"I just wanna keep very, very quiet," admits Aly Spaltro (a.k.a Lady Lamb) at the end of the fourth verse of "Billions of Eyes". It's not an inaccurate statement, but it also doesn't mean she won't get loud when she needs to. Spaltro builds intricate songs that move through dynamics and lyrics more efficiently and effectively than most, often alternating between thick, crashing chords and pristine, almost whispered solo sections within the same song. It's this balance of fury and grace that powers her latest album, After, and also what translates the layered arrangements of her recorded output into streamlined, muscular live takes on those songs. Along with drummer Derek Gierhan and bassist/keyboardist TJ Metcalfe, Spaltro showed off a wide spectrum of her songwriting during her first KEXP in-studio appearance in April, getting very, very quiet nearly as much as she got very, very loud and losing none of her urgency in either mode. Watch the full set of tunes from After and one from her 2013 debut, Ripely Pine, below:
"We could be in an igloo inside of a cave of ice," gasped a sweaty Dan Deacon. "And I would still be a puddle." To be fair, the KEXP studio's ventilation was only partially the reason why the Baltimore-based musician was drenched in sweat. The other reason was that he was two songs into a breakneck…
When a band self-titles an album midway through their career, it's usually for one of two reasons: they've either run out of ideas or they've taken a significantly new tact. For Portland duo The Helio Sequence, the reason is obvious. Rather than mull over songs in their usual slow-going and contemp…
