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Friday, Sep 11 2015, 2PM
"Directed by 2013 Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Short Films winner Kahlil Joseph, The Reflektor Tapes is a fascinating insight into the making of Arcade Fire’s international #1 album Reflektor. The film recontextualizes the album experience, transporting the viewer into a kaleidoscopic sonic and visual landscape. It charts the band’s creative journey as they lay foundations for the album in Jamaica, record in Montreal and play an impromptu gig at a Haitian hotel on the first night of Carnival, before bringing their breath-taking live show to packed arenas in Los Angeles and London. The Reflektor Tapes blends never before seen personal interviews and moments captured by the band to dazzling effect, and features 15 minutes of exclusive unseen footage, filmed only for cinema audiences." thereflektortapes.com
Brisbane, Australia's Daniel Spencer: "I guess I like a lot of pop music, but I think we are definitely trying to create some kind of alternative. I don’t think that we are super original or anything, but I never heard anything like us on the radio. I don’t feel that we are in any way retreating from the mainstream, I think doing things on your own terms is a pretty powerful act, and it’s something people have always done. To suggest that you have to play by the rules of mainstream popular music to make any kind of effective political statement is bit ridiculous. I mean, if punk was just disco with nihilistic lyrics, I don’t think it would have had the same impact; it could have sounded pretty cool though. We do love a lot of pop music, I think it’s just all the really crass aspects of popular music – like Vodafone product placement and viral Twitter 2.0 bullshit – that really ruin it." bit.ly Enjoy "Back to the Flood," a Song of the Day, here: bit.ly
"Montreal quartet Ought began in 2011, taking heavy cues from their city's thriving scene of underground politics, loft parties, and D.I.Y. culture. Composed of singer/guitarist Tim Beeler, bassist Ben Stidworthy, keyboardist Matt May, and drummer/violinist Tim Keen, the band melded unlikely influences from both high-energy mid-'90s emo bands and airy, early college rock acts like the Feelies' and Talking Heads. The bandmembers all lived together in a shared apartment/practice space, self-recording their first EP, New Calm, in 2012. They played frequently in Montreal, eventually catching the ear of indie label Constellation, which released their debut full-length album, More Than Any Other Day, in the spring of 2014. They returned with a four-track EP Once More with Feeling, released in October of the same year." bit.ly Ought will be performing at the Sunset Tavern on Thursday, October 15th, 2015! More tour dates here on their label's website: bit.ly
"Sometimes songs need extra time and space to really play themselves out, and some songs it's like, this is all you need, a straightforward thing. This time, with all the jamming we were doing, we had so many ideas for stretching the songs out. 'Goin' Against Your Mind' is the longest song, but it's two chords over and over again. Then a song like "Gone", it's not real long, but it's new parts coming, not repeating, and we stuck a bunch of new stuff together that came from jamming. There's not much improvising; it's pretty much set parts. We kind of treat each song the way it needs to be treated. It started out [as] improvising in a jam session, and it was half that speed. But I was kind of thinking of the Wipers when we sped it up." bit.ly Built to Spill played a glorious set at our studio very recently; revisit the session here: blog.kexp.org
"Worriers are a punk band from Brooklyn, New York. The band’s music is centered around the songwriting of Lauren Denitzio, the former vocalist/guitarist of The Measure [sa], featuring Mikey Erg, Audrey Zee Whitesides, and Lou Hanman, among others. Worriers' debut LP is out now on Don Giovanni Records, produced by Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!" Check out their Bandcamp and listen to more tracks here: worriers.bandcamp.com
"We tend to gravitate toward lady-powered bands, or any bands with great people in them. I think we saw Chastity Belt’s first-ever show in Seattle when they still lived in Walla-Walla. We were really excited when they moved here. And Pony Time has been one of our favorites since the beginning. Chilbirth is the product of 'When three bands REALLY like each other, like Tacocat and Pony Time and Chastity Belt like each other, then sometimes another band comes out of that love!' I think they might hate for me to say this, but that’s a supergroup right there. Luke (from Pony Time) and I have threatened to start our own rival side project revenge band, so stay tuned for that! La Luz are our label mates. I think Bree and I first saw them at 20/20 Cycle maybe? Before they were signed or anything, and it was so great. Shana is also a talented visual artist. I’m looking at one of her pieces right now. Twin girls playing guitars. Really excellent." bit.ly
"'Rain' is a song by The Cult from their Love album. It was briefly known as 'Sad Rain' during its recording, and the lyrics were reportedly inspired by a Hopi rain dance. Ultimately it was the second single released from that album following 'She Sells Sanctuary'. It peaked at #17 on the UK singles chart, and has always been a live favourite, being performed at almost every gig since its release. Despite the song's popularity, after performing it live in November 1989 at Wembley, singer Ian Astbury said, 'So you like that one?' and after the audience cheered, Astbury responded by saying, 'Personally, I don't.' This can be heard on bootleg live audio and video recordings of the concert." bit.ly
A Megan Rapinoe pick! "Since we had already done the big stage thing with them before, at SXSW and Iceland Airwaves ’11, we thought it best to go back to those roots, this time in the cozy and quaint living room space on the top floor of Iðnó, a historic theater dating back to the late 1800’s. There among the antique furniture, vintage lamps and period illustrations, Of Monsters and Men performed three songs from their debut, My Head Is an Animal, two of which are new to the 2012 U.S. release, joined this time by touring trumpeter Ragnhildur Gunnarsdóttir. Check out two of these new videos now, for 'Slow and Steady' and 'King and Lionheart.'" bit.ly
Check out video from Sera's insanely fabulous performance on top of the Space Needle! blog.kexp.org
A Megan selection. Patrick Carney on living in Nashville: "I’m kind of a homebody, I like to stay at home, I’ll go out maybe once a week at night. Maybe I'll go watch football if I'm home on a Sunday in the afternoon. I like to socialize at my house, chill out with my dog. Dan [Auerbach] kind of likes to do the same thing. I think it’s just what happens to a lot of people I know who tour a lot. When you're out on the road, you’re just over-stimulated the whole time, whether it's playing a big concert, traveling to the city, meeting new people, getting dragged to the afterparties, whatever. When I get home, it’s kind of the last thing I want to do. And if I do want to do that, I usually will go on vacation. But I don't really, so we stay in. We text each other every day." bit.ly Check out a sweet archived BK performance right here: bit.ly
The Notwist performed such a kinetic set at the Triple Door years back, an audience member was incited to yell, "You guys are crazy!" at the end of the set. See what he meant by following the link: blog.kexp.org
"This LA band follows up their 2013 debut album of raucous, hedonistic garage-punk with a more expansive second album that finds them branching out stylistically while also striking an uneasy balance between partying and getting sober, defiance and regret." ~ Don Yates FIDLAR will be playing LIVE on KEXP on Friday, October 23, 2015 at 1pm, then at the Showbox that night at 9pm; ticket info here: www.showboxpresents.com/events/detail/279352
A fantastic Wimps in-studio session will be aired tomorrow (Saturday, September 12th) at 8:30pm on Audioasis. Don't miss it!
Stacy Peck of Pony Time: "I think all women should play music. I think people get discouraged really easily when they can’t pick it up right away or feel like they “aren’t doing it right.” Doing it right is boring anyway. I’ve taught myself how to play everything and still feel very confident, even though technically I know basically nothing. Playing music or being in a band can seem intimidating or harder than it is. Really its no big thing and anyone can do it. The more gals the better in my opinion. Childbirth came together after {the gals of} Redbook stopped playing and I wanted another band with ladies to be in. Julia (from Chastity Belt) had just moved to Seattle and we really hit it off and it was a fun way to hang out together. Then we allowed Bree to join after we had a few songs worked out. Pony Time started when Luke and I were roommates and we had all the stuff in the basement so… why not?" bit.ly Dig deeper into sound here: pony-time.bandcamp.com
"Art keeps me alive... At times I feel very lost, just a random ping pong ball falling around the world... I don't want to come off like a delusional, pretentious asshole. I consider myself an artist who chose music as their medium because it can truly define people's identities. If I can't create a universe in my art where I have control, then where can I do that in the world? Eventually I hope it takes me to where I belong... I believe that creativity can heal life trauma; it's a form of therapy. If you do it well you can heal other people with similar negative experiences. I want to master that art." More from her intensely personal and fascinating interview: bit.ly Tamaryn played a spectacular set recently; see live video here: blog.kexp.org
4:23 PM
15th spin
Macklemore on the epic video for "Downtown": "The Griffey thing was Jason Koenig’s idea, who was our co-director on the music video, and he’s a huge Mariner fan from the same era that I was a huge Mariner fan where Griffey was a rookie. I met Griffey not that long ago, and he was super cool, and I was like, 'I feel like I’ve known you forever, Griffey,' and he’s like, 'I’m just really nice and I’ve known you for 25 seconds.' We probably had three weeks of lead time and shot it in 10 days. We do it ourselves. We have a close team that we work with. It was one of those [times] that we had a crazy idea in our heads, and we are like, 'Can we actually execute this in real life?' And we did." on.mtv.com More video fun, here are Macklemore and Ryan Lewis in our studio, setting off audio fireworks: blog.kexp.org
Celebrating Christopher Brian "Chris" Bridges aka Ludacris' 38th birthday today, with a song used in the Tropic Thunder soundtrack. On interning at an Atlanta radio station back in his youth under the moniker "Chris Lova Lova": "When you're learning on the radio station, you work the graveyard shift. That's 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. People call up with extremely sexy voices, saying, 'Come see me after you get off the air.' This one woman said, 'I'll leave the door open.' I was probably 19. I said, Hell yeah, I'm about to try this out. She told me she'd be in the tub, waiting. When I got there, the tub was damn near overflowing. ["Did you stay?" asks the interviewer.] I immediately left! That's one of those times where you learn a lesson. Just because someone has an extremely sexy voice does not mean they are extremely sexy." bit.ly
Brigid Dawson: "All women who play music are probably going to have widely different views about how they want to go about it. When I was 18 and I joined my first band, the leader of the band once said, 'Oh man, just get up there and shake your ass! You’re a backup singer! That’s what you’re there for.' That was what I grew up in. But there are a million other women who are fucking terribly strong and terrifying. Think of Alice Coltrane, think of Bessie Smith. People who were proud and totally unapologetic, as well as amazing musicians. That would always be my template. I think you can fully be a woman, make great music. I don’t think you have to be at all apologetic about it. I also think you don’t have to be aggressive and feminist about it. I suppose just the fact that you’re doing it is enough." bit.ly Here is "Web," a downloadable Song of the Day for your listening pleasure: blog.kexp.org
Minneapolis' Jordan Gatesmith: "My first album was Miles Davis‘ A Kind Of Blue, but then I really got in to Charles Mingus and the hard bop stuff. That’s what set me up to be a music fan." Enjoy a fantastic, high-energy set with Howler from an in-studio they played here last year: blog.kexp.org
Celebrating the 50th birthday of Richard Melville Hall, better known as Moby, today. Enjoy a downloadable version of "A Case for Shame" featuring Cold Specks here: blog.kexp.org
"I think one of the big goals for this album was to make sure no two tracks were alike, so it didn’t really matter which songs were going to come out in any other. Either one was going to be as accurate or as misleading as a representation of the album. At the same time, you’ve got to keep them guessing. [laughs]" More from our exclusive interview with Kevin Parker: bit.ly ""For me, ["Let It Happen" is about] finding yourself always in this world of chaos and all this stuff going on around you and always shutting it out because you don’t want to be part of it. But at some point, you realise it takes more energy to shut it out than it does to let it happen and be a part of it." bit.ly
Celebrating Richard Ashcroft's 44th birthday. "The scripted music video (directed by Walter A. Stern) is an homage to the single continuous shot docu-fiction music video for Massive Attack's 'Unfinished Sympathy' and focuses on Ashcroft lip-synching the song while walking down a busy London pavement, refusing to change his stride or direction throughout (oblivious to what is going on around him), except for one instance where he is forced to stop for a moving car and a reflection is seen of him standing stationary in the car's tinted window. He repeatedly bumps into passers-by (causing one young woman to lose balance and fall), narrowly avoids being hit by a car, and jumps on top of the bonnet of another vehicle stopped in his path (the driver gets out of her car and proceeds to confront him, while he continues unflinchingly). At the end of the video, the rest of The Verve join Ashcroft, and the final shot sees them walking down the street into the distance." bit.ly
"The path to releasing the album Vibragun was definitely not an easy one. Its heavy guitars and thick instrumentation exemplify the difficulty frontman Joel Bergstrom had to go through in order to bring the record into the world. In 2011, Vibragun was formed, a few songs were recorded and the band was headed for a trip to SXSW — simple enough, right? Not long after, in 2013, Berstrom went through a family tragedy, losing his grandmother. 'I started to find I couldn’t focus on anything and I kept telling myself I was handling it, but it pushed me over the edge,' he explained. After seeking treatment for depression and alcohol abuse, Berstrom went on, thankfully, to release the 8-track self-titled record in January 2014. With a renewed sense of purpose and an understanding that, while the songs were written about his own experience, they were really a testament to 'how we affect each other', Berstrom is ready to share the work he and his band have been producing." bit.ly
Poison Ivy: "Oh, I LOVE Link Wray. Still. He was initially my biggest influence, and he still is. I hear more and more. No matter how long I've been doing this, I hear something new when I listen to him. Maybe because I'm not the same person, maybe I know more from playing longer. It enables me to hear more now, so it seems like I'm always hearing something new and getting influenced by some new aspect of Link Wray. He's just so... it's like guitar at the end of the world. So austere. And so much drama. You know, he makes the most out of the least, for sure... I guess the thing I like in what he does is what I wanna do, too. I just like hearing a lot of strings splashing all at once. And just the austerity and the starkness of how he plays, you know? The drama that's created by not overplaying." www.cosmik.com/aa-october00/cramps-ivy.html
If you missed (or want to relive!) our special day dedicated to Paul's Boutique, you can revisit here with an in-depth look ( blog.kexp.org ) and a track-by-track listing of all tracks played that day: ( blog.kexp.org )
These local stars will be playing at the Hops and Crops brew event at Mary Olson Farm (28728 Green River Rd) in Auburn tomorrow. More details here: beerfests.com
Love Charles Bradley? Get more of your fill here: blog.kexp.org
"Thunderbitch is a Nashville-based side-project featuring Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes accompanied by members of Fly Golden Eagle and Clear Plastic Masks. Their debut album is a raucous set of rootsy garage-rock that often sounds like a more amped-up version of celebratory ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll with raw guitars, pounding piano, energetic rhythms and feral vocals." ~ Don Yates
"Let The Good Times Roll, McPherson’s second LP, expands on the sonic template of his first record by augmenting his more personal songs and his band’s raw energy with more dynamic and, as McPherson himself puts it, 'mysterious' production. The album’s title track bounces with the kind of pep that a track called 'Let The Good Times Roll' should have, and far more nuance than its title suggests. Carried by visceral performances by his bandmates, McPherson’s cold sweat-inducing vocals wail out a tale of pining for a lover, connecting with a mix of bite and anxiety not unlike the bear on the album’s cover. It would be easy to pigeonhole McPherson as a revivalist, but in sound and aesthetic, 'Let The Good Times Roll' evokes The Clash’s seminal 'Train In Vain' more than anything else: it’s built with the right balance of musical heft and emotional punch to make heartbreak sound almost enjoyable." Read on, and enjoy this track again and again right here: bit.ly
