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Tuesday, Jan 31 2017, 6AM
Apologies for this song ending early. We'll be taking out our frustrations with the world on a CD player later....
Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, Khan is widely credited with introducing Qawwali music to international audiences. He is popularly known as "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", meaning "The King of Kings of Qawwali".
See Benjamin Verdoes perform that song in-studio here: blog.kexp.org
"Lead Belly is a badass old-school wrecking ball of folk-singing awesomeness who worked hard fucking labor as a sharecropper in the Depression-era South, lived it up with hot chicks, stiff drinks, and smoke-filled clubs in Renaissance-era Harlem, kicked his enemies' collective punk asses in at least five hardcore back-alley knife fights, escaped from jail once, convinced the governors of two states to pardon him from murder raps using nothing more than a guitar and his singing voice, and went on to basically help create modern music by influencing everyone from Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra to Kurt Cobain and Jack White. He was tough as hell, built like a house, and he drank hard, fought harder, played the twelve-string guitar better than any man alive during his day, and once responded to being stabbed in the throat with a prison shank by pulling the shiv out of his own neck and almost murdering the dude with it." www.badassoftheweek.com
In the liner notes of this album Biograph, Dylan wrote: "I wanted to write a big song, some kind of theme song, with short, concise verses that piled up on each other in a hypnotic way. This is definitely a song with a purpose. I knew exactly what I wanted to say and who I wanted to say it to."
Angel Olsen will be LIVE on KEXP Saturday, February 18, 2017 at 12:00 PM. You'll be able to come watch her in-studio or go see her that night at the Neptune for Little Big Show #17
Laura Marling's tour doesn't include Seattle (Yet!) but we'll let you know if that changes. DJ Cheryl Waters featured another of her songs, "Soothing" for the Song of the Day Podcast on the 19th blog.kexp.org
The reissue of Either/Or, out in March features this previously unreleased track as well as five songs recorded live in 1997, at Yo Yo A Go Go Festival in Olympia, WA. Also the the unreleased track “My New Freedom” and unreleased studio versions of “New Monkey,” “I Don’t Think I’m Ever Gonna Figure It Out,” and “Bottle Up And Explode.”
Born in Ancón de Santo Domingo, Guerrero on June 24, 1912, Juan never had the opportunity to attend school. The Mexican Revolution was still raging around him, and mothers, including Juan's, would sometimes hide their children from rampaging armed groups by placing them in the chimneys of their homes. In this chaotic world Juan grew up, mesmerized by the violin from the age of five or six. Small for his age, he became known as "Juan El Guache," or Juan the Kid. His father would take him to places where people congregated, offering ”res por cinco,” or three violin pieces for five centavos.
The band supports environmental issues. They have protested mining efforts, oil spills, and whaling. Peter Garrett was president of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 1989-1993 and was on the international board of Greenpeace. In 1997, they set up furniture on a busy street in Sao Paulo Brazil to protest air pollution in the city. They blocked traffic for about an hour.
Billy Bragg and Joe Henry performed in the Gathering Space back in October. Watch the full performance here: www.youtube.com
Still waiting on North American tour dates. Fingers crossed they'll be coming to Seattle.
Willie, along with Neil Young and John Mellencamp, organized the first Farm Aid concert in 1985 in an effort to help family farmers. The Farm Aid organization continues to work to keep small farmers on their land and in 2011 Nelson was inducted into the National Agricultural Hall of Fame for his support of family farms.
Rodrigo y Gabriela played a KEXP VIP event at the Triple Door which included this song. Watch them redefine what one can actually do with a guitar. blog.kexp.org
David Byrne in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "I wrote the words later for the opening scene of Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World. The movie is supposed to take place in the year 2000, so I spent a lot of time trying to image music of the near future: post-rock sludge with lyrics sponsored by Coke and Pepsi? Music created by machines with human shouts of agony and betrayal thrown in? Faux Appalachian ballads, the anti-tech wave? The same sounds and licks from the 60s and 70s regurgitated yet again by a new generation of samplers? The Milli Vanilli revival? Rappin' politicos… sell your soul to the beat, y'all? Well, it was daunting… so I figured, hell with it, I'd imagine Talking Heads doing a reunion LP in the year 2000, and them sounding just like they used to."
Reed had an empathy for these characters that comes through in the song, as he struggled with his sexuality for most of his life. His parents even tried to "cure" his homosexuality when he was young.
The line, "Mr. Dinkins won't you please be my mayor?" is a reference to David Dinkins, who did indeed become mayor - the first black mayor of New York City. Dinkins took office in 1990 and had the position until 1993 when he lost to Rudy Giuliani.
M.I.A. is currently on hiatus but you can catch up with her latest album from 2016, AIM here: blog.kexp.org
Only one week until International Clash Day! Have you finished your shopping? Lyrically "Straight To Hell" is a tour of the world, covering Britain, America, Vietnam and South America, and taking a jaded, caustic look at all of them before summing up in the final verse that the themes discussed in the lyrics - poverty, misery, disaffection - can be applied anywhere, and are present in any country in the world ("It could be anywhere, most likely could be any frontier, any hemisphere, no-man's land and there ain't no asylum here, King Solomon he never lived round here").
According to the lyrics, people only have three human rights:
1) The right not to be killed, unless it is done by a policeman or an aristocrat (perhaps referencing two recent incidents, the deaths of Sunderland boxer Liddle Towers and New Zealand schoolteacher Blair Peach in incidents involving police brutality).
2) The right to food money - as long as you don't mind "a little investigation, humiliation, and if you cross your fingers, rehabilitation," a possible reference to the stricter tests and investigations one had to pass in order to receive welfare payments in the UK at the time.
3) The right to free speech - "as long as you're not actually dumb enough to try it!"
More Gogol Bordello... see their in-studio from 2013 blog.kexp.org
Another fitting track from Firewater featured as the Song of the Day. This time “A Little Revolution,” which embodies the spirit of the new revolutionaries, those not resorting to pure destruction and mayhem but rather to non-voilent protest like the recent and mostly bloodless Arab Spring revolt in Tunisia and even the Orange Revolution earlier in the Ukraine. We all need a little revolution. blog.kexp.org
Mehrpouya, according to transcripts of the Persian was born in Tehran, was a poet, translator, actor, multi-musician, who introduced the sitar in popular music in Iran.
He also was known to use odd things as instruments such as bones or pots.
John Lennon used only one chord in this whole song, which creates a hypnotic feeling. For his vocals, he asked producer George Martin to make him sound like the Dali Lama.
Just a couple nights ago Public Enemy's Chuck D spoke at Iowa State University, where he discussed a variety of topics, including media representation, the power of art, and his thoughts on the increasingly divided states of America. He encouraged all of the artists listening to continue to resist and speak up. "Arts [are] what's going to set you free from the gestapo that's on the horizon," he said. "Arts will have a message that will cut through as the law is clamping down. And expect this. Expect the new laws in the next 13 years to clamp down on artists. Artists will be arrested for their words once again."
Express Yourself's lyrics focus on the concept of free expression and the constraints placed on rappers by radio censorship. The song includes lines criticising other rappers for not swearing in order to get radio airplay despite being a rare profanity free NWA track
"El-P and Killer Mike would have gone down as hip-hop legends even if they had never joined forces to Run the Jewels (see Cannibal Ox, R.A.P. Music, Company Flow, etc.). But the world would not be just quite the same (and certainly more complacent) without Run the Jewels in it." Hear "Talk To Me" featured just a few days ago on as Song of the Day: blog.kexp.org
"Forty years ago, Gil Scott-Heron planted a seed of lyrical revolution. One of the most significant American poets of the past century, the 60-year-old high priest of proto-rap is as outspoken and unrepentant as when he first began his poetic crusade in the late 60s. His legendary acid jazz-rap and spoken word works of the 70s perhaps spawned present-day political hip hop and modern soul rap, but I’m New Here may very well spark an uprising all on its own." Find the full review of I'm New Here on the KEXP blog: blog.kexp.org
K'naan is a Somali-Canadian poet, rapper, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist. His name, means "traveller" in the Afro-Asiatic Somali language.
The xx will be in Seattle on April 24th at WaMu Theater. Looks like there are still tickets...
Lauryn Hill met Prakazrel "Pras" Michel through her brother at Columbia High School. Hill, Michel, and another girl formed a group called the Fugees-Tranzlator Crew. Later Michel's cousin Wyclef Jean joined and the other girl quit. The trio called themselves Fugees - a shortened version of Refugees (inspired by Wyclef and Pras' Haitian backgrounds). They rapped in five different languages, and felt they were translating the music of Haiti for America.
“Holy shit.” That’s what DJ Cheryl Waters exclaimed as Scottish hip-hop trio Young Fathers finished their first KEXP session. Check out both their stunning in-studio sessions: blog.kexp.org & blog.kexp.org
Brian May recalled to Mojo magazine October 2008. "It was hard, because you had four very precocious boys and David, who was precocious enough for all of us. David took over the song lyrically. Looking back, it's a great song but it should have been mixed differently. Freddie and David had a fierce battle over that."
Imagine the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, in the 1980s. You can't, right? Now the founders of Dur-Dur band live in Columbus, OH. NPR interviewed them, members Daljir and Dawo discuss the group's exodus from Somalia during the conflict that gripped the country in the early 1990s — and NPR East Africa Correspondent Gregory Warner explains the political history that set the stage for Dur-Dur Band's success. Check out the interview and a couple more Dur-Dur Band tracks here: www.npr.org
They're on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert tonight and in Seattle March 18th at the Neptune
For those unfamiliar: Nortec Collective is a group of four musicians who’ve made themselves famous over the years in their homeland of Mexico and across the world. A mixture of techno, electronic, and traditional Mexican music is the hallmark to their well known and the much-loved Nortec sound. Check out Clorofila from Nortec Collective with Discoteca Nacional. Song of the Day: blog.kexp.org
PBS just did a big feature on the Pioneers of African American cinema project that DJ Spooky aka Paul D. Miller executive produced. See the feature here: youtu.be
Michelle Myers shined her Friday Nite Spotlight on Amores Perros and named Control Machete's track the most striking on the album. Read about one of her favorite movies & soundtrack here: http://blog.kexp.org/2009/06/25/friday-nite-spotlight-–-amores-perros-soundtrack/
When singer Alsarah left her native Sudan, she was just a child who'd shown an interest in music. She's said it served as her coping mechanism during a subsequent transition to life here in the U.S. In December Alsarah & The Nubatones performed an NPR "Tiny Desk" show which you can see here: www.npr.org
They'll be at Barboza in three weeks on Feb 21st and in Portland the night after. Hear another track from them featured on the Song of the Day Podcast back in September blog.kexp.org
Eric 'Wreckless Eric' Goulden recalled to Mojo magazine June 2014: "I was trying to avoid this girl I was going out with. I went to the university bar because I never went there, had a drink, then I sat on a bench on the Cottingham Road and wrote most of the words to the song on the back of an envelope."
Nas told MTV reporters "Right now, I'll tell you first, I'm working on an album with Damian Marley. We tryin' to build some schools in Africa with this one, and trying to build empowerment. We're tryin' to show love and stuff with this album. So, the record's … all about really the 'hood and Africa also as well." The album title derives from Nas and Marley's relationship, their shared African ancestry, and the shared ancestry of the entire human race; which musically and lyrically inspired each recording.
"Mulatu Astatke: the man who created 'Ethio jazz'" Find out all about him in this article from The Guardian. He's still touring! www.theguardian.com
A 5-piece from Monterrey, Mexico, Kinky are a Latin infused techno-dance band with a unique take on their own genre of dance music. Here's another from them with the KEXP Song of the Day Podcast blog.kexp.org
Funky Drummer aka Clyde Stubblefield, one of the most sampled tracks ever blog.kexp.org
Omar Souleyman is a musician from Syria.He started his career as a part-time wedding singer, and while himself a Sunni Arab, he emphasises the influence its culturally diverse milieu has had on his style: "My music is from the community I come from – the Kurdish, the Arabic, they're all in this community. Even Turkish because it's so near, it's just across the border. And even Iraqi."