Kevin Cole

Pearl Jam brought on Andrew Watt to produce "Dark Matter" - Watt's work spans from Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber to Iggy Pop, The Rolling Stones, and Eddie Vedder's solo work - tinyurl.com

OSees joined KEXP's Toy Nelson - Live in the KEXP Studio - on September 12, 2022: youtu.be Bandleader John Dwyer on the new album: "I demo’d everything at home on cassette 4 track... and just had at it 'til I had a pile of 'songs.' ...The idea was to change the way we wrote and to have 4 people along the front of the stage essentially playing percussion. So no guitar, no keys. " - tinyurl.com

Performing at Timber Outdoor Music Festival in Carnation, WA on Saturday, July 27 - see the whole schedule and get tickets: summer.timbermusicfest.com Ty Segall spent 14 months writing the songs on his double-LP "Manipulator" - tinyurl.com

Kevin Cole hosted Font - Live in the KEXP Studio - in June! Subscribe to our YouTube channel to learn when the set goes live - www.youtube.com New from Font - the Austin band's debut LP comes out July 12! They supported Yard Act on their Spring 2024 tour, including early-June shows in San Francisco and Seattle; they've also graced the main stage at Austin City Limits, along with supporting bar italia, Water From Your Eyes, Horsegirl, and CHAI - tinyurl.com

The song title, which David Byrne came up with, never shows up in the lyric. In an interview with drummer Chris Frantz, he explained: "Crosseyed and painless is a state that we have all been in in at least one point in our lives. I think he was probably thinking of that state of intoxication." bit.ly In the music video, you'll catch Skeeter Rabbit from The Electric Boogaloos busting out a moonwalk: ttps://youtu.be/_Zrkf65GmwE

New song from the 84-year-old singer and activist Mavis Staples - this song was inspired by her collaborations with Prince in the 80s The artwork for the record features an image of Henry Taylor’s painting “The Darker the Berry, The Sweeter the Juice,” revealed in 2015. mavisstaples.com

This song was written after a discussion where Luther Ingram said to Stax songwriter Mack Rice, "Black folk need to respect themselves." Rice decided to turn the idea into a song, and quickly cut a demo. He didn't think it was right for The Staple Singers, but Stax vice-president Al Bell did, stating, "I heard that lyric and I heard that melody and I said, 'that's it. This is the song I've been waiting on.' -- tinyurl.com

Bellingham duo ODESZA performing at The Gorge Amphitheater July 4, 5, & 6 for their Last Goodbye Tour!

"I'm going to miss you on Drive Time Kevin. I'm reluctant to change, but so be it. Could you please play Slow by My Bloody Valentine for my wife Jennifer? Thanks for all you do. 🤙❤️" - Michael Third EP from MBV, their first on Creation Records -

Curve's two core members -- guitarist Dean Garcia (Today's his birthday--1958!) and vocalist Toni Halliday -- met through David Stewart of Eurythmics. Halliday met Stewart while she was a teenager and they remained friends for years; Garcia played on several Eurythmics records. www.curve.co.uk

Manon Meurt got together in 2011 in Rakovnik, Czech Republic. Their name is French for "bitter death". Their 2018 debut album MMXVIII earned anomination for the Apollo Czech Music Critics Award 2018 and they also appeared among the nominees in the Alternative and Electronic Category at the Anděl Music Awards 2018. tinyurl.com www.manonmeurt.com

Playing the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco on July 9, Seattle's Barboza on July 12 - hanavu.com Hana Vu has been making music since high school; her latest LP was inspired by embedded grief “I was recently so close to childhood... at the cusp of becoming a more capable and mature person, I feel grief for my naivete.” - hanavu.bandcamp.com

The Clash's Joe Strummer confronted Roland Orzabal from Tears for Fears in a restaurant over his belief that the band lifted the line "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" from the Clash song "Charlie Don't Surf" - and apparently Orzabal paid up

From Earthtones' first full LP on Wonderwheel - he "combines analog synthesizers & vintage drum machines with folkloric vocals and instrumentation in a way uniquely his own. It's a celebration of the intersection of past and future, here and there, ancestry and technology. It celebrates themes of spirituality, feminism, love, and most of all, peace." earthtonesmusic.bandcamp.com

Translated lyrics: "As Bob Marley says One love, one love Like Lennon and McCartney All you need is love, all you need is love" bombaestereo.bandcamp.com

"Our boss is trying out some team building, relationship building exercises. He asked the 20 of us what our first job was, what’s the funniest thing we’ve ever done, and what our intro song was. For my intro song, I chose Ace of Spades ♠️ by Motorhead. What about you? What’s yours? Love, Lara in VA"

Amyl and the Sniffers will be performing at this year's Day In Day Out Festival at the Seattle Center on Saturday, July 13th! tinyurl.com They're also appearing at Outside Lands in San Francisco on Saturday, August 10 Apparently Amy Taylor (lead singer) is into snakes - amylandthesniffers.bandcamp.com

IDLES performed Live in the KEXP Studio in November 2021: youtu.be Joe Talbot told the NME: "This album is an attempt to be vulnerable to our audience and to encourage vulnerability; a brave naked smile in this sh**y new world." - tinyurl.com

Noise rock icons The Jesus Lizard have released their first new music in 26 years! In a new interview with the New York Times, JL's David Yow says of the new song, "It’s got so many hooks," admitting that he's been asking his wife, "Have we written a pop song?" tinyurl.com

Will The Last Goodbye Tour really be the final live rodeo for Bellingham's ODESZA? They're playing The Gorge July 4th thru the 6th. deets here odesza.com Check out their 2017 KEXP Live In-Studio Session here: www.youtube.com

JoyCut will pay tribute to Kevin Cole at our Kevin REMIX celebration event on July 27! Come out and say THANK YOU to Kevin Cole for 50 years of bringing the world together through the power of music, and cheer him on as he moves into his next chapter — and don’t forget, Kevin will still be on the air every Sunday starting in August! With performances from Thunderpussy, JoyCut, Princess Pulpit, and a Seattle Supergroup, Encore! paying tribute to Kevin’s favorite artists, along with Special DJ sets — tickets available NOW! www.kexp.org

Kevin Cole hosted Deep Sea Diver - Live in the KEXP Studio in October 2021, with a set including this song: youtu.be She'll be joining us for Kevin's REMIX celebration at the KEXP Courtyard and Gathering Space on July 27 - tickets available NOW: www.kexp.org

New music! The members of Calgary band Crack Cloud met through various addiction recovery and mental health programs - as participants and as support workers Their exclamation-mark logo came from a series of public service announcements aimed towards children on various topics (drug abuse, peer pressure, exercise, etc.) that were broadcast on Canadian television Pre-order "Red Mile": crackcloud.bandcamp.com

Irish band Pillow Queens say this song is now one of their favorites - "Sonically, we were influenced by a range of artists from Blur and REM to Seminsonic, New Radicals, and Squeeze. It began as a song we felt had a strong country music influence and morphed into something that referenced a wide range of our musical tastes. It’s the 90s soft rock song on the album." www.pillowqueens.com

New single from this Icelandic band! Kevin Cole hosted them - Live in the KEXP Studio - in October! youtu.be “The song is like a bull having smoke from its nose and ears,” the band says. “Instrumentally coming from a heavy dimension, like the instruments are angry or depressed, stuck in their own mess. It still has this tender and caring melody... You could say that it’s a love/care song.” groa.bandcamp.com

Released on this day in 1990! This was the first LP recorded by PIL after the departure of bassist Jah Wobble - bandcola.bandcamp.com

Released as a non-album single on this day in 1980 - the recording process with producer Martin Hannett was confrontational:, according to drummer Stephen Morris: 'We had this one battle where it was nearly midnight and I said, "Is it all right if I go home, Martin – it's been a long day?" And he said [whispers], "OK ... you go home". So I went back to the flat. Just got to sleep and the phone rings. "Martin wants you to come back and do the snare drum". At four in the morning! I said, "What's wrong with the snare drum!?" So every time I hear "Love Will Tear Us Apart", I grit my teeth and remember myself shouting down the phone, "YOU BASTARD!" ... I can feel the anger in it even now. It's a great song and it's a great production, but I do get anguished every time I hear it"'

Brand new from Fontaines DC - upcoming dates for their 2024 tour: Sept 20, 2024 Seattle @ Showbox SoDo Sept 24, 2024 San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield Lots more, including Portland, Vancouver BC, ++ - fontainesdc.com

Nada Surf is touring this autumn - they're stopping in Seattle on October 15th at The Crocodile and San Francisco on October 18th at The Great American Music Hall You can pre-order the new album with a ton of different vinyl and CD exclusives - nadasurf.bandcamp.com

Damon Albarn says Blur is going back on hiatus - "It’s amazing to have two huge bands, it allows you to make things twice," he said. "But it is time to wrap up this campaign. It’s too much for me. It was the right thing to do and an immense honour to play these songs again, spend time with these guys, make an album… I’m not saying I won’t do it again, it was a beautiful success, but I’m not dwelling on the past." - tinyurl.com

Brand new music! Nate Amos announced his project "This is Lorelei" back in March: 'this is lorelei and i am nate and my other band is called water from your eyes' - he was inspired by the songwriting of his dad, bluegrass musician Bob Amos “He’s a Beatles fanatic, and he passed that on to me,” Amos says. “That’s kind of the closest thing to a religion that I’ve ever had.” thisislorelei.bandcamp.com

ODESZA "The Last Goodbye: FINALE" live shows at The Gorge Amphiteater on July 4th, 5th, 6th "In California, Naomi Wild was wrestling her own bout of writer’s block. The aspiring singer thought back to a time of inspiration, the moment she saw ODESZA perform during a Do Lab curated event. “I just remember being like ‘wow I wish I could go up there,'” she says. “‘I wish I was part of something like that.'” She sent the recording to her manager and asked if there was any way he could get her vocal to the Seattle duo. Incredibly, it reached them, and it sparked the flame that became “Higher Ground” and the foundation for the full, Grammy-nominated album A Moment Apart."

The family of late avant-pop artist Sophie announced they're releasing some of her music on a new album due out on September 27 “Sophie didn’t often speak publicly of her private life, preferring to put everything she wanted to articulate in her music,” they added. “It feels only right to share with the world the music she hoped to release, in the belief that we can all connect with her in this, the form she loved most.” - tinyurl.com

Brand new from Charli XCX - Playing in San Francisco on October 20th at Chase Center then in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena on October 23rd KEXP's Music Director, Chris Sanley, writes: "With an onslaught of talented producers from A.G. Cook to Hudson Mohawke, she touches on themes of complex relationships, insecurities, partnerships and partying, and pays tribute to her late friend and collaborator SOPHIE"

Polachek dedicated the track "I Believe" to the late SOPHIE, a musician and producer who tragically died in 2021 at age 34. Kevin Cole hosted Caroline Polachek - Live in the KEXP Studio - last May: youtu.be

The mysterious Australian artist provides this origin story for their music: "I recalled a childhood memory of my parents and I watching a DVD they had bought: ‘Concert For George’ (a tribute concert for George Harrison from the Beatles). George’s long time collaborator and friend Ravi Shanka put an Indian Orchestra together for that concert, and even though I hadn’t even started playing music at the time that I watched this, the sounds really stuck with me. My father was born in India and moved here when he was 17, and after recalling this memory I decided to look up musicians from my father’s hometown and surrounding areas. I found a wealth of Indian classical, disco and pop music that formed the building blocks for this record. As soon as I had that vision of what I wanted to write and why I wanted to write it, the songs just flowed out really." glassbeams.bandcamp.com

Seattle pop-punk duo Nicole Giusti and Yaz Ahsani! Guisti and Ahsani met when a mutual friend, knowing they were both looking for other female musicians to play music with, organized a night at Southgate Roller Rink to introduce them. Quickly, the two bonded over “riot grrrl, music in the modern era of the movement, and general crusty punk bands.” They also discovered a mutual passion for skating and started shredding parking garages together. - www.thestranger.com