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Friday, Nov 20 2020, 4PM
KEXP's own Larry Mizell Jr. is in this group!
Don’t Talk to the Cops is the project of Mash Hall’s DJ BlesOne and El Mizell with the spicy female emcee Emecks. They’re bringing party-rap back to Seattle, a flavor that was paved by Seattle’s Mad Rad back in 2009. Without going into too much detail, Mad Rad flipped their script and left a big opening for a band to come in that brings the party to their live show and doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Don’t Talk to the Cops is the best of many worlds because they not only give their fans catchy, mindless rap, but it also comes with the backing of world-class DJs, emcees, and choreography—BlesOne and Emecks have background in break dancing.
www.ssgmusic.com
The moment Grace Love & The True Loves stepped into KEXP's studio, the Seattle soul revivalists were ready to light a fire. The hip nine-piece, led by silver-haired singer Love and guitarist Jimmy James, shook it out as they performed songs from their eponymous debut, filled with classic '60s soul, punchy horns, searing B-3 organ, tight rhythms and, of course, Love's powerhouse vocals — turning KEXP's brand-new live room pure vintage.
Watch the Performance here:
www.youtube.com
That version from the Kingsmen — a ’60s beat/garage-rock band from Portland, Oregon — sold millions and millions of copies. But it’s actually a cover of a song written by an African-American singer and songwriter named Richard Berry.
Berry in turn based “Louie Louie” on a Latin song called “El Loco Cha Cha” that he heard while he was backstage at a show.
His version was a regional hit, performing well on the West Coast before eventually dying out. Later, he sold the rights to a handful of his songs — including “Louie Louie” — to Flip Records Label for $750 so that he could afford an engagement ring for his future wife, and fellow singer, Dorothy Adams.
Today, that’s equivalent to about $6,280.
www.marketplace.org
From vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, Matt Berry, “I’ve always been attracted to pop sensibilities and I was interested in making music that leaned more towards that instead of volume and distortion,” he explains. After a handful of demos, The Berries’ released their 2018 debut LP Start All Over Again, which documented a miserable Seattle winter.
After tracking drums with Trevor Spencer at his studio outside Seattle, Way Out, Berry began the in-depth process of recording nearly every other instrument on the album in his own home. “Every day I wake up and if I’m not working, I’m in my cave for eight hours makng music, so I was very used to spending days just working on a song,” he recalls. The extra time spent tinkering and experimenting can be heard in Berryland’s vast array of guitar tones, psychedelic flourishes, and layered vocal harmonies. Traces of Berry’s punk roots remain in the occasional noisy guitar squall, which meets the jangle and twang with surprising cohesion. Driving all the guitars is Berryland’s secret weapon: its attention to rhythm. The sense of groove and occasional electronic percussion are subtle but key elements of the album’s pulse, often inspired by Berry’s love of the 1990s intersection of rock and danceable beats.
northerntransmissions.com
Led by singer/songwriter Guy Keltner, & drummer/visual-artist Ian Cunningham, Acid Tongue has been touring the world and espousing a timeless rock & roll sound with a DIY mentality since 2015. The touring band features a rotating roster of musicians from around the globe; with members based in Seattle, Paris, New York, London, Mexico City, Los Angeles, & Austin—lending fresh ears to the setlist for an ever-evolving live experience. Employing nostalgic riffs lifted straight from a forgotten jukebox and razor-sharp lyrics delivered in a childish croon, Keltner has built a large catalogue of material in a short period of time.
www.acidtonguemusic.com
Peyote Ugly are an ectodelic synth-psyche threesome from Seattle.
peyoteuglyseattle.bandcamp.com
"White Feather," off the Peyote Ugly EP is an example of DIY production gone right. It's a well-written track full of 70s crunch guitar chords using oscillating filters, synthesizers parading megalithic melodies, and moving bass synchronizing with a consistent drum groove.
The song fades in to an expansive, repetitious soundscape with unison bass and synth lines. There's a spacey background with ethereal noise over percussive drums. Then guitar breaks the daze with a crunchy hook, joined in by synth. Lyrics sift through the dream state, like "I got cold feet," and "I have a retroactive mind." We hear that lyric later on in the song, which only enhances its meaning.
www.look-up-records.com
Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, The Pale Pacific has been a constant fixture on the Seattle musical landscape for well over a decade, although just recently coming to the attention of the masses outside of the greater Seattle area thanks to the national distribution of their last two full-length records. A prime example of the 'Seattle bubble' that sees local acts reach critical acclaim within the Pacific Northwest, including sold out shows at Graceland and cover stories in The Stranger.
thepalepacific.bandcamp.com
Fronted by husband and wife duo Kim West and Ryan Devlin, Smokey Brights is a rock band out of Seattle, Washington. West and Devlin’s songs are made eminently danceable by Nick Krivchenia (drums) and Luke Logan (bass.) The band is set to release its third full-length LP, I Love You But Damn, on Freakout Records in 2020
smokeybrights.bandcamp.com
KEXP & Cloudbreak Music Festival Present: Smokey Brights 10 year Anniversary 2024
Friday, Nov 22, 2024
Event Info
Other Lives is an American indie rock band from Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States and now based out of Portland, Oregon! The band originally formed in 2004 as Kunek and released one album in 2006 under that name. Other Lives' self-titled album was released physically April 7, 2009 by TBD Records and digitally March 17, 2009
Medasin’s blissful, bit-reduced remix is the equivalent of giving a song a spa day. The chord progression is completely reinvented on watery, gracenote keyboards that swirl around over a rustling, downtempo beat.
medasinmusic.com
Tobacco Road is the second studio album by Seattle-based hip-hop duo Common Market. It was released on September 9, 2008 via Hyena Records and Massline Media. The album's title is a reference to the tobacco-producing region of North Carolina.
"I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can change things. I feel change is the first thing we as humans either love or hate. There isn’t a middle. I took a side and I love change. It challenges me mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I also figured something out. I can't change the world, but I can change my world, which allows others to see inside of it and hopefully I can influence them to feel/do the same, and hopefully that trend goes on to the next person.
If you haven't heard, I make music. People like to beat around the bush and label their music as something odd or unique to kind of pop out. Well, I'll be upfront. They're beats. Regular, real beats. Beats influenced by American hip-hop music, southern, black gospel, 70s/80s soul, straightforward dance music, funk carioca, etc. I could go on, but my point is that when you listen to my music, it's for you to label if you want. It's everything I hope you love. How does the concept of change relate to how we label music? We must know what we are hearing/seeing/feeling in order to offer our minds to one another for careful inspection to ignite the change. Many people and many things changed me. This is why I continue to make music and create."
Kai
sangobeats.com
NAVVI is the experimental electro-pop project formed by Kristin Henry and Brad Boettger. The Seattle duo blends pop melodies with darker, looming beats and production.
navvi.bandcamp.com
Lusine is the stage name of Seattle's Jeff McIlwain, and you can find more of his work here: lusine.bandcamp.com
After writing the bedrock of songs that would become the first Little Wins singles, Vait shared a handful of demos with his friend, guitarist/producer Nate Mercereau (Jay-Z, Leon Bridges, John Legend). Mercereau persuaded Vait to explore additional production elements and encouraged him to finish the recordings on his own. Armed with a MacBook Air, a MIDI controller, and a Shure SM7b, Vait, who plays guitar, piano, saxophone, flute, clarinet, and drums, and has extensive experience with analog synthesizers, turned Garageband (his DAW at the time) inside-out and produced his first two singles. He brought the tracks to engineer/producer Andy Park (Pedro The Lion, Ciara, Noah Gundersen), and together, they finished the mixes.
www.littlewinsmusic.com
Odesza is an American electronic music duo originating from Bellingham, Washington. It consists of Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight, known individually as Catacombkid and BeachesBeaches. They formed in 2012, shortly before Mills and Knight graduated from Western Washington University.
Hibou is an American dream pop band based in Seattle, Washington, formed in 2013. The band consists solely of Peter Michel, who formerly toured as the drummer for Craft Spells. The band released its debut EP Dunes in 2013. Subsequently, Hibou released an eponymously titled debut album in the fall of 2015.
www.barsuk.com
Chastity Belt is an local rock band formed in Walla Walla in 2010. Consisting of Julia Shapiro, Lydia Lund, Annie Truscott and Gretchen Grimm, the band plays a style of alternative rock, rock and roll, noise pop, and pop rock that captures the closeness of hanging out with friends in your living room. Check out their Bandcamp!
chastity-belt.bandcamp.com
Spirit Award have found success receiving critical acclaim from tastemakers such as Billboard, Paste, KEXP and Daytrotter, among others.
The three-piece continue to enthrall audiences with the release of Muted Crowd due fall 2018.
spiritaward.bandcamp.com
Tomo Nakayama will be participating in this year's SMASH Benefit, collaborating with Dave Matthews. smash.kindful.com
Check out Seattle's Tomo Nakayama KEXP interview on our Asian-Pacific American Heritage page here: www.kexp.org
Pickwick is an American indie rock, garage rock, R&B band from Seattle, Washington. The group initially started out as a folk band, but after a 2008 tour in California the group discarded its material and changed their sound.
pickwickmusic.com
Our beloved Gabriel hosts Early, Monday-Friday from 5-7am, and really knows how to write a love song!!
Check out Blimes and Gab's interview with Gabriel Teodros and live performance for KEXP at Home here: www.youtube.com
The "Battleflag" remix, credited to "Lo Fidelity Allstars (featuring Pigeonhed)" was issued as a single in November 1998 and appeared on Lo Fidelity Allstars' album How To Operate With A Blown Mind. Although the song was a minor hit in the United Kingdom, reaching #36 on the UK Singles Chart, it was a major hit on American alternative rock radio and reached #6 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Fans of Jenn Champion (formerly “S”) have praised her open-hearted lyrics, expertly-deployed melancholia, technical skill, and willingness to forgo conventions, but mostly they’ve praised her for making albums they could cry to. With the release of Cool Choices in 2014, Champion made what many considered the best record of her career, and a lot of people cried to it.
Here is the link to the Seattle artists fund:
www.gofundme.com
Seattle quartet Spesh began when Michael McKinney and Sergio Mirazo got back together after the break-up of a previous band they were in, and soon after they were joined by Morgan Dixon and Brian Yeager. Heroically, the "About" section on their Facebook page just says "New Age Baggy". Their forthcoming debut album, Famous World, shows that they're not half-joking. Some of the band's touchstones are classic Pacific Northwest Anglophile staples like the Psychedelic Furs, Morrissey, and Happy Mondays.
speshmusic.bandcamp.com
Sleater-Kinney is an American rock band that formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1994. The band's current lineup features Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein, following the departure of longtime member Janet Weiss in 2019
Familiarize yourself with Gazebos, a band signed to Sub Pop's deliciously off kilter sister label Hardly Art. They might be from Seattle, but they look very Dancerteria-era NYC, and fabulously inked up lead singer Shannon Perry spends her time tattooing others when she's not fronting the band. Sonically their current single, "Just Get High" is a terrific example of artful post-punk with a splash of pop. Meanwhile the video is Pee Wee's Playhouse meets Pete Gabriel's "Sledgehammer" meets Tim and Eric meets peak era MTV. Hallelujah! www.vice.com
Check em out here:
gazebos.bandcamp.com
The Presidents of the United States of America is the debut studio album by the American alternative rock band The Presidents of the United States of America, released on March 10, 1995 via PopLlama Records. Columbia Records signed the band shortly after its release to handle increased distribution for the album
Referred to as Psychedelic Shamanistic Madness, Kingdom Of The Holy Sun, who hail from Seattle have managed to encapsulate the vintage rhythmic sensibilities of low-keyed organic THC laced garage-psych that merely breaks the surface as they string one set of hazy lysergic drenched notes after another, delivering an intoxicating midnight drive through the stars and wasteland of jettisoned spacecraft orbiting at low altitudes.
The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon. The band consists of Colin Meloy, Chris Funk, Jenny Conlee, Nate Query, and John Moen. Their debut EP, 5 Songs, was self-released in 2001
www.decemberists.com
Band of Horses is an American rock band formed in 2004 in Seattle by Ben Bridwell. The band has released five studio albums, including 2010's Grammy-nominated Infinite Arms
www.bandofhorses.com
On the Autumnal Equinox, Fleet Foxes released their fourth studio album Shore at 6:31 am PT/9:31 am ET. The bright and hopeful album.
“I see “shore” as a place of safety on the edge of something uncertain, staring at Whitman’s waves reciting ‘death,’” commented Robin Pecknold. “Tempted by the adventure of the unknown at the same time you are relishing the comfort of the stable ground beneath you. This was the mindset I found, the fuel I found, for making this album.”
Read more and pre-order the album here: fleetfoxes.bandcamp.com
The band have also released a 16mm road movie of the same name by Kersti Jan Werdal that showcases the landscapes of the Pacific Northwest set to the score of the album. youtu.be
"He might be boasting of having an entire world inside him (and how he tastes), but there’s a humbleness and honesty to the song. Like any real love, it’s about learning to surrender such power to the other person. He may call her honey, but Tillman also inverts that old metaphor of being the King Bee. Instead, he sweetly sings of being the flower, his betrothed the bee." pitchfork.com
Jessica Dobson talks about the important influences on Deep Sea Diver's new album, "Impossible Weight," including the experience of meeting her birth mother: americansongwriter.com
Minus the Bear was an American indie rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 2001, and comprising members of Botch, Kill Sadie, and Sharks Keep Moving. Their sound was described as "Pele-esque guitar-taps and electronics with sophisticated time signature composition.
www.minusthebear.com
Some Covid Safety Tips!
www.kexp.org
Great Grandpa is a 5 piece grunge pop band from Seattle, WA.
"Acoustic guitars are still somewhat of a novelty at Great Grandpa shows. The quintet, which formed in Seattle in 2014, have spent the past few years expanding upon, if not quite discarding, their early grunge-garage associations. With Four of Arrows, their remarkable second studio album, they deepen the four-chord feedback-pop of their 2017 debut, Plastic Cough, into a more contemplative, textured folk-rock in the vein of artists like Big Thief and (Sandy) Alex G."
www.rollingstone.com
Destroyer is a Canadian rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia fronted by singer-songwriter Dan Bejar and formed in 1995.
destroyer.bandcamp.com
Neko Richelle Case is an American singer-songwriter and member of the Canadian indie rock group the New Pornographers.
nekocase.com
Trans FX is an American music group formed in 2011 by songwriters Chris McDonnell and Scott Young in Olympia, Washington. "I'm a Dreamer" features Valerie Warren on vocals. You can purchase "The Showroom Dummies" at Trans FX's Bandcamp page: transfx.bandcamp.com
Seattle supergroup was conceived by Chris Cornell of Soundgarden as a tribute to his friend, the late Andrew Wood, lead singer of the bands Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone. The video for the song was shot in Discovery Park in Seattle. www.youtube.com
