4,992Shows
249,891Spins
Tuesday, Jan 23 2018, 6AM
Often described in the press as somewhat reclusive and private, Hayden has often limited his active promotional appearances and undertaken only small-scale touring.
In 2002, friends were jokingly referring to his concert dates to support Skyscraper National Park as "the Hayden's Not Dead Tour"
Upon the release of his album Us Alone in 2013, he joked that "I think I realized that you need to let people know you have a record out," and acknowledged that the death rumor was a key influence on his decision to sign with Arts & Crafts, rather than continuing to handle his promotional efforts on his own.
Nada Surf are coming to The Neptune on May 9th to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Let Go. Tickets here: bit.ly
The New York Times recently interviewed Tonya Harding. Spoiler alert, she's not interested in hearing this song! Here's the full article: nyti.ms
B.R.M.C. will be at the Showbox on February 20th. It's not sold out...yet. Find tickets here: bit.ly
No Alternative is an alternative rock compilation album released in 1993 to benefit AIDS relief. A television special hosted by MTV and a VHS home video release featured live performances, music videos, and information about AIDS. Here's the video for Glynis: bit.ly
Nabihah Iqbal's (formerly Throwing Shade) album Weighing of the Heart came out in December and you can find it on her bandcamp: nabihahiqbal.bandcamp.com
In an interview with Jezebel, Empress Of (a.k.a. Lorely Rodriguez) explained the song's meaning:
"Sometimes as a songwriter and a human, I feel very restricted by words. One word can have so much social implication, standard, limitation, qualification that it doesn't give a person their own opportunity to really choose their identity. I wrote 'Woman Is A Word' at a time when I felt like the word 'woman' put me in a box of things I was capable to do, things that defined me that didn't necessarily define me."
Station to Station saw Bowie adopt The Thin White Duke persona. Dressed in a white shirt, black trousers and waistcoat, The Thin White Duke was described by Bowie as "a nasty character indeed." Station to Station released today back in 1976!
The new album, Uncle, Duke & The Chief is out February 16th. Born Ruffians are also coming to Seattle on May 7th at Barboza. Find all their tour dates here: bornruffians.ca
Don't Change was INXS's first single to be released internationally and also the last song they ever played live.
Preoccupations are heading out on a world tour in support of the new album out March 23rd. They'll be at Barboza on May 11th.
Devo have been working on their first official DEVO book: "A unique 2-in-1, 300+ page, never-ending book with rubberized covers: flip it over when finished and begin again" More info and preorder: devobook.net
In an interview with Q magazine January 2008, Iggy Pop talked about how he and Bowie still had to do the everyday things during their "exile" in Berlin: "Living in a Berlin apartment with Bowie and his friends was interesting. Who did the chores? Well, I seem to remember doing a little hoovering. The big event of the week was Thursday night. Anyone who was still alive and able to crawl to the sofa would watch Starsky And Hutch."
Neil Diamond announced his retirement from touring, after a recent diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. “It is with great reluctance and disappointment that I announce my retirement from concert touring,” he said on his website. “I have been so honored to bring my shows to the public for the past 50 years.” He turns 77 this week and will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Grammys. www.nytimes.com
"We’ll be doing some new songs… and many others that will, I assume, be familiar. I’m excited. This is the most ambitious show I’ve done since the shows that were filmed for ‘Stop Making Sense,’ so fingers crossed."
- David Byrne. Go see him at The Paramount on May 24th! Tickets here: bit.ly
This song was inspired by an idea LCD Soundsystem leader James Murphy had for enlisting French electronic music duo Daft Punk for a film. He explained to ieallylovemusic.co.uk: "I tried to get them to play a house party. I love house parties from when I was a punk rock kid and I had spent so long obsessing on what was missing from indie rock that was present in dance music that I forgot what was present in indie music that was missing from house music. I just had this idea that someone might have gone through the same epiphany with dance music that they had and then ended up saving up to have Daft Punk to play in their basement. I wanted to do a documentary were we would get a local band to play in a basement, then us and then Daft Punk but film it like a proper rock show with the crowd shots and everything. And being the nature of what house parties are, not that many people would even know who Daft Punk are, which would be extra funny. There would just be this basement, Daft Punk, some kids, a keg and a washing machine. It would be great."
Hugh Masekela, the legendary South African jazz musician who recorded more than 40 solo albums and collaborated with artists ranging from Harry Belafonte to Paul Simon, has died at 78 after a protracted battle with prostate cancer. R.I.P. Hugh. n.pr
In a short film by Adrian Steirn for the Icons 21 series Masekela talks about receiving a trumpet for Louis Armstrong in 1956, speaking to imaginary friends in Zulu in Central Park and tells the inside story of how he got his nickname Slow Poison. Watch it here: bit.ly And check out this great photo of a 16 year old Hugh Masekela in 1956 leaping through the air with the trumpet sent to him by Louis Armstrong: bit.ly
Habbi Funk 007 "an eclectic selection of music from the arab world" includes "beautiful sounds from morocco, algeria, tunisia, egypt, sudan and lebanon." Find out more: bit.ly
The title Have Love, Will Travel is based on the popular television western serial Have Gun, Will Travel.
Jericho Sirens, the new album from Hot Snakes is out March 16th. The preorder "Loser Edition" is on black vinyl whereas the regular, in-store edition will be clear. Preorder here: bit.ly
The Brian Jonestown Massacre are playing Levitation 2018 in Austin, TX. Here's the list of festival evens so far: bit.ly
Just a couple days ago Lea Porcelain released the self-directed video to the single I Got To Run. Check it out: bit.ly
On Wednesday, August 8th and Friday, August 10th, our hometown heroes will take the stage at Safeco Field as part of their series The Home Shows. It’s been five years since the band last played a local show, and this will be the largest headlining concert event in Seattle since the Rolling Stones’ two-night stint at the Kingdome in 1981. blog.kexp.org
Watch Nirvana's awesome cover of Ledbelly's In the Pines from MTV's Unplugged: bit.ly
"No Lead Belly, no Beatles," George Harrison once said.
More than six decades after his death from Lou Gehrig's disease in 1949, the influence of the great blues and folk singer Leadbelly continues to reverberate through time. Tom Waits, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan and Jack White are just a few of the musicians who have been deeply influenced by Leadbelly. Kurt Cobain said that he was his favourite performer, adding "Isn't he all of ours?" Born in 1889, today is his birthday. bit.ly
Mark Lanegan owns an original 78 rpm record of Leadbelly's 1944 Musicraft version of In the Pines.
Black Betty is a 20th-century African-American work song often credited to Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter as the author, though the earliest recordings are not by him. Some sources claim it is one of Leadbelly's many adaptations of earlier folk material; in this case an 18th-century marching cadence about a flintlock musket.
The earliest known version of "Rock Island Line" was written in 1929 by Clarence Wilson, a member of the Rock Island Colored Booster Quartet, a singing group made up of employees of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad at the Biddle Shops freight yard in Little Rock, Arkansas. The lyrics to this version are largely different to the version that later evolved and became famous, with verses describing people and activities associated with the yard.
The first audio recording of the song was made by folklorist and musicologist John A. Lomax at the Tucker, Arkansas prison farm on September 29, 1934. Leadbelly accompanied Lomax to the prison.
Billy Bragg & Joe Henry performing Rock Island Line live on KEXP in October, 2016: bit.ly
Supposedly the early versions of Salty Dog were absolutely filthy. Makes sense given the title.
From Lead Belly to Led Zeppelin, the song “Gallows Pole” has had many lives. Descending from the old British ballad “Maid Freed from the Gallows,” the song took its most frequent current form from Lead Belly. Fred Gerlach’s later folk version shows Lead Belly’s influence, and it became a well-known song in the rock canon when Led Zeppelin recorded it in 1970. In an interview, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page cited Fred Gerlach’s version as the source for their version “Hangman”: “I first heard it [‘Gallows Pole’] on an old Folkways LP by Fred Gerlach, a 12-string player who was, I believe, the first white to play the instrument. I used his version as a basis and completely changed the arrangement”
Robert Plant & Jimmy Page performing Gallows Pole on Jools Holland's show in 1994: youtu.be
The lyrics to "Know Your Rights" are a very sarcastic look at oppression of the poor and working classes via limiting their human rights. Joe Strummer likely wrote them as a sarcastic response to a series of public service announcements in poor areas reminding the civilians of their basic human rights. International Clash Day is February 7th! Check out the new website and find an event near you! internationalclashday.com
"Santigold offers a polished assortment of global pop tunes produced by the likes of Q-Tip, TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek, Boys Noize, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner." Read Pitchfork's full review of Master of My Make-Believe here: bit.ly
The video is an odd mashup of performance footage and animation. Simon Fields, who was one of the top music video producers at the time, said in the book I Want My MTV: "We filmed a whole video, then Prince got a Japanese animator to do a completely different video and we mashed the two up. He would mess with directors. He would give them the impression that they'd be in charge of the video, then halfway through he'd go 'Thank you,' take what he liked, and edit it himself." See it here: bit.ly
According to Bruce Swedien, who was the engineer on the session, Jackson, his brother Randy and sister Janet tapped soda bottles with drumsticks to form some of the percussion at the beginning of this song. Swedien recorded this part using old ribbon microphones.
Janet told Ryan Seacrest: "He [Michael] had all these ideas and he needed someone to help him out. We were just kids, we were just babies, and so we're up there playing all kinds of percussion to help him create that to give to Quincy so they could put the real thing down."
This version of What It Means is off the their 11th album but they have also recorded a live single version of it at the Newport Folk Festival. Find it here: bit.ly Or hear it live in a few days on February 3rd at the Moore!
Mavis Staples is performing at the Skagit Casino February 16th & 17. www.theskagit.com She was just on Jimmy Kimmel's show - see her performing Build A Bridge bit.ly
All proceeds from sales of this release will go to benefit Emergent Fund, powered by RPM. Established in November 2016, the Emergent Fund "continues to protect and empower American communities."
Father John Misty performing Bored In The USA live in the KEXP studio on The Midday Show with Cheryl Waters. Recorded July 27, 2015: bit.ly
In case you didn't already have the movie "Pump Up The Volume" in your head now, here's Christian Slater playing Everybody Knows. Talk hard! www.youtube.com
The new album, Let's Make Love is out April 13th. They have a few 2018 tour dates set but nothing in Seattle...so far. We'll keep you posted!
A drunken Kim Wilde and Ricky Wilde serenade passengers on the train home in 2012... includes Kids In America and some Christmas songs. www.youtube.com
Sylvan Esso back in town in July. They're playing the Marymoor Amphitheater on July 14th
Their new album All Nerve is out March 3rd and The Breeders will be at the Showbox on April 13th! Here are all the tour dates: thebreedersmusic.com
Featured on The Morning Show - January 17th's song of the day! bit.ly Superchunk is playing Neumos on February 27th!
While the Pixies' 1991 album Trompe le Monde was being recorded, Frank Black had discussions with the album's producer, Gil Norton, about a possible solo record. He told Norton he was keen to record again, even though he had no new material; as a result, the two decided on a covers album. However, by the time Francis visited a recording studio again in 1992, he had "plenty of tunes and musical scraps".
He collaborated with Eric Drew Feldman of Pere Ubu to record new material; they began by trimming down the number of covers to one, The Beach Boys' "Hang On to Your Ego"
Dave Gregory of XTC on No Thugs In Our House: “We decided to record the guitar in the stone room at the Manor, with a really loud old 50 watt Marshall bass amp and a 4x12 at one end of the room, and a couple of ambient mikes at the other. But I couldn't stay in there. I had to have a long lead, shut the door, and stand in the studio. And I could still hear it without any headphones on.”
Luna LIVE on KEXP TODAY @ 3:00 PM. Get signed up to see them starting @ 1:30