Here's another one: How is this the first time I've covered a Ramones album in this almost decade-long series of blog posts? I mean, the Ramones! Come on! Is there a more influential band with a deeper catalog more filled with albums that college radio DJs are likely to have intensely critical and …
Welcome to another installment in the occasional Review Revue sub-series, "Australian bands that you really should have heard of before now." (And by "you" I mean "I.") Previous installments include The Hummingbirds, Beasts of Bourbon, Paul Kelly and the Messengers, The Lime Spiders, and too many m…
I assumed when I pulled out this record by 17 Pygmies that this would be one of those bands who released a DJ-beloved album or two in the '80s and then quietly dissolved, leaving almost no trace to survive into this Internet age of ours. How wrong I was! It turns out this band - originally a Savage…
I was flipping through the R section in KEXP's vinyl library the other day when I stumbled across several records by the Red Hot Chili Peppers (which is exactly what should happen when you're flipping through the R section in any radio station worth its salt). It occurred to me at the moment - as h…
In the years I've been doing this series we've talked about Daniel Johnston a couple times, and we've talked about Shimmy Disc many (many, many) times - so isn't it about time we hit both in one post? 1990 was the massively prolific singer-songwriter's first album not to appear under the Stress lab…
You know a musician is beloved at your local college radio station (circa 1990) when they release a 12" single within months of a full-length LP, and both end up covered in laudatory comments. Such was the case with the "Bomba" record, coming hot on the heels of Without Judgement but no less celebr…
All of my music nerd friends are in trouble. How is that I've lived on this earth over 40 years - during which period Garland Jeffreys has released 12 of his 14 solo albums to date (with number 15 due this spring) - and the first I heard of this guy is when I pulled this record off the shelf to tak…
"How is it," longtime readers of this series might wonder," that you've covered two David Sylvian solo albums, but not a single Japan album? Or even Rain Tree Crow!" You know, I have no good answer to that beyond the fact that this pulling-records-off-the-shelves game is a fickle one. Maybe I spent…
In 2018, KEXP celebrated the 30th anniversary of local record label Sub Pop with a four-month retrospective, "counting up" every catalog number in their vast discography of over 1,200 releases. Dig into the archives of our catalog coverage, featuring in-depth coverage on the history of their releases.
