A Deeper Listen

Schoolhouse Rock turned 50 years old this year. KEXP’s Eva Walker caught up with one of the songwriters and performers of the program, Lynn Ahrens, to talk about the music of the show and the show’s legacy. 

“The original premise of Schoolhouse Rock, the president of that agency, a guy named David B. McCall had five kids and they could not remember their times tables but they could remember the lyrics to songs all the time and it was his brainchild to marry education with pop music and that’s how the whole series was born,” Ahrens says.  

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Adi Oasis is a French Caribbean singer and bass player. She spoke with Emily Fox about the themes of gun violence, black resilience, and female empowerment that come up in her new album, 'Lotus Glow.'

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For KEXP’s "Music Heals: Addiction & Recovery" programming, Macklemore shares his journey on the subject and how a robbery at his studio ultimately helped someone else’s path to recovery.

We also share a listener email that came in during Music Heals from Seattle’s Abbey Simmons whose story starts with Macklemore and ends with finding sobriety on tour.

If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs immediate help, call the toll-free, 24-hour hotline of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 9-8-8. 

More resources can be found here: kexp.org/musicheals/addiction/resources.

Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/

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The Garages is one of the top-selling Seattle bands on Bandcamp. It’s an 80-plus member collective with a massive following on Twitch that has put out more than 50 albums on Bandcamp since the group formed less than three years ago. Members June September and Yana Caoránach tell us more about the band and what makes the group so prolific.  

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Jónsi is the beautiful falsetto voice of the band Sigur Rós. He is also now the artist behind a multi-sensory installation called “Flood” at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle. KEXP’s Kevin Cole went to the museum to talk to Jónsi about the installation, about making perfumes with a product description that includes “a beached whale is about to explode” and Sigur Rós’ upcoming album.

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Miss Grit talks about how their debut LP, 'Follow the Cyborg' helped them explore being nonbinary.

“The cyborg being such a limitless entity was something that inspired me to kind of take my own identity into my own hands,” Miss Grit says. “There’s so much that people are born into when it comes to gender roles or racial stereotypes. There’s so much that our environment has an effect on how we see ourselves. I was really inspired to take my own identity into my own hands and figure out what it was that I felt about myself and how I wanted to be portrayed to the outside world.”

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Larry Mizell, Jr., Martin Douglas, and Jasmine Albertson talk about their musical highlights from Treefort Music Fest in Boise, ID.

Artists Discussed:  

• MIKE 
• Mauskovic Dance Band   
• Tropa Magica  
• Son Rompe Pera 
• Protomartyr 
• Plum Vision 
• NNAMDÏ 
• Sen Morimoto  
• runner 

Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/

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If you've ever listened to KEXP's broadcast, you've probably heard us say, "KEXP, where the music matters." But there’s at least one person at the station who isn’t sold on the idea of music itself. KEXP’s Dusty Henry shares his opinion on why music doesn’t matter. 

Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/

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As Women’s History Month comes to a close, KEXP’s Jasmine Albertson talks with three women in the touring industry (Stephanie Escoto, Alicia Blake, and Robin Taylor) about barriers to entry, gender inequities in the music industry, their general advice to bands that want to tour, and the wins they’ve had in their work.

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Grace Love talks with Larry Mizell Jr. about her new solo EP, “Work In Protest.”  

“This is a protest. I am standing up for myself that there are more curvy, big black women in the industry that can do all kinds of things,” Love says.

Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/sound/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.