Kevin Cole

If you're not familiar with it already, Bjork's videos are always incredible, thoughtful works of art, as is virtually everything she puts her hand to, and the video for this particular track is no exception. Check it out here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjI2J2SQ528

Featuring Marina Price on vocals, Manatee Commune is multi-intrumentalist Grant Eadie. Watch video from his sparkling in-studio from our archives: blog.kexp.org

“My writing is always a dialectic with what I’m listening to, and over time I’ve developed a tool box of so many different things – sounds from a rap template, sounds from an ambient or noise template, sounds from a Kiss FM template; pushing that hybridisation further. Music is one phenomenon – so I think people could push harder, in terms of the experimentation they're willing to take. People want to hear it, too. I genuinely believe that. I love this video that Team USA posted on their Instagram, the Olympic basketball team? They're all on this private jet, singing Vanessa Carlton. It's so sick. All these powerful young black guys – all of their advertisements are scored with rap music – and they're all singing like cute boys to Vanessa Carlton. Because that's how people live." www.theskinny.co.uk/music/interviews/take-care-how-to-dress-well-interviewed

The first official studio release from New Order (and really, Joy Division and Warsaw) without Peter Hook on bass; of the split, Bernard Sumner remarks, "I’m not interested in the past or in talking about myself. But that’s what you lot want, isn’t it? Well, there’s only two choices when life goes wrong. You deal with it, or you check out, and like 90% of people I go for the former. There’s challenges in life that present themselves unexpectedly, and if you rise to them, then those challenges will toughen you up." www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/27/new-order-music-complete-interview

Also known for being a key member of Wolf Parade, Divine Fits, and Handsome Furs, Montreal-based, Cowichan Valley-born Dan Boeckner's project with Sam Brown and Devojka is infused with soaring electronics and glimmering guitars; watch them play a stunning session our our studio! blog.kexp.org

Wolf Parade's Arlen Thompson plays drums on this track!

The album's title references the term "hesitation wounds", which is used to describe marks produced by testing a bladed weapon before attempting suicide or self-harming.

"Inspired by the sight of Bowie's manager Tony Visconti embracing his girlfriend by the Berlin Wall, the song tells the story of two lovers, one from East and one from West Berlin. Bowie's performance of 'Heroes' on June 6, 1987 at the German Reichstag in West Berlin was considered a catalyst to the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall. Following Bowie's death in January 2016, the German government thanked Bowie for 'helping to bring down the Wall,' adding 'you are now among Heroes." bit.ly A new documentary on Bowie has just been announced; in it, Visconti reveals that while recording "Lazarus": "He would stand in front of the mic and for the four or five minutes he was singing he would pour his heart out. I could see through the window he was really feeling it. The audio picked up his breathing, it wasn’t that he was out of breath, he was hyperventilating in a way, getting his energy up to sing this."

"The album was created in sessions open to the public as part of an art installation at Somerset House in London called Recording in Progress. The sessions were forty-five minutes each in length and began on 16 January 2015 and concluded on February 14, 2015. Viewers could see Harvey create the album through one-way glass with producers Flood and John Parish, who both worked on Harvey's previous album, Let England Shake. Cell phones and devices with recording capabilities were confiscated before entering and viewers were led to a basement-level room. During the first viewing, she was working on a song called 'Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln', which is featured on the album. Harvey was reportedly playing violin, harmonica and hurdy-gurdy. It was also reported that she was joined by musicians Terry Edwards and James Johnston and that Seamus Murphy was filming the entire thing." bit.ly

Drummer/guitarist Chris Gorman on the band's reformation after a 21 year-long haitus: "We returned to where we started. Gail's basement. It was where we auditioned her to join the band and where we practiced throughout the whole star album cycle. By the time we started king we had so much gear and touring stuff like merchandise and road cases we had to find a new bigger space, but Gail's was really where Belly came together so it was somewhat surreal. Gail made coffee, her dogs ran around, we sat around and laughed just hung out. By the time we started playing it was a bit like a flashback. When I drove off after practice I spoke to my wife and I think she expected me to say it was awkward, or it was scary, or tense but it was actually so natural and organic that all I could really say was that it was just really fun." www.eventhestars.co.uk

"Generally, it seems like my work has been about finding my place in the world, but there was a point in which I realized that you can be missing something important in your life, a part you didn't realize you were missing until it's there – hence the title. This record is like my version of new age music. It's supposed to be inspiring." ~ Dylan Baldi

Scruffy The Cat was a Roots Rock/Pop/Cowpunk band from Boston credited with being a forefather of the alt-country movement, and active from 1983 to 1990. They also played a few reunion shows in 2011, prior to the death of lead singer and guitarist Charlie Chesterman, who sadly passed away this day from colon cancer in 2013 at the age of 53.

"Left of the Dial" references college radio stations, which were traditionally on the left side of a radio dial. More than 20 years after the album's release, the song remains popular as a college radio anthem.

New from Seattle's Bread and Butter from Killroom Records! www.breadandbutterrules.com/ Sink your teeth into this downloadable Song of the Day! http://blog.kexp.org/2015/02/20/song-of-the-day-bread-butter-shoot-my-mouth-off/

Of this track, KEXP writer Scott Kulicke remarks, "The title track from their Easy Eating EP is a 200-proof two-and-a-half minute tornado of garage rock that opens with the metronomic clicks of two drumsticks, surf-rock reverbed guitar, and the sound of someone laughing in the distance. The chorus is shout-along gold: 'give me more-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh,' the sound of the thousand crowded basement shows Naked Giants have been playing around the Emerald City on their quick rise to touring down to SXSW after coming in second at EMP’s Sound Off! competition. There’s a pureness to their sound, a refreshing youthful enthusiasm like they’re the first punkers to ever punk, a completely un-ironic and unabashed immersion in a musical tradition nearly forty years old." Read on, and enjoy a downloadable version of this song here: blog.kexp.org

Singer Julian Casablancas wanted this album to sound like "'a band from the past that took a time trip into the future to make their record'. The approach for the album became more studied than that of The Modern Age. The group wanted the majority of songs to sound like them playing live, while they requested a few others to be like 'a weird, in-studio production with a drum machine, even though no drum machine was used'. The songs of the latter type were done track-by-track and were crafted into non-standard rock arrangements. Raphael's background in industrial music played a large part in the album's conception." bit.ly

Minneapolis' The Real Numbers are Eli Hansen (Cozy, Boys Club, Retainers) on vocals and guitars, John Eggerman (Cozy, Private Interests, Mystery Date) on bass, and James Blackfield (France Camp, Nice Purse) on drums. The addition of full time lead guitar player Ian Nygaard (Nice Purse, Howler) reveals a much fuller sound while maintaining the band's trademark DIY simplicity. Check out more from this band here: real-numbers.bandcamp.com

KEXP listeners are no strangers to the charms of Toronto's Austra; check them out as they play a glimmering set for us in Portland's Doug Fir Lounge during MusicFest NW 2013: blog.kexp.org

The album was financed by crowdfunding in early 2015 and, in under ten hours, surpassed the projected goal of $110,000. The ninth studio album from the band, it features contributions by David Byrne, Damon Albarn (who collaborated with De La Soul with Gorillaz), Snoop Dogg, Usher, Little Dragon, Estelle, Pete Rock, 2 Chainz, Jill Scott, to name a few.

"'King Kunta' is a reference to the archetypal rebellious slave Kunta Kinte, the basis of the main character from the Alex Haley novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. The song contains an interpolation of 'Get Nekkid' (2000), written by Johnny Burns and performed by Mausberg; resung lyrics from 'Smooth Criminal' (1987), written and performed by Michael Jackson; elements of the 1974 James Brown song 'The Payback', written by Brown, Fred Wesley, and John Starks; and a sample from the 1994 song 'We Want the Funk', written and performed by Ahmad Lewis. Background vocals are provided by Whitney Alford." bit.ly

"The song's distinctive bass line is often attributed to Bootsy Collins and was originally written for him. However, Collins rejected the part and Bernie Worrell created the line on at least three, possibly four connected Minimoog synthesizers. Worrell also played all the song's keyboard parts. The New York Times described Worrell's synthesized bass as 'descending and ascending chromatic line with a meaty tone and a certain swagger, an approach that would spread through funk, new wave, electro, synth-pop and countless other iterations.' Collins contributed to the track by drums while his older brother Catfish Collins played rhythm guitar. Lead vocals were by bandleader Clinton. Clinton credited Worrell with the idea of composing the song under a motif. Starting out as a jam, Clinton recorded multiple tracks, layering up to 50 voices within the theme of an inclusive love song. The 'Da da da dee da da da' chant was based on a chant from a bar mitzvah dance." bit.ly

"The music video for 'Hell Yes' features four QRIOs, developed by Sony Japan. The QRIO is designed to carry on conversations, adapt to its environment, and mimic human movements, including dance routines. Shots of Beck performing this song are imposed on the wall behind the QRIOs. At the time of the video shoot, there were only four working QRIOs in the world — all of which appear in this video. The video was directed by Garth Jennings." http://bit.ly/2fpaHIv Watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5U9QRiY46I

Paul Janeway, perhaps better known for his work in St. Paul and the Broken Bones, collaborates with Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers on this track!

The video for this ridiculously kinetic song was directed by none other than the prolific Michel Gondry, who's also renowned for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Science of Sleep," as well as several of Bjork's videos, including "Human Behaviour" and "Army of Me."

Craig Gannon: "Me and Johnny were sat in the library playing acoustic guitars and they must have been miked up as we were probably putting down the acoustic tracks for 'Panic'. I just started playing the chord sequence which would later become 'Ask' in exactly the way it appears on the record. Johnny then joined in playing the same... I then forgot about the idea and left it at that... Johnny must have played Morrissey this idea or given him the recording I already mentioned. I was completely surprised as we were now recording this for the next single. The only section of the chord structure that I didn't come up with for 'Ask' was the middle eight section with the chords E-minor, D and C. That was actually what Johnny came up with. All the way through the song there is an overdub with me and Johnny sat around a mike with acoustics, playing a riff that he came up with towards the end of the recording of the song." bit.ly

Brooklyn's Blessed Isles are Aaron Closson on guitar, vocals, keys, and Nolan Thies on guitar, vocals, keys, and bass. Enjoy more from this dreamy, shoegazery band: www.saintmarierecords.com/products/568020-the-blessed-isles-straining-hard-against-the-strength-of-night