The lively 1984 discussion that took place among the KCMU DJ-erati on the cover of the first LP by Alien Sex Fiend might just take the prize for greatest number of words with the least to do with the music at hand. It definitely has the most anagrams I've ever come across in my years of doing this …
Despite the many, many hours in the late '80s and early '90s I spent immersing myself in the sounds of Manchester (both contemporary and historical), for some reason the Happy Mondays never really clicked with me. Maybe they were just a bit too fun and dancey for my mopey teenaged self, who knows. …
Brix Smith seems to have led a fascinating existence. Perhaps having been a member of the Fall isn't a huge claim to fame (not many bands have Wikipedia pages specifically dedicated to listing their past members, after all). But how many people can say they've played with the Fall, the Bangles, and…
Angela Conway, the force behind A.C. Marias, doesn't seem to have been particularly prolific as an artist, but what she lacked in quantity she more than made up for in quality - as evidenced by the KCMU gang's high regard for One of Our Girls, the sole A.C. Marias full-length. Conway collaborated e…
I didn't realize that I was familiar with Altered Images when I pulled out this record, but it turns out I know two of their songs (and I'm sure you know at least one, if not both): the title track from their debut album, Happy Birthday (which is exactly the one you think of when I say it's an '80s…
I don't know how much needs to be said about Hasil "Haze" Adkins that wouldn't be better communicated by merely listening to any of the approximately one million songs he recorded to various fidelities of tape over his fifty-ish year career. The first song I ever heard by Mr. Adkins (thanks to a ca…
OK, you're all in trouble. Why am I only just now learning about Happy Flowers? Noisy, disturbing/hilarious songs written from the perspective of a toddler? Band members named Mr. Anus and Mr. Horribly Charred Infant? Covers of Big Star, Michael Schenker, and Silver Apples on the same album? These …
If you're my age and MTV was a huge part of your musical awakening, this album (or really its hit single "Goody Two-Shoes") was your first exposure to the artist known as Adam Ant. And you probably thought it was pretty cool. But if you were a college radio DJ at the time, and had been enjoying the…
Arto Lindsay, the guitaring/singing half of the art-pop duo Ambitious Lovers, is one of my favorite - and one of the most underrated - musical artists of the late 20th century (he has gone relatively quiet in the past decade or so, although some recent posts on his facebook page instill hopes that …
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.
