International Clash Day London Broadcast Preview: Kero Kero Bonito

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of The Clash’s landmark album London Calling, KEXP will travel to London for a 4-day live broadcast and online event, featuring live performances and exclusive interviews. Kero Kero Bonito will take the Studio 9294 stage on Tuesday, February 5 alongside fellow UK bands Snapped Ankles and Vanishing Twin. Get familiar with the band before their performance below.

London-based bilingual trio Kero Kero Bonito have been making glitchy power pop since 2011. This year, with the release of their sophomore record Time ‘n’ Place, took their J-Pop influences a melded them with sounds reminiscent of guitar-based bands like My Bloody Valentine and Mount Eerie. In an in-depth interview with KEXP, the band told Dusty Henry:

“There's nothing on the album that is generated by computer. Everything is either the band or you know recorded or synth, like hardware synth, and it does have a kind of a mix of all those things that the way it references the past doesn't really make logical sense. You know that some of the chords are indie cords, some of the chords like singer / songwriter-y things, some of them are more experimental and don't really belong to those harmonic vocabularies. But it's somehow relevant, there is a thread that runs through it which maybe is only perceivable to us, but you know we use the word time and place like an adjective, like 'that's very time 'n place' – it just seems obvious to us even though it runs through this whole thread of years that is sort of arbitrary in comparison.”

Time ‘n’ Place was released in October via Polyvinyl and follows last year’s TOTEP EP.

KEXP spoke to Kero Kero Bonito about the significance of The Clash in a brief interview. Read below.

KEXP: What does The Clash mean to you and have they inspired your music at all?

KKB: We've loved The Clash since before we were teenagers; it's music our parents handed down to us. They're punks sure, but songs like "Complete Control" and "(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais" sound like the best power-pop of all time. That side of The Clash was a major reference for our last album Time 'n' Place.

Do you find there to be parallels between the lyrical content and ethos of London Calling and the current state of England?

Honestly, not much. London Calling's universe of gambling outlaws, shabby London locales and global guitar-pop styles feels nothing like living in England in 2019, which is mostly spent indoors and online. If anything, it would be pretty refreshing if more contemporary artists shared The Clash's energy, passion, and political motivation.

What can audiences expect from your performance for KEXP's International Clash Day London broadcast?

We're bringing our touring five-piece band, and we are celebrating The Clash after all...

Kero Kero Bonito will perform at KEXP’s International Clash Day London broadcast at 8:30 AM PST / 4:30 PM GMT on Tuesday, February 5. Check out the full schedule of performances here. Watch the video for “Make Believe” below.