Live on KEXP

From his first appearance with the station during SXSW 2011, Charles Bradley has been a longtime KEXP favorite, and it's easy to see why. Talking love, loss, and style with Cheryl Waters in this stunning performance in the KEXP Gathering Space, The Screaming Eagle of Soul shows that only thing bigger than his voice is his heart as he leads his Extraordinaires through three soul-stirring R&B workouts and an emotional cover of Black Sabbath's "Changes". Recorded 5/23/2016 - 4 songs: Nobody But You, Things We Do For Love, Ain't It A Sin, ChangesSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From their beginnings as Capitol Hill basement party staples to their current status as one of Seattle's most popular local bands, Tacocat have continually achieved their original goal of simply having fun, not least when they're doing it with their trademark sugar-sweet hooks and whip-smart lyrics. Recorded with fellow Emerald City treasure Erik Blood behind the boards, the band's third album, 2016's Lost Time, contains some of their most incisive and addictive songwriting to date. Cheryl Waters welcomes the band back to the KEXP studios for a session that's equal parts punk and pop, with anecdotes about recording the theme to the rebooted Powerpuff Girls series and the struggle of cat-themed t-shirts being unpopular in Europe accompanying four Lost Time cuts. Recorded 06/15/2016 - 4 songs: I Hate The Weekend, The Internet, You Can't Fire Me, I Quit, TalkSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The psych- and Tropicalia-inflected rock of Boogarins is so intriguing that when their earliest recordings had been picked up by music fans all over the globe, the band hadn't even played any gigs. Only becoming a live band shortly afterwards in early 2013 hasn't prevented the Goiânia, Brazil quartet from quickly adapting to an onstage unit, however, which is showcased in this session on El Sonido with DJ Chilly. Recorded during the band's first trip to Seattle, the band play songs from their 2015 sophomore effort Manual and discuss what it's like to leave Brazil for the first time to play 11 shows at SXSW. Recorded 05/10/2016 - 4 songs: Falsa Folhade Rosto, Tempo, Cuerdo, AuchmaSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With literally hundreds of songs filling her numerous self-released albums, it could be somewhat intimidating to jump into Greta Kiline's catalog if it weren't for the New York City songwriter's clever wordplay and instantly accessible twinkling melodies. Pulling from her two most recent releases, 2016's Next Thing and 2015's Fit Me In EP, the songwriter now known as Frankie Cosmos and her band stop by KEXP's studios to share the story of how Kiine went from making songs in her bedroom to managing a tour with a full band. Recorded 04/20/2016 - 5 songs: Fool, Outside with the Cuties, Korean Food, O Contest Winner, SinisterSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"Bedrooms and bars... and the road" – that's where the stories that make up Kyle Craft's debut album come from, to quote the Louisiana-born, Portland, Oregon-based musician. With the help of his five-piece band, Craft's singular wail underscores the glammy, melodic edges of the songs on his debut full-length, Dolls of Highland, in this session with Cheryl Waters where he tells the story of how he went from tracking the album in a Shreveport laundry room to where he is today. Recorded 04/28/2016 - 4 songs: Pentecost, Future Midcity Massacre, Eye of a Hurricane, Lady of the Ark  Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With a laid-back, poetic cadence and a bevy of hazy hip-hop beats, Seattle's DoNormaal – the stage name of Christianne Karefa-Johnson and a play on a Dutch phrase that means "stop acting weird" - creates music that has a futuristic quality to its adventurous sound. Recorded during a special, DJ El Toro-hosted Pride edition of Audioasis, DoNormaal discusses the genesis of her musical endeavors and airs two unreleased tracks alongside a pair of songs from her 2015 debut LP, Jump or Die. Recorded 04/16/16 - 4 songs: Dodo Call, Wide Awake, Adja, StandingSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After pointing her songwriting perspective inward for two albums, spending some time at home in Minneapolis while pregnant caused Poliça frontwoman Channy Leaneagh to start looking outward while composing the group's third album, United Crushers. In the Minneapolis outfit's third session on KEXP, the quartet perform a set of United Crushers tracks that showcases Leaneagh's personal and lyrical progression over some of the most kinetic music the mellifluous electronic group have ever written. Recorded 3/31/16 - 4 songs: Lime Habit, Someway, Lose You, Baby SucksSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There is only one band in the world that would write a song about racing motorcycles with the infant Jesus in heaven and that band is named Diarrhea Planet. The band's third album, Turn to Gold, turns up the volume on both the Nashville sextet's guitar solos and their humor, and on their second trip to KEXP's studios, they join Cheryl Waters to deliver some of the year's best air guitar-worthy anthems. Recorded 04/06/2016 - 4 songs: Ain't a Sin to Win, Bob Dylan's Grandma, Life Pass, Heat WaveSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Reflecting on American pathologies during the creation of the band's eighth album, Shearwater leader Jonathan Meiburg sought to make what David Bowie once called an oblique protest record. The result, this year's Jet Plane and Oxbow, is some of the Austin, Texas group's most expansive and impactful music to date. Meiburg and his bandmates join Cheryl Waters to play and discuss songs about "being against something that you're for at the same time" and finding solace in Bowie's 1979 album, Lodger. Recorded 03/25/16 - 4 songs: Pale Kings, Wildlife in America, Backchannels, Boys Keep SwingingSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Splitting the difference between bursts of lo-fi energy and ragged psychedelia, the Brooklyn trio Sunflower Bean channel a number of sounds from the storied lineage of their home city into their 2016 debut album, "Human Ceremony". Drawing equally from their pair of lead singers, the group join Troy Nelson in the KEXP studio for a set of tunes that highlight Nick Kivlen's rapturous howl and Julia Cumming's kinetic punch. Recorded 03/29/2016 - 4 songs: Come On, I Was Home, Easier Said, Space Exploration DisasterSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.