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Saturday, Sep 30 2023, 12PM
The Richest Man in Babylon was released on this day in 2002.
thieverycorporation.com
London group formed in 1997 by Simon Dine and vocalist Daisy Martey. Dine had previously been a member of Adventures in Stereo. Martey was for a time the singer in Morcheeba. The band name came from a book about The Who.
'Self-Assembly' is their debut full-length album, released in 2000.
bit.ly
Laetitia Tamko (Vagabon) will be playing an all-ages show at Madame Lou's on Friday, December 8th, 2023.
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"Sorry I Haven't Called" is her first new release in several years. It was co-produced by Rostam Batmanglij and Laetitia herself. She wrote and produced much of the album in Germany, inspired and surrounded by dance music. “I didn’t feel like being introspective,” Laetitia Tamko says of the new album. “I just wanted to have fun.”
"Think I'm in Love" by Beck is the third single from his seventh major-label studio album, The Information. The single charted at number 22 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and number 2 on the Adult Alternative Songs chart.
Before its release, Beck said the album was not a "stripped down" record, in contrast with his previous Godrich collaborations Mutations and Sea Change. "It has hip-hop songs, and my previous work with him was Mutations and Sea Change, these sort of introspective records, and so this new one is sort of bringing those two worlds together." bit.ly
Blonde Redhead will be Live on KEXP on Thursday, October 19th at 12pm!
They'll play an all-ages show at the Neptune Theatre on Wednesday, October 18th!
blonde-redhead.com
Produced by Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, the album was recorded at Reflection Sound Studio in Charlotte, North Carolina, over 16 days in December 1983 and January 1984. Dixon and Easter intended to capture the sound of R.E.M. 's live performances, and used binaural recording on several tracks. Lead singer Michael Stipe dealt with darker subject matter in his lyrics, and water imagery is a recurring theme on the album. Reckoning reached number 27 in the United States
Rolling Stone called this influentual track one of the 500 greatest songs of all time: 'Big Star were totally unfashionable in their day – early-Seventies Memphis rockers inspired by Sixties British Invasion pop. A nonhit from the band's second LP, Radio City, "September Gurls" is now revered as a power-pop classic. "They were fairly dark records wrapped in a pop package," drummer Jody Stephens said of Big Star's now-adored catalog. "Maybe that's what's made them enduring."' -- tinyurl.com
Singaporean artist yeule will play Neumos this Thursday, October 5th! Her new album, softscars, dropped last Friday. yeule.bandcamp.com
CLASSIXX performing "All You’re Waiting For" live in the KEXP studio in 2013. Check out the full session here:
youtu.be
classixx.bandcamp.com
Roosevelt is playing October at the Showbox.
The now LA-based (by way of Cologne) producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist brings his signature style of disco infused electro pop with glittering synths, impeccable grooves and hooks for actual days. Soak up the 80s nostalgia and dance along to his most dynamic album to date.
www.iamroosevelt.com
Talk Talk was fronted by Mark Hollis and signed to EMI in 1981. The label sent them on tour with another one of their acts, Duran Duran, and commissioned a slick video for their single "Talk Talk." Both bands had a new-wave synthesizer sound, but that was about all they had in common. Hollis did the required promotion but didn't enjoy it; interviews were clearly a work obligation. Musically, he was not going to be swayed by popular taste or record company pressure, and for the second Talk Talk album, which didn't appear until two years later, he included "It's My Life," a manifesto of sorts where he asserts his independence. bit.ly
"The highly anticipated debut solo album from The xx vocalist, Romy Madley-Croft, is a triumph. Throughout Mid Air, she delivers a tantalizing collection of instant queer club anthems, with hypnotic beats, sparkling production and a flawless vocal delivery," writes KEXP's Music Director, Chris Sanley. www.kexp.org
romyromyromy.bandcamp.com
Jerry Casale of Devo said of this song: "We wanted to get everybody into a mood where people thought Devo was saying the world was really nice and saying the world was beautiful, then it turns out to be one man's opinion, which is mine, which is, while the world could be beautiful, it's not for me because of what I'm seeing."
Devo was founded by Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh, who were both at Kent State University when four unarmed students were shot to death by the US National Guard. This had a profound effect on Jerry and Mark, who developed the idea of "De-evolution," meaning that humans were devolving rather than evolving.
Sea Lemon's new Stop at Nothing EP came out just last month! sealemonmusic.bandcamp.com
Earlier this summer, John Richards selected Sea Lemon's "Cellar" as a KEXP Song of the Day. You can get a free download of the track, and subscribe to get all of our DJs' great picks, here: www.kexp.org
“‘Vaporized’ was the first song I wrote that I knew specifically would be for the new EP. The song is all about my personal health anxieties and fear of death, which is something I’ve dealt with since I was little. The chorus’ “I thought he was buried alive/out of my mind/I thought she was vaporized/out of my mind” is playing on the most unlikely, almost impossible ways to die because I think making light of my personal anxieties can help me from spiralling. I have insomnia a lot and wake up in the middle of the night, and used to have this tendency to read headlines while I was awake (a terrible idea), wondering if some horrible accident might happen to me too. The song instrumentally gets a little heavier and more intense each chorus, which implies this impending doom feeling that gets worse and worse as I worry.”
- SEA LEMON
loudwomen.org
The duo of Reggie Watts and John Tejada return with their mesmerizing fusion of house, 70s funk, and techno with a hip hop sensibility. Waiting For The Get Down is another collection of outstanding electronic dance music.
Check out Curtis Harding's Live on KEXP at Home performance from 2021: bit.ly
Released in 2017, Face Your Fear was produced by Harding, Sam Cohen, and Danger Mouse. Harding also recorded the album at Danger Mouse's studio. curtisharding.bandcamp.com
Jalen Ngonda will be performing at Madame Lou's on Thursday, October 5th and then the following day - LIVE on KEXP Friday, October 6th at 10am!
jalenngonda.bandcamp.com
New from Singapore band Subsonic Eye. They perform at Vera Project on October 15th.
The fourth album from this Singaporean band is another fantastic set of catchy, confident, and energetic rock jams that pairs the band's propulsive guitar attack with sweet melodies, shape-shifting rhythms, and a youthful urgency that consistently delivers. With the band’s potent blend of shoegaze, post-punk, twee, math rock, and other rock-adjacent styles serving as the foundation for the expressive vocals of Nur Wahidah, All Around You captures an irresistible indie pop/rock sound. www.kexp.org subsoniceye.bandcamp.com
At 2665 miles from Seattle and assuming a 70mph speed limit, the bridge from Seattle to Hawaii would be a 38+ hour drive. A wistful song for all of us dreaming of warmer places.
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Don't miss this live performance of "Bridge to Hawaii" by Tacocat in the KEXP studio: www.youtube.com
tacocat.bandcamp.com
"Lost In The Supermarket" was first conceived and written in an actual supermarket under the block of flats Joe Strummer was living in at the time with his girlfriend Gaby Salter. While it was too small for Strummer to literally get "lost in the supermarket," he did note in a 1999 interview that the song "occurred to me as I stumbled around dazed by the color and the lights."
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Discussing the recording of the song, drummer Topper Headon mentioned in a 1991 interview that the night before, he saw Taj Mahal play. "His drummer played a lot of snare beats on the floor tom," said Headon. "When I went in the next day I thought that sounded good last night, I'll use it on this song."
On Monday September 18 the band surprised us with yet another album release for 2023! Laugh Track is a companion album and contains music started during the same sessions as First Two Pages of Frankenstein which was released in April.
www.americanmary.com
QOTSA performed this back in 2013 on Late Night with David Letterman.
www.youtube.com
The debut album from this Indonesian trio is chock-full of high energy, quick hitting riot grrrl glory. Angeeta Sentana (vocals, guitar), Akbar Rumandung (bass, vocals) and Edo Alventa (guitar, vocals) deliver stellar guitar riffs, explosive drums and powerfully delivered lyrics.
grrrlgang.bandcamp.com
killrockstars.com
Just released on Friday, Woods's twelfth studio album.
woodsfamilyband.bandcamp.com
woodsist.com
Deer Tick is from Providence, Rhode Island, composed of singer-songwriter John J. McCauley, guitarist Ian O'Neil, bassist Christopher Ryan and drummer Dennis Ryan.
The Carissa's Wierd alum will perform at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center on November 9th.
On "Famous," Champion reveals, "As an artist sometimes it feels like fame and success are used interchangeably and over the course of my career in music I’ve seen how fame can bring with it all this money and opportunity but is also a gilded cage.
"This song is one that just came to me on a run one morning as I looked out over the city and I had to pull out my phone and start writing. I’ve gone through a reset of my priorities in the last few years and this song and this album are about the journey through existential dread that has me where I am now." tinyurl.com
www.jorjasmith.com
English singer Jorja Smith's new single, produced by P2J and New Machine.
"The song is pretty self-explanatory, I had a lil concoction – rum, ting and a magnum. When we started creating this song, I was just imagining hearing this walking into a party and seeing someone I'd had my eye on. It's fun!"
Fun Video!
youtu.be
www.jorjasmith.com
The ninth studio album produced primarily by band members Black Thought, Questlove, Dice Raw, and Rick Friedrich, "How I Got Over" features a subtle, somber sound and lyrics highlighting themes of self-determination, existentialism, and Black middle-class angst.
theroots.com
ODESZA released a collaborative EP with Yellow House on July 21.
"We discovered Emile/Yellow House on SoundCloud and were immediately drawn to his voice and delivery," said ODESZA's Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight. "After finding success working on a few demos we flew him over from South Africa to work with us in our Seattle studio. From the jump, the music had that unmistakable energy of having discovered something special. We found ourselves drawn to a unique blend of electronic production and Emile’s incredible ability to create nostalgic melodies and storytelling lyrics. From there we went about creating a number of tracks and exploring various different combinations of the two worlds."
odesza.bandcamp.com
"Formed from a friendship started at age fourteen by Londoners Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson, the pair ran a fanzine, and attended a catholic variety of gigs nightly at the likes of Fulham Greyhound and Hammersmith Clarendon. And they were learning the ropes in other people's bands - Berenyi in The Bugs, Anderson in The Rover Girls - working to make their own band a reality. Eventually, along with the absurdly good-humoured Lancastrian punk drummer Chris Acland, and bassist Steve Rippon, they went out on their own." Enjoy this biography of the terrific shoegaze band: 4ad.com
This New York/Philadelphia band’s fourth album is an impressive blend of shoegazer psych-rock and dance-friendly electro-pop, with a hazy sound combining atmospheric guitars and keyboards, occasional sax and other instrumentation with looped rhythms, interspersed YouTube samples and beatific melodies.
Chicago rapper and poet Fatimah Nyeema Warner, known professionally as Noname, will be here in Seattle at the Showbox SoDo on Monday, November 13th.
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On the new single, "namesake," Noname "disses titans of the music industry as hypocrites for working with the NFL. Spitting in a rapid-fire flow over a slinky instrumental from Slimwav, Noname specifically hits out at JAY-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna, and Beyoncé.": consequence.net
Aloe Blacc got the idea for this song after listening to field recordings from the Smithsonian. Hearing these recordings of people singing their tales of woe, Blacc decided to write one of his own, and came up with the title "I Need A Dollar." To develop the lyrics, he asked friends to trade verses with him and then join him on the chorus. bit.ly
www.aloeblacc.com
If ever an album was wholly encapsulated by its title, it’s The Stooges’ incendiary third album, Raw Power. Released in 1973, it set the bar for a wave of punk bands to try and, in most cases, fail to eclipse. It remains one of the most visceral, electrifying pieces of musical savagery you’ll ever hear.
And, as its chief creator James Newell Osterberg Jr, aka Iggy Pop, recalls, "It was done with drugs, youth, attitude, and a record collection." bit.ly
With an origin story rooted in being heartbroken at an In-N-Out, FLTY BRGR GRL (pronounced “filthy burger girl”) is an Oslo-based duo composed of Namra Beatrix Saleem and Sarah Christin Calvert. Their second album is a stellar set of expansive, infectious, charming bedroom pop. Lyrically diving into the joy, thrill, uncertainty, and devastation of young love, Happily Ever Never carries a magnetic melodic streak as it bounces between fuzzy guitar-driven jams to dreamy synth-pop fare.
Cool It Down was released on this day in 2022.
This song was inspired by a fire in Karen O's East Village apartment when she was 19. She said, "If the world is on fire, I hope the most beloved stay protected and that we do all we can to protect what we cherish most in this life. “Burning” is a song about that feeling, smoke signals for the soul."
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Here's the official video: youtu.be
Chloe from Kitten is in this video! www.youtube.com
The second album from Seattle’s Beach Vacation (aka Tabor Rupp) is another sweet set of shimmery guitar-pop full of gauzy melodies, expressive guitars, dreamy textures, and steady rhythms that closely recalls the likes of Day Wave, Craft Spells, and Hibou.
2011 release from AM & Shawn Lee, an indie-pop duo based in Los Angeles and London and composed of producer, DJ, and songwriter AM and producer and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee.
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Here's AM & Shawn Lee performing "Dark Into Light" live in the KEXP studio in 2011 - www.youtube.com
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Celebrating the music of 2011 & 50 years of KEXP! - www.kexp.org
Coming to Barboza on November 4th.
The third album from the Nashville based artist finds them dealing with heavy themes, including family illness, religious upbringing, alcohol dependency and mental health, through their specific lens as a queer, non-binary and mixed race person. The layered instrumentation – complete with groovy basslines, varied synths and guitar, and syncopated drums – weaves together a tantalizing soundscape of dreamy indie pop heaven.
www.beccamancari.com
The Halo Benders were formed in 1994 by Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening and Doug Martsch of Built to Spill.
Approaching three decades as a band, the alt-rock outfit are getting a fresh start, so to speak. Cousin is their first release under dBpm records, and the first time they’ve relinquished producer control since Sky Blue Sky. While it’s not the first time the band has taken risks, it’s refreshing to have them still changing things up on their thirteenth studio album. Overall the arrangements are more subdued compared to previous works, as they incorporate new instruments like saxophone, cheap Japanese guitars and drum machines.
See the official biography of these New Wave legends on their web site: www.squeezeofficial.com
The sophomore album and ANTI- records debut from the Chicago outfit is a prime example of an exceptional indie rock record. Yard feels so airy and effortless with subtle flourishes expertly layered, classic guitar riffs, relatable lyrics, and some excellent bops throughout, including a twangy moment on Broadview complete with pedal steel, banjo and harmonica for good measure
Sly & the Family Stone included "Everyday People" in their set at Woodstock, which according to Carlos Santana was the standout performance at the festival.
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Sly & the Family Stone were some of the artists at the Harlem Music Festival in 1969, a largely forgotten cultural experience until Questlove documented it in the great "Summer of Soul." Enjoy KEXP's podcast about this documentary: www.kexp.org