Eva Walker

Happy birthday, Nikka! Thanks for listening, it's been a pleasure providing the soundtrack for your Sunday afternoon. Stay tuned for Eva up next, filling in for Evie!

Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band formed in England in 1976 by Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto. Buzzcocks are regarded as a seminal influence on the Manchester music scene, the independent record label movement, punk rock, power pop, and pop punk. Lead singer Pete Shelley passed away in 2018 at the age of 63. Read about his life here: bit.ly In 2022, Buzzcocks released their first album since Shelley's death, entitled Sonics In The Soul.

Early 1970's psychedelic rock out of San Francisco. Sopwith Camel is best known for being the second San Francisco band to get a recording contract with a national record label. Sopwith Camel was formed in late 1965 and is comprised of founding member,vocalist and saxophone player Peter Kraemer, guitarists Terry MacNeil (name changed to Nandi Devam in 1979) and William "Truckaway" Sievers, bassist Martin Beard, and drummer Norman Mayell. sopwithcamel.org

Anderson .Paak & Knxwledge are back! The video marks Knxwledge's directorial debut, solely created by him using Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 5. The video features Anderson .Paak’s official character from GTA’s The Contract courting his love interest until it takes an unexpected twist. The song ends with an epic guitar solo by Jairus “J. Mo” Mozee. youtu.be

The Funkees were a very prominent Nigerian rock group in the 60s-70s West African and West Indian music scene. The Funkees was comprised of Harry Mosco on guitar, vocals, gong; Chyke Madu on drums, vocals; Sonny Akpabio on congas; Jake N. Sollo on guitar, organ, piano, vocals; Danny Heibs on bass, vocals, percussion; Mohammed Ahidjo on vocals, percussion; and Roli Paterson on bongos.

Featured in Guardians of the Galaxy 3! This 1983 single was written on an omnichord by Matt Johnson, lead singer of London post-punk band The The. In an interview, Johnson talks about the song, change, and the lack of control we have over it: bit.ly www.thethe.com

King Krule will perform at The Paramount Theatre on Wednesday, September 20th. -- Archy Marshall’s (KIng Krule) follow-up to 2020’s Man Alive! is called Space Heavy, and it arrives June 9 via Matador. He’s shared the new single “Seaforth,” which arrives with a new music video directed by Jocelyn Anquetil. The video features some very cute dogs, which you should watch here: www.youtube.com Check out the album: kingkrule.bandcamp.com

New music from London! Dura Dura is the debut of the mysteriously enigmatic Hot Face (Sam Catchpole – Drums / George Cannell – Bass / James Bates – Guitar and Vox) . --- Here's the official video - www.youtube.com

Formed in Denton, Texas, Señor Fin is a rock band that moved to Seattle in 2015. The five piece is currently composed of Jesse Miller (guitar), Jesse Botello (bass), Jon Rath (keys), Mason Lynass (drums), and Ronan Delisle (guitar), all of whom sing. Their previous releases have earned comparisons to such diverse talents as Joni Mitchell and The Dirty Projectors, and the band is noted for a self-described “genre-neutral” approach to composition that Northwest Music Scene has applauded because it “isn’t afraid to move in whatever direction it wants to at the drop of a hat.” The band’s 2017 LP Jazzy earned them acclaim in their home region, with KEXP choosing to highlight it on its list of 50 Great Pacific Northwest Albums of that year. Hardly Alone is the group’s first album recorded with Rath, who adds some creative synth & keyboard tones. The tracks were written and polished on their tours in 2017 and 2018, and recorded by Johnny Goss (La Luz, the Fall of Troy, Lonesome Shack). Señor Fin's music is rife with melancholy and strong feelings oozing from every which way, a feeling that's felt both in their impassioned vocals and grave instrumental accompaniment, which is heavy on twinkly guitars, performed by both Ronan Delisle and Jesse Miller, who have a great chemistry together on dual guitar duties. senorfin.bandcamp.com

This new album is the fifth from Jonathan Bree, singer-songwriter from Auckland, New Zealand. jonathanbree.bandcamp.com

Vince Staples is a rapper, singer, and actor. He is currently signed to Motown and Blacksmith Records. Staples rose to prominence with appearances on albums by Odd Future members and his collaborative mixtape titled Stolen Youth with producer Mac Miller. Double albums are usually unwieldy, but Summertime '06 is breathtakingly focused, a marathon that feels like a sprint. The production bangs and clanks throughout with a septic, rusted, retooled-buggy persistence, which Staples matches. On "Lift Me Up", he chants the song’s title over and over again, but his voice is thin and tired, and the music heavy and slow. It’s the sound of someone working for uplift who knows in their bones just how much misery lays along the road.

Zambian psych-rock group Witch, who helped establish the genre known as Zamrock, are returning with their first new album in 39 years. Zango arrived on June 2 via Desert Daze Sound, and it marks frontman and co-founder Emmanuel “Jagari” Chanda’s first LP with the group since 1976. w-i-t-c-h.bandcamp.com

1979 L.A. rock band Fishbone fuses ska, punk, funk, metal, reggae, and soul. They've been called ska-punk, punk-funk and ska-punk-funk-metal. “The Rough Guide to Rock” deemed Fishbone’s music “jazz/hard rock/ska/funk”; a Rolling Stone writer threw up his hands and went with “orgasmic urban gumbo.” None of these labels aptly sum up the sound of a band that seems to have ingested a century’s worth of American and Caribbean popular music, nor do they capture the manic spirit of the group’s concerts, which earned Fishbone a reputation as one of the world’s greatest live acts. This long-running L.A. group was at KEXP in 2016, watch their full performance here: www.youtube.com

Orange Juice were a Scottish jangle pop band founded in the Glasgow suburb of Bearsden as the Nu-Sonics in 1976. They became Orange Juice in 1979, and became perhaps the most important band in the Scottish independent music scene that emerged in the post-punk era, inspired by contemporary punk bands including Subway Sect, Television, and Buzzcocks but also 1960s acts, most notably the Byrds and the Velvet Underground.

Scottish musician Finley Quaye is the son of vaudeville pianist Cab Kaye and the half-brother of the English guitarist Caleb Quaye, and is best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with Elton John, Lou Reed, Harry Nillson, Mick Jagger, Pete Townshend, Paul McCartney, and Hall & Oates. He won the 1997 MOBO Award for best reggae act, and the 1998 BRIT Award for Best Male Solo Artist.

The second album from this London-based artist of Congolese heritage (aka Yannick Ilunga) is an adventurous blend of electro-pop, R&B, post-punk, various African styles and more, combining a moody, atmospheric sound with lyrics revolving around heritage, injustice and rebirth. petitenoir.bandcamp.com

Jungle will be at WaMu Theater playing an all-ages show on Friday, September 15th. Get tickets: www.axs.com Jungle is a London-based electronic music project founded in 2013 by producers, Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland. Jungle's fourth album, 'Volcano' is set for release on August 11. "Dominoes" video! youtu.be www.junglejunglejungle.com

"Albatross" is a guitar-based instrumental by Fleetwood Mac, released as a single in November 1968, later featuring on the compilation albums The Pious Bird of Good Omen and English Rose. The piece was composed by Peter Green.

Check out Spellling's live 2021 performance and chat with Early host Gabriel Teodros. www.youtube.com spellling.bandcamp.com Spellling was also featured on the weekly Mix- A Cosmic Love Letter www.kexp.org

'Blue Lights" is the second single from Jayda G's forthcoming record "Guy," out June 9! Jayda G is a Canadian house music producer and DJ. She was nominated at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in the best electronic dance recording category for her song "Both of Us", and later remixed Dua Lipa's "Cool" for the album Club Future Nostalgia. Preorder the album on Bandcamp: jaydag.bandcamp.com

The dreamy song — the first taste of the band’s upcoming album, Chris Black Changed My Life (June 23) — appears in a new spot advertising Taco Bell's $5 Cravings Trio. In addition to the music placement, Portugal. The Man singer John Gourley and drummer Jason Sechrist appear in a separate 3-minute clip in which they reminisce about finding variety eating on the road, how Taco Bell helped feed them during the lean years and writing “Dummy.”: www.youtube.com Check out Portugal. The Man live at KEXP in 2017: www.youtube.com

Altın Gün will be performing an all ages show at Neptune Theatre on Tuesday, November 14th! Get your tickets now: www.ticketmaster.com The lyrics for this song came from Sabahattin Ali (1907 – 1948), Turkish novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. The music was composed by Zülfü Livaneli. altingun.bandcamp.com

The follow-up EP to the 2020 Texas Sun! "It's like a short story. And it leaves room to continue having these stories together. It's not Khruangbin, it's not Leon, it's this world we created together." Khruangbin is a musical trio from Houston, Texas. The band is comprised of Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald "DJ" Johnson Jr. on drums, and is known for blending global music influences, such as classic soul, dub, rock and psychedelia. Cheryl Waters hosted Khruangbin - Live in the KEXP Studio in 2018: youtu.be www.khruangbin.com www.leonbridges.com

Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass' "Green Peppers" was released on Whipped Cream & Other Delights, the album sold over 6 million copies in the United States and the album cover alone is considered a classic pop culture icon. It featured model Dolores Erickson wearing chiffon and shaving cream. The picture was taken at a time when Erickson was three months pregnant. The art was parodied by several groups including once A&M band Soul Asylum, who made fun of the liner notes along with the back cover on their 1989 EP Clam Dip & Other Delights.

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

"White Rabbit" was written and performed by Grace Slick while she was still with The Great Society. Slick quit them and joined Jefferson Airplane to replace their departing female singer, Signe Toly Anderson. The first album Slick recorded with Jefferson Airplane was Surrealistic Pillow, and Slick provided two songs from her previous group, including "White Rabbit." The Great Society's version of "White Rabbit" was much longer than the more aggressive version of Jefferson Airplane. Jefferson Airplane was a rock band based in San Francisco that became one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic rock. Formed in 1965, the group defined the San Francisco Sound and was the first from the Bay Area to achieve international commercial success.

Σtella ("Stella-with-a-sigma") is a painter, visual artist, and musician out of Athens, Greece, who creates dreampop flavored by Greek folk music. Since debuting in 2015, Chronopoulou, who records as Σtella, has paired her melismatic contralto with dream-pop synths to tell quotidian yet alluring stories that only needed small details like beer, wine, and a strong come-on to paint a complete picture. For the most part, she rooted her sound in 21st-century pop, but throughout her catalog, you could occasionally identify a dash of traditional European music, as on 2017’s “Works for You,” with its flourishes of mandolin and synth-flute. On Up and Away, Chronopoulou’s first album for Sub Pop, those traditional European sounds move to the forefront. “For me, the expression 'up and away' symbolizes freedom, a liberation – our need to break free and fly far away, like superheroes do…". stellawithasigma.bandcamp.com stellawithasigma.com

David Byrne recruited students from the Detroit School of Arts, for the singer’s celebratory “Everybody’s Coming to My House” video, a track off Byrne’s LP 'American Utopia'. Speaking about the video, Talking Heads founding member Byrne said: “When I saw what the DSA students did with my song, it completely changed the way I thought of the song. In fact, it changed the meaning of the song — I realized it was about inclusion, welcoming and not being alone.' The students directed the video as well: youtu.be

This song sampled Fred Wesley and the J.B.’s "Blow Your Head." (Hear that synth?) -- "You just got dissed, all but dismissed Sucker duck emcees, you get me pissed It's no fun being on the run Because they got me Public Enemy number one..." Here are the lyrics for this song from Public Enemy's debut release: genius.com

"Ladies and Gentlemen---Miss Grace Jones.." Here's the video: www.youtube.com Here's a quite technical article about the construction of this song, originally intended for Frankie Goes to Hollywood: www.musicradar.com

Lee Fields will be playing McMenamins Elks Temple Tacoma August 3, 2023. Brand new music from soul singer Lee Fields. Sometimes nicknamed "Little JB" for his physical and vocal resemblance with James Brown, Fields has worked with Kool and the Gang, Hip Huggers, O.V. Wright, Darrell Banks, and Little Royal.

Durand Jones will be at Bumbershoot on Saturday, September 2nd, 2023. bumbershoot.com. On his deeply personal debut solo album, 'Wait Til I Get Over', Durand Jones reflects on his relationship to his hometown of Hillaryville, LA, a town first established as a form of reparations to previously enslaved Black Americans. bit.ly Official Video: youtu.be durandjones.bandcamp.com

New Polyrhythmics! Playing the West Seattle Summer Fest on Friday, July 14th. They'll stick around for Bite of Seattle, July 21-23, 2023 at Seattle Center. "Funky Miracle" is the second single from the Seattle group's forthcoming album, Filter System. polyrhythmics.bandcamp.com

Solange co-produced "Binz" with Panda Bear of Animal Collective. They recorded the percussion-filled track in a house in Estoril, Portugal. "We met and kinda just talked for three-quarters of the first day." Panda Bear recalled. "She had rented a drum kit, and we started playing and seeing what would come out. Eventually, we made a vocal loop and built a song around that. It all happened without any planning or forethought; it just grew out of this experience of hanging down together. She was very down for whatever. It was brief but super cool." -- Shot entirely on webcam, the self-directed video shows Solange happily dancing solo. We see her twerking in the kitchen and in the darkened living room with various wardrobe changes throughout the clip.: www.youtube.com

James Brown and The J.B.'s "Super Bad" was originally released as a three-part single, and it went to #1 on the R&B chart and number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970. The J.B.'s consisted of: Clayton "Chicken" Gunnells - trumpet Darryl "Hasaan" Jamison - trumpet Robert McCollough - tenor saxophone; Bobby Byrd - Hammond organ; Phelps "Catfish" Collins - guitar; William "Bootsy" Collins - bass; John "Jabo" Starks - drums; Johnny Griggs - congas.