Last Friday gave us a new LP from veteran hip-hop band A Tribe Called Quest, their first in 18 years, and their last, with the passing of founding member Phife Dawg due to complications with diabetes. KEXP Music Director Don Yates says, "It's a strong return to form of often-politically charged hip hop that updates the group's warm, jazz-tinged sound with adventurous production and harder hitting beats. Special guests include Kendrick Lamar, Andre 3000, Anderson .Paak, Jack White, Talib Kweli, Busta Rhymes and Elton John."
Other highlights this week include the latest from Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells, "their most expansive and pop-oriented set yet, combining crunchy hard-rock guitars, bright synths, pounding rhythms and anthemic song hooks with Alexis Krauss's most confident and emotionally powerful vocals to date." (Check out a full review on the KEXP Blog here.) Speedy Ortiz frontwoman Sadie Dupuis debuts her solo project Sad13, "a more electronic-oriented approach to the '90s-steeped grunge-pop that she makes with Speedy Ortiz, combining bright synths and occasional fuzzy guitars with melodic pop hooks and sharply crafted lyrics reflecting on sexism, equality, consent and community."
UK band Wolf People share their third album, "another potent, '70s-inspired blend of prog-rock, folk, psych and stoner-rock with shape-shifting arrangements featuring distorted psych guitars, muscular rhythms, stately vocals and environmentally minded lyrics." Beloved local artist David Bazan presents Dark Sacred Night, a collection of fourteen years' worth of Christmas singles dating back to his period recording and performing as Pedro The Lion. And though we've found some conflicting information on the exact release date, you should know Kristin Hersh has returned with a new solo album, "a 2CD set that also comes with an accompanying book (as did her previous solo album Crooked and Throwing Muses 2013 album Purgatory/Paradise). It's an intensely personal set with a mostly spare sound featuring acoustic and electric guitars along with occasional cello, piano and horns accompanying her throaty vocals and poetic, emotionally hard-hitting lyrics of love and loss."
It's reissue season, and this week brings us deluxe versions of Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, Tori Amos' Boys for Pele, Ween's live album, and R.E.M.'s now-classic Out of Time, whose deluxe edition features new liner notes, 19 never-before-heard demos, an unreleased 1991 live show, plus eight music…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the A…
It's surely no coincidence that a couple of these new releases came out on the eve of the 2016 Presidential Election. Veteran Chicago rapper Common shares his 11th full-length, an album KEXP's Music Director Don Yates calls, "a powerful set of politically charged hip hop with gritty, cinematic, sou…
