Results tagged “kexp”

KEXP FAVORITES LIVE & FREE!: Kick off the weekend tonight by heading to KEXP's Concerts at the Mural, the first of the free all-ages concert series put on at the Seattle Center. Tonight's tunes will feature a few of KEXP's favorite bands: Blitzen Trapper and Throw Me The Statue. The show is tailored to the culturally curious, seeking out best of the area’s independent music scene. Most importantly, the beer garden opens at 5 p.m. with the show shortly after. 6:00-8:00 p.m., Fri. // Seattle Center Mural Amphitheatre, 305 Harrison St // Free (not including beer)

BYRNE BABY BYRNE: David Byrne is back in town for a visit to the Paramount. Famous in his heyday for biting the heads off bats in his over-the-top metalhead shows...wait that doesn't seem...where's that bio again? Ah. Yes, the former Talking Heads front man is on a summer tour, playing songs by himself and Brian Eno. You'll hear stuff from Everything that Happens will Happen Today, and some back-catalogue Heads music than Eno had a hand in. Something old, something new, what's not to like?

The PSBJ's Al Scott, musing about whether Facebook has jumped the shark, said he heard it from "Troy Nelson and an assistant at KEXP, the youthful listener-supported music station that's the definition of sonic cool in Seattle. Nattering between songs, they said Facebook takes up too much of their time, and includes too many people from high school who want to connect--people they didn't want to talk with back then." Can't argue with the timesuck or the Classmates.com effect, but who knew the Biz Journal was so tuned in?

In case you're still on the fence about tonight's electronic extravaganza, Moderat (Modeselektor + Apparat) at Neumos, you can get a preview of the show today at 2 p.m. on KEXP, where the trio will be performing live and doing an interview. The video above is the trailer for their newly released DVD, and is a preview of the kinds of visuals you can expect tonight from Pfadfinderei.

Since Capitol Hill denizens stepped up to the plate and donated the most during the 2008 summer membership drive, KEXP is spending Friday hanging out in the neighborhood. John Richards, Cheryl Waters, and Kevin Cole will all broadcast their shows from Caffe Vita--with live performances aplenty, including The Moondoggies, Say Hi, Mates of State, and Black Kids--while other djs will be taking over the sound systems at Linda's, Grey Gallery, the Cha Cha, Havana, Moe Bar, and the Wild Rose. Plus, there's extra discounts and perks for KEXP members at Capitol Hill establishments. Full details here.

Gui Boratto's latest album, Take My Breath Away, is another entry marking the fortunate shift away from the strict confines of dancefoor-ready techno into more indie-friendly territory. Like recent albums from Telefon Tel Aviv, School of Seven Bells, and the less-recent full-length from Matthew Dear, the Brazilian Gui Boratto incorporates influences from outside the traditional confines of Berlin and Detroit.

If you became a member during KEXP's spring pledge drive like we did, but don't want to wait around for the snail mail to deliver your thank-you gift like we don't, the station invites you to come on down (to 113 Dexter Ave North) this Friday, March 20th, between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. to pick up your gifts and even take a tour if you like.

We re-learned an important lesson this afternoon: when nearing overwhelm status, listen to some legendarily good music. You'll feel better. That said, put on "Seed 2.0" by The Roots and read today's music edition of Seattlest's local blog round-up.

Portland-based Blind Pilot were not only chosen as Starbucks' "Pick of the Week" for the week of January 3rd, they're also loved by NPR and KEXP, and now, by us.

• Capitol Hill Seattle has composed a neighborhood wish list for the holidays, including such perfectly legitimate requests as a new pair of gloves and magic beans to turn the economy around for local businesses. Good luck...
• KEXP has yet ten more reasons (read: free mp3s to stream!) for you to buy their Live At KEXP: Vol. 4. The Hold Steady, even!
• Why does it always have to be a snowman? Why not a snow-fellow, or a snow-horse-mermaid? PhinneyWood's residents get way creative.

We wish the firefighter had caught on tape the moment he realized the green and grey paper on the side of I-90 was not just your average litter, but more than $15,000. "That's money," we picture him saying with giddy bewilderment, turning to his passengers, who probably thought at first he was just emphatically agreeing with and expressing the value of whatever John In The Morning had just said on KEXP. "Yeah, man, that's money!" "No! Money!" Sadly, the cash turned out to be fake, and the honorable firefighter turned in all $15,470 to the State Patrol yesterday. Giant scam foiled or performance art gone awry? We may never know.

If your answer is yes and you wish you had a soundtrack for how you're feeling, look no further than John Richards' show this morning on KEXP. It's the anniversary of his mother's passing, so he's been playing a lovely music-to-make-you-cry mix all morning. Selected songs include: "Casimir Pulaski Day" by Sufjan Stevens, "When You Leave" by Maps, and "Hallelujah" as sung by Jeff Buckley. Audio for the show can be found here (though, today's show isn't posted yet.)

Head over to kexp.org and check out the new KEXP homepage digs. Seems that the site launched sometime around noon-ish, as this morning it was the old brokedown, and now it's the new hotness. The good: Easier to navigate and all the goodies (song of the day, podcasts, show reviews) are now front and center. The bad: Banner ads. The momentarily ugly: It's not always coming up pretty the first time loading, so be sure to refresh as needs be. More info on the new homepage in the FAQs. All hail your pledge drive dollars at work!

Volume One was pretty cool. Two was better. Three was great. Volume Four is hands down the best. Is it simply because it's new? Because the songs are still fresh? We don't think so. There's more more to it than that.

DIAL M-A-C-E-O: You know how some people are so funny (Steve Carell, Ellen DeGeneres) that just looking at them makes you laugh? Well, that's kind of how Maceo makes us feel, but instead of making us laugh, he makes us get funky. He's played with everyone who matters—from James Brown to Prince—and he's here tonight and for the rest of the weekend to bring the funk to you. How lucky you are!

As previously mentioned, Monday at Bumbershoot was heavily skewed towards the alt-country side of things. We're not sure if that's good programming or bad programming. On the one hand, if you're way into alt-country, just attend that one day of the festival and you're all set; on the other hand, you've got some tough choices to make among Blitzen Trapper, Langhorne Slim, Two Gallants, the Maldives, and Old 97s. We managed to catch some of all of the above, which ranged from alt-country to straight-up country to country-twinged blues rock. The diversity of sound was overwhelming.

Our Sunday began with deja vu from Saturday, as Shim ended their set at the Sky Church a full twenty minutes early. We don't know about you, but if we were a little band with a big captive festival crowd, we'd take advantage of our hour-long slot by any means necessary. If we didn't have enough original content, we'd fill our set with covers (or "covers"), songs we'd never played for an audience before, spoken word, and/or a straight-up soapbox delineation of our hopes and dreams. But we definitely would not end our set early.

In terms of music, Saturday was definitely our biggest day at Bumbershoot. We spent most of the time running from one partial set to another. Along the way we caught Thao Nguyen and her backing band, the Get Down Stay Down. Thao's breathy voice is much bigger than the tiny girl it comes out of, and with her solid, clap-happy set, she managed to be energetic (for a singer-songwriter) without verging into crazy territory (even if she did almost perform one song twice).

Tonight, everybody's favorite local chanteuse Jesse Sykes plays a free KEXP show at Seattle Center's Mural Ampitheater, featuring music from her new EP Gentleness of Nothing. (Tomorrow night, Rocky Votolato plays the Mural.)

He sang some new songs ("Sparklers," "Lucky Clover Coin") and steadfastly refused to satisfy one man's regularly howled demand for "Tennessee Train Tracks." He strummed more than he picked, shoveling away at the bass string. He got Neumo's staff to turn off the smoke/incense machine huffing away in the back, to wild cheers from anyone in the smoky vicinity. At his best, his songs are as meticulously artless as Kerouac: on the page, his lyrics read like a vagabond's travel diary--but when he sings, you hear the crafty rhyme of "pennies" with "when is." Sometimes his rhythm wandered, lines staggering off into the distance, but then finally came the short, chopped, punch of "Is is the red wire / or the blue wire?" and the hulking, bruised men in dark hoodies and boots threw back their heads and shouted along: "Oh god I love you / I mean forever / I left my body to break the news."

If you didn't get enough of Sub Pop during all the recent twentieth anniversary festivities, tonight's another opportunity to salute the local label. Starting at 8 p.m. tonight, Mudhoney and No Age play a free show in the KEXP parking lot (113 Dexter Avenue N.) as part of the Toyota/Urban Outfitters Free Yr Radio concert series benefiting independent radio stations, including KEXP. The event's free, but you gotta print our your e-ticket at freeyrradio.com.

Common Market released Black Patch War in early May, but it's taken Seattlest awhile to get fully on board with the album. You too are forgiven for sleeping on it this long, but further snoozing is not recommended. Ra Scion has posted the lyrics to three of the seven songs from the album over at his blog, six minutes to sunrise, with footnotes and everything, and it makes for a riveting read if you're so inclined; also, listen to our favorite song here. Below is the title track, performed live from KEXP's Ballard Day at Verite Coffee last month:

JUG BAND IDOL: Starting today, Greg Vandy of KEXP's The Roadhouse will hold live auditions for a new jug band. Without a harsh Brit, we're not sure what to expect, but we know it's unmissable.

We wish it wasn’t the case, but KEXP’s pledge drive (donate) is forcing some of us to seek ugly alternatives in light of the station’s increasingly aggressive tactics. Don’t get us wrong—listener-supported music is a good thing. KEXP offers more original, independent content than most of the stations in the country, let alone the region. But the confrontational demands for cash are beginning to resemble a back alley shakedown.

ART/MUSIC DIALOGUE: Cross your artistic boundaries when World music KEXP DJ Jon Kertzer and UW School of Music Professor Philip Schulyer dialogue about how Algerian music influenced and shaped a current Henry Art Gallery exhibit by French-Algerian Kader Attia.

We love some hiphop with our coffee in the morning, and KEXP's John In The Morning obliged us today with a live set from easy-going, hard-working local stars The Physics! You can stream the set and interview on KEXP's website by clicking here and setting the time to 8:07am.

KEXP moved ahead yesterday with its plan to broadcast on a radio station in New York City. Hopefully you remember the gist of the story, but if not, a bit more than a month ago, the station announced a partnership with Radio New York called Radio Liberation. The plan at the time was to export six hours of programming to a terrestrial radio station in NYC.

According to the Capitol Hill Blog, by way of Blogging Georgetown:

There is a low power radio station over at SU on 12th Ave. It's on 89.1 Mhz, and is very low power. One can only get it within 1/4 mile from the campus, beyonf which some religious station blocks them out. The signal is strongest at 12th and Cherry.They claim to use 1330 khz also, but didin't have any luck there. The call letters are KSUB.

Announced earlier today, the next John in the Morning at Night will take place Friday, March 7th at Neumo's. The lineup so far is the jagged blues-leaning Britrock of The Duke Spirit, the swagger-heavy post-punk of The Voom Blooms (above), and the solid psych alt-country of Tulsa. The latter two bands have never played Seattle before, so this is your first chance to catch 'em live. And who knows? When it comes to KEXP shows, another band or two could always get added to the bill.