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 selection, featured on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole, is “Telling Lies” by Evans The Death from the 2012 self-titled release on Slumberland Records.

London band Evans The Death, named after the undertaker in Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, is made up of guitarists Dan and Olly Moss, vocalist and keyboardist Katherine Whitaker, Rob Mitson on drums, and Lan McCardle on bass. Their sound comes from a strong desire to disregard what’s currently fashionable in music, says Dan Moss. Rather, the band pulled from what they grew up on and crafted their work based on love. Thankfully, it worked out pretty well for them, because Evans The Death is simply delightful.

“Telling Lies” is a summery single that’s coming at just the right time. Whitaker’s vocal melodies are warm and rich and accent the bright indie rock vibe of the backing track instead of soaring over top. Using fuzzy and unintuitive lead guitar lines a la Surfer Rosa era Pixies, the two and a half minute track keeps things fresh and original up until the end of the track. Lyrically, Moss describes the track as an exposé of our day-to-day face-work. It talks about the lies we tell to people to make us feel better about ourselves, even if their end result is of little to no importance. It’s a perfect theme for the tune, which itself doesn’t heavily rely on overproduction. Rather, “Telling Lies” is a great addition to your summer BBQ playlist that is as fun as it is thoughtful.

Currently, only a few UK dates are listed on Evans the Death’s Facebook page. Hopefully, their recent release will be followed by a U.S. tour. Until that happens, download “Telling Lies” above and check out the quirky, albeit strangely violent, video for the song below:

photo by Allie Pasquier

• Animal Collective is back! On the heels of new single “Honeycomb”, the band has announced that new album Centipede Hz will be out in September, released through Domino Records. The band says that Centipede Hz will take them back to their roots, away from the sampling-heavy nature of Merriweather Post Pavilion and back to the garage sound of Strawberry Jam and others. Domino has released a track listing, which you can check out here. Watch the trailer for the album below:

• The Tallest Man On Earth has a new tune out today called “1904″. John Richards took the song on the air for its radio debut this morning, and tomorrow, KEXP will have the track available as a bonus Song of the Day. For now, you can listen to it here and read more about it at Rolling Stone.

• Willie Nelson loves to cover songs, and 99% of the time, those covers are gorgeous. His cover of the recent Pearl Jam cut “Just Breathe” is no exception. He plays it for his own Sirius XM radio station, Willie’s Roadhouse, below:

• Fans of Donald Glover’s rap project Childish Gambino get a new track today. The new track “Unnecessary” features some help from Schoolboy Q, and moves away from the soundscape Glover experimented with on Camp. Catch Childish Gambino at Sasquatch! this year and listen to “Unnecessary” below (complete with radio tags):

• In a tribute to Beastie Boys member MCA, Portland filmmaker James Winters has created a parody of the classic “Sabotage” video, using kids including his nephew. Watch it below – it’s adorable.

A pair of duos top this week’s list of new releases. Baltimore’s Beach House (Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand) have undoubtedly the most anticipated release out this week, if not this year, with their second Sub Pop released LP, and if you thought 2010′s Teen Dream was beautiful, wait until you hear Bloom. Our Music Director, Don Yates, calls it a “breakthrough” with its “gorgeously layered, reverb-drenched sound combining celestial keyboards, shimmering guitars, ethereal vocals and sublime pop melodies into heartbreakingly beautiful pop songs.” For more “heart-tugging, mostly melancholy songs,” check out the latest from LA’s Best Coast. On The Only Place, Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno clean up their previously lo-fi style on this “gorgeous-sounding affair” with songs “steeped in the sound of ‘60s girl groups… with jangly and shimmering guitars, ethereal xylophones and other instrumentation” amid “summery nostalgic melodies.”

Perhaps 2012 will turn out to be the Summer for Dreams because even more atmospheric dream pop abounds just on this week’s list! The mostly Seattle band Craft Spells (band leader Justin Vallesteros just moved to San Francisco) returns with a “stellar 6-song EP blending ‘80s-influenced dream-pop and post-punk, featuring a hazy, atmospheric sound combining twinkling synths, jangly guitars, propulsive rhythms and some gorgeous pop melodies,” while on their second full-length, Brooklyn trio Violens “successfully blends jangly dream-pop with some aggressive psych-rock on a variety of ethereal, well-crafted songs featuring a dynamic, atmospheric sound combining jangly/crunchy guitars, propulsive rhythms, hazy lead vocals, soft harmonies and soaring pop melodies.” You get the idea. In 2012, prepare to jangle and dream.

And while Willie Nelson might seem a far cry from all of these New Wave lovers, the Red Headed Stranger is quite familiar with altered states of mind. On Heroes, his latest (and who knows how many studio albums this makes — somewhere over 60!), he refers to his favorite smoke on more than one song. The album itself features a range of songs, written by himself, his son Lukas, and many others, including a pair of covers from Coldplay and Pearl Jam, and a whole host of musical guests like Merle Haggard, Snoop Dogg, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver and Sheryl Crow.

A batch of other new releases this week come from dance-friendly Brits: UK-based maverick beat maker Greg Feldwick a.k.a. Slugabed; British techno maestros Simian Mobile Disco;
and veteran UK electronic producer Tom Jenkinson, a.k.a. Squarepusher. More dazzling production comes from two young Americans, Giraffage & XXYYXX, who treat us to a new single of “aerial, bass-heavy, beat-centric dream-pop” (yes, we’re not done with that term just yet!)

Also this week, British mixologists Tjinder Singh and Ben Ayres return for the eighth Cornershop release; Seattle label Green Monkey Records releases for the first time on CD The Green Pajamas ’84 LP Summer of Lust; and Jack Black and Kyle Gass slay with another comedic album of mock cock rock as Tenacious D.

You’ll find all of these and more at your local record store today. Just be sure to sample the many fine selections collected here before you head out — you don’t want to miss out on any potential new discoveries.

photo by Renata Steiner

There’s been some heavy live groovin’ happenin’ at KEXP lately. We’ve had Fitz and the Tantrums, Galactic, Escort and Chicago’s JC Brooks and The Uptown Sound all tearing up our studio in the past few months. Brooks and his pals recently joined DJ Kevin Cole on the Afternoon Show to spotlight songs from their blazing new Bloodshot album, Want More, including their uptempo, internet buzz-garnering cover of Wilco’s “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart.” As you’d expect from this group with roots not only in soul and R&B but also in theater production, JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound upped the entertainment factor as well as the energy level in this hip-shaking set. Watch the videos now:

photo by Dan Schultz

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 selection, featured on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole, is “Gbara Case” by Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars from the 2012 album Radio Salone on Cumbancha.

Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars should be no strangers to KEXP listeners. Formed in the refugee camps of Guinea in a civil war-torn Sierra Leone in the late 90s, this band built a worldwide audience as the subject of the 2006 documentary film, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars. Over the past year, the band Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars have been busy touring the world and also managed to record their impressive third album, Radio Salone. “Salone” means Sierra Leone in Krio, one of six languages on this album. Choosing to work with the highly acclaimed roots reggae, soul & Afrobeat producer Victor Axelrod (Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, Amy Winehouse, Easy Star All Stars, Antibalas) was obviously a savvy decision, as was the decision to record using vintage analog equipment at Brooklyn’s 16-track Dunham Studios. The result is the band’s strongest, most honest, and musically sophisticated album to date, seamlessly blending soukous, Afrobeat and more traditional West African styles with roots-reggae, dub, and even funk. Radio Salone is an impressive follow-up to the band’s 2010 album, Rise & Shine, and offers the perfect opportunity to re-explore this great band.

For more information, check out the band’s website and follow them on Facebook. You can also check out Sierra Leon’s Refugee All Stars performing “Goat Smoke Pipe” live in the KEXP studio back about this same time two years ago:

• More Sigur Rós news: this coming Thursday, May 17th, across EVERY time zone in the world, fans can preview the new album, Valtari, in the world’s first worldwide listening party (don’t quote me on this). Wherever you are, at 7pm, just log on to the band’s website and stream the album in their entirety.

  KEXP will be providing an early early preview of Valtari at 6AM PST that Thursday. Tune in to the Morning Show with John to hear the entire album! Then, hear it again on Sigur Rós’ website that night.

• Gold Panda drops not one but dos new tracks, “Mountain” and “Financial District” today in the UK and tomorrow in the U.S. and Europe.  For details on what site will host the digital distribution, click here.  That being said, Soundcloud has them here, right now:

• In more digital streaming news, The Temper Trap is set to release their self-titled followup on U.S. shores June 5; however, you can stream their entire album now, courtesy of Rolling Stone:

• Good news for The Black Keys fans:  The rock duo has announced a new string of U.S. dates for the remainder of 2012.  For a full list of dates and tour openers, read here.

Last Friday at newly opened Seattle venue Barboza, the members of Imperial Teen strolled on stage looking like a million bucks, with sly grins and playful banter. It was the first Seattle performance by the Merge Records artists in over four years, and the crowd made it clear that it had been far too long. After a couple of hilarious starts and stops between songs and adjusting the stage lights to an acceptable mood, the band proceeded to power through cuts spanning all of their albums, including their excellent new LP, Feel the Sound.

iPhone photo by yours truly

While the band only played for an hour and change, not nearly enough time to run through all their hits (because, honestly, they only write solid gold), every single song was an exuberant power punch of their patented surf-pop-indie-doo-bubblegum-wop-whatever they do so well. The biggest surprise of the night was how pitch perfect Will Schwartz’s vocals sounded. His instantly recognizable voice has only grown stronger and more distinct with time as he croons, yelps, whoops, sighs and sings with a master’s precision. If you want further proof, check out his solo work in hey willpower, an R&B/electro take on the Imperial Teen sound. Guitarist Roddy Bottum played the straight-man to Schwartz’s irreverent stage presence, all while turning out some truly ferocious surf riffs. Lynn Truell is not so much a beast on the drums as a relentless machine pushing each songs tempo to fevered quickening. Bassist Jone Stebbins anchored it all with her sixteenth note-heavy playing and background vocals that were pleasantly high and clear. Stebbins also played the gloriously noisy lead guitar part on their biggest hit “Yoo Hoo”, which of course they played and of course it sounded better than ever.

The fact that a band as long-running as Imperial Teen (a topic the band made fun of on Friday night and explored on their last album, The Hair, The TV, The Baby and The Band) can still sound so current and utterly inimitable almost 20 years into their career is a testament to the strength of the collective songwriting chops. While the co-ed weirdos of Imperial Teen have never gotten the popular attention they’ve long deserved like some other less-deserving indie stalwarts, they proved last Friday night, with a crowd of mostly 30-somethings singing along to even the new jams, that sometimes just being the better band is reward enough.

Imperial Teen’s Feel The Sound is out now via Merge Records, the group announced on-stage that they’ll be returning to the Northwest this summer, performing at Seattle’s Wildrose Pride Block Party in June and Portland’s Queer Music Festival in July.

With a week of awesome weather (not just for Seattle, I mean period.) comes a very back-heavy bevy of both shows to go peruse and enjoy.  Hump Day sees Buffalo Death Beam, Yarn, Red Heart Alarm occupying the Tractor; Thursday, Sunset Tavern hosts a set by Ramona Falls, Land of Pines, and Natural Selection while Deadkill, Grenades, Battle Stations, and Strap Straps plays Neumo’s.  Friday, though, is Hood to Hood 2012, the festivities of which include the following:  all-day DJ sets by Cheryl Waters & Kevin Cole live from Bergen Place Park, performances from My Goodness, The Maldives, and Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, plus featured evening showcases across all the Seattle neighborhoods.  Highlights include KEXP Hood to Hood “Benefit for the Ballard Food Bank” w/River Giant and DJ John Richards at Ballard Food Bank, and KEXP Hood To Hood w/Lindsay Fuller & The Cheap Dates, The Horde and The Harem, Legendary Oaks, hosted by DJ El Toro at Tractor.  More info on the Hood to Hood showcases can be found below.  Lastly, Schoolboy Q, Ab Soul play a set at Neumo’s on Sunday.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Buffalo Death Beam, Yarn, Red Heart Alarm at Tractor (info)

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Ramona Falls, Land Of Pines, Natural Selection at Sunset Tavern (info)

Deadkill, Grenades, Battle Stations, Strap Straps at Barboza @ Neumos (info)

Friday, May 18, 2012

Margot & The Nuclear So & So’s, Dinosaur Feathers, Whispertown at Crocodile (info)

White Hills, Kinski, Low Hums, Terminal Fuzz Terror, DJ Veins at Comet Tavern (info)

Ravenna Woods, Deep Sea Diver at Neumo’s (info)

The Fucking Eagles, Piggy, The Basements at Fun House (info)

KEXP Hood To Hood Live Broadcast feat. Ramona Falls (10:00 am), Deep Sea Diver (12:00 pm), My Goodness (2:00 pm), The Maldives (4:00 pm), Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band (5:30 pm), w/DJ sets by Cheryl Waters & Kevin Cole at Bergen Place Park (info)

plus, these featured evening showcases

• KEXP Hood To Hood “Benefit for the Ballard Food Bank” w/River Giant (Acoustic), DJ John Richards at Ballard Food Bank (info)

• KEXP Hood To Hood w/DJ Larry Rose at The Sexton (info)

• KEXP Hood To Hood “Bike To Work Day After Party” w/DJ Darek Mazzone, DJ Rhythma, DJ Chilly at BalMar (info)

• KEXP Hood To Hood w/DJ Johnny Horn at Hazlewood (info)

• KEXP Hood To Hood w/The Redwood Plan, Grayskul, Wow & Flutter, hosted by DJ Shannon at Sunset Tavern (info)

• KEXP Hood To Hood w/Lindsay Fuller & The Cheap Dates, The Horde and The Harem, Legendary Oaks, hosted by DJ El Toro at Tractor (info)

• KEXP Hood To Hood “Swingin’ Doors” w/DJ Don Slack at Hattie’s Hat (info)

• KEXP Hood to Hood w/Tiny Messengers, Ghosts I’ve Met, Joy Mills, hosted by DJ Hans at Conor Byrne (info)

• KEXP Hood To Hood at KEXP (info)

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Schoolboy Q, Ab Soul at Neumo’s (info)

At this point, Damon Albarn has done just about everything. He established himself with Brit-rock band Blur, which will play at the London Olympics this year. He surprised everyone in the late 1990s with his trippy side project turn full-fledged artistic endeavor Gorillaz, aided by artist Jamie Hewlett. He worked with Danger Mouse on the chilled out The Good, The Bad & The Queen and went to Africa with Mali Music and Kinshasa One Two. In March, he messed around with Flea in Rocket Juice & the Moon and scared us all saying that further plans for Blur and Gorillaz are up in the air. But most recently, Albarn has put together an opera about the life of Elizabethan scientist John Dee, entitled Dr Dee. The resulting soundtrack features Albarn alongside members of the English National Opera and the BBC Philharmonic, naturally. While not nearly as accessible as most of his other work, if you are an Albarn fan, Dr Dee does not disappoint.

Dr Dee is interesting because it can’t be completely classified to a single category. It is by no means a pop record, but in between “serious” opera, there are some really beautiful (albeit mellow) pop songs. “Apple Carts” and the wonderful “The Marvelous Dream” are gorgeous efforts by Albarn that wouldn’t have fit on any of his prior releases, and “Cathedrals” is a perfect combination of Albarn’s songwriting and operatic arrangement. You’ll also hear Albarn on a handful of other tracks like “Saturn”, “The Dancing King”, and “O Spirit, Animate Us”, but much of Dr Dee is written and arranged by Albarn without any appearance by him. Rather, the music here is mostly orchestra and Elizabethan-era instruments (“The Moon Exalted” features Albarn singing over some sweet harpsichord) and is very story-intensive. Thus, if you know what you are getting yourself into, Dr Dee can be a really rewarding experience. But if you are expecting a solo album or a new hit single, it sure isn’t here.

Dr Dee is a bit hard to swallow without the context of seeing the opera performed. Listening to the record straight through, the listener gets a bit lost. But that’s not necessarily Albarn’s fault. He hasn’t hyped the record as anything more than it is – the companion to an opera he wrote about an Elizabethan alchemist. From this standpoint, Dr Dee is great. The lyrics tell the story fairly well, though you might need a bit of a backdrop if you really want to get into it. If nothing else, Dr Dee is a testament to Albarn as a songwriter and an artist. The guy knows no bounds, and almost 23 years into his music career, he’s releasing more music than ever (moreover, none of it is crap). Damon Albarn continues to surprise us, and I think that a story about an alchemist who walks the line between pure genius and Hermetic magic is a good parallel to the progress he has amassed in his career.

photo by Brittney Bollay

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 selection, featured on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole, is “Isoprene Bath” by Reptar from the 2012 album Body Faucet on Vagrant Records.

Why a band name like Reptar?  ”It is the second stupidest band name we have ever heard,” laughs singer-guitarist Graham Ulicny (for the record, their initial bandname, Invisible Boyfriend, was as ill-advised).  Lack of pretenses aside, fellow bandmates William Kennedy (analog keyboard), Ryan Engelberger (bass), and Andrew McFarland (drums), along with Ulicny, are but four collegiate drop-outs from the Athens, GA, music scene that just happen to have entities like NPR, NME, and SXSW (which they played, free of charge, on a moving flatbed truck) buzzing with delirious glee.  Formed two years ago, while attending different colleges, the group of longtime friends and jammates moved into a dilapidated house in Athens, where they would write, practice, and pretty much percolate in the city’s vibrant and nurturing live music scene.   Producer Ben Allen (Washed Out, Animal Collective), who randomly stumbled into one of their shows, came away mightily impressed with their riotous showmanship skills and offered his studio skills on what would ultimately be their first full-length album, Body Faucet.  Tracks like “Isoprene Bath” showcase the band’s ability to seamlessly cram a dizzying amount of genres (world / indie / funk / dance / soul) and do so in a way that is superbly organic, uncoiled, but most importantly, engaging from start to finish.  Imagine a cross pollenation of bands like Passion Pit, Givers, and Vampire Weekend, and you’ll be one step closer to understanding why and how Reptar rocks.

Having just released their full-length LP, Body Faucet, in early May via Vagrant Records, Reptar are set to stage dive, headfirst, into the 2012 summer festival season, touring across both America and Europe.  For a list of tour dates, as well as photos, videos and other band related content, please consult either Facebook page or their official band website.  In the meantime, check out their full live performance from our very own KEXP studios last year: