Song of the Day: Mike Krol - This is the News

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 Morning Show with John Richards, is “This is the News” by Mike Krol from the 2015 album Turkey on Merge Records.

Mike Krol - This is the News (MP3)

Delving into rough and tumble garage rock, Mike Krol's pretense-free, anything-goes attitude has served him well over a steadily growing career of slaying hole-in-the-wall clubs. Although he held down a day job as a graphic designer until recently, Krol has spent the last few years working on solo materials and playing in bands in both Los Angeles and Madison, Wisconsin, honing his garage rock chops one thick power chord at a time. His first two albums, 2011's I Hate Jazz and 2013's Trust Fund, backed up their smartass titles with collections of fun, infectious garage rock with an edge of pop that showed that the musician was smarter than he let on. Ahead of the release of his latest album, his Merge debut Turkey, Krol quit his graphic design job and focused entirely on the record, which is to be supported by his biggest tour to date. Krol requests one thing over a rapid-fire snare line in "This is the News" – "a little bit louder now" – and he gets it. With spine-crushing textures and jagged bass, Krol rides a relentless pace, only turning down the volume sporadically so that his shouted manifesto about the truth of 1) his love and 2) his noise can hit the listener as directly as possible. One of the first things they teach in journalism school is to quickly get to the point, and despite his whimsical, non-serious demeanor on "This is the News", Mike Krol certainly took that bit of education seriously.

Mike Krol will be playing live on KEXP on Monday, September 14th at 1:00 p.m. PT! Later that night, he'll be at the Tractor opening up for his boss at Merge Records, Mac McCaughan. Get tickets and more info on that 21+ show here, keep up with Mike at his Facebook and Twitter, and watch a video semi-seriously documenting the time Krol opened for Superchunk in 2014.