Wednesday Music News

01/20/2016

Janice Headley

Local duo Chimurenga Renaissance (aka Tendai Maraire of Shabazz Palaces and Hussein Kalonji) debut a new track today titled "Girls With Gunz," a song they say was inspired by African assassin Grace Maseva, a woman who fought in the Second Chimurenga, the war that ended white rule in Zimbabwe. Local writer Charles Mudede explained on behalf of the band, "She was once a girl with a gun. She was trained to kill her oppressors. She wanted to build and live in a better world. Peace always has a price." Listen below. The "Girls With Gunz" single will be out February 2nd via Glitterbeat. [Stereogum]

He's most certainly not, but today Trevor Powers (better known as Youth Lagoon) shares a clip for the track "Rotten Human." The video was directed by Patrick Blades and stars Daytona Williams. Powers says, "when i stumbled onto pat blades' work, what instantly struck me about it was that he's a complete visual artist. his background is based around vfx + characters, & every work he's created in the past looks as though each was made by a different person. there's nothing i respect more than artistic chameleons, because that's what art should be. a singular expression every time. never believing in a formula. when we started chatting & i sent him the track, i made a pact with myself that i wouldn't guide the concept whatsoever. i wanted this to be a true collaboration. i provide the music, & he creates whatever the hell he wants to...& he came back with this." Watch below, and hear an exclusive KEXP in-studio session from Youth Lagoon on Tuesday, January 26th at 12:00 PM PT! [Under the Radar]

We're pretty excited about the new Wild Nothing full-length, titled Life of Pause, and today, we share the title track, which you can stream below. In a statement, founder/frontman Jack Tatum explained, "I desperately wanted for this to be the kind of record that would displace me. There’s definitely a different kind of ‘self’ in the picture this time around. There’s no real love lost, it’s much more a record of coming to terms and defining what it is that you have — your place, your relationships. I view every record as an opportunity to write better songs. At the end of the day it still sounds like me, just new." Life of Pause hits stores on February 19th via Captured Tracks. [Consequence of Sound]

!!! (Chk Chk Chk) frontman Nic Offer always brings the party, whether it's climbing on coffee beans from our 2010 Capitol Hill Block Party broadcast or dancing up a storm at last year's KEXP New Home Benefit at Columbia City Theatre. Director Casper Kelly (of Adult Swim’s “Too Many Cooks” fame) manages to capture a fraction of his energy in this fun video for "Every Little Bit Counts," a track from last year's full-length As If. Watch below: [Spin]

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