2022 is KEXP’s 50th anniversary, and to celebrate we’re taking an in-depth look at each year of our history – from 1972 to 2022. In May KEXP DJ Kevin Cole and morning show producer Owen Murphy joined Emily Fox on Sound and Vision to discuss the AMAZING music of the year 1980 which had game changing albums from Kurtis Blow, Talking Heads, Joy Division, Grace Jones and more.

KEXP DJ Kevin Cole and producer Owen Murphy on 1980: The Year in Music

Starting Sept. 13, 2023, KEXP is rolling out a brand new radio lineup. While we're introducing some new faces and voices to our on-air family, there's also some familiar DJs moving into new slots. Such is the case with the wonderful Eva Walker. In recent years, Eva has been holding things down as the host of our Pacific Northwest music show Audioasis – she plays in a Seattle band herself, fronting The Black Tones. Now Eva is picking up the baton from Gabriel Teodros to become the new host of Early, Mondays through Fridays from 5-7 A.M. PT. 

To introduce (or reintroduce) Eva to our listeners, KEXP's Sound & Vision host Emily Fox caught up with the Early host to learn how she's planning on acclimating to the new time slot as well as three songs to get to know her.

Read the interview here: https://www.kexp.org/read/2023/9/13/get-to-know-eva-walker-host-of-early-on-kexp/

Get to Know Eva Walker, Host of Early on KEXP

Wish

The Boston based band Drop Nineteens were darlings of the international shoegaze scene in the early 1990s. Now, after a 30 year hiatus, the band is out with a new album called Hard Life. KEXP’s Owen Murphy caught up with the band’s singer and songwriter Greg Ackell, singer Paul Kelley and bassist Steve Zimmerman to talk about the things that allowed the band to come back together even though Greg kept saying the band would never heppen.

Drop Nineteens Return After Thirty Years

"Keep believing in the things you'll never see. Pray to your intangible, omnipresent Kings..."

Kings

The Next Age Aquatic

Thanks to Impose Magazine for sharing this track!

Desert Minded EP

Slow Caves - Glares

Slow Caves - Poser

Rover

The song "Influencer" by Film School has been a big favorite on the Morning Show and so producer Owen Murphy hopped onto Skype with the band's singer Greg Bertens in Los Angeles and he was kind enough to let us deconstruct the song. But of all the songs one could choose to unpack, why this one? 

...well if you were to passively listen to this song, it would seem like a very mellow pop song. And in some ways it is. But it’s way more than that. Besides a very catchy, yet subtle vocal melody, on top what seems like a simple foundation of music, it is actually a very complicated arrangement. There are layers upon layers of sound, with dynamic changes in the arrangement happening in multiple places. 

So here's Greg Bertens of Film School who started by introducing the band's line-up.

Deconstructing "Influencer" by Film School

Finally Beginning

Waves Crashing infuses lush soundscapes into fresh melodic hooks putting a new spin on alternative music from the 80s & 90s.