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Friday, Jun 19 2015, 2PM
"I've had problems from childhood and the book deals with that. Now when I recovered, for instance, from Meningitis - if you can call it recovery, it took me four years to get my memory back. The pain you go through of not remembering your own parents. It took a lot out of me to have to go back into my childhood and face that pain and thereby really regurgitate the death of my parents and the lonely isolationism of that. And I don’t think I’ve ever made up to my mum and dad and they’re dead now and it breaks my heart. I’ve never made up [to] them for the fact that I forgot who they were. Really my message from my music is really learn to love each other properly, because you only get one go at it." http://ind.pn/1w6tgp6 And here, an in-house exclusive KEXP documentary on The Sex Pistols: www.kexp.org/learn/documentaries?docid=3#6
The Furs will be coming to The Showbox with The Church on Thursday, September 3rd, 2015; more info here: www.showboxpresents.com/events/detail/278927 "My father was a huge fan of Bob Dylan, and he would bring home records by Dylan, Edith Piaf, Hank Williams. He really instilled in us a healthy appreciation for music... I was never one of those kids who played guitar on a tennis racket. I was thinking of becoming a vet at one time. But after we started the band, it was sort of decided for me. I never went to college or anything.'" http://bit.ly/1J8Vxnr
Today, we celebrate the birthday of Nick Drake, who was born on this day in 1948 in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma). The ever-elusive singer-songwriter potentially captured on camera; take a look and see what you think: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZFnCdTCSXw And here, check out a review of the "Nick Drake's Pink Moon" installment of 33 1/3 [Book] Odyssey: http://blog.kexp.org/2008/12/02/33-13-odyssey-nick-drakes-pink-moon/
If you loved this song, head over to our blog and download "Holy Forest," another glorious track from this young Russian band: blog.kexp.org "Although there’s a great deal of influence of the melodic side of shoegaze in St. Petersburg, Russia’s Pinkshinyultrablast, elements of Krautrock and early electronic music set them apart in the current wave of glimmering guitar worshipers. Igor (bass), Lyubov (vocals), Sergey (drums), Rustam (keys), and Roman (guitar) make what they call 'thunder pop,' and as far as semi-serious genre tags go, it’s pretty spot-on. There’s far more melody than noise in their potent, hazy sound, but between their pounding rhythm section and the smothering layers of gorgeous keys and guitars, it has a massive heft behind it all."
A new project by Ryan Newmyer and Jen Goma of A Sunny Day in Glasgow, with production help from Kurt Feldman (Ice Choir). Stream more from these two at their bandcamp: romanaclef.bandcamp.com Just for some of their history, download a copy of "Crushin'" by SDIG: blog.kexp.org
"In 1956, George Clinton formed a doo-wop group in the back of a barbershop in Plainfield, New Jersey. He named this band The Parliaments. He loved R&B, and the harmonizing sound of the 1950s, but in the 60s his band started listening more to Jimi Hendrix than to Ray Charles. He threw out the suits the band performed in and exchanged them for torn jeans." Read on, and stream our documentary on the prolific Clinton here: blog.kexp.org
Celebrating Macklemore's birthday today, who turns 32 today. "How do I get involved on a level where I’m not co-opting the movement, but also realizing the platform that I have and the reach that I have and doing it in an authentic, genuine way?... We have to get past that awkward stage of the race conversation. As a white person, we have to listen." bit.ly Step over here to check out live video from their 2011 visit to our studio: blog.kexp.org
"Along with wife Gwen McCrae, Miami, Florida-based artist George McCrae was a prime mover on the early disco front with his own R&B chart-topper 'Rock Your Baby' in 1974. Born in 1944 in West Palm Beach, he formed his own vocal group in the early '60s, which eventually included his future wife Gwen. They soon began working as a duo, and when Gwen found success as a solo act, George became her manager as well as backing vocalist. With disco kings Harry Casey and Richard Finch of KC & the Sunshine Band producing and writing his output on Henry Stone's T.K. label, McCrae found a hit on his first try with 'Rock Your Baby,' originally intended as a single for Gwen. It topped charts around the world, and he rapidly returned with the double-sided hit 'I Can't Leave You Alone'/'I Get Lifted,' but... McCrae's fortunes slipped as the decade progressed. Although he continued recording during the '80s and '90s, he charted only in England with 'One Step Closer (To Love).'" bit.ly
New Phantogram track! Sarah and Josh are hitting the road for a few select dates; check to see if they're coming to a town near you: www.phantogram.com/tour/ For video from their most recent, gorgeous visit, head hither: http://blog.kexp.org/2014/08/29/live-video-phantogram/
Fun trivia: The "Mom" in the MGMT video is played by none other than musician/actress Joanna Newsom: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe4EK4HSPkI Warning: video may frighten younger viewers. "This is the first song we ever wrote, on a cold day in February way back in 2003. The idea for the video was born about a year ago, at a mock-Italian cafe on Ninth Avenue in bustling Manhattan... 'Kids' has proven to be some kind of monster with a life of its own, both as an albatross and a plate of mac and cheese with fake bacon (Annie's), and the process of creating this video was nearly as convoluted and veiny as the general style of this here letter of introduction." If you can't get enough of that track, download your own free copy right here: http://blog.kexp.org/2008/01/31/song-of-the-day-mgmt-kids/
"[Putting together a coffee] is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time because I love coffee and I like learning. I like to be a novice. I’ve been learning for over 20 years but in the last few years, since my retirement, I’ve had time to really get into it. I read an interview with James Freeman, the owner of Blue Bottle, where he was similarly as strangely uncompromising as me. He refused to sell t-shirts in his shops because he doesn’t wear them, so he sells pajamas instead! They’re really nice and expensive and nobody buys of them of course and I thought: 'This is my kind of guy!' So we met a couple of years ago and I’ve been working on my coffee." Dig much, much deeper with the fascinating and always-busy James Murphy: bit.ly Then sink yourself into a fun Saturday Afternoon Artist feature: blog.kexp.org
"Gene Vincent only had one really big hit, "Be-Bop-a-Lula,"... yet his place as one of the great early rock & roll singers is secure, backed up by a wealth of fine smaller hits and non-hits that rate among the best rockabilly of all time. The leather-clad, limping, greasy-haired singer was also one of rock's original bad boys, lionized by romanticists of past and present generations attracted to his primitive, sometimes savage style and indomitable spirit. Vincent was bucking the odds by entering professional music in the first place. As a 20-year-old in the Navy, he suffered a severe motorcycle accident that almost resulted in the amputation of his leg, and left him with a permanent limp and considerable chronic pain for the rest of his life." Read more about this fascinating artist here: bit.ly
"Cash began writing songs before his 12th birthday. He performed frequently on KLCN, an Arkansas radio station, as a teenager. Upon graduating from high school in 1950, Cash moved from Dyess, Arkansas to Detroit, Michigan, and joined the Air Force soon after. He purchased his first guitar in Germany while serving in the Air Force. In 1954, he left the Air Force and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he took a radio broadcasting course. Cash, alongside guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant, formed a country music trio which performed a few times on local radio station KWEM. These two, dubbed the Tennessee Two, remained Cash’s backup for years. The trio acquired drummer W.S. Holland in 1960, becoming Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Three." Enjoy a Cash retrospective hosted by John Richards in his Friday On My Mind series. bit.ly
On being terrified of Marvin Gaye: "It was the song 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine.' It was the music. Even before Marvin Gaye died, before I even really knew who Marvin Gaye was, when I was little, that song used to frighten me. Just the music, and I never knew why. When he came out with '(Sexual) Healing'—I mean I would look at his picture on that album cover, Midnight Love [1982], and just his face, his aura, was scary to me." More from this interview, including a VERY cool story on Prince both mid-interview and at the end, right here: bit.ly
Oakland's The Heavenly States were here less than a week ago and played a fantastic set. While we wait for video from the session, you can listen to it here: www.kexp.org
On the album art for "They Want My Soul": "We wanted to make our own art this time rather than licensing an image. We had this idea of a story — sort of like a horror story, a scary, spooky, Illuminati kind of brainwashing story—and then we went and took all the pictures for this story. So there was this main character, this girl. Jim [Eno] played a cop. I played a businessman. Alex [Fischel] was a gambler. We took all these pictures. It was a very elaborate photo shoot. The cover, the glowing hand, was from one of these photo shoots." on.fuse.tv Now dig yourself into an awesome performance by Spoon here at the studio, who played an incredible (and unexpected!) nine-song set: blog.kexp.org
"The song is featured on their self-titled debut album. Its memorable riff, composed of only three chords (G, F♯ and E), is played continuously throughout the song (excepting two brief 4-bar bridges). The 3-minute-and-9-second long song, with its raucous, distortion-heavy guitar intro, pounding, single-note piano riff played by producer John Cale and steady, driving beat, established The Stooges at the cutting edge example of the heavy metal and punk sound. The song notably uses sleigh bells throughout." bit.ly Next, check out photos and listen to The Stooges in our coverage of SXSW 2007: bit.ly
"We tried to make [the album] shorter, more economical and attempted to pack as many hooks and screams in as quickly possible in order to avoid short changing the consumer or wasting her/his/their time. Lyrically it's more obtuse and surreal but also attempts to mock trad masculine rock themes whenever things do get more lucid. But sometimes musically we embrace them by doing embarrassing guitar solos. I'm not sure how much else I'm at liberty to say but one thing I will disclose is that the record is a response to threats posed by rival groups." bit.ly
Celebrating Ann Dustin Wilson's 65th birthday today! "Before Nirvana, Grunge, and Starbucks, there was Heart. Heart initially began all the way back in 1963, not in Seattle, but Vancouver, BC, because before Seattle there was Vancouver, BC! Actually I’m not sure which came first. Seattle based sisters, Ann and Nancy Wilson did not join Heart until the early 70’s and their debut full length, Dreamboat Annie, was released on Valentine’s Day in 1975. See, they saw this coming. Subsequently they released a few more successful albums during the end of the 70’s, but hit a slow patch during the early 80’s. In 1985 they released their 8th album which was self-titled and in a lot of ways considered a comeback album and just like their look and sound in the 70’s, they were re-launched in the 80’s and with the power ballads, big hair and giant guitar riffs they found renewed success. It went on the sell five million copies and went to number 1 on the U.S. music charts." bit.ly
For Jon and Emily! "The music video is a LEGO animation directed by Michel Gondry. Gondry's son was featured at the beginning of the video, building LEGO blocks. It was shot frame by frame with each frame having the LEGO bricks rebuilt, sometimes in a complex manner to seem as if it were an actual shot, and then formed together to give the illusion of motion. The video mostly consists of red, white, and black color. The White Stripes couldn't strike a deal with Lego, so they had to buy a large amount of LEGO boxes for the video. In an interview for The Work of Director Michel Gondry DVD, Jack stated that the White Stripes' long-time collaboration with Michel Gondry started by accident; for 'Fell in Love with a Girl', Jack stated that he wanted to work with the director who did Beck's video for 'Devils Haircut', referring to Mark Romanek. Their record company mistakenly hired Gondry, thinking he was the director of 'Devils Haircut.'" More about this story: bit.ly
For Jon and Emily, celebrating their anniversary today. "Inspired by as much by free jazz as bluegrass, hip-hop, and classical music, Kishi Bashi’s baroque indie pop easily draws comparisons to other loop pedal maestros like Andrew Bird and Joseph Arthur, and can sound like The Shins on acid." Watch an enchanting in-studio session by this charming and insanely talented musician here: blog.kexp.org
On NPR's Dinner Party Download, Paul Dano spoke about playing Brian Wilson in "Love and Mercy": "I think everything scared me. What’s funny about it is, I never thought I would play Brian Wilson. I never saw a — you know, nobody had ever said that to me. Every now and then, sometimes, you get, 'You should play this person someday, or this person.' Brian… it just never crossed my mind. And knowing there are so many people out there who revere him, or idolize him, or who feel like they’ve been given a gift by him… that’s actually probably the biggest challenge you face, is trying to live up to something, or somebody else’s idea. The way I sort of looked at it was that Brian… I just don’t think he ever built up the extra layer of skin a lot of us do to become adults, and sort of face the world. Some people say it seemed like he was a bit childlike, or had innocence. And I think that openness was what allowed him to access music that was bigger than himself..." bit.ly
"It never bothered me that we were known as a disco band because I was a disco person. Before I was married I was in nightclubs all the time and would get home at four in the morning. A song like 'Disco Queen' is simply about me watching a girl in a nightclub dancing." ind.pn
"Late last month, Alabama Shakes smashed through Seattle like a tidal wave. Their stop at the Crocodile was but one sold out show after so many others — fans clamored for tickets, called the station in desperation, and posted ticket requests for quadruple the price on Craigslist… all for a young band on the rise without an LP to their name. But don’t attribute their burgeoning fame to the type of major label manufactured hype that has inflated certain other recent artists. Alabama Shakes has amassed their loving legion the hard way, the grass roots way, the word of mouth way… and by being explosive live performers." Watch their blistering, incendiary in-studio session here: blog.kexp.org
"'Tank Park Salute' is about his father, Dennis Bragg, who died of lung cancer when Bragg was 18. He said that for a show in Barking, where he grew up, he was so moved by the presence of his mother and brother in the audience that he kept a copy of the lyrics in case he forgot them while performing." bit.ly
"A masterful songwriter whose touching blues ballad 'Please Send Me Someone to Love,' a multi-layered universal lament, was a number one R&B hit in 1950, Percy Mayfield had the world by the tail until a horrific 1952 auto wreck left him facially disfigured. That didn't stop the poet laureate of the blues from writing in a prolific fashion, though. As Ray Charles' favorite scribe during the '60s, he handed the Genius such gems as 'Hit the Road Jack.' Like so many of his postwar L.A. contemporaries, Mayfield got his musical start in Texas but moved to the coast during the war. Surmising that Jimmy Witherspoon might like to perform a tune he'd penned called 'Two Years of Torture,' Mayfield targeted Supreme Records as a possible buyer for his song. But the bosses at Supreme liked his own gentle reading so much that they insisted he wax it himself in 1947 with an all-star band that included saxophonist Maxwell Davis, guitarist Chuck Norris, pianist Willard McDaniel." bit.ly
