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Friday, Dec 28 2012, 2PM
(#40) Husker Du, Sugar front man has had a busy year—Sugar reformed, and toured around 20th anniversary of Copper Blue!
(#39) New Years Eve show in Cleveland before heading to Japan and Australia.
(#37) Sera Cahoone self-described goal is to be seen as “a musical love child of Buck Owens and Cat Power.” Cahoone began playing drums at age 11 in the suburbs of Denver, CO, where her father was a dynamite salesman.
(#36) Master of My Make-Believe was described by front woman Santi White as "sonically eclectic but with some epic curveballs thrown into the mix." It was co-produced by TV On the Radio’s Dave Sitek and features Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O doing vocals on “Go!” and Nick Zinner playing guitar on a number of tracks.
(#35) It took 5 years for the band to create Kill for Love – they started leaking songs in October 2011 and leaked out five songs total before the album came out.
(#34) For this album he imagined the songs from the album as folk-Western novels, with a lone rider that reflects the lonesome idea that runs through the album. Check out Lord Huron's YouTube channel here: bit.ly
(#33) Live video of Dinosaur Jr. at Music Fest Northwest is available on the KEXP blog: bit.ly
(#32) Mumford and Sons started playing together in 2007. Both their debut, 2009, Sigh No More, and 2012’s Babel were produced by Markus Dravs, also responsible for Arcade Fire’s Suburbs album.
(#31) THEESatisfaction is comprised of rapper Stasia "Stas" Iron and singer Catherine "Cat" Harris-White. The pair met in 2008 while attending the University of Washington. Stas recalls, "I was attracted to Cat's voice, I would go to the open mic and close my eyes and zone out whenever she sang. I finally had the courage to speak to her… it took a while."
(#30) Husband & Wife duo – Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent. They’ve been compared to June Carter and Johnny Cash, and John Doe & Exene Cervenka in their work in the Knitters. Cary Ann called the comparison to John & Exene a ‘wonderful compliment’ but says that her musical identity might be traced back to the Cramps' Poison Ivy and Lux Interior who she says are "the sexiest rock 'n' roll couple ever."
(#29) . A lifelong native of Seattle, Jurado started playing in a succession of local punk bands in 1989. One of them, the Christian-tinged Coolidge, also featured future Pedro the Lion mastermind David Bazan. 2010’s St. Bartlett and 2012’s Maraqopa were both produced by Richard Swift and see Jurado pushing his sound to new limits.
(#27) Don’s mini-review: “The Icelandic band’s sixth studio album (and first in four years) finds them returning to the glacially slow, mostly instrumental ambient-rock epics of their earlier records, but with a much less dynamic and more subdued overall sound. With the exception of “Varuo,” the powerful crescendos of those earlier records are mostly absent here. That said, a few songs here are as moving as their best work, combining stately piano, celestial synths, sweeping orchestration, angelic wordless harmonies and Jonsi’s soaring falsetto into tranquil hymns of pure beauty.”
(#26) Lead guy David Longstreth, who produced and mixed the album, wrote about 70 new songs – the rest of the band joined him periodically to rehearse the new songs in the house’s A-frame attic. Ultimately they had about 40 finished demos which they narrowed down to 12 for the album.
(#25) Byrne and St. Vincent’s Annie Clark created their collaboration Love This Giant largely online, meeting in the studio together with their team of musicians and producers a handful of times during the album's three-year gestation period.
(#24) Divine Fits is comprised of Britt Daniel (of Spoon) and Dan Boeckner (formerly of Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs). Check out their recent KEXP in-studio here: bit.ly
Joe and Drew of God’s Favorite Beefcake remembered: bit.ly
(#23) Hear the evolution of Helio Sequence by streaming KEXP's four in-studios from the duo from 2006 to 2012. bit.ly
(#22) Tramp is titled for the period of post-relationship uncertainty and the period of homelessness Van Etten experienced during its 14-month recording process.
(#21) Ocean's early career was spent as a ghostwriter for artists such as Brandy, Justin Bieber, and John Legend. If you've never made a gift to KEXP before, now is the time - your gift will be matched by generous donors: bit.ly
DJ El Toro's article To Those We Lost in 2012, Part 1 remembers Adam Yauch: bit.ly
(#20) Megan James and Corin Roddick formed Purity Ring in 2010.[2] Both grew up in Edmonton, Alberta. James and Roddick previously played together in Born Gold (previously called Gobble Gobble). During live shows, Roddick uses a custom-built, tree-shaped instrument to drive both live sound and lighting.
(#19) At 5' 6" Kristian Matsson is not actually the Tallest Man on Earth. He is, however, an amazing singer-songwriter from Dalarna, Sweden. Watch his live in-studio's on KEXP's YouTube channel here: bit.ly
(#18) The Boston, Massachusetts-based Passion Pit began as a one-man project of singer and songwriter Michael Angelakos to produce a Valentine's Day gift for his girlfriend.
(#17) In 2008, the band announced that their contract with Sub Pop was up, and that their next album would be released through Mercer's own Aural Apothecary label. The resulting Port of Morrow featured an all new backing band, including fellow songwriters Jessica Dobson and Richard Swift, Modest Mouse drummer Joe Plummer, and Yuuki Matthews from the Crystal Skulls.
(#16) The quartet met at Edinburgh College of Art, and formed Django Django in 2009. The group's self-titled debut arrived in 2012 and was a Mercury Prize nominee.
A Canadian rock duo from Vancouver, British Columbia singer/guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse have admitted that Japandroids were planning on shutting down the operation after years of going nowhere, and 2009’s Post-Nothing was meant as a swan song more than a debut. We're happy that didn't end up being the case.
(#13) Atmospheric English indie pop group the xx formed in London in 2008 around the talents of Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim, Baria Qureshi, and Jamie Smith, when the bandmembers were still in high school. The band has a three-part documentary about the making of Co-Exist up on their website.
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KEXP remembers Kitty Wells and other artist who passed on in 2012 on our blog. bit.ly Even though she was the first female singer to have a US #1 country record, the Grand Ole Opry and many radio stations initially banned Kitty Wells signature hit “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”
Scruggs’ three-finger banjo-picking style revolutionized bluegrass; at his 80th birthday in 2004, Porter Wagoner remarked “Earl was to the five-string banjo what Babe Ruth was to baseball.”
(#12) Their 2008 YouTube video cover of the song "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" by Fleet Foxes spread their name rapidly on the Internet. bit.ly
(#11) The first album Jack White has recorded under his own name, Blunderbuss, was released on April 24 via his own Third Man Records. Read KEXP's review of Jack White's recent Seattle show: bit.ly
(#10) Check out KEXP's 2010 recording of Of Monsters and Men in their living room as they were rehearsing for a gig during Iceland Airwaves that year. (bit.ly) The band has blown up since then. Fast forward to 2012 at 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, check it out here: (bit.ly).
(#10) Of Monsters and Men also played at Sasquatch this year. KEXP recorded a backstage live session of the group with a backdrop of the Columbia River Gorge. bit.ly
(#9) Vancouver BC born Claire Boucher. As a college student in Montreal studying Russian literature and later, neuroscience, she began to record and perform under the name Grimes. As she became more serious about her music she started missing classes and began only showing up for exams, and wound up being expelled from school.
(#8) Joshua Tillman is an American folk singer, guitarist, drummer, and songwriter, currently performing under the moniker Father John Misty. Maintaining a steady output of solo recordings since 2004. Tillman is a former drummer for Fleet Foxes, and has toured extensively with Pacific Northwest artists Damien Jurado, Jesse Sykes, and David Bazan.
(#7) Debut album came out in April--As of December 2012, their debut album has been certified gold in the US, Canada and Ireland.
(#6) Grizzly Bear began as a moniker for songwriter Ed Droste's music in the early 2000s. Regarding the band's origins as a solo project, Droste noted, "It was just like doing a little home project, and I thought "oh, this is fun, I'm just going to call this stuff Grizzly Bear. [...] Our name was actually just a nickname for an old boyfriend of mine."
R.I.P. Robin Gibb: Robin Gibb and his siblings—older brother Barry and younger twin Maurice—first found fame in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s via baroque pop classics such as “I Started A Joke” and “To Love Somebody” that showcased the trio’s tight vocal harmonies, then enjoyed a successful second act as disco hit-makers.bit.ly
(#5) The group received three nominations for the 2013 Grammy Awards: one for best new artist; one for best rock performance, for "Hold On"; and one for best recording package with their first album, Boys & Girls.
Watch Alabama Shakes perform this song, and others, live at KEXP: bit.ly
(#4) Australia's Tame Impala stopped by KEXP last year for this exclusive live performance, our studio is still kind of a mess. bit.ly. Tame Impala is also featured on Live at KEXP Vol. 8 get it before it's out of print!
(#3) Baltimore dream pop duo Beach House have held our attention since 2006’s self-titled debut. KEXP has two in-studio recordings from 2010’s Teen Dream, and this year’s Bloom up on the Live Performances page. bit.ly
(#2) Winner of the Mercury Prize for Album Of The Year in the UK. and was announced as BBC Radio 6 Music Album of the Year 2012. Check out ALT-J live on KEXP here: bit.ly
(#1!) It’s hard to pick one single accomplishment, or event, in Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ past year. Releasing Same Love, an uplifting and uncompromising statement of support for same-sex marriage was a good one though. Watch the YouTube video here: bit.ly
(#1!) One man's trash is another man's come-up. Watch the video here: bit.ly
