Live on KEXP

With his previous record, Timothy Showalter sought to look inward. On his latest LP as Strand of Oaks, Hard Love, Showalter is looking outward with his most expansive and expressive songs to date. Opening with the crushing, lengthy, and affecting “Taking Acid and Talking To My Brother”, the Philadelphia group's latest session is a stunning performance of four Hard Love tracks and a discussion between Kevin Cole and Showalter on how making shows sacred led Strand of Oaks to its next chapter. Recorded 3/1/2017 - 4 songs: Taking Acid and Talking To My Brother, Radio Kids, Rest Of It, Everything

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From his beginning with a pen and paper in 2009 to the release of his 2017 full-length debut Watercolor, Porter Ray has been one of the increasingly prominent, hardest-working talents in Seattle for some time. His art has never been more fully realized than it is on Watercolor, which finds him meditating on his life in Seattle and the death of his brother with poignance and incision laid across smoky, almost-levitating beats.  In this session on Street Sounds with Stas THEE Boss, Porter Ray tells his story up to Watercolor and highlights five tracks from the album. Recorded 3/14/2017 - 5 songs: Waves, East Seattle, Sacred Geometry, Navi Truck, Beautiful

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There's a low-key nuance to Haley Heynderickx's silvery guitar-based songs, but their brilliance radiates through stronger at a quieter level. That's to say nothing of the Portland-based artist's positivity-seeking outlook (“We saw a bald eagle and five rainbows on the way up here!”) and the colorful additions of the brass and horn arrangements she brings to this session on Audioasis with DJ Sharlese. Recorded 3/1/2017 - 4 songs: The Bug Collector, Fish Eyes, Untitled God Song, Ride a Pack of Bees

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Tommy Stinson put Bash & Pop on hold for just over two decades before reviving it last year, but the Minneapolis group's raucous, delightfully unhinged energy remains intact because, as the onetime Replacement says, “I'm not pretending to be anything other than what I am.” Stinson and the band run through five cuts from their 2017 LP Anything Could Happen and tell the story of why the band came back together after the Replacements' brief reunion to DJ Kevin Cole in this session where, at moments, it really feels like anything could happen. Recorded 2/28/2017 - 5 songs: Not This Time, On The Rocks, Bad News, Anything Can Happen, Anybody Else

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After taking time to do projects that allowed him to, in his own words, “take some time off from being Jens Lekman,” the Swedish musician has returned to his day job of being himself with his latest LP, the cleverly-titled Life Will See You Now.  Returning to the KEXP Live Room with DJ Stevie Zoom, Lekman and his band play a quartet of dance-friendly tunes from Life and discuss how interviewing others led Jekman back to his own artistic vision. Recorded 3/05/2017 - 4 songs: What's That Perfume That You Wear?, Hotwire The Ferris Wheel, Our First Fight, How We Met, the Long Version

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With their latest album HeartTones, Julia Massey and the Five Finger Discount have sharpened their kinetic pop-rock more than ever before, building their latest batch of songs with an agile energy that belies their emotional resonance. The Seattle trio return to KEXP on a cold February day for a session on Audioasis featuring four songs from HeartTones.  Recorded 2/4/2017 - 4 songs: A Bit Of Hard Time, Wrapped, This is How We're Gonna Say Goodbye (feat. Chris Blount), Wish You Well

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Ranging from searing heat to sludgy gravel, Meatbodies' powerful, muscular, and meaty (of course) garage rock is an immediate rush of blood to the head, more than ever on their latest album, Alice.  Joining DJ Morgan in studio, the band runs through six Alice tracks, discusses their guilty pleasures, and helps Morgan name her potential Meatbodies cover band. Recorded 2/23/2017 - 6 songs: Kings, Creature Feature, Disciples, Alice, Gyre, Haunted History

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Paris Combo's most recent album, this year's Tako Tsubo, is named for the Japanese-named condition of what's commonly known as “broken heart syndrome”, but it's hardly morose. If anything, the colorful, flowing sounds of this session imply that there's anything but sadness in the multinational group's spirit. The vibrant, jazz-influenced outfit join Darek Mazzone on Wo' Pop in a long-awaited session featuring three songs from Tako Tsubo and an old favorite.  Recorded 2/16/2017 - 4 songs: Anémiques Maracas, Tako Tsubo, Living Room, Je suis partie

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While everyone else in Seattle was decked out in rain boots and all-weather jackets, the dapper Los Angeles quartet Chicano Batman returned to the KEXP studio dressed to the nines, bringing a bit of psychedelic sunshine to one of the wettest Seattle winters in recent memory. The band's ebullient tropicalia- and psychedelia-tinged rock has only grown sharper on their latest album, Freedom is Free, which shines through in this contagiously bright session with Troy Nelson. Recorded 2/08/2017 - 4 songs: La Samoana, Freedom is Free, Right Off The Back, Run

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“Well, we couldn't get faster.” That's how Cloud Nothings frontman Dylan Baldi explains the (relatively) slower tunes on their latest album Life Without Sound, but the Ohio crew has hardly slowed down. The quartet join Cheryl Waters in the KEXP Live Room to play four searing songs and talk about the process of making Life Without Sound, as well as why bands should stop in for the green room cold brew when at KEXP. Recorded 2/17/2017 - 4 songs: Modern Act, Sight Unseen, Enter Entirely, Darkened Rings

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