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 “Hollow Life”, a recent single by Coast Modern, released on +1 Records.
Coast Modern - Hollow Life (MP3)
It's a blessing when you get to watch success happen. It fulfills the petty teenager in you when you get to hop on a band before anyone else and get to say, with an air of well-deserved smugness and condescension, that "you were into them before they got big." This is one of those moments.
Los Angeles duo Coast Modern, populated by Coleman Trapp and Seattle native Luke Atlas, have just released their first single off of their first album - we're at ground zero. The lyrical content of "Hollow Life" befits a band at stage one: the patience required to chase one's dreams, the confidence that things will work out... eventually. Trapp himself says, "The song is about finding distance from what is hindering you, whether it be physical or mental distance. But we’re no gurus. We’re just trying to let people know that we’re here figuring this shit out too." What they have figured out, though, is how to turn the instrumentation and production into a breath of fresh air from what we're used to hearing: the crisp sizzling hi-hats, booming subs, and whale-noise toms of the 808 could easily be dropped into a very ratchet trap beat, while the summer-porch-swing acoustic guitar and chopped vocal sample take it in an altogether pleasant alt. electronic direction as high, meteoric synth stabs fly overhead.
So far, Coast Modern have released only this and one other track, but they're batting 100% with catchy-chorused heavy pop, so keep your ears to the ground for their currently unannounced debut album. They won't be in Seattle for the foreseeable future, but they're touring the rest of the [very lucky] country, including a stop by SXSW, so if you're down ol' Texas way make sure to catch them. For now, here's their other song, "Animals":
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 Mor…
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 Aft…
