Although they hit you immediately, the depth of Unknown Mortal Orchestra's songs belies their urgency. Underneath a pulsating rhythm or Ruban Nielsen's expressive vocals is always a subtle, just-as-infectious keyboard melody or a texture that alters Nielsen's voice. On the Portland group's latest album, Multi-Love, that mastery of nuance serves Nielsen well as he explores the complicated channels of romantic partnerships and fatherhood with equal parts vulnerability and bravery. When Nielsen and his bandmates came by the KEXP studio, the musical documents of his personal journey were on full display, whether it was in the form of a fuzzy pop gem ("Necessary Evil"), a dancefloor-worthy jam ("Can't Keep Checking My Phone"), or an umptempo rocker ("Multi-Love"). In four songs, Nielsen showed that his musical output could match the breadth of his emotional introspection, revealing a little bit more with each note while leaving his intrigue intact. Watch the session below.
Remixes of songs by Spoon and St. Vincent plus new music videos from Amine and Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
In this stunning set, William Doyle brings his alter-ego project, East India Youth, into the KEXP live room, unfurling a collection of intriguing tunes from his April 2015 release, Culture of Volume. Marshalling strange, ingenious ideas into coherent, interesting pop music, East India Youth flirt b…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. This week, we’ll be featuring song…
Something felt different in the Neumos basement last week as the crowd packed in to see Shy Girls. The Portland electronic act, led by Dan Vidmar, has been around for a couple years, dropping lush EPs including the lauded Timeshare, making earnest love songs for the introspective bedroom-ridden lis…
"We could be in an igloo inside of a cave of ice," gasped a sweaty Dan Deacon. "And I would still be a puddle." To be fair, the KEXP studio's ventilation was only partially the reason why the Baltimore-based musician was drenched in sweat. The other reason was that he was two songs into a breakneck…
