Song of the Day: Israel Nash - LA Lately

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is "LA Lately" by Israel Nash from the 2015 album Israel Nash's Silver Season on Loose Music / Thirty Tigers.

Israel Nash - LA Lately (MP3)

It's Israel Nash week here at KEXP, or at least that's what it seems. On Monday, we offered a chance to listen to the Texas-based songwriter's entire forthcoming LP, Israel Nash's Silver Season (by the way, the stream is still available here). On Friday, the album will be available in stores, and today, we're offering the latest single, "LA Lately", as a Song of the Day podcast for you to add to your queue. Recorded once again with engineer Ted Young (Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth, Mick Jagger), who helped shape the "glorious neo-psychedelic masterpiece" that was 2013's Israel Nash's Rain Plans, the new LP sounds even more lush and expansive, thanks to what has now become Nash's regular band, featuring Midlake guitarist Joey McClellan, his brother Aaron McClellan on bass, longtime collaborator Eric Swanson on pedal steel and many other instruments, and drummer Josh Fleischmann. On Silver Season, they are tighter than ever and far more far-reaching, as evidenced on the epic, nearly 7-minute song "LA Lately". Though its cryptic opening seems somewhat LA noir-ish, the song quickly opens to a wide sonic vista and becomes a sun-drenched paean to the City of Angels, its city- and seascapes, its nightlife, its hallowed hills. If you haven't seen LA lately, you should at least hear Israel Nash's "LA Lately" now.

And if you'd like to see Israel Nash himself, you'll soon be able to. Though he recently performed in Seattle during Bumbershoot, he'll be back with the band for a full set at The Crocodile on Saturday, December 12. Check out his Facebook page for more information and other tour dates. In the meantime, listen to their cover of Pink Floyd's "Fearless" as recorded in the KEXP studio earlier this year: