All Songs At 15: When The Tallest Man On Earth Played The Tiny Desk
For this week’s Throw Back Thursday we go back to the summer of 2009 and a stirring set of songs by The Tallest Man on Earth.
Category: Sounds
KCRW Presents: Purity Ring
Towing an apparatus that’s both percussion instrument and light show, the duo performs “Bodyache” live in the studio.
D.C. Bands Rock For Casa Ruby On A New Compilation
If you followed NPR’s Morning Edition this week, you might have heard Pam Fessler’s piece on Ruby Corado, the 45-year-old…
First Listen: Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard, ‘Django And Jimmie’
More than three decades after Pancho & Lefty, the country titans pair up again, this time for an album that puts eclecticism front and center.
First Listen: Algiers, ‘Algiers’
The gospel-punk band’s self-titled debut couches its invective in feedback, guitar noise, bruising drum machines and Franklin James Fisher’s guttural howls.
First Listen: Dawes, ‘All Your Favorite Bands’
On its fourth album, Dawes calls from deep inside the feedback loop of love’s aftermath. Throughout All Your Favorite Bands, singer Taylor Goldsmith takes full advantage of the dramatic possibilities.
First Listen: SOAK, ‘Before We Forgot How To Dream’
The Irish singer recorded her debut at 18, so it makes sense that it would chronicle youthful uncertainty. Throughout the album, her songs command attention by burrowing deep under the skin.
First Listen: Daughn Gibson, ‘Carnation’
On his surprising, complex third album, Gibson outlines dark and alluring tales of horror and despair, human struggle and eternal regret.
Watch Akoko’s Extremely Cool New Video For ‘Front To The Back’
I already thought Akoko couldn’t get any cooler, and now I know I was wrong, because the D.C. hip-hop duo’s…
Songs We Love: Vince Staples, ‘Senorita’
The 21-year-old Long Beach native continues to establish himself as one of West Coast rap’s most important voices with his new single “Senorita.”
Someday We’ll All Be Free: 100 Hours Of Soulful Protest Music
R&B music with a message isn’t a recent or strictly American phenomenon. Jason King explores the theme of protest music with an eclectic mix of soulful songs about resistance and revolution.
Feedel Band Burrows Deep Into A Groove At WAMU
Update, June 3: Feedel Band is also scheduled to play D.C.’s Our City Festival on June 5. Original post: The…
First Listen: Unknown Mortal Orchestra, ‘Multi-Love’
Inspired by a complex relationship in his past, frontman Ruban Nielson makes his sweetest, catchiest, most impeccably crafted music yet.
First Listen: Joshua Redman & The Bad Plus, ‘The Bad Plus Joshua Redman’
The rangy, prolific jazz trio teams up with the tenor-sax great for a journey into the murky, terrifying, thrilling unknown.
First Listen: Los Hijos De La Montaña, ‘Los Hijos De La Montaña’
Y La Bamba’s lead singer teams up with the head of the thrilling neo-mambo band Sergio Mendoza Y La Orkesta. The result is somehow even greater than the sum of its parts.
First Listen: Shana Cleveland & The Sandcastles, ‘Oh Man, Cover The Ground’
Best known as the guitarist and singer for Seattle girl-group/surf-rock hybrid La Luz, Cleveland has made a delicate and inward-facing solo debut.
This D.C. Hardcore Compilation Could Be The New ‘Flex Your Head’
When I was 17, I bought the legendary Dischord compilation Flex Your Head. Being obsessed with D.C. hardcore in my late…
First Listen: J*Davey, ‘POMP’
The duo returns from a three-year hiatus with a plan to reclaim its spot among R&B’s avant-garde. POMP, as its title implies, is intended to be a big deal, and it accomplishes that goal.
First Listen: Circuit Des Yeux, ‘In Plain Speech’
Until now, Circuit des Yeux has been a singular entity. But Haley Fohr refocuses the intensity of past records in full-band arrangements that glide even as they exude delirious urgency.
First Listen: Jim O’Rourke, ‘Simple Songs’
The musician and producer has seemed to make a game of setting out challenges that can be solved, bested and subverted in surprising ways.