Eva Walker

Hello, happy Wednesday, and welcome to The Afternoon Show with the wonderful Eva Walker! We're so very glad you're here! Enjoy! -- "Hopeful" is the first new song from ODESZA since the release of "The Last Goodbye," which garnered a nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 65th Grammy Awards. The duo said, “This one never made the album but we always felt it was special and in a way encapsulated our time away from the world while writing the record....We wanted the track to embody a sense of togetherness and to be a reminder that we are not alone even when we feel distant."

This is the theme song to the 1967 James Bond song with the same name. The music was by veteran Bond film composer John Barry, with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse.

Petite Noir (Yannick Diekeno Ilunga) is the architect of Noirwave – a musical and cultural movement that draws creative energy from punk aesthetics and the fragmented identity of today’s African diaspora. The Congolese artist was born in Belgium, raised in South Africa, and is now based between London and Paris. -- MotherFather is his long-awaited second album, and it has a subtitle: ‘The darkness is comforting sometimes’. As Petite Noir explains: “It’s about going through the darkness. But it’s also about rebirth. Because the dark times are needed for us to grow.”

Good one to dance to, Olivia! -- “Show Me Love” was an international dance hit for artist Robin S. in 1992. Though the song was originally released in the UK in 1990 on a small independent label, it was a remix by Swedish house producers Stonebridge & Nick Nice that put “Show Me Love” and its gospel-bred lead singer on the map two years later. The song was written by Allen George and Fred McFarlane . -- "If you're lookin' for devotion, talk to me Come with your heart in your hands Because my love is guaranteed Yeah-yeah, yeah-yeah, yeah-yeah..." Here's the officia loriginal video: www.youtube.com

Avowing a positive and multicultural philosophy with their "funky dred" logo and the catch phrase "A happy face, a thumpin' bass, for a lovin' race," Soul II Soul started spreading the similar ideals of London sound system culture across the globe at the end of the 1980s.: www.allmusic.com -- In a 2012 interview with British newspaper The Guardian on how "Back to Life" was made, producer Jazzie B said: "Everything about this single was magic. We weren't trying to follow any trend or fit into any category – we were just doing our own thing... Its shuffling beats were a cross between reggae and what was to become known as hip-hop: breakbeats and electronic sound. Caron Wheeler's vocal, coming over these very heavy bass beats, was the icing on the cake...."

That's Romanthony doing the Auto-Tuned vocal on this song. R.I.P., Anthony Moore, who died of kidney disease in 2013 at age 45.: www.spin.com

Durand Jones' debut solo album, "Wait Til I Get Over," will be out on May 5th. Much of "Wait Til I Get Over" is built on Jones’ relationship to his hometown of Hillaryville, Louisiana, a town first established as a form of reparations to previously enslaved Black Americans. -- This boisterous song is the first single. The accompanying vividly poignant video cuts back and forth between footage of the rural swamps of Louisiana from present day and from the 1920s, capturing the generational struggle of the people of Hillaryville from Jones’ time and from that of his grandmother’s.: www.youtube.com

This Montreal group will be playing the Treefort Music Fest in Boise, Idaho this Friday, March 24th. -- They performed Live on KEXP at Home last May: www.youtube.com

This is Canadian post-punk artist Bria Salmena's cover of Paula Cole’s ’90s hit “Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?”. -- “I found Cole’s delivery to be both brooding and chilling,” says Salmena. “The lyrics are confused: discovery, disillusionment, despair. I wanted to make it even more dystopian by turning it into a dreamy dance track. We wanted to stretch this song as far as it would go while honoring the elements of it that make it memorable.” --

Did you know that Tears for Fears' debut album "The Hurting" is forty years old this month?: www.salon.com

According to Ray Manzarek, his opening organ section was inspired by the Herbie Hancock jazz classic "Watermelon Man." He used a similar intro on another Doors song, "Soul Kitchen." -- Robby Krieger improvised the guitar solo in the studio. He said: "That solo was a real challenge because the harmony is static. I had to play 56 bars over the same riff." -- Watch the official video: www.youtube.com

'I Wish' is the 1995 debut album by Skee-Lo. Most of this song's instruments are sampled from "Spinnin'" by Bernard Wright, and the song features a vocal sample of people shouting from the track "Buffalo Gals" by Malcolm McLaren. bit.ly -- Skee-Lo wrote the bulk of this song’s lyrics, sans music, during a study session in college. He added music after hearing the horn section “in the middle of an old, ugly record”. Soon after, he came up with the chorus lines after doing a freestyle in a parking lot. -- In 2018, Skee-Lo remade this song as "Smaller" for an ESPN video celebrating small basketball players like Stephen Curry, Chris Paul and Kyle Lowry. "I wish I was a little bit smaller," he raps.

! Liv.e is an LA-based, Dallas-raised singer/songwriter whose recent collaborations include a wide range of artists from Mount Kimbie to Earl Sweatshirt. -- Watch her live performance on KEXP in February of 2021: youtu.be

This is Sade's cover of the song written and performed by Timmy Thomas in 1972. Thomas was the sole performer on the recordings; on the title track for instance, which took fifteen minutes to record, he played the organ parts with one hand and percussion on the organ with the other (using pre-programmed rhythms), using his feet to play bass on the organ pedals. -- For comparison's sake, here's the original: www.youtube.com

Katherine Paul (Black Belt Eagle Scout) will be LIVE on KEXP on Monday, May 8th, at noon. -- She'll be playing the Alma Mater in Tacoma that evening. -- Here's an interview with the artist about their great new album, "The Land, The Water, The Sky": www.wmagazine.com

This Brooklyn artist will be at the Treefort Music Fest in Boise, Idaho, on Sunday, March 26th, and then will be in Seattle for the Day In Day Out Festival on Saturday, August 12th. -- Her 6-song EP is out on March 24th.:yayabey.bandcamp.com -- Did you know that she was our guest DJ on Midnight in a Perfect World in 2022? Check out her musical selections here: www.kexp.org

Hi Eva, Could you please play Burning by Koffee.? I'm 9 years old and I'm from Waterloo Canada . My family and I are listening to you as we make dinner, do homework and play video games. Thanks, Hank. -- Mikayla Victoria Simpson, known as Koffee, is a Jamaican musician, songwriter and guitarist from Spanish Town, Jamaica. Koffee won her first Grammy at 19 years old and was the first woman to take the 'Reggae Album of the year' award since 1985. www.originalkoffee.com -- Watch the music video for "Burning" here!! :www.youtube.com

Walker Wormhole Wednesday selection #1 -- During the course of his career, Libyan musician Fakround became known for leading a new wave of crossover musicians who mixed traditional Libyan and Arabic sounds with European pop and disco. A multi-instrumentalist, Fakroun is known for playing the saz, a stringed instrument similar to the lute or oud. On ‘Nisyan’, North African rhythms blend with disco like synths and melodies.

"Dog will hunt."" "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" was recorded in 1991 by California based American funk metal band Primus. It tells the stories of two characters, Jerry, an ill-fated race car driver who collides with a telephone pole while driving intoxicated (hence the use of "was", in the title) and Captain Pierce, a retired fireman (who was actually frontman Les Claypool's grandfather). www.primusville.com -- See the official video: www.youtube.com

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard will be at Remlinger Farms in Carnation, Washington Friday, June 16th though Sunday, June 18th. -- In the video for "Astroturf,", the group’s six members are augmented by Smarts saxophonist Stella Rennex as they continually switch from instrument to instrument while translating the track’s jam-packed sound in their Australian studio. The video also includes footage of band members goofing off during downtime in New Orleans, including frontman Stu Mackenzie having a tarot card reading on the street and keyboardist Ambrose Kenny-Smith balancing a parrot on each shoulder.: www.youtube.com

Here are Talking Heads making flippy floppy live on their Stop Making Sense tour: www.youtube.com

This monster party jam is built on one of the most popular samples in rap: a saxophone break from the 1967 song "Unwind Yourself" by the soul singer Marva Whitney. -- Here's a biography of DJ Kool (John Bowman), who released four albums in the 90's: www.allmusic.com -- DJ f Kool wasn't the first to declare, "Let me clear my throat!" Beastie Boys stop the music in their 1986 song "The New Style" and say the phrase.

Go here to the official website and online merch store for Jurassic 5: jurassic-five.squarespace.com -- Charlie Steward (Chali 2na) on his career in the article "Chali 2na Dives Into Early Beginnings, Jurassic 5, and Finding His Voice": bit.ly.

Yo La Tengo was recently LIVE on KEXP. That session will be up soon on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com -- Calling it "best new music," Pitchfork says that Yo La Tengo's new album is "their liveliest album in at least a decade": pitchfork.com

Hmmm....Kraftwerk may be Eva's favorite band. -- This song was written about the Tour De France, a famous French road race for professional cyclists. Kraftwerk members Florian Schneider and Ralf Hutter are obsessed with bicycles, calling themselves the Radsportegruppe Schneider (Schneider Cycling Club). Ex-Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos claimed Schneider and Hutter's obsession with cycling was one of the factors that prompted him to quit the band. -- Here's the official music video: www.youtube.com

Here's an interview with Bonnie Bloomgarden about the band's new album, "Islands in the Sky": bit.ly -- Watch Death Valley Girls playing live in the KEXP studio back in 2019: www.youtube.com

Born and based in Seattle, Washington, Oblé Reed is a 21 year old mixed-race pop rap artist who has found himself in a lane of his own. Go here to his Instagram page: www.instagram.com He says of this song, "“From a young age, we’re taught that our skin is more than just a color. To some, it’s a threat. To others, it’s currency. To our own, it’s community and shared experience. Each generation does its best to warn the next of what lies ahead of them. When our kids grow up faster than is good for their spirits. So what if we lied and told them everything was all right? Let their smiles linger for a second. Worry can wait for tomorrow. Tonight we celebrate us. Just a couple of Black kids alive and healthy, what more could we need?”

We're celebrating the hip-hop music of 2000 this week! OutKast's fourth studio album "Stankonia" came out that year. Enjoy a 2020 NPR conversation about the importance of this release: www.npr.org

New Age Healers (with KEXP's beloved Owen Murphy) will be at Chop Suey tonight, Wednesday, March 22nd, 2023. -- Go right here to purchase "Demolition Stories": newagehealers.bandcamp.com

This was inspired by the late comedian Andy Kaufman. When he was a teenager, R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe saw Kaufman on Saturday Night Live, and has cited him as a huge influence ever since. -- "I never thought I was going to write a song about Andy Kaufman and the Moon Landing, but it ended up being a song about faith, timelessness, spirituality, time and space, death and darkness."- Michael Stipe in an interview with Aftenposten in October 2017 -- Eddie Vedder performed this with R.E.M. during the band's induction into the Rock Hall of Fame: www.youtube.com

This one's for the children... -- The song, with verses from Method Man, Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, and U-God, also features singer Paulissa Moorman, who performs the hooks in the song. -- The music video, directed by Joseph Kahn, features the Wu-Tang Clan arguing in their elevator-like time machine, and accidentally sending themselves back to "2,000,000 BC." youtu.be

Built to Spill just kicked off the first day of the Treefort Music Festival in Boise yesterday! Larry Mizell Jr. will be broadcasting live from Treefort on The Afternoon Show tomorrow and Friday: bit.ly Built to Spill will also play ZooTunes in Seattle with Japanese Breakfast on August 20th! www.zoo.org