Though they hail from Los Angeles, Dengue Fever are like Cambodian ambassadors to the Pacific Northwest. On their recent return to the KEXP airwaves, the six-piece seemed right at home, even in our new studio. The band's instrumentation is uniquely cinematic, a multicultural modernization of the psychedelic rock popular in Cambodia during the '60s and '70s. Immigrant and vocalist Chhom Nimol is captivatingly cool as she layers haunting Khmer lyrics over the group's slick, slinky jams. In-studio with Wo' Pop's Darek Mazzone, they discuss their position as leaders of the cultural exchange between the United States and Cambodia, and they treat listeners to samples from their most recent album, The Deepest Lake, which for the first time feature English lyrics, including gems like "I'm overseas flirting with girls and catching diseases." Authentically humorous they might be, they also hit some serious grooves in this captivating session. Watch it now:
Out in support of her third album, New View, Eleanor Friedberger stopped by the KEXP studios to share some of the new tracks. This wasn't her first time in studio - she was here back in 2013 in support of Personal Record , but it's clear that three years of grind have sharpened her act. Her albums …
Record Store Day is monumental in Seattle in a way that isn't seen in the rest of the country: we crawl out of whatever grunge holes we live in and slither over to the nearest record stores and start feeding on vinyl, eating 45s, and rubbing the sleeves all over our bodies, happily rolling around i…
Musical lore has it that Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the iconic South African mbube group, was founded by Joseph Shabalala after having a series of dreams in which he heard their sounds. It goes unmentioned whether or not Joseph dreamt of 50 years of worldwide success as perhaps the most well-known cu…
