Open Water

is it obvious it’s pre-recorded? is the immediacy not there? the timely social commentary a bit off-kilter, like a psychic trying desperately to train focus? no matter — it’s all been prepped & ziplocked for your listening pleasure. Robert Palmer once said “maybe it’s live.” well maybe it’s not. new Ubu & NE-HI, some shrinking Oakland post-punk and some fatalistic Detroit post-punk. Brainiac lives!

the wayback machine makes a couple stops in ’81 & ’82 tonight — then returns to portions of 2017 that sound a helluva lot like ’81 & ’82 thank Frankie Rose, Mourn, THICK and the lot. and yes, we give passing mention and enduring love to the Lost Heartbreaker.

two hours is a long time. especially when the mic sounds like it comes from inside a soupcan. (I’m on it — trust.) meanwhile, it’s a bevy of new and not-so, w/ even-yet-still-more Ted Leo, a Mourn cover, more Castle Face, a dual Deer Tick, a post-punk set for you malcontents, and a goth set for you sads. take the athletes off the White House’s Christmas card list.

another helping of Ted Leo. a fitting sendoff to Bent Shapes. plus re-worked Wedding Present, fittingly esoteric Ariel Pink, and some old stuff that’s nonetheless new. oh, and another cock-up just to lay claim to the DIY ethos.

“for a start take two Grant Harts / and call me when you die.” a little tribute, a little try-to-move-on. du you know the way to Minneapolis?

the male gaze turns to you, with some new finds from the past 6 days, and some non-perishables pulled from the back right corner of the fridge. oh, and who can resist a trifecta of covers? not I.

show 67 heralds the return of some of our prodigal sons — new stuff from Omni, The Front Bottoms, Pere Ubu & Tera Melos; Castle Face continues to exercise a desperate grip on the latter half; and Alex Dezen gets a twofer cuz he works just. that. hard. Tejas-sized love to Houston.

arrrrrgh… people. (and also, new stuff from AJJ, GBV, Radiator Hospital, Rainer Maria, and a back-to-back whack from Castle Face). but arrrgh… people.

Oakland band Everyone is Dirty comes to KX to play and gab.

show 65 finds itself a little garage rock-y at the outset, before diving back to the ‘90s for a short spell, then doing the goth for a cool 7 minutes, only to come out the other side with some harmless indie. no Glen Campbell. he woulda wanted it that way.

Mike Peters of The Alarm in a career-spanning, hourlong interview

does the vocal this week throw off a bit of a we-have-your-daughter-and-we-want-our-money vibe? that’s what you get with a B-grade Guitar Center mic and a glass desk, and a room more suitable to shooting a YouTube video on how to bedazzle your prom dress, than it is to recording. somebody get Marc Maron on the line. also, new stuff from Car Seat Headrest, Ty Segall, Small Drag, B Boys and … leave the money in a sack behind the dumpster. no cops!

it’s all for, Damien. spanking new stuff from Weaves, Wolf Parade & Lemon Twigs, along with some rough stuff from the ‘Mats and the Smiths, and Jarvis Cocker genuflecting graciously to Scott Walker. all for the low, low price of nada.

a special 2-hour edition of the Water brings some classic reggae, a double-dose of Daddy Issues, new ones by Teen Vice, See Through Dresses, Japans Breakfast & Brightness, plus a temperamental turntable and a host who doesn’t even have the excuse of having shown up half in the bag.

I’m not here this week, but I’ve left this life-like approximation of my sensibilities, soundtracked to the best low-budget music a nonprofit station can afford. David Nance channels Merle Haggard, GBV have yet-another-album coming, and otherwise it’s a lotta stuff from 6 to 9 months ago because I didn’t have time to listen to all the new releases this week. did you know i have kids & a job? not necessarily in that order?

the morning after their local date at the Wayfarer, I get to sit in with Cymbals Eat Guitars as they record a live session for KX, at the famed Laguna Sound Studio. glory be.

Ted Leo arrives 10 seconds before I do, which is why I sound breathless and even more incoherent than usual. the 405 is a trickster fox — one minute, forgiving and seductive; the next, … just never mind. PILL & Protomartyr are back. all the best bands start with “P.” except Poco.

I couldn’t take life’s often pallid soundtrack, without some skronking sax. so thank gods PILL is back. and it’s guitars on all sides, what with the likes of American Lips, Jason Loewenstein and King Gizzard giving the goods. I dusted off an old R.E.M. boot and found a pricey Superdrag set to light the turntable on fire. you were warned.

when I was 11, I couldn’t get a girl to talk to me, to save my life. now, in the humbling throes of middle age, I’m surrounded by them. here’s a few of them talking at me, in the first half. their perspective is clear, their concerns are real, and their interests are our future. but today they really just wanna talk about what they did this afternoon. also Buttertones, PILL, Rips, and an embargo’d track from the persona non grata PWR BTTM

know what? there’s not enough disk space on the drive in the studio. know what else? that’s why the show intro and the first break now live out in the ether with Richey Edwards, all of my family photos, and the digital Star Wars watch I left in Orlando in 1981. the rest is intact (but no better simply for existing).