Kevin Cole

Listener request! The lyrics of "Paranoid Android" were written by singer Thom Yorke following an unpleasant experience in a Los Angeles bar. The song is over six minutes long and contains four sections. The name is taken from Marvin the Paranoid Android from the science fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The first version of "Paranoid Android" was over 14 minutes long and included a long Hammond organ outro performed by Jonny Greenwood. Guitarist Ed O'Brien said, "We'd be pissing ourselves while we played. We'd bring out the glockenspiel and it would be really, really funny." Singer Thom Yorke sarcastically referred to the version as "a Pink Floyd cover." Greenwood said later that the organ solo was "hard to listen to without clutching the sofa for support." Producer Nigel Godrich said: "Nothing really happened with the outro. It just spun and spun and it got very Deep Purple and went off." bit.ly

What began as the solo project of frontman Brian Von Uff is now a fully-fledged, incendiary punk four-piece, with drummer Evan Wall, guitarist Drew Mann and bassist Justin Mansor rounding out the new lineup. Von Uff’s debut album under the Mary Veils name, 2017's Slacker Paint (re-released by PNKSLM last year) so enthused Wall as to tempt him back behind the kit after a break from drumming, and caught the attention of Mann and Mansor of fellow Philadelphia noiseniks Hot Lunch, who quickly followed Wall in jumping on board. “And it’s been like Beatlemania ever since,” laughs Mann. “I probably did it the wrong way around,” says Von Uff of the jump from solo project to four-piece. “I wish these dudes were around from the beginning, because they bring so much personality to the songs, and the new material came together really easily.” Taking their cues from the classic punk of New York Dolls, Johnny Thunders and The Dickies, the sheer energy and inventiveness of Somewhere Over the Rowhome’s four tracks also brings to mind the more contemporary likes of Osees and Hot Snakes. “We’re just throwing everything we think is cool into the pot and trying to cook up something with a similar flavour,” says Wall. bit.ly

“Three Dimensions Deep is a musical journey of what questions you begin to ask yourself when you start looking to the universe for answers.” Mark said of the album. “I can only go as deep as the third dimension as that’s how we see the world, but what about when you start looking to the universe within for answers.” A little while after the album’s release, Mark will be taking the project on the road for a trek through Europe and the UK before popping back over for shows in the US and Canada. The tour will begin in Paris on March 5 and wrap up with a hometown show at New York’s Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on May 21. yhoo.it

In 2015, the band contributed the song "K.Y.S.A" to the Grand Theft Auto V soundtrack; the track appeared in "The Lab" radio station and was also included on the digital and physical versions of the Welcome to Los Santos album. bit.ly

This single was released on this day in 2002. Following the horrific events of September 11th, 2001, New York was a scarred city that was determined to move on and rebuild. Members of Interpol had watched the scene unfold from the rooftops of their buildings and through the surreal spectacle of 24 hour news coverage. A strange atmosphere had taken over the city: unusually high levels of mutual kindness between strangers gave way to a new sense of clarity. Sam Fogarino recalls: “It was weird in the band, too. For a short period of time, it felt like, ‘Let’s just shake hands and move on. We’re not doing a record.’ Everything seemed so trivial.” Turn On The Bright Lights had been written before 9/11, but the album’s songs took on a whole new layer of meaning in its wake. The band kicked off the recording process just over a month later, opting for the home studio of producer Peter Katis, far away in Bridgeport, Connecticut: an isolated location, removed from the social and narcotic distractions of New York. Turn On The Bright Lights marked the beginning of a longstanding relationship between Interpol and Katis – an accomplished, Grammy-winning engineer who would also record seven albums with indie-rock darlings, The National. Amidst a sea of dilapidated houses and lonely strip-malls the band contented themselves with sleeping, drinking, and recording in the attic of Katis’s run-down house. Due to financial constraints, Interpol were in a race against the clock to complete the process before their limited stock of tape expired and their $900 budget evaporated. Nonetheless, the band’s songwriting process had produced an iron-clad set of compositions, which were, in theory, immune to the endless tinkering of the recording studio. They knew what they wanted; the mission was precise and predetermined. Read more about story behind the album here: bit.ly

Norwegian avant-pop group Ora The Molecule's new album Human Safari, is a 12-track-long journey through the artists’ minds, covering topics from romance to existence to professional competition. During an interview with Clout, Ora The Molecule described their group as “a personified molecule, that is everywhere and nowhere, together with other molecules, constructing our reality.” Another beautiful quote from that same interview that asked the question of why they make music, the band responded with: “[It’s] the excitement of making something meaningful out of nothing. It is also a universal language, making the world into a playground without having to learn all the languages.” bit.ly "Creator" was a recent KEXP Song of the Day: bit.ly KEXP's YouTube channel has just released an interview and live performance with Ora The Molecule: bit.ly

The song was inspired by IDLES frontman Joe Talbot’s own near-death experience in a car accident. “It’s the horrific, comedown hangover – waking up in the morning and realising the smashes, like, what the fuck am I doing with my life?” he explained in a press release. IDLES guitarist and co-producer Mark Bowen said of “Car Crash,” “We wanted it to be as violent as possible to reflect that event. I really wanted it to be this sonic touchstone. We recorded the drums beforehand and put them on vinyl acetate. Whenever you replay an acetate, because it is kind of like a liquid, it degrades every time. It touches on things being transient and momentary—even a single drum hit. It’s like a memory when the moment has passed and you deal with the repercussions over and over again, and they morph and change into something else. It’s one of the first times on an IDLES song where we used proper effects on the vocals — it was Joe going through my pedalboard, so you get both clarity and degradation.” bit.ly Check out the accompanying video for the song, video, which IDLES’ Lee Kiernan edited together from director’s Matthew Cusick’s "File On Motor Transgression, 2011": bit.ly

Songwriting credits include Kim Deal of the Breeders, as the looped wah-wah guitar riff in "Firestarter" was sampled from the Breeders' track "S.O.S." from the album Last Splash. The drums are sampled from a remix of the song "Devotion" of the group Ten City. The "hey hey hey" sample is from the 1984 song "Close (to the Edit)" by Art of Noise. Then-members Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn, J. J. Jeczalik, Gary Langan and Paul Morley also receive songwriting credits. The "Empirion Mix," which does not include these samples, is credited solely to Liam Howlett and Keith Flint. bit.ly

Check out singer/songwriter Jimmy Watkins giving a listen to the world premiere of this new song on Drive Time! bit.ly Here's a great interview with Watkins by the Joe Strummer Foundation: bit.ly Watkins is a former member of Future of the Left, as well as a co-founder of a global running community called Running Punks. Notably, he'll often post album reviews while running! Follow the links below to learn more, and how to get involved! thevegabodegas.bandcamp.com www.runningpunks.com

Pleasure is the fifth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Feist, is said to explore "emotional limits... loneliness, private ritual, secrets, shame, mounting pressures, disconnect, tenderness, rejection, care and the lack thereof." All of the songs on the album are actually raw takes, as Feist explained on her Twitter: "Our desire was to record that state without guile or go-to's and to pin the songs down with conviction and our straight up human bodies. bit.ly

Once Twice Melody is the 8th studio album by Beach House. It is a double album, featuring 18 songs presented in 4 chapters. Across these songs, many types of style and song structures can be heard. Songs without drums, songs centered around acoustic guitar, mostly electronic songs with no guitar, wandering and repetitive melodies, songs built around the string sections. In addition to new sounds, many of the drum machines, organs, keyboards and tones that listeners may associate with previous Beach House records remain present throughout many of the compositions. Beach House is Victoria Legrand, lead singer and multi-instrumentalist, and Alex Scally, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. They write all of their songs together. Once Twice Melody is the first album produced entirely by the band. The live drums are by James Barone (same as their 2018 album, 7), and were recorded at Pachyderm studio in Minnesota and United Studio in Los Angeles. For the first time, a live string ensemble was used. Strings were arranged by David Campbell. The writing and recording of Once Twice Melody began in 2018 and was completed in July of 2021. Most of the songs were created during this time, though a few date back over the previous 10 years. Most of the recording was done at Apple Orchard Studio in Baltimore. Once Twice Melody was mixed largely by Alan Moulder but a few tracks were also mixed by Caesar Edmunds, Trevor Spencer, and Dave Fridmann. bit.ly

Released as a CD single on this day in 1991! Catherine Wheel formed in 1990, comprising singer-guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson), guitarist Brian Futter, bassist Dave Hawes, and drummer Neil Sims. Hawes had previously played in a Joy Division-influenced band called Eternal. The band took their moniker from the firework known as the Catherine wheel, which in turn had taken its name from the medieval torture device of the same name. The band was sometimes included in the shoegazing scene, characterized by bands that made extensive use of guitar feedback and droning washes of noise, as well as their continuous interaction with extensive numbers of effects pedals on the stage floor. bit.ly Dickinson is now a solo artist and the founder and creative director of Singer Vehicle Design since 2009, which performs restoration and modification of client vehicles, namely Porsches. Here's a video of his company's 100th restoration: Jay Leno's Porsche: bit.ly

Project leader J Spaceman recorded it in 11 different studios and, in addition to playing a lot of the instruments himself, also recruited a ton of collaborators and friends (including his own daughter Poppy) to play on it. “There was so much information on it that the slightest move would unbalance it, but going around in circles is important to me,” he said in a press release about the headspace he was in while making the album. “Not like you’re spiraling out of control but you’re going around and around and on each revolution you hold onto the good each time. Sure, you get mistakes as well, but you hold on to some of those too and that’s how you kind of… achieve. Well, you get there.” bit.ly Spiritualized will be playing The Neptune on April 7th, 2022; ticket info here: bit.ly

A solo artist and producer based in London, Jamie Perrett has rock’n’roll coursing through heart, mind, body and soul. Initially earning his stripes as a guitarist in the original line-up of Peter Doherty’s Babyshambles; Jamie is also notably the son of The Only Ones icon Peter Perrett with whom he played a pivotal role in masterminding his creative rejuvenation of recent years. Part love-song, part-travelogue, Jamie Perrett’s new single is a picture-perfect postcard about finding your way in the world. And now “Angel of Santiago” is accompanied with a semi-autobiographical video, with its narrative partly inspired by a precarious car journey Perrett experienced travelling between Barcelona and Nimes. As Perrett recalls of the track and video: "A short song but a much greater love story. Written in tribute to an under-appreciated guardian angel, 'Angel of Santiago' chronicles the mistakes and pitfalls to be encountered along the perilous journey of life… I could not have survived without the (lost) Angel of Santiago." bit.ly

Released on this day in 2014, The Inevitable End is the fifth and final studio album by Norwegian electronic music duo Röyksopp. Released by Dog Triumph. Svein Berge stated the album has a "dark energy", while Robyn described the album as "sad, but it's not cold. It's very warm." Four singles were released from the album: "Monument" (T.I.E. Version), "Skulls", "Sordid Affair" and "I Had This Thing". In September 2014, the duo announced this is their final studio album in the traditional sense, adding that they are "not going to stop making music, but the album format as such, this is the last thing from us." bit.ly

Ian Devaney describes the album’s intent and sound in more detail: "A Way Forward is an exploration of the band’s relationship to the music of the ’70s, through the lenses of Krautrock and early electronic music. We aimed to more deeply trace the roots of our sound, hoping to learn something from the early influences of our early influences. Experimenting with how they might be reinterpreted in our modern context—looking further backward to find a way forward. "We drew a lot from the steady locomotive rhythms of bands like Kraftwerk and Neu!, while also looking to less-propulsive electronic artists like Laurie Spiegel and Cluster. The goal was to have a record that felt like a journey, like being on a train that gets lost in a colorful fog, and then suddenly bursts through into different landscapes. "Thematically, some of those landscapes are familiar in their melancholy, but we also wanted to introduce celebration and joy in a way that hadn’t really been present in our previous album. Having these bursts of positivity felt like it gave the emotional low points more resonance, giving a stronger sense of emotional reality to the album overall." Abe Seiferth (who worked on Introduction, Presence) and Nick Milhiser of Holy Ghost! both produced A Way Forward. bit.ly

"The Only Heartbreaker" is said to depict "the person always messing up in the relationship, the designated Bad Guy who gets the blame," explained Mitski in a statement. "It could simply be about that, but I also wanted to depict something sadder beneath the surface, that maybe the reason you’re always the one making mistakes is because you’re the only one trying." Mitski spoke about the motivation behind Laurel Hell: "I needed love songs about real relationships that are not power struggles to be won or lost. I needed songs that could help me forgive both others and myself. I make mistakes all the time. I don’t want to put on a front where I’m a role model, but I’m also not a bad person. I needed to create this space mostly for myself where I sat in that grey area." bit.ly Watch the Maegan Houang and Jeff Desom-directed music video: bit.ly

This track was the band's debut single, released on March 6, 1981, also acting as the lead single from their debut studio album, Penthouse and Pavement (1981). It was a minor hit in the UK in 1981, despite being banned by the BBC. In the lyrics fascism and racism are described in an ironic fashion, using the lexicon of funk music. The lyrics of the song also reference the UK and US political leaders of the time, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan, respectively, and include denunciations of both racism and fascism.[3] According to the book Banned!: Censorship of Popular Music in Britain, 1967-92, the song was banned by the BBC due to concerns by Radio 1's legal department that it libelled Ronald Reagan as he was the U.S. president at the time of the song's release. bit.ly

Mandy, Indiana is the experimental project of Manchester, UK's Scott Fair, Valentine Caulfield and Liam Stewart. From vocalist and lyricist Valentine Caufield on "Bottle Episode": "I wanted to build up on the military style of the track, but in a very slow crescendo, and not in a very obvious way. The lyrics talk of men waiting, moving forward; war is never mentioned, yet it is obvious that the men are waiting for death. The song ends with the men almost dancing as the bullets hit them." bit.ly The ... EP is out on November 19th!

Washington became the 42nd state on this day in 1889! "Thrice All American" is about Tacoma, Washington. Case lived there in her teens and got her musical start in a Tacoma venue named the World Community Theater. Along with "South Tacoma Way," it's one of two songs on the album that deal with that area. At the time Case was living there, Tacoma was a rough city full of ruined infrastructure, poverty, and gang violence. She captures all of this in the song's lyric, which describes a city full of desperation and danger, but also pride and character. It's an accurate portrayal of the Tacoma of the 1980s and '90s. The All-America City Award is given out annually by the National Civic League, which has operated the program since 1949, giving out 10 awards ever year. Over that time, more than 600 communities have earned the award. Tacoma won it three times - in 1956, 1983, and 1998 - which likely explains the song title (it never shows up in they lyric). There's a sign by the Narrows Bridge (site of the infamous architectural disaster in 1940) that says, "Tacoma - All American City" and has the three dates under the words. "Thrice All American" was released in 2000, two years after the last time the city won the award. bit.ly

“Still Raining, Still Dreaming”, track 13 on Electric Ladyland, provides a continuation of one of the previous tracks, “Rainy Day, Dream Away”. Hendrix has used this process before, such as making a 4 minute uncut extension of the original “Voodoo Chile” to appear as the last track on the album. Like its predecessor, this song was inspired by The Experience’s rained out show at the 1968 Miami Pop Festival. The group’s performances at the festival were later documented in the posthumous live album Miami Pop. bit.ly

An American hip hop duo based in Seattle, Washington, created in 2002 Blue Scholars formed while the members, DJ Sabzi (Saba Mohajerjasbi) and MC Geologic (George Quibuyen), were students at University of Washington. The name "Blue Scholars" is a play on the term "blue collar," an idiom for workers who often earn hourly wages for manual labor. Their music and lyrics frequently focus on struggles between socioeconomic classes, challenging authority and youth empowerment. These themes are often specifically addressed in relation to the Seattle region ("Southside Revival", "North by Northwest", "50 Thousand Deep", "Joe Metro", "Slick Watts" and "The Ave"), and heavily draw upon Geologic's history as an activist within the Filipino American community dealing with issues of immigration, racism, and U.S. imperialism in the Philippines. bit.ly

Anamaría Tijoux Merino, commonly known by her stage name Ana Tijoux or Anita Tijoux, is a Chilean-French singer and musician. She became famous in Latin America as the MC of hip-hop group Makiza during the late 1990s. In 2006, she crossed over to the mainstream of Latin pop after her collaboration with Mexican songstress Julieta Venegas in the radio hit "Eres para mí." Tijoux has often been praised for "exploring sensitive matters devoid of violence." She gained more widespread recognition following her second solo album, 1977, and later with La bala (2011) and Vengo (2014) which brought her a Best Artist of the year award in the 2015's Premios Pulsar. Tijoux is the daughter of Chilean parents living in political exile in France during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile. bit.ly

Seattle-based, 25-year-old Alda Agustiano goes by the ambiguous title Chong the Nomad. When asked about her moniker, Chong shares, "Yeah, it’s a pretty nerdy story. I grew up loving the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the music from that series actually inspired me to write music. There was a very minor character, who was this sort of musician, and his name was Chong. He was nomadic; a hippy. I used Chong the Nomad as a form name for a while, and then I just rolled with it. I kinda like how gender-neutral it is." bit.ly

Recording for the album began in late 1989, and finished three months later in early 1990, with "Pubic Enemy" and "Bonita Applebum" as the first tracks recorded. The group chose Calliope Studios as their primary studio, as it was renowned to promote artistic freedom. Jungle Brothers, Queen Latifah and Prince Paul with De La Soul and Stetsasonic, were all recording new music in separate rooms while A Tribe Called Quest recorded People's Instinctive Travels. Q-Tip later commented, "It was exciting. We were kinda left to our own devices. It was just a great environment, conductive for creating. We didn't have cell phones, we didn't have the internet, we didn't have a bunch of things to tear at us. When we got to the studio, the specific job was to make music. There was no TV in there. It was all instruments and speakers. It was just music." Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad would listen to records several seconds at a time, and re-work them in relationship with other records that would fit. Ali played all live instruments, DJ scratches and programming, while Q-Tip handled everything else with production, including sampling and mixing. bit.ly

The War on Drugs are playing The Paramount Theatre on Monday & Tuesday, February 21-22, 2022. bit.ly Check out a few The War on Drugs sessions live in the KEXP studio: bit.ly The Guardian reviewed the new album: "I Don’t Live Here Anymore once again feels gloriously expansive, a series of meticulously crafted soundtracks for cruising down never-ending highways, as if the everyman euphoria of Springsteen were underpinned by the motorik propulsion of Neu!. The 1980s soft-rock and synthpop influences seem more pronounced this time around, however, variously summoning the spirits of Simple Minds, Bryan Adams, Bruce Hornsby and Kim Carnes, without ever sounding derivative. The effect, especially on "Harmonia’s Dream" and the title track, can be mesmerising. bit.ly www.thewarondrugs.net

“Six Words” is a sprawling love ballad that opens with elegant piano and evolves into an even-keeled rhythm as the band croons in compelling harmony. Frontman Guy Garvey revealed, "I can’t remember the exact genesis of the track, but it is definitely one of Craig’s. In some ways it’s familiar territory lyrically, it has similar sentiments to 'Mirrorball' but it draws heavily on my teenage years: the bottle green in the song is the colour of my school uniform and the six lanes is the traffic on the road to school in Prestwich. Though that six lanes line was something I originally wrote back in the early elbow days when I sat in The Cornerhouse people watching so it’s a double reminisce and a return to my love of writing about love. "The musical revelation came when we heard the backing singers that now end the track. We had this pyramid of voices making something incredible that reminded me of the early classic Disney soundtracks. It was so powerful that we knew we had to throw the spotlight onto them so that is why they end the track." bit.ly

Woods, the psych-folk partnership of Jeremy Earl and Jarvis Taveniere, released More Strange, the deluxe edition of their highly acclaimed 2020 album Strange To Explain, on July 23 via Woodsist Records. The digital-only release includes five bonus tracks, all recorded during the original Strange To Explain sessions at Stinson Beach’s Panoramic House in Northern California. Bonus tracks include two new singles (“Waiting Around For A New Me” and “Nickels and Dimes”), two outtakes (“Daylight Push” and “Sun Jammer”), and an alternate version of the album track “Be There Still.” Strange To Explain represented Woods’ first work following a series of milestones - Earl and Taveniere created the now-classic Purple Mountains record with David Berman; Taveniere moved from New York to California, making the band bicoastal for the first time in its 15-year existence; and Earl became a father. “Those first few months or first year of having a newborn kind of put me in a dreamlike state,” Earl told NPR’s Weekend Edition. “Starting to write the record was an escape for me from my everyday reality and anxieties.” bit.ly