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Monday, Jan 22 2018, 6AM
This song is about birds flying away when an earthquake is about to happen. The Whittier Narrows earthquake hit Southern California on Oct. 1, 1987, about a month after the album’s release. Michael Stipe told Rolling Stone “A lot of my friends from the West Coast called me immediately, because they wanted to know when the next one was coming,” Stipe told Rolling Stone later that fall. “I usually get headaches when an earthquake happens – when Mexico City went down [in 1985], I was on my back for three days, really bad." 🐦
The Pixies are playing the White River Amphitheatre on August 4th. www.pixiesmusic.com
From their second album. Fun fact: The two towers pictured on the album's cover are The Westin Seattle towers.
Built to Spill & Afghan Whigs will be playing at the Showbox on May 15th. builttospill.com
New album out March 16th! Yo La Tengo will play the Neptune June 1st. www.yolatengo.com
Last September, September, KEXP journeyed to Montreal, Quebec, for the 16th annual POP Montreal Music Festival and took up a four-day residence at the influential Breakglass Studios. Among the 13 amazing bands we were able to book for this exclusive lineup was The Barr Brothers. Read more, and watch a video of the performance over at the KEXP blog: blog.kexp.org
Out of New York, Amen Dunes is Damon McMahon, Jordi Wheeler, and Parker Kindred. amendunes.bandcamp.com
Released on Christmas Day, Frightened Rabbit recently encouraged fans to donate to Alzheimer’s Scotland, which helps people affected by dementia in Scotland. frightenedrabbit.com
Apparently Smith didn't want to admit exactly what he was singing in the chorus: In an interview, he was asked "It sounds like 'sugar lift me up', is it 'sugar' something?" He replied "Yeah, but I can't say because it's too stupid. I have no idea what I meant by it. At the time it made perfect sense but now I just don't want anybody to know." cwas.hinah.com
Playing Thursday, February 1 at the Tractor Tavern w/Ghost Foot & The Shivas. www.subpop.com
O wrote this song to soundtrack a short film for fashion line Kenzo's spring/summer campaign. "For the music, I immediately wanted to do melodramatic and romantic and with lots of yearning and high stakes – all the good stuff that's in any Korean soap opera," the singer said in a statement."
Check out the video, which the band describe: “The video shows a priest who visibly struggles with himself and with the life that he has chosen, in search of something that he enjoys, in the dreary everyday life. And when he searches for truth, he starts to dance. And he feels he sacrifices himself for something he now doubts, whether it exists, in which he tries to feel himself again and to exist himself.” youtu.be
Cover of Tommy James & The Shondells’ “I’m Alive” from 1968. “Being alive is radical right now,” said Ditto of her cover choice, “so let’s live!” Ditto plays the Showbox March 29th. www.bethditto.com
Playing the Showbox February 20th w/Night Beats. www.blackrebelmotorcycleclub.com
The National recently announced a "Homecoming" show in their hometown of Cincinnati. April 28-29, joined by Father John Misty, Feist, Future Islands, The Breeders, Lord Huron, Julien Baker, Moses Sumney, Alvvays & Big Thief. americanmary.com
According to Bernard Sumner, "Love Vigilantes" is one of the few songs for which he started out wanting to tell a story rather than his usual method of writing lyrics to match the mood of a piece he'd composed. He said that he'd "decided to write a Redneck song. Allmusic.com describes it as "at its core a campfire singalong." 🔥
Born on this day in 1960: Michael Hutchence, founding member and lead singer of INXS.
New Shins! They planned this album as an "opposite" to their Heartworms album, flipping fast songs to slow, slow to fast, and reversing the track list.
Portland transplant Dana Buoy is a project by songwriter, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Dana Janssen (Akron/Family) and long-time collaborator Justin Miller. Their new album is "A polished and atmospheric examination of missed connections and altered states, where the thrum of 21st century psychedelia meets European dance floor chic". www.danabuoy.com
They're playing this Thursday here at KEXP at noon!
More here: www.kexp.org
Colin Meloy describes upcoming album "I'll Be Your Girl" as "an apocalyptic dance party." The band admits it's a departure from their usual sound, telling Willamette Week that "When you've been a band for 17 years, inevitably there are habits you fall into... We wanted to free ourselves from old patterns," Meloy said, "and give ourselves permission to try something different." Well, this is definitely different - and AWESOME.
Did you know that there's a Ned's Atomic Dustbin beer? Yep, Ned's Atomic Dustbin teamed up with Froth Blowers Brewery Co. to launch a limited-edition real ale, Ned's Wonder. It's a "balanced golden ale with a floral start and a subtle caramel finish". 🍻 www.nedsatomicdustbin.com
“It’s about someone who’s trapped in a relationship and they’re being pummelled into surrender,” says singer and lyricist Charlie Steen. “It’s not about a physically abusive relationship – more an emotionally and psychologically draining one. The call-and-response vocals [between Steen and bassist Josh Finerty] is the central figure’s own internal dialogue. They are dealing with two different things that they don’t want to address.” shamebanduk.bandcamp.com
The character Ray Smith in the Jack Kerouac novel The Dharma Bums repeatedly says "What difference does it make?" as well as "Pretty girls make graves", the title of another track featured on The Smiths.
From the LA band's second full-length album. www.theluxembourgsignal.com
Please enjoy the 80's-tastic music video for this song: www.youtube.com
Get ready for International Clash Day on February 7th! Check out internationalclashday.com 🤘
The Slits supported The Clash on their 1977 White Riot tour along with Buzzcocks, The Prefects and Subway Sect.
The band explained that this song is about remaining awake and critical of "scary populist rhetoric" within "the incessant echo chamber of ideas that is social media and meme culture." As its members exhort: "For the record — ask questions! Don't believe — ask questions!" soundcloud.com
Spoon joined us here at KEXP for an in-studio performance in November, which you can check out in its entirety over on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com
Cracker, on how the song came to be: "We were soundchecking in Portland, all a little bit hungover, and I was just making noise. I started looping that riff over and over, and David and Davy got up and started playing it, too. We kept playing until we had four chords and David asked the front-of-the-house guy to record it. I probably would have forgotten that riff if it had not been recorded.?" Hangovers FTW! You can read more in their interview with SPIN: www.spin.com
Playing Neumos March 1st, as well as The Morning Show (HEY THAT'S US!) that day at 9am! www.buffalotom.com
Playing tomorrow at 3PM here at the KEXP home! www.kexp.org
Check out the incredible animated video for this track, directed by Heather Rappard. It involved using glycerine as paint thinner and was painstakingly shot in 15-second increments over the course of three weeks. youtu.be
They're back, with their first new release in 14 years. "In honor of our collective year of living dangerously, we’ve released Grand Bargain!, the first song off our upcoming album of the same name. We hope it helps you vent your anger at the state of the union as much as it helped us!" posterchildren.com
Produced by The Kills' guitarist Jamie Hince.. www.wearepins.co.uk
“People get so involved in online discourse that it sort of becomes meaningless — it’s kind of like being in a hall of mirrors or something. That’s what that song is about to me — it’s about actually remembering what your priorities are.” - Johanna Fateman
Car Seat Headrest will be playing a few local dates in April, including Apr 12th at Real Art Tacoma, and Apr 13th at Wild Buffalo in Bellingham. carseatheadrest.com
In case you DIDN'T catch them on Top Of The Pops in 1982... here you go: www.youtube.com. You're welcome.
Welcome to the Department of Redundancy Department. Talk Talk and The The are both clients...
“This track is about fighting ideas of impurity and worthlessness” - TR/ST
The Guardian called this track, along with the Chemical Brothers' "Setting Sun", the "most experimental and sonically extreme hit [single] of the 90s." Underworld have claimed that the ".NUXX" name was inspired by a computer fault that added that suffix to the name of their working files. Sounds about right.. 💻 ⚡️
The new album, due out March 2nd, takes its name from a quote that appears in the classic Kurt Vonnegut novel Slaughterhouse-Five. moby.com
Daptone Records went straight to the source for this album of original Cuban big band music: they recorded at Areito Studio in Havana, the oldest and largest recording studio in Cuba.
Playing February 2nd at The Tractor: 45thstbrass.com
Celebrating Jim Rodford, who played bass for the Kinks and Argent, and passed away Saturday. He was 76 years old.
Rodford's cousin and longtime band mate Rod Argent: "Jim was not only a magnificent bass player, but also from the first inextricably bound to the story of The Zombies. An enormous enabler for us... To the end, Jim's life was dedicated to music. He was unfailingly committed to local music - an ever present member of the local scene in St.Albans, where he had spent his whole life." You can read the full post at tinyurl.com
Pearl Jam is raising their flag on the Space Needle RIGHT NOW! Watch live at komonews.com