Live Video: Cullen Omori

There's a new pop-savvy sheriff in Sub Pop town, and he goes by the name of Cullen Omori, and instead of having to wield a Smith Western to corral a crowd's attention, all he has to do is coo his name. Omori quickly became a wunderkind as one of the instrumental brains of the Chicagoan outfit Smith Westerns, which lasted seven years before calling it quits in late 2014. But you can't keep a good man down. Despite his defunct band, Omori wasn't going to waste time dwelling on the break-up because he was already sitting on a goldmine, an album's worth of songs waiting for a new project. Now, without a posse, he took the fantastical Smith Westerns elation to the next level with his Roxy Music-inspired solo debut, New Misery, emulating its glam-y, pop-structured elements in dance inducers like "Poison Dart" and "Cinnamon." Recently, Omori corralled a few friends to share his songs with KEXP listeners. Watch Cullen Omori's full performance below and hear him talk about the creative freedoms of his solo project after feeling "like being in an eight-year relationship with your high school girlfriend."