Kevin Cole

"Love is Love was written and recorded in the two months immediately following the election, but it’s not a record borne entirely of angry, knee-jerk reaction to what America is becoming. Instead, it’s a meditation on love, and on what life means now. Taking cues from last year’s City Sun Eater in the River of Light, it feels very much like a record made from living, shoulder to shoulder, in a major city: weaving psychedelic swirls of guitar between languid horns reminiscent of the best Ethiopian jazz—Love is Love is a distinctly New York record. It is a document of protest in uncertain times and an open-hearted rejection of cynicism in favor of emotional honesty. It is bright, and then, unexpectedly, a little dark sometimes too." From Woods' FB page bit.ly

Now based in Helsinki, Finland, Joensuu was born in 1986 in the town of Alajärvi. "[Amen 2] is about relief, forgiveness and letting go. Some years ago I went through a period of deep anxiety and depression. Amen 1 was dwelling a lot on these feelings and ideas. I wrote the songs on Amen 2 at a time when I first started to feel that this period was maybe coming, or already had come to an end. It was also at those times when I realised that my lifelong companionship with God came to a conclusion that He, who once meant everything to me, no longer existed. These were the core-ideas how Amen 2 came to be." bit.ly | More from this incredible artist here: mikkojoensuu.bandcamp.com

The album version of the song has two distinct parts. The intro section features a repeating, hypnotic guitar melody, and Kim Gordon reciting stream-of-consciousness prose, such as "You're it, no you're it / Say it, don't spray it / Miss me, don't dismiss me / Spirit desire / We will fall." ("We Will Fall" is a reference to the Stooges' song of the same name from their debut eponymous album). After 80 seconds, all instruments stop, and Moore breaks through the fading instruments with a fast, distorted, noisy guitar riff, opening the main section of the song. The riff leads to the dynamic guitar melody that plays throughout the rest of the song with the vocal melody, sung by Moore. The riff that opens the section is repeated once again afterwards in the song, with all of the instruments accompanying it in an interlude that leads to the song's last few lines. As with many Sonic Youth songs, the guitars were unconventionally tuned; in this case, Moore's pentatonic tuning was (reading from left to right, the lowest-pitched string to the highest-pitched string) GABDEG and Lee Ranaldo's tuning was GGDDGG, as published in a Guitar World interview with the band. bit.ly

Performing live at KEXP on Wednesday, April 19th at 4pm, then later at the Showbox that evening. Ticket info here: www.axs.com/events/331122/real-estate-tickets?skin=showboxpresents

This album has its fair share of firsts. Kendrick finally got to work with Rihanna. Then there’s that U2 appearance that made the rap world collectively hold its breath last week. He also links up with soul-sampling rap guru the Alchemist for the first time, and provides looks to talented up-and-comers like the Internet’s Steve Lacy and BadBadNotGood. Kaytranada even chipped in autotuned vocals on “LUST.” The surprises come when you pore over the credits more carefully: James Blake co-produces the out-of-character “ELEMENT.” and Adele producer Greg Kurstin shows up, too. The album’s least familiar guest is (TDE-managed) singer Zacari, who was a late addition to the official tracklisting, but delivers a memorable performance on standout cut “LOVE.” There’s also a mysterious producer credited as Bekon on eight of the 12 tracks. bit.ly

This particular track was written by Chris Bell and Alex Chilton, and was covered by Todd Griffin as "That '70s Song" with additional lyrics by Ben Vaughn as the theme song for the television sitcom That '70s Show. Another recording of "That '70s Song" by Cheap Trick was used as the theme beginning with season two. The Cheap Trick version was released on the That '70s Album soundtrack album and another version by Cheap Trick was released on their album Authorized Greatest Hits. bit.ly

The Mats reunited and toured, performing a fantastic set at the Paramount Theatre. Check out our review here: blog.kexp.org | Singer-guitarist Paul Westerberg once cited Tim's stylistic bookends to describe both the longevity of the Replacements' influence and their lack of mainstream success. "My style is ultimately both kinds of things," he said. "Sometimes you just love the little acoustic songs, and other times you want to crank the goddamn amp up, and those two parts of me are forever entwined." That cognitive dissonance — the Stonesesque swagger of "Bastards of Young," the unpolished reflection in "Swingin Party" — became a crucial template for grunge, alternative country and, recently, the noisy introspection of emo. bit.ly

On working with Don Fleming, who produced this album, Ken Stringfellow noted, "Don was very casual, and very fun. That was his secret. He was not a Svengali, or a technological geek by any means, but he took the preciousness out of our recording process, and showcased the band we had become, by two years of sometimes brutal touring we did for Dear 23, an album made by a band of 20-year-olds, who had never toured, with an English producer. There was no translation of our live show on that album, it was really hard to recreate it live. Not a problem with Frosting." More from our interview with the band in celebration of the 20th anniversary of this album: blog.kexp.org | For more Posies fun, here's a performance they put on for KEXP listeners just last summer: blog.kexp.org

The song, whose composition was credited to the band as a whole, was written by drummer Tommy Ramone (music and lyrics) and bassist Dee Dee Ramone (lyrics).] Based on a simple three-chord pattern, "Blitzkrieg Bop" opens with the chant "Hey! Ho! Let's go!" The song is popular at sporting events where "Hey! Ho! Let's go!" is sometimes shouted as a rallying cry, particularly in the city of Glasgow where fans chant "Hey! Ho! Glasgow!" bit.ly

This local band came and performed a blistering set on Sonic Reducer six years ago; check it out here: blog.kexp.org

Downtown Boys are based in Providence, Rhode Island, and the title to this song translates to “I’m elegant/intelligent, I’m not dumb,” which the band explain is “a declaration of one’s ability to decolonize one’s mind, and the importance of fearlessly unlearning the ways white supremacy conditions people to think and exist.” Delivered in the chorus as a moment of clarity amidst reeling guitars and furious drums, this phrase becomes a rousing rally cry (à la their song “Monstro”’s chorus, “She’s brown/She’s smart!”). bit.ly

Damon Albarn: “At one point this song had Graham (Coxon), Noel [Gallagher] and me on it and it was sort of heading slightly in the wrong direction. It was becoming almost retro in its sort of spirit and way too rocky for this record so I kind of stripped it right back down again. We play it slightly different live then how it is on the record. It’s sort of the song that comes on during the final titles of a film. The climax. I thought Jehnny would take a bit of the testosterone off.” bit.ly

Curious to hear alternate versions of this rousing song? Then head right over here: consequenceofsound.net

Happy birthday, Winn Butler! He revealed how this album was influenced by a series of letters he exchanged as a youth: “In high school I had a letter-writing romance with a girl. I was trying to remember that time… waiting an entire summer, pretty much half a year, the anxiousness of waiting for letters to arrive. All day every day there’s almost this cloud of feeling hanging over everything. [Our family family would] be in Maine, I’d walk down to the post office and come back… the whole day was consumed by that feeling.” www.nme.com/news/music/arcade-fire-292-1296114

New project from Ought's frontman. "“As an artistic person, being able to touch in with other styles of expression that are germane to who you are (is important). If you go too long without touching in with one of those (styles), it starts to starve the whole plant, so to speak. A huge element of it is that everything that we’ve written with Ought has been written collaboratively. The process is very different. It’s usually a jam that then slowly gets reworked into something that resembles a song. Whereas writing solo music is much more direct. Obviously there are great benefits to working with other people. But it can be really refreshing to get back into ‘you are the pilot.’ Like (Still Waking Up). It’s so simple. It just does what it needs to do. And there are a lot of short songs on this record. Some are things I learned from Ought. Some are a slight reaction to (Ought). Ought’s songs are generally quite long and often very winding and complex. I also sing more softly and more melodically, like on Joan Pt 1, 2, where there’s almost a folk cadence to the vocals, which I think would be surprising for an Ought fan to hear in an Ought song.” bit.ly

Transformer was produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, both of whom had been strongly influenced by Reed's work with the Velvet Underground. Bowie had obliquely referenced the Velvet Underground in the cover notes for his album Hunky Dory and regularly performed both "White Light/White Heat" and "I'm Waiting for the Man" in concerts and on the BBC during 1971–1973. He even began recording "White Light/White Heat" for inclusion on Pin Ups[citation needed], but it was never completed; Ronson ended up using the backing track for his solo album Play Don't Worry in 1974. Mick Ronson (who was at the time the lead guitarist with Bowie's band, the Spiders from Mars) played a major role in the recording of the album at Trident Studios, serving as the co-producer and primary session musician (contributing guitar, piano, recorder and backing vocals), as well as arranger, notably contributing the string arrangement for "Perfect Day". Reed lauded Ronson's contribution in the Transformer episode of the documentary series Classic Albums, praising the beauty of his work and keeping down the vocal to highlight the strings. The songs on the album are now among Reed's best-known works, including "Walk on the Wild Side", "Perfect Day" and "Satellite of Love", and the album's commercial success elevated him from cult status to become an international star. bit.ly

Spoken word credit goes to Andrea Giordani. "The four-piece audio visual band Žen /zhen/ was formed in 2009 in Zagreb, Croatia. From then til now we are unintentionally but consistently avoiding to fit in specific genre box, so description of our music is endless: kraut math post synth psy indie rock." Expore from this group here at their Bandcamp: xzen.bandcamp.com

Speaking about the loss of Prince, Bowie, and so many musical greats, Britt Daniel remarked, "The only good thing that's come from them leaving the planet way too soon is that it's inspired a lot of people to be in touch with what they're about musically and spiritually. And that's been the best thing for me, honestly, that could have possibly happened is getting very in touch with the grandeur and the greatness and the beauty of those records." bit.ly | Check out Spoon's incredible live performance here at our studio a few years back: blog.kexp.org

For this album, the band reached out to producer Erik Blood (Shabazz Palaces, Tacocat) and began searching for that elusive “next thing”. What they found was transcendence in psychic sounds and experimental tinkering that would become the building blocks of their upcoming record, LoveJoys, out this summer. The lead single, “Turncoat”, gives a dazzling look at the headspace the band has been living in these past couple years. Follow the link to dig deeper into the band's new direction, and see their new video: blog.kexp.org

Lamar's video for this song has garnered some amount of controversy; read about it here: www.elle.com/beauty/health-fitness/a44440/kendrick-lamar-humble-video-stretch-marks/

In introducing the video to their track "Lebedi": "'Swan Lake' is not just a well-known masterpiece by Tchaikovsky. It is a music forever linked with history, memories, images and values. For Russians this music has an even greater importance. During the coup d’etat attempt in the August days of 1991 “Swan Lake” appeared to be the only broadcast on the Soviet TV. Since then, this classic ballet turned out into the fabulous symbol of political transformations and shocks. And, to a certain extent, it also sounds like the music of riot. We tried to realize this story with music and video. We really care a lot! We do not boggle saying, "We re-imagine the Russian music". Each piece of this work is a good chunk of beef, and it is a part of us with beats and bass. The 'Lebedi' video is a further proof of our attitude. It has been filmed in the grandma's apartment of one the band members. You will see very personal things, heirlooms and paraphernalia from the past. Memories are stored in these

"The title ‘3WW’ stands for '3 worn words.' This song’s teaser uses imagery and scenery taken from the Japanese PlayStation 1 game known as 'LSD: Dream Emulator.' This song’s release was also themed after the number 3. The teaser for the song was released on 3/3, the full song was released 3 days later, and the album was set to release 3 months and 3 days after 3WW’s release. The song also features 3 singers (Joe Newman, Gus Unger-Hamilton and Ellie Roswell) singing about 3 different characters. The '3' motif also fits the three sides of the band’s triangle symbol." genius.com | Watch Alt-J perform a stunning set at the Triple Door for our Amplifiers here: blog.kexp.org

Recorded in actress Jane Seymour's 15th century mansion near the village of St Catherine, near Bath, Somerset, Radiohead fused together parts from three different songs, each written by a different member of the band. The idea to combine the pieces into a single track was inspired in part by the through-composed structure of The Beatles' "Happiness Is a Warm Gun." According to Thom Yorke, "[This was] basically an excuse to weld loads of half-finished songs together, Abbey Road-style. It's Radiohead, pissed and having a party. I wasn't there when it was all stuck together – I'd been sent to sleep it off. What's it all about? The fall of the Roman Empire." Colin Greenwood admitted that the band, in attempting it to make the disparate elements work together, "felt like irresponsible schoolboys who were doing this ... naughty thing, 'cause nobody does a six-and-a-half-minute song with all these changes. It's ridiculous." The song was at first intended to be humorous, and took its title from Marvin the Paranoid Android in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series of books. Yorke said the title "was chosen as a joke. It was like, 'Oh, I'm so depressed.' And I just thought, that's great. That's how people would like me to be. And that was the end of writing about anything personal in the song. The rest of the song is not personal at all."[4] In an early interview, Colin Greenwood described it "just a joke, a laugh, getting wasted together over a couple of evenings and putting some different pieces together".[5] The band used Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the work of the Pixies as reference points while writing; yet Ed O'Brien denies they wrote "a 'Bohemian Rhapsody' for the nineties", and Jonny Greenwood considers it too tense and simple to rival Queen's song. bit.ly

"I definitely use 'smiling while rapping' as a tool in the booth. I want to have fun while recording. At times it can get tedious and stressful when it's not sounding the way you heard it in your head, but you've got to remember to just smile and appreciate the fact that you're even in the booth and there are people who want to hear your art." bit.ly | Watch Macklemore and Ryan Lewis perform an electrifying set here at KEXP: blog.kexp.org

Pronounced "Cheekbones," the band recently hosted Kevin Cole while he was on his big adventure through eastern Europe, which included Talinn, Estonia, and St. Petersburg, Russia. From the band's Facebook, they posted a wonderful photo with the caption: "As teens all three of us dreamed of Seattle. We spent those days under the chestnuts In bloom, we drank Pennyroyal tea and saw Something in the way. Now we work with Seattle-based sound-engineer and producer Christopher Newton and today we met someone from Seattle who saw and heard more musicians than anyone we know. This man is saturated with music and we are grateful for a chance to meet him. Thank you for inspiration, Kevin! That was such a nice company to commemorate Kurt from Seattle, who chose this April day to leave." instagram.com

Gala was compiled by Lush's record label, 4AD, as an introduction to the United States and Japanese markets. The album features the band's debut mini album Scar (1989) and Mad Love and Sweetness and Light extended plays (1990) in reverse chronological order. A cover version of ABBA's 1975 song "Hey Hey Helen"—which had been recorded for an abandoned anti-poll tax compilation—was included,[3] as well as a rerecording of Scar song "Scarlet" that had been previously released on the Melody Maker compilation Gigantic! 2 in March 1990. bit.ly

"The collapse of Ride, the legendary shoegaze band that dominated the early 90’s, was easily identified through a shift in song writing style. The group went from coaxing fuzz filled songs out of jam sessions to Andy Bell and Mark Gardener bringing already written songs to the studio and dividing the album (see Tarantula) by song author. So, it makes sense that the group’s reunion started with a return to the core of what had fueled the band’s greatness: having fun playing music with each other. The Oxford quartet reunited in 2014 and showed that time had done nothing to halt the force that was and still is Ride. And now the group has escalated their reunion further with their first new music in 20 years. 'Charm Assault' is the first single from upcoming album, Weather Diaries, and shows that the band is back to their old ways of pulling melodic bliss from a pit of fuzz infused noise." Dig deeper into this song, and download your own copy here: blog.kexp.org

"The lyrics describe the protagonist's frustration of being hounded by others for his comments, to which he replies 'I was only joking.' During the song, the protagonist compares himself to Joan of Arc as the flames rose to her Roman nose and also says now I know how Joan of Arc felt. The line, 'and her Walkman started to melt',' is often changed by Morrissey in live performances, to the more technologically current 'and her iPod started to melt.' The high-pitched voice in the background is actually Morrissey's voice altered to a higher pitch. The backing vocal is credited to 'Ann Coates,' a reference to the Manchester district of Ancoats." bit.ly

A noise-pop trio from Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Lots of dark deliciousness to explore here: thesweetreleaseofdeath.bandcamp.com

Step into Paul's Boutique with KEXP as we broke down their entire album, including this track: blog.kexp.org

Bassist Fredrik Källgren Wallin on the band's enlisting of James Ford and Patrik Berger on producing the band's new album: "It was kind of natural. James Ford we met during the Parklife tour a few years back, and we always kind of liked the projects he was involved with like Simian Mobile Disco. So, when we started talking about people he came up as a natural choice. Patrik Berger was more of a wildcard, but talking to him we had an easy way of communicating which is essential." bit.ly

Celebrating Barrett Martin's 50th birthday today! "Martin was born and grew up in Olympia, Washington, and studied jazz and classical music theory at Western Washington University in the mid-1980s. After dropping out of college to play music professionally, he later completed both his bachelor's and master's degrees in anthropology, linguistics, and ethnomusicology at the University of New Mexico, graduating summa cum laude (highest honors). His master's degree field project involved fieldwork with the indigenous Shipibo people of the Upper Peruvian Amazon, where he recorded and documented dozens of Shipibo curing songs, which became the film and CD, Woven Songs Of The Amazon." bit.ly | Some trivia about this track: "It is the first single released in support of their sixth album Sweet Oblivion. Perhaps their best-known song, it was a moderate success on modern rock radio, partly because of its appearance on the soundtrack to the 1992 Cameron Crowe film Singles. In addition to the soundtrack, 'Nearly Lost You' also appeared on the band's 1992 breakthrough album Sweet Oblivion. It also appears on the soundtrack to the 2007 baseball video game The Bigs, and is available as downloadable content for the Rock Band series, and is in the main soundtrack of Guitar Hero 5. The song was covered in 2013 by Rogue Wave." bit.ly

A four-piece Russian treasure, based in Moscow. Loads to explore here: lucidvoxband.bandcamp.com and here: soundcloud.com

Closer was produced by Martin Hannett. His production has been highly praised, with Pitchfork describing it as "sepulchral." However, as with their debut album, both Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner were unhappy with Hannett's work. Hook later complained that the track "Atrocity Exhibition" was mixed on one of his days off, and when he heard the final product was disappointed that the abrasiveness of his guitar part had been laden with effects and toned down. He wrote; "I was like, head in hands, oh fucking hell, it's happening again. Unknown Pleasures number two ... Martin [Hannett] had melted the guitar with his Marshall Time Waster. Made it sound like somebody strangling a cat, and to my mind, absolutely killed the song. I was so annoyed with him and went in and gave him a piece of my mind but he just turned around and told me to fuck off." bit.ly

In 1972, Bowie performed this song on the British TV show, Top of the Pops. Bowie appeared as the flame-haired Ziggy Stardust dressed in a multicolored jump suit. Bowie strummed a blue guitar while he moved flirtatiously alongside his guitarist, Mick Ronson. It was the first time many had seen Bowie and people were fascinated by his stage presence. This performance would catapult Bowie to stardom and prove wildly influential on the next generation of English rockers. Among the many who have cited this specific appearance as a transformative moment is Lol Tolhurst of The Cure, who writes in his memoir, "I remember sitting on my couch at home with my mother, watching this spectacle unfold, and at the point where Bowie sang the line, 'I had to phone someone so I picked on you,' he pointed directly at the camera, and I knew he was singing that line to me and everyone like me. It was a call to arms that put me on the path that I would soon follow." bit.ly

"My favorite movie is Dogfight with River Phoenix and Lili Taylor. The ending is kind of bittersweet, but so real and moving and complicated. I tried to see if I could make something similar. It's about a love that other people tell you is devious or not natural, being very pure and true — physical or otherwise. When I was doing press for my last album, everybody kept asking me why I was writing about all this when gay people can get married and it's not illegal to suck d*** in Wyoming or wherever, but there are still a lot of really horrible things going on right now. So there's a joy to this song, but it's a protest, too." ~ Mike Hadreas . n.pr

Canadian ultra-supergroup Broken Social Scene recently performed on Late Show with Steven Colbert, with a 13-piecelineup in performing the new song including Metric’s Emily Haines and James Shaw and Stars’ Amy Millan and Evan Cranley. Check it out here: bit.ly

"DeVaughn wrote 'A Cadillac Don't Come Easy' eventually re-written to become 'Be Thankful for What You Got' in 1972, and spent $900 toward its development[vague] to Omega Sound (a Philadelphia production house). The producers at Omega (Frank Fioravanti and sax player/ MFSB session group member, John Davis) decided to go for a strong groove with a smooth, almost jazzy arrangement, eventually booking time to record at Sigma Sound Studio in Philadelphia. The session featured members of the MFSB group — guitarist Norman Harris, drummer Earl Young, bassist Ron Baker, and vibist Vince Montana — secured by Allan Felder, who also developed the separate ad lib back-up chorus with his sister's vocal choir." bit.ly