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Tuesday, Aug 15 2017, 6AM
U2 performed a 14-minute version of this song at the London Live Aid concert in 1985, which included a trip by Bono into the crowd at Wembley Stadium. Their set, which also included "Sunday Bloody Sunday," was voted Best Live Aid Performance by readers of Rolling Stone.
The National are playing The Paramount for two nights, November 28th and 29th following a night in Portland. The have another two-night stop December 1st-2nd in Vancouver BC. Find all the dates here: americanmary.com
Loss is personal, and everyone experiences it in different ways. And music itself is extremely personal, with one single song potentially leading to hundreds of different interpretations. But Medium are sticking to their statement - "'Someone Great' is the best song about loss ever written." Read their reasons why here: medium.com
"Bob Mould’s finest power-pop anthem arrived out of a clear blue sky, plopping into the former Hüsker Dü frontman’s mental inbox on some jingle-jangle morning in the summer of 1991." teamrock.com
The War On Drugs are playing the Moore October 9th & 10th. The 9th has already sold out. The new issue of The New Yorker asks: "Is the War on Drugs Rock’s Next Torchbearer?" www.newyorker.com
When Rich Good filled in for guitarist John Ashton on tour in 2009, he quickly learned how passionate fans were about this song. "We got some rather heated responses when we didn't do 'LMW' for the first dates of 2009. I believe violence was threatened… You can't please all the people all the time."
From the Vancouver band: "ACTORS are a smooth night drive on a downtown viaduct. With warm keyboard pads and high frequency bass lines listeners fall in love immediately with a sound that’s both aggressive AND creamy." Mmmmm, aggressive AND creamy. Get their latest album here: actors.bandcamp.com
Crystal Castles are at the Showbox on November 2nd
’Burn It Down’. From "Music From Before The Storm" the soundtrack to the video game "Life is Strange: Before The Storm". The soundtrack is out September 1st
Phantogram are back in Seattle October 15th next door at Key Arena. Check out their in-studio from a couple years back: www.youtube.com
'Cities In Dust' was released in 1985 as the first single from Siouxsie and the Banshees' seventh studio album, Tinderbox. The "Cities in Dust" 12" was the first Banshees' single release in the United States
Catch Ariel Pink on Saturday, October 21st at Neumos. In the meantime you can Ariel Pink's latest in-studio here: www.youtube.com
Woodstock began on this date back in 1969. www.youtube.com
Sly & The Family Stone at Woodstock. Incredible performance. Seriously, watch this. www.youtube.com
You'll find The True Loves at Rhythm & Rye in Olympia on August 26th, playing the Out To Lunch concert in Denny Park on the 28th and at Nectar Lounge on September 22nd. They're also LIVE on KEXP on Friday, October 20th, at 9:30 AM
It was almost a year ago that KEXP played a track-by-track breakdown
of one of the greatest albums in hip-hop history. You can also dig back into the vinyl for DJ notes from back in the day: blog.kexp.org
Here is just one of the many things that makes KEXP so special: Ought performing 'Beautiful Blue Sky' live in-studio www.youtube.com
Wolf Parade was one of the highlights from day one of the Capitol Hill Block Party this year: blog.kexp.org
The US release of Exit Planet Dust on this date back in 1995. The cover of the album was from a 1970s fashion shoot reject box, according to Ed Simons. In a 1995 interview with Select Magazine, Ed says "we wanted something that just looked nice. A lot of techno albums just have fractals on them, and we wanted something a bit more romantic and otherworldly with soft, nice colors. It's the wrong way round as well - intentionally. If me and Tom are in that picture we're in the car going "Oh she's alright, I wish I had a guitar on my back with her." That would rank as one of the good things in life. Originally we had this pregnant woman in a field wearing this white see-though dress, like a Flake advert gone wrong. But we couldn't use it because the unborn child could have sued us"
Algiers' recent in-studio will be posted soon but until that happens you can find their first KEXP in-studio from 2015 here: www.youtube.com
Speaking to NME June 23, 2012 about his memories of the track, drummer Stephen Morris said: "I just thought 'Yeah, this is a good song', someone might like it. It was a great period for the band, but Ian's personal life – that was all going badly. In retrospect, when you listen to it in light of what happened, it seems bloody obvious. I honestly didn't realise that he was writing about himself. I just said 'These are great lyrics, Ian'. That makes it a bit difficult to listen to now'."
Lead guitarist Bernard Sumner added regarding Curtis: "He'd got married very, very young. And by the time of that song, he'd come to a fork in the road, relationship-wise. His life had changed enormously, and he had to make a choice. We thought his headspace was OK. But Ian had two faces – the public face for the band and the private troubles he had at home and the way they came out through his lyrics. We didn't really listen to the lyrics. Joy Division was four people on pedestals, and we didn't communicate with each other about what the songs are about."
In addition to Bumbershoot on September 2nd, Júníus Meyvant will be at the Doug Fir Lounge on the 1st. You can also hear Hailslide again - it was the song of the day July 8th, 2015 blog.kexp.org
Noah Gundersen will be LIVE on KEXP Friday, September 22 at 9:30 AM, the day the new album, 'White Noise' is released. He's also playing the Neptune on November 17th
When Love and Rockets briefly reformed back in 2007-9 Kevin Haskins was interviewed just before they headlined Coachella blog.kexp.org
From Sheffield, England, the Dylans were formed in early 1990 by former 1,000 Violins guitarist, songwriter, and occasional singer Colin Gregory, Jim Rodger (guitar), and Andy Curtis (guitar). They soon recruited Quentin Jennings (keyboards) and Garry Jones (drums). They released two albums before splitting in 1994.
All about Mother Love Bone with DJ Michelle Myers' documentary: blog.kexp.org
Although they had released other singles in promotion of their albums, "Alive and Living Now" is their only charting song. Guest musicians include Michael Stipe of R.E.M. on vocals, British songwriter Richard Thompson on lead guitar, and jazz bandleader Carla Bley on Hammond organ.
Alex James washed his hair for the first time in a decade in late October 2016. He revealed to Living Magazine a couple of days afterwards: "My hair isn't really something I've ever particularly thought about or fussed over. Other than this week when both my daughters were keen to give me a Halloween makeover and emptied a whole can of grey-colored hairspray into it and it set solid, I haven't washed it for 10 years." Yikes.
Red Hot Chili Peppers performing Fire live wearing nothing but their, um, socks... www.youtube.com
If the lyrics in this song inspired by the movie Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) by Spanish moviemaker Luis Bunuel, don't make much sense, that's because Pixies frontman Frank Black was more concerned with the sounds of the words rather than their meanings. "It has more to do with rhyming words and getting things to mathematically fit in a nice way in my songs," he said. "I don't think about the words too much, I just come up with them, things that just pop into my head."
Contributors to the band at the time Big Electric Metal Bass Face was released included Chris Vrenna and James Woolley, both members of Nine Inch Nails during the mid-1990s.
Ned's Atomic Dustbin are unusual for using two bass players in their lineup: Alex Griffin plays melody lines high up on one bass, and Mat Cheslin plays the regular bass lines on the other.
As Matador, the band's longtime label, writes, "Each of their official albums has a shadow album—and it’s usually as strong as the album that actually did come out."
Enter The Secret History, Vol. 1, a lovingly compiled rarities collection. Read up on the Stephen Malkmus Guide to Pavement's 'Secret History': www.newsweek.com
8:55 AM
18th spin
In 1989, The Flaming Lips recorded their first studio album with Dave Fridmann, who went on to work with several notable bands including Weezer, Mogwai, and Sleater-Kinney. The band recorded the disc at the State University of New York and was only able to pay Fridmann $5 an hour as their budget was capped at $10,000 for the whole process.
"Billy Corgan is a man of extreme dichotomy. It’s this gleefully dynamic binary that has made him one of the most interesting artists of the last three decades. And really, you don’t have to go back that far into the throws of The Smashing Pumpkins history to get there. Take just the last couple years for example, where Corgan has continued to crank out songs." Check out the review of The Smashing Pumpkins' 2016 show at the Paramount: blog.kexp.org
Matthew Sweet will be at the Dog Fir on August 20th and then at the Triple Door on the 21st in support of his latest album, 'Tomorrow Forever'
The Godfathers returned with a new album this year, 'A Big Bad Beautiful Noise'. Find it here: www.metropolis-records.com
See what the KCMU DJs had to say about this album blog.kexp.org
Jesus Jones announced a new album, 'Passages' for 2017. Supposed to be out in the spring but it appears to still be on pre-order...
Not New York City. Not Los Angeles. Lush’s first U.S. show in 20 years was right here in Seattle. Find the live review of Lush with The Young Evils at Showbox at the Market 4/20/16 here: blog.kexp.org
Formed in 1989, Northside released their only album Chicken Rhythms on Factory Records in 1991. A second album was recorded, however Northside's label Factory Records declared bankruptcy in November 1992 and the band split up.
Erasure is heading out on tour in 2018. So far the dates are all in Europe but they say there are more to be announced. Find them all here: www.erasureinfo.com
The band wrote this song with their producer, Steven Hague. It was the first time they collaborated with Hague, who joined them again to produce New Order's 1993 album Republic. Bernard Sumner recalled to Uncut: " It was a time when I set out to write a hit single. I think we got a rather large tax bill, and we sat down with Stephen Hague to write a Top 40 hit."
"I had an idea for the bassline, Gillian (Gilbert, keyboards) had some string ideas, Stephen got some drums down. When we got the track going, I was sent off to the flat we had in London with a bottle of Pernod and told not to show my face again until I'd written the lyrics."
Find something newer from Teenage Fanclub, this one 'Hold On' from 2016 featured as the song of the day: blog.kexp.org
Everyone in Jane's Addiction were big Lou Reed fans, so it's no surprise the band covered one of his songs. Their version has been praised many times. In fact, Lou Reed mentioned that their version was one of his favorite covered songs.
"Rock N Roll" was the first song Eric and Perry ever played when they first jammed together in late 1985.