KraftWEEK continues on The Afternoon Show, as I spotlight the recently remastered and reissued Kraftwerk albums that came out late last year, both as individual albums, and also as the box set 12345678: The Catalogue.

Today, I’m featuring their 1978 album, Trans-Europe Express. The band actually went out to train stations to collect sounds for the album, but decided “trains don’t sound very dancey,” so they (clearly!) changed it up a bit.

In the video clip below, the band traveled from Dusseldorf to Duisburg, and photo stills from that video were used on the “Showroom Dummies” single. To help promote the album, EMI Records actually found an old fashioned train from the 1930’s, and sent music critics on a trip from Paris to Rheims with the album playing overhead! (Man, I’d love to read an interview with one of those critics!)

And this great release is just one of five I’ll be giving away today in a 5-CD pack. So, for your chance to win, tune in from 2:00 to 6:00 pm, and follow along on Facebook and Twitter.

You can also find out more about Kraftwerk in the KEXP Documentary series “Pop Goes Electronic,” in the On Demand section at KEXP.ORG.

KraftWEEK continues on The Afternoon Show, as I spotlight the recently remastered and reissued Kraftwerk albums that came out late last year, both as individual albums, and also as the box set 12345678: The Catalogue. Yesterday, I highlighted the album Autobahn, and today, it’s all about their 1975 release Radio-Activity. Check out this cool video I found of the band performing on French TV back in 1978!

This album is a particular favorite as the title Radio-Activity applies to both activity on the radio (like here on KEXP!), and the science of radioactivity. You almost think the track “Radio Stars” is about being a musician, until they start singing about quasars!

And this great release is just one of five I’ll be giving away today in a 5-CD pack. So, for your chance to win, tune in from 2:00 to 6:00 pm, and follow along on Facebook and Twitter.

You can also find out more about Kraftwerk in the KEXP Documentary series “Pop Goes Electronic,” in the On Demand section at KEXP.ORG.

They’re the band I like to think of as “The Beatles of electronic music.” Taking their name from the German word for “power station” (take that, Robert Palmer!), Kraftwerk formed in 1970, helping to pioneer electronic music, and sparking an influence that’s still as strong as ever.

Last year, Kraftwerk released a box set entitled 12345678: The Catalogue, a collection featuring remastered editions of the group’s core eight studio albums. They also released those albums individually, and we’ve got 1-2-3-4-5 of those landmark releases to give away this week…

All week long on The Afternoon Show, I’ll be giving away a 5-CD set to one lucky winner each day (Trans Europe Express, The Man-Machine, Tour De France, Radio-Activity, and Autobahn)! So, tune in weekdays from 2:00 to 6:00 pm, and follow along on Facebook and Twitter.

It hasn’t been officially confirmed, but Kraftwerk have hinted a second boxed set of their first three experimental albums (Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk 2 and Ralf and Florian) might be out later this year:

“We’ve just never really taken a look at those albums. They’ve always been available, but as really bad bootlegs. Now we have more artwork. Emil has researched extra contemporary drawings, graphics, and photographs to go with each album, collections of paintings that we worked with, and drawings that Florian and I did. We took a lot of Polaroids in those days.”
– Ralf Hütter

You can also find out more about Kraftwerk in the KEXP Documentary series Pop Goes Electronic, in the “On Demand” section at KEXP.ORG.

Last year, R.E.M. released their fourteenth album Accelerate… a very astute title, since the band recorded it during a quick nine-week schedule, a much faster pace than they were used to working in.

Bassist Mike Mills suggested they work out the new songs in a live setting, as they’d done in the past, so the band took a five day residency at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. They called the shows “working rehearsals,” and debuted many new songs as works-in-progress.

But what’s especially great about those shows was they really dug deep into their back catalog, eschewing tracks like “Losing My Religion” or “Stand” for more obscure material like “Maps & Legends,” or “Wolves, Lower” from their 1982 debut EP, Chronic Town. The result is an amazing collection, spanning the band’s 30 year history, and capturing the Georgia trio’s vitality after all this time.

And you can hear those performances on their new live album, R.E.M: Live at The Olympia. I’ll be giving away three copies today on The Afternoon Show!

Tune in weekdays from 2-6 PM.

]]> http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/11/20/r-e-m-s-live-at-the-olympia-featured-on-the-afternoon-show-today/feed/ 0 http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/11/04/the-feelies-return/ http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/11/04/the-feelies-return/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:07:35 +0000 Kevin Cole http://blog.kexp.org/blog/?p=28807

by Kevin Cole

To paraphrase the band Pavement, bands are reuniting each and every day… (Hey, even the band I just paraphrased!) But one of the reunions I’ve been most excited about is seeing New Jersey legends The Feelies back together.

Taking their name from Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, The Feelies did indeed enter the new world of the post-punk New York music scene, standing out with their frenetic, jangly sound, and getting named “The Best Underground Band in New York” by the Village Voice back in 1978.

Sadly, they fell apart in the early 90’s, but fans rejoiced when The Feelies took the stage again after seventeen years on Fourth of July 2008, and the fireworks haven’t stopped as they’ve continued to play shows around the New York area since then, including an appearance at last month’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival where they performed their 1980 debut album Crazy Rhythms in its entirety.

And this week on the Afternoon Show, I’ll be giving away copies of that album, along with their second album, The Good Earth! Both releases were re-issued by the label Bar/None Records last month, after being out-of-print for over a decade. Winners will also receive a re-pressing of their debut 7″ single “Fa-Ce-La,” originally released in 1979.

Tune in weekdays from 2-6 PM.

]]> http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/11/04/the-feelies-return/feed/ 0 http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/09/30/keeping-an-eye-on-big-star/ http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/09/30/keeping-an-eye-on-big-star/#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:30:52 +0000 Kevin Cole http://blog.kexp.org/blog/?p=26939

Tons of bands today reference R.E.M. and The Replacements as an influence… but what about the bands that influenced them? Both Peter Buck and Paul Westerberg cite the band Big Star as the pinnacle of power pop. (Heck, The Replacements even wrote a tribute for frontman Alex Chilton on the album Pleased to Meet Me! ) I’d be willing to bet that anyone reading this has a well-worn copy of their amazing debut #1 Record in their collection. In fact, check out this amazing video I found on YouTube, featuring footage bassist Andy Hummel and co-founder Chris Bell shot during those recording sessions!

Earlier this month, Rhino released an incredible 4-disc box set titled Keep an Eye on the Sky, spanning the band’s recordings from 1968 to 1975, and featuring unreleased demos, unused mixes, alternate versions of songs, and a 1973 concert recorded in Memphis.

And for the rest of the week on The Afternoon Show, I’ll be giving away three digital download codes for the box/7″ singles a day, and on Friday, a grand prize winner will win the actual physical box set. (Heads up: those of you who follow me on Twitter & Facebook might be getting a hint or two!)

]]> http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/09/30/keeping-an-eye-on-big-star/feed/ 1 http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/05/14/mugison-emp-bathroom/ http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/05/14/mugison-emp-bathroom/#comments Fri, 15 May 2009 00:15:17 +0000 Kevin Cole http://blog.kexp.org/blog/?p=20221

by Kevin Cole

Yesterday on The Afternoon Show, I had a special guest all the way from Iceland, award-winning artist Mugison. I discovered his music on my trip to Iceland five years ago, and was just blown away.

Someone else who was blown away was my co-worker Chris Kellogg, our New York programming producer, who literally choked on his drink when he heard me say on the air that Mugison was coming to the station.

Last night, Chris and I went out to the EMP to see Mugison play again, this time for an audience of travel industry folks at an Icelandic Airlines promotional event. In July, they’re gonna kick off direct flights from Seattle to Iceland, which is very cool (no pun intended). The event was beautiful. They showed a promotional video of Iceland, and then Mugison took the stage for a short musical set.

If you missed the interview yesterday, in Iceland, Mugison is huge. In their equivalent of The Grammys, Mugison has taken the Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and more. So getting to see him in the gorgeous setting of the Sky Church was such a treat. It also made his stage banter just a little bit more hilarious…

Before launching into “Jesus is a Good Name to Moan,” he explained to the audience, “Back when I used to be a sailor, we would watch a lot of porn on the ship…” I froze, and thought to myself, “Did he just say porn?” Mugison kept explaining, “And this next song is about how all the women always moan ‘Jesus’ in porn…”

At first, I nervously looked around at the audience of travel industry-types, but thankfully, they were just as charmed by this handsome, polite Icelandic musician, and thought it was hilarious, too. It made his performance even more fun, especially when he sings the lyric, “All the women sing along now…” which cracked everyone up.

After his short three-song set, we were standing around talking, and Mugison decided he wanted to play more, but somewhere… “dirty,” as he put it. (No, no, despite the “porn” talk, he didn’t mean a strip club, promise.) We tried to think of some nearby pubs we could hit, but instead, Mugison grabbed his guitar, and said, “I’m gonna go sing in the bathroom.” A group of us grabbed our drinks and followed him there, like an Icelandic Pied Piper! An old friend of his was there, remarking about how rare and surreal this was. Apparently, the last time he saw him play was in front of thousands of people, opening for Bjork! But, now, here he was playing in the bathroom of the EMP, with toilets flushing in the background!

Whether playing for thousands of people in an arena, or playing for tens of people in a bathroom, Mugison is just the most engaging, passionate performer. It was just incredible. As if this crazy evening couldn’t get even more special, Mugison played a track just for our Chris, which you can see here. Simply awesome.

Thanks to Bart of The Foghorns for the video!

]]> http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/05/14/mugison-emp-bathroom/feed/ 0 http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/01/02/free-music-blowout-from-your-friends-at-kexp/ http://blog.kexp.org/blog/2009/01/02/free-music-blowout-from-your-friends-at-kexp/#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:30:44 +0000 Kevin Cole http://blog.kexp.org/blog/?p=13963 Happy New Year! We hope you’re starting off 2009 in a great way, and we’d love to make it just a little bit better with even MORE free MP3’s. I’ve been spotlighting some of my favorite songs of 2008 (if you missed any previous installments, just check the KEXP Blog, and this is the grand [...]]]>

School of Seven Bells with Kevin Cole 11/28/08
photo by Ken Roeder

Happy New Year! We hope you’re starting off 2009 in a great way, and we’d love to make it just a little bit better with even MORE free MP3’s. I’ve been spotlighting some of my favorite songs of 2008 (if you missed any previous installments, just check the KEXP Blog, and this is the grand finale… So, I’m actually going out with a BANG, with some extra “bonus” songs in there, too! There was just so much great music last year, and I can’t wait to discover even more great music in 2009.

KEXP loves sharing new music with you, and we’ll even deliver it straight to you daily, for free! Just subscribe to our Song of the Day podcast! It couldn’t be easier!

• Vivian Girls - Tell The World (MP3)

You can learn more about each of these bands and find photos, videos, and even more songs by them as they’re featured on the KEXP Blog.

Elliott Brood outside KEXP 9/22/08
photo by Jim Beckmann

We’ve got another batch of free music for you today, part of our End-of-the-Year music gift to you of 50 Free MP3’s Just a little way of showing our appreciation for your support, a great way to introduce you to some artists you may have overlooked over 2008, and an introduction to our excellent FREE Song of the Day podcast! Every day, we deliver a new song to you, completely free, and if your New Year’s Resolution is to discover more new music, then KEXP can help you keep that resolution!

• Elliott Brood - Write It All Down For You (MP3)

Mochipet Live from Sonic Boom during KEXP's Ballard Day Broadcast 5/9/08
photo by Krissi Pearson

And we’re continuing our gift to you of 50 FREE MP3’s, — just our way of saying “thanks” for your support! If you’ve missed any of these installments, be sure to check out past entries on the KEXP Blog.

And if you missed out on ANY of this excellent free music over the year, then it’s time for you to subscribe to KEXP’s Song of the Day podcast! Every day, we deliver a new song to you, completely free — songs like these below:

• Firewater - Electric City (MP3)
• The Cool Kids - Basement Party (MP3)
• Baskervilles - A Little More Time (MP3)
• Mochipet - Sharp Drest (MP3)
• Kassin+2 - Tranqüilo (MP3)
• NOMO - Three Shades (MP3)
• Douglas Armour - Towards The Light (MP3)
• Booka Shade - Charlotte (MP3)
• The Airborne Toxic Event - Does This Mean You’re Moving On? (MP3)
• Michael Franti and Spearhead - Say Hey (I Love You) (MP3)