Evans and Paul Chambers on bass.
The first single from their debut album, Reachin' (A New Refutation of Time and Space). The black-and-white music video was directed by Morgan Lawley - watch here: www.youtube.com
Debut single by the Dutch band. The name was taken from their debut album and samples the Ray Barretto song by the same name.
You can catch Knife Knights at Bumbershoot on September 1st. knifeknights.bandcamp.com
Check out this very cool video from Odesza about how they made this track: www.youtube.com
In the 1990s, London's Turnmill was the first club to get a 24-hour operation license, becoming *the* must-attend hotspot.
In 2008, Turnmill was closed for good after its lease expired. The warehouse was destroyed and turned into an office building, but Maribou State's Chris Davids and Liam Ivory are keeping its legacy alive with this track: "Turnmills was where we first experienced electronic music in a club setting. It’s a totally different and transformative listening experience and that communal spirit, atmosphere and feeling has inspired the way we've made music. Clubs are such important hubs for music discovery, especially of songs that you might have overlooked in a different setting. Partly through the feeling in the room and also through the memories attached to the records you hear."
Moses Sumney will be playing at Bumbershoot Friday, August 3. mosessumney.bandcamp.com
Check out the great video for this track: www.youtube.com
Leonard Cohen cover. RIP, Queen of Soul...
Lorely Rodríguez explained that she wrote this song “as a reaction to feeling like the word ‘woman’ put me in a box of things I was capable to do.” empressof.com
Fun fact: "Albion" is one of the oldest names for island of Great Britain, and it was while she was in England that this song began to take shape. Song Exploder just did a break down of this track where you can learn more about it. Definitely give it a listen! songexploder.net
Apparently Ben Gibbard is really into running! "Running is a foil to writing. I think when I was younger, music took every moment of my life. I was thinking about it, I was listening to it, when I was writing something, when I would walk away from it and still be thinking about it. It was very difficult to remove myself from it and get some distance and some perspective. Trail and mountain running, and ultra running, has brought me, maybe not a balance, but a perspective to my writing which I've found very beneficial. Getting away from thinking about music for hours at a time — five, six hours at a time on the trail — allows me to come back and the next day I'm sitting in my studio like, 'What did I work on a couple of days ago? OK, that part's good, but that thing needs some work.' I become a lot less precious about my work. So I think in that sense it's been helpful. But I don't write songs on the trail. I usually just listen to podcasts or don't listen to anything and pray there's not a bear around the corner." 🐻
The Love Language's Stuart McLamb explains the track: “New Amsterdam” is ultimately about being stuck in a rut but having such a strong desire to break out of it, whether it’s a town you’ve lived in too long and need a change of scenery, or an on-again, off-again relationship. One of the lyrics was originally “wish I could forget everything,” then a friend suggested I change it to “forgive” and that pretty much changed the whole song for me in a great way. www.thelovelanguage.com
Did you know it's National Radio Day? 📻 "National Radio Day is a time for communities across the country to celebrate radio. The goal is to strengthen the radio ecosystem, highlighting all kinds of radio, but especially stations that focus on local service." www.nationalradioday.com
"Radio Free Europe" was released in 1981 as R.E.M.'s debut single on the short-lived independent record label Hib-Tone. The song features "what were to become the trademark unintelligible lyrics which have distinguished R.E.M.'s work ever since." R.E.M. re-recorded the song for their 1983 debut album Murmur.
Iron & Wine has been performing the song live since at least 2013, but has just given it its first proper release ahead of the band's upcoming EP. ironandwine.com
Featuring lead vocals and lyrics by Elizabeth Fraser, the lead singer for the Cocteau Twins. While recording the song on 29 May 1997, Fraser found out that her once-close friend, Jeff Buckley, had drowned. "That was so weird ... I'd got letters out and I was thinking about him. That song's kind of about him – that's how it feels to me anyway."
According to David Gilmour, Producer Bob Ezrin had suggested the band add elements of disco, which was popular at the time. ""Go to a couple of clubs and listen to what's happening with disco music," so I forced myself out and listened to loud, four-to-the-bar bass drums and stuff and thought, Gawd, awful! Then we went back and tried to turn one of the [song's] parts into one of those so it would be catchy."
“Having this identity—radical indigenous queer feminist—keeps me going. My music and my identity come from the same foundation of being a Native woman.” Katherine Paul (aka KP) is Black Belt Eagle Scout, and Mother of My Children is her debut album. blackbelteaglescout.bandcamp.com
Rubblebucket will be playing Neumos Crystal Ball Reading Room on November 9th - rubblebucket.bandcamp.com
Sylvan Esso on how the track skewers the radio industry: "Part of it was anger at the pop machine, but part of it was also anger at myself for buying into it so hard... Getting on the radio is like trying to join the Mafia."
This one is for a listener who just finished an epic bike ride across Oregon. Welcome home!
Based on the idea of The Clash transmitting from their own pirate radio station, this track was written on return from their Bond's International Casino residency in New York.
Idles will be joining us on Thursday, October 4th for a live in-studio performance on the Morning Show. Mark! Your! Calendars! Find out more at www.kexp.org
"‘The song still follows me around. There’s a beer named after it now – and a loaf of bread’" - read about how The Orb made this track, including harmonica from an Ennio Morricone soundtrack, some drums from Harry Nilsson’s Jump into the Fire, and Lee “Scratch” Perry. www.theguardian.com
"Set Adrift on Memory Bliss" is built around samples of Spandau Ballet's "True", The Soul Searchers' "Ashley's Roachclip", and the Bob James version of Paul Simon's "Take Me to the Mardi Gras".
Saintseneca will be playing at the Sunset Tavern on October 19th. www.saintseneca.com
We're waiting for the sun here in Seattle. It's currently been replaced by some kind of firey smoke monster. 🔥
Nash on the making of his new album: "It’s all about finding, searching for little sparks of inspiration. It may be a sound, a groove, a colour, or even an object. Old things are inspiring. Whatever it is, when you find it, it spreads like a conflagration that is out of your control. It doesn’t matter if you’re making a record or living your life, find these inspirations with a vigil eye and watch them change both you and your world.” He'll be playing at the Sunset Tavern on October 16th. www.israelnash.com
Devotchka will play the Showbox ( ❤️ ) on September 20th. www.devotchka.net
"Idioteque" began as a rhythm created by Jonny Greenwood on a modular synthesizer, which, feeling it "needed chaos", he added found sounds and sampling to. He recorded 50 minutes of improvisation and gave it to Thom Yorke, who took a short section of it and used it to write the song. Yorke apparently said that "Some of it was just 'what?', but then there was this section of about 40 seconds long in the middle of it that was absolute genius, and I just cut that up."
"You bastards, you stole the show!" Queen's performance at Live Aid is known as one of the greatest ever. "Every band should study Queen at Live Aid," Dave Grohl later enthused. "If you really feel like that barrier is gone, you become Freddie Mercury. I consider him the greatest frontman of all time." Read about Queen's epic performance at Live Aid: ultimateclassicrock.com
We hope you dance, dance, dance, dance to the radio today since it's national radio day. 📻
Text "sera" to (206) 903-5397 for a chance to win tickets to see Sera Cahoone live. She'll be playing this Thursday, August 23rd at Neumos. www.seracahoone.com
Ian McCulloch says this is "more than just a song, it’s about everything in life.” Read the story behind the song: www.loudersound.com
M83's Anthony Gonzalez explains how the song came about: "When I was a kid, I had this cassette with someone telling these weird stories on it, and I was in love with it. My brother and I wrote the story for that song based on those cassettes. With that song, I wanted to start with something so ridiculous and basic and childish that then grows to something very touching and human." ilovem83.com
It's more of an orange Monday here in Seattle today with all the smoke and terrible air quality..
