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Monday, Mar 14 2022, 10AM
From SAULT's second 2020 album - "a sublime, soul-affirming masterpiece of transcendent musical power" - there are "moments... when you realize, in the middle of the fast and hard-driving “I Just Want to Dance,” that the lyrics have moved abruptly from dancefloor-loving lines like the title to “We lost another life” to “Why do my people always die?” variety.com
evda Alizadeh was born in 1987 in Tehran, Iran. She is of Azerbaijani, Persian, and Russian descent. She moved with her family to the Netherlands at the age of five. At 16, she left home after obtaining a basketball scholarship, eventually playing on the Dutch national basketball team. Find her music here: www.sevdaliza.com
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See the video for "Lamp Lady": www.youtube.com
Nilüfer Yanya will play The Crocodile on Saturday, May 21st, 2022.
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Her just-released second album, "Painless," is called "Best New Music" by Pitchfork.: pitchfork.com
You can hear Sea Lemon (with Ducks Ltd.) at the Sunset Tavern on Thursday, March 24th, 2022.
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Sea Lemon is Seattle singer-songwriter Natalie Lew: floodmagazine.com
Kevin Morby will be at The Showbox on Friday, November 11th, 2022.
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In January 2020, songwriter Kevin Morby witnessed his father collapse from a medical event while visiting his childhood home in Kansas. In a state of shock, the singer spent the evening looking at old family photos and fixated on an image of his father as a young man, looking, as Morby states, “full of confidence.” The experience forced Morby to confront both the idea of mortality and the passage of time — and, after an extended sojourn in Tennessee, these reflections came together in the form of his upcoming album, "This Is a Photograph," out May 13.
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Read more about the album and view the video for the title song:bit.ly
R.I.P., Justin Townes Earle, who died in August, 2020 at the age of 38: www.rollingstone.com
You can hear Hayes Carll at The Tractor Tavern on Thursday, April 21st, 2022.
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See a live performance in the KEXP studio in 2019: www.youtube.com
It's tonight! Sparks is playing The Showbox tonight, Monday, March 14th, 2022.
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Legend has it that John Lennon saw Sparks on TV, and phoned Ringo Starr to say: "You'll never believe what I'm watching – Marc Bolan is playing a song with Adolf Hitler!" Read this BBC feature on brothers Ron and Russell Mael, "the greatest band you've never heard of": www.bbc.com
Two-and-a-half-year old Diddy loves this song! Thanks, Ali!
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Those are selected members of the Chicago Children’s Choir accompanying Bill Callahan on this song. He didn’t record in the booth with them. Instead, the songwriter stood just outside the glass partition, mouthing along. “They wanted to see me sing,” he explained.: bit.ly
Here's an extended essay on the meaning of "Via Chicago.": extrachill.com
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And, here's a wonderful live version of the song: www.youtube.com
The Afghan Whigs are back with a new single, "I’ll Make You See God," their first track in five years since the release of In Spades. It’s also the first song the band has released since their guitarist Dave Rosser passed away in 2017. Since then, band leader Greg Dulli released a solo album that was written while processing his death. Dulli describes it as "one of the hardest rock songs we’ve ever done" and that "it was written and performed on sheer adrenaline.": bit.ly
Written by Eddie Vedder, this timely song was a protest against the Iraq war, and how people have become desensitized to what is going on in the conflict.
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Watch Pearl Jam perform it live in London in 2010: www.youtube.com
Portugal. The Man is playing WaMu Theater with Alt-J and special guest Cherry Glazerr on Tuesday, March 29th.
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Portugal. The Man performed live at the Triple Door for KEXP's VIP Club Concert series in 2013. They opened their set with "Purple Yellow Red and Blue". Watch the full performance here: youtu.be
This new single by TRAAMS features Soffie Viemose of Danish five-piece Lowly.
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frontman Stu Hopkins states: “For a time we were quite set on this track staying as an instrumental. It wasn’t until the night before we were heading up to the studio that Padley sent through a new demo, quietly singing into his laptop in the dead of night.
“Originally serving as a mood piece that would bridge a few of the others together, once we started to add singing, ‘Sleeper’ fast became one of our favorite tracks. It touches on the themes of time, longing and belonging that we have throughout[our new music], but they are at their lightest and most human on this track.: bit.ly
Patrick Flegel, Christopher Reimer, Matt Flegel, and Mike Wallace came together in 2007 to form Women. Although the band members had performed together before as part of other acts, they finally settled and recorded a self-titled, full-length album as Women in the basement studio of Chad VanGaalen. Guitarist Christopher Reimer died of complications from a heart condition in 2012: pitchfork.com
Opening with "Walkie Talkie," Palm performed live in the KEXP studio in 2017. Watch the full session here: youtu.be
Polvo formed in Chapel Hill, NC in 1990. They are an accomplished band in the genre of math rock: www.allmusic.com
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Here's "Beggar’s Bowl," live at Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia in 2009: youtu.be
In 1972, Motown legend Marvin Gaye composed the soundtrack for the film, "Trouble Man." Many critics say it was one of his finest musical achievements. This song was the title track of that blaxploitation film. Gaye performed all the vocals himself, singing most of the song in falsetto. The album’s “second voice” was that of saxophonist Trevor Lawrence, the only musician credited on the album aside from Gaye himself. -- Here's an interview about the music with saxophonist Trevor Lawrence and director Cameron Crowe.: n.pr
Yves Tumor will be at The Wonder Ballroom in Portland, OR on Tuesday, August 30th.
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This song, "Jackie," was selected as a recent KEXP Song of the Day. You can download it for yourself here: www.kexp.org
"Return to Cookie Mountain" was the second studio album by Brooklyn band TV on the Radio: bit.ly
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That's Katrina Ford of the band Celebration joining on vocals for "Wolf Like Me."
Kae Tempest said: “My love song to this complex, devastating, deeply beautiful island-- 'Salt Coast' is out now. This song means the world to me. Hope you feel it.” -bit.ly
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Watch the official visualizer for "Salt Coast": www.youtube.com
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In 2020, the poet announced that they had changed their name to Kae Tempest and was coming out as non-binary. bit.ly
Obaro Ejimiwe, the artist known as Ghostpoet, is a British vocalist, songwriter, and musician who specializes in spoken word.
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Watch Ghostpoet performing live at Studio 9294 in Hackney Wick, London, during KEXP's International Clash Day broadcast in February 2019: youtu.be
Gonjasufi, aka Sumach Ecks, is a vocalist, producer, and yogi. Here's a review of this San Diego artist's debut, "A Sufi and a Killer": spectrumculture.com
Rodney Hylton Smith, better known by his stage name Roots Manuva, is an English rapper and producer.
After a long hiatus, he has just released a new track, "So Jazzy": www.facebook.com
Sampa The Great wrote: “The balancing act between expressing your art to the fullest and earning a living as an artist is real.”
“The song Freedom is about the compromises made while navigating this industry. It’s important to remember there are human beings behind the art and the music. It’s important for us to remember that ourselves, especially at times when purpose and wellness can take a back seat.”
afrofire.com
Here is Sampa the Great playing "Freedom" live in Amsterdam in 2019:
youtu.be
sampathegreat.bandcamp.com
Spoon performed this song from the new album live in Los Angeles in January.: www.facebook.com
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Cheryl sat down with Spoon's Britt Daniel to talk about the new album from Spoon, and their mutual love and admiration for community radio -- kexp.org
This is a cover by Spoon. The original is a song by mid-90’s Austin, Texas band The Sidehackers. The original songwriter, John Clayton, would later play bass guitar on Spoon’s fourth record, "Kill the Moonlight."
Go back nine years to 2013 to enjoy a live performance by Pinback in the KEXP studio: www.youtube.com
In an interview in 2007, James Mercer says about “Girl Sailor”: “That song is loosely based on a relationship with a girl, but there’s a lot of elaboration and fiction to it as well. Musically, it was a song based on a hook: It’s that first [singing], “Da da da dum, bum bah. Pum pum,” which sounds like Motown to me. It sounds like some old Sixties R&B, back when R&B was super melodic and poppy. Then it just sort of goes from there. It’s very English in a lot of ways.”
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"You made it through the direst of straits alright...
Can you help it if plain love now seems less interesting?"
Here are the lyrics: songmeanings.com
Watch the great live performance by Parcels in February that included "Somethinggreater": www.youtube.com
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This five-piece band formed in Australia but is now based in Berlin.: www.instagram.com
Arlo Parks will LIVE on KEXP on Wednesday, March 23rd, at 2:00 PM.
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She performed "Cola" live for KEXP listeners as part of a KEXP Live at Home performance filmed in London and released in February, 2021. Watch that entire session here: www.youtube.com
The first music in four years from Bellingham's own ODESZA includes the original vocal from Betty LaVette's 1965 track "Let Me Down Easy"
ODESZA said, “The idea of bringing two worlds together, that at first seem distant, has always been something we’ve been drawn to. It was an absolute honor to be able to work with Bettye’s voice over the course of writing the track. "
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"It was pure, magnificent soul: passion carried by an eloquent voice and exquisite timing," wrote New York Times critic Jon Pareles, describing the beginning of a performance by vocalist Bettye LaVette. "And she was only getting started." Learn more about this artist: www.allmusic.com
They'll be at Jazz Alley from Thursday, May 12th through Sunday, May 15th.: delvonlamarrorgantrio.com
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DLO3 sat with Early host Gabriel Teodros for an interview in this 2021 KEXP Live at Home session: www.youtube.com
Charli XCX has teamed up with Rina Sawayama for her new single “Beg for You.” The track will appear on Charli XCX’s upcoming 'Crash' album coming out this Friday, March 18th.
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Charli XCX will be headlining the Capitol Hill Block Party taking place July 22-24!: www.capitolhillblockparty.com
This is the new single from Foals' forthcoming album, "Life Is Yours," due for release this summer.
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Frontman Yannis Philippakis says, “Musically ‘2am’ is one of the poppiest songs we’ve ever written. It’s about repetitive cycles of destructive behaviour, which I think lots of people can relate to, and certainly it’s an expression of something that I struggle with. There’s something cathartic about expressing that feeling to this upbeat music that’s got a sense of release and the hope of resolution.”
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‘2am’ was produced by John Hill (Portugal The Man, Florence + The Machine, Cage The Elephant ) and Dan Carey (Tame Impala, Fontaines D.C.).
It has been speculated that this song is about US president George W. Bush because of the lyrics "Just like his dad, the same mistakes" and "Are you hoping for a miracle?" but these claims have been denied by the band on multiple occasions. Kele Okereke stated that he’d actually written the lyrics of “Helicopter” about himself.
In an article published today, Franz Ferdinand say that they were spoofing Queen when they made this song: www.theguardian.com
Hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia, Hot Hot Heat first came to prominence in 2002 with their breakthrough debut LP, "Make Up The Breakdown," an electrifying dose of urgent, dancey rock anchored by frontman Steve Bays characteristic yelp and highly infectious melodies.
www.subpop.com
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Cheryl selected a song, "Kid Who Stays in the Picture," from their 2016 self-titled, and final, album as a free KEXP Song of the Day: www.kexp.org
Jawbreaker is playing a sold-out show at the Showbox SoDo this Friday, March 18th, 2022.
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Want to see a live version of "West Bay Invitational"? Here's a 2017 performance from the Capitol Theater in Olympia, Washington: www.youtube.com