Kexp Live Performances Podcast

Montreal-formed band Wolf Parade, now mostly based in Vancouver, make up for 13 years of not performing live on KEXP with an extra-long set in our new studio, covering their entire 2016 EP plus two classics harking back to their very first recording. Co-songwriters Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner, drummer Arlen Thompson and multi-instrumentalist Dante DeCaro have never sounded better than they do in this howlingly great performance. Recorded August 8, 2016 - 6 songs: Floating World, C'est La Vie Way, Automatic, Mr. Startup, Modern World, Dinner BellsSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If the Rolling Stones had started their career in 2014 Chicago, they might have been called Twin Peaks. The warm, laid-back chemistry exuded by this crew of bluesy rockers is so over-the-top fun to watch that it's almost hard to not want to just shoot the breeze with them all night over drinks instead – almost! Recorded 06/16/2016 - 4 songs: Butterfly, Getting Better, Walk To The One You Love, Wanted YouSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During the Norwich songwriter's four-year gap between releases, Beth Orton took the biggest stylistic leap of her career, springing from her most traditional folk album to her most electronic LP, 2016's Kidsticks, with seamless, deft splendor. Orton and her band join Cheryl Waters in this session highlighting two tracks from Kidsticks and two Orton classics. Recorded 06/23/2016 - 4 songs: Moon, She Cries Your Name, Wave, Stolen CarSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Channeling sounds both neon and nocturnal, NAVVI's precisely languid take on electronic pop tempers its dark undercurrents with a subtle pop sensibility. The Seattle duo of Brad Boettger and Kristin Henry perform four songs from their debut, 2016's Omni, and explain the genesis of the project on this session on Audioasis with DJ Sharlese. Recorded 07/15/2016 - 4 songs: Polychrome, In Gold, What Reason Do We Need?, CloseSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Even though there was no explicit goal in mind when Jayhawks frontman Gary Louris started work on the songs that would eventually make up the Minneapolis group's ninth album, Paging Mr. Proust, he ended up with a set of songs that rank among the band's most gorgeous tracks. In their latest KEXP session, Louris and co. join their longtime friend Kevin Cole to showcase four songs in semi-acoustic fashion and discuss the path to their latest album. Recorded 07/19/2016 - The Devil Is In Her Eyes, Lovers Of The Sun, Comeback Kids, Stumbling Through The DarkSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With three album released in the span of 13 months across 2014-15, there was a lot of musical ground for Wand to cover when they made their KEXP debut in July 2016. But across four songs and countless crushing riffs, the Los Angeles outfit ran through the rapidly-expanding "story of Wand”, as Cheryl Waters puts it, in this ferocious, career-spanning set. Recorded 07/20/2016 - 4 songs: Fire on the Mountain (I-II-III), Floating Head, Lower Order, Growing Up BoysSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For a glorious sixteen minutes, Boss Hog's garage rock fever barely stays on its rails, with Jon Spencer's guitar twisting and turning at every whiplashed step. Touring behind their first music in 16 years (this year's Brood Star EP), Spencer, frontwoman Cristina Martinez, and the rest of the band enter KEXP's studios for a wild, frenetic session that features an impromptu solo from DJ Troy Nelson as a result of Spencer leaving the room and handing off his guitar to the unsuspecting host. Recorded 07/12/2016 - 4 songs: Wichita Grey, Winn Coma, Fix Me, DisgraceSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Without even an album under their earth-shaking name, Thunderpussy shred like no other outfit... and outfits they have aplenty. The Seattle four-piece bring their theatrical, sex-fueled, high-octane, bluesy rock show to the KEXP studio for an extended session, complete with "pussyfooting" dancers, live on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole. Recorded 07/22/2016 - 5 songs: Speed Queen, Fever, The Cloud, Welcome To The Disco, ThunderpussySupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A native of Red Bluff, California, Margaret Glaspy moved across the country to Boston, where she cut her teeth with master classes at Berklee (regardless of whether or not she was a student at the time) and local gigs. A few years – and one set of studio sessions redoing her original, iPad-recorded version of the album – after her cross-coastal move, Glaspy's ragged, blues-affected guitar playing and sharp, watertight songwriting is at the forefront of her debut LP, this year's Emotions and Math. Joined by a two-piece band, Glaspy joins Cheryl Waters in KEXP's studios to play songs from her debut and tell the story of how her songs went from bedroom sketches to full band recordings. Recorded 07/13/16 - 4 songs: Emotions and Math, You and I, No Matter Who, Memory StreetSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"It was like being in a car that hit the brakes and suddenly we had all this stuff to say." After spending nearly two years on the road behind their 2013 debut Wildewoman, Lucius had plenty of stories to tell on what would become their 2016 sophomore effort Good Grief, resulting in their most expansive and vivid songs to date. The quintet make their second appearance in the KEXP studios to join Cheryl Waters and tell the tale of how they wrote outside of the figurative box with the help of a literal shoebox. Recorded 05/11/16 - 4 songs: Madness, Gone Insane, Dusty Trails, Better Look BackSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It almost goes without saying that anything that Marc Ribot touches turns to gold, and Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog is no exception. Aside from his own prolific solo career, Ribot has worked with captains of industry like Elvis Costello, John Zorn, The Black Keys, plus goes back thirty years and seven records deep with Tom Waits. He's been lauded as one of the best living guitar players and is now trying his hand at a new project pregnant with absurdist jazz, free form punk, and garage-y overtones. As Ceramic Dog, Marc Ribot is joined in-studio at KEXP with bassist Shahzad Ismaily and drummer Ches Smith. Check out their unbelievably raw session hosted by Jazz Theater's John Gilbreath. Recorded 06/22/2016 - 4 songs: Red Bully, Lies My Body Told Me, Your Turn, You're My Personal Nancy SpungenSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A modern journeyman of sorts, 28 year-old songwriter Kevin Morby has spent close to a decade releasing music while moving through different musical outfits and cities. Now based in Los Angeles, Morby and his band return to KEXP to share the traveler's tales on the Kansas City native's third album, Singing Saw, and discuss its creation in Woodstock, NY with Cheryl Waters. Recorded 06/08/2016 - 4 songs: Cut Me Down, Dorothy, Destroyer, I Have Been to The MountainSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maria-Elena Juarez, Christopher Garland, and Jordan Adams have been slaying Seattle clubs as Acapulco Lips with their cataclysmic six-string hurricane of a sound for a few years now, but with the release of their self-titled debut this year, they're loaded with even more tunes that highlight their kinetic, explosive sound. In this session, the trio surf through a massive, reverb-soaked wave of garage rock with Kevin Cole on the Afternoon Show. Recorded 07/01/2016 - 4 songs: Shoes On, Gotta Know, Awkward Waltz, My TimeSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Omara Moctar first started picked up a guitar, he was merely having fun with his friends. Fast forward to 2016, and the musician better known as Bombino has made albums with The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and Dirty Projectors' Dave Longstreth, who produced his reggae-influenced 2016 album, Azel. The dazzlingly talented Tuareg guitarist returns to KEXP's studios for an electric and joyous session on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole. Recorded 04/29/2016 - 5 songs: Akhar Zaman, Timidiwa, Iwaranagh, Tar Hani, TimtarSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

London-via-Köln psychedelic outfit Desert Mountain Tribe were a lock-tight live unit well before they started work on their first album, so when they entered the studio for what would become 2016's Either That or the Moon, they sought to capture the sprawling, resonant feel of their live performances. Recorded during their first US tour, the Anglo-Germanic trio tapped into a spacious, hazy tone for twenty minutes of psychedelic bliss when they joined Cheryl Waters in the KEXP studios to perform four cuts from Either That or the Moon. Recorded 04/21/2016 - 4 songs: Coming Down, Take a Ride, Heaven and Hell, Way DownSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Representing his experience as the son of Zimbabwean musicians, a father, a soon-to-be husband, and a man from Seattle's South End, Draze poured himself into Seattle's Own, the Emerald City MC's proper debut that finds him reflecting on his changing life and his changing hometown. Joining Larry Mizell, Jr. on a special Juneteenth edition of Street Sounds, Draze shares four tracks from Seattle's Own and shares his thoughts on the changing landscape of Seattle. Recorded 06/19/2016 - 4 songs: The Hood Ain't The Same, Seattle Sweeties, Irony on 23rd, Children of the LightSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchinson's move from his native Scotland to Los Angeles forced both the songwriter and his bandmates to rethink their work process, but their email-driven writing process led the Glasgow quintet to refine their penchant for anthemic choruses and evocative lyrics with an electronic edge on their fifth LP, Painting of a Panic Attack. In this session, Hutchinson and co. play four songs from the album to KEXP's studios and tell Cheryl Waters about recording the album with The National's Aaron Dessner. Recorded 04/19/2016 - 4 songs: Get Out, Woke Up Hurting, I Wish I Was Sober, BreakSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From his first appearance with the station during SXSW 2011, Charles Bradley has been a longtime KEXP favorite, and it's easy to see why. Talking love, loss, and style with Cheryl Waters in this stunning performance in the KEXP Gathering Space, The Screaming Eagle of Soul shows that only thing bigger than his voice is his heart as he leads his Extraordinaires through three soul-stirring R&B workouts and an emotional cover of Black Sabbath's "Changes". Recorded 5/23/2016 - 4 songs: Nobody But You, Things We Do For Love, Ain't It A Sin, ChangesSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From their beginnings as Capitol Hill basement party staples to their current status as one of Seattle's most popular local bands, Tacocat have continually achieved their original goal of simply having fun, not least when they're doing it with their trademark sugar-sweet hooks and whip-smart lyrics. Recorded with fellow Emerald City treasure Erik Blood behind the boards, the band's third album, 2016's Lost Time, contains some of their most incisive and addictive songwriting to date. Cheryl Waters welcomes the band back to the KEXP studios for a session that's equal parts punk and pop, with anecdotes about recording the theme to the rebooted Powerpuff Girls series and the struggle of cat-themed t-shirts being unpopular in Europe accompanying four Lost Time cuts. Recorded 06/15/2016 - 4 songs: I Hate The Weekend, The Internet, You Can't Fire Me, I Quit, TalkSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The psych- and Tropicalia-inflected rock of Boogarins is so intriguing that when their earliest recordings had been picked up by music fans all over the globe, the band hadn't even played any gigs. Only becoming a live band shortly afterwards in early 2013 hasn't prevented the Goiânia, Brazil quartet from quickly adapting to an onstage unit, however, which is showcased in this session on El Sonido with DJ Chilly. Recorded during the band's first trip to Seattle, the band play songs from their 2015 sophomore effort Manual and discuss what it's like to leave Brazil for the first time to play 11 shows at SXSW. Recorded 05/10/2016 - 4 songs: Falsa Folhade Rosto, Tempo, Cuerdo, AuchmaSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.