I get hundreds of emails a day. Many of them contain music people want me to listen to and various band “pitches”. I scan and delete most of them but every now and then something catches my eye.
I got an email from Jonathan Dagan, a Brooklyn-based producer behind the project j. viewz, with a link to a video for the song “Rivers and Homes”. It said “2000 photos, 300 fans, no computer fakery there”. Color me curious!
The video is incredible. A euphoric rush of music and images to match. Watch:
It’s …

Actress/designer/singer/model Milla Jovovich stopped by our studios this week to tape an edition of the Guest DJ Project, which will be airing in Fall around the release of the 5th Resident Evil movie (“Resident Evil: Retribution”).
She shared her new single “Electric Sky” with us, just days before she will debut it at the Life Ball in Vienna, the biggest charity even in Europe supporting people with HIV. She dubbed it the “Burning Man of the fashion industry”.
Stream “Electric Sky” below and buy it here.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
The …

BADBADNOTGOOD are three young jazz enthusiasts based out of Toronto.
They bring to the table interesting jazz covers of Kanye West, Odd Future, James Blake, Gangstarr and Tribe Called Quest tracks.
Flashing Lights by BADBADNOTGOOD
What makes these guys really good at what they do is their ability to keep it simple — to set a mellow groove and then take into a whole new direction.
It’s really great to see artists like BBNG and Robert Glasper push their sound to a younger audience and keep the elements of jazz still intact, especially in …

Most people know French musician Yann Tiersen as the composer behind the film “Amelie”. It was a quirky and heartwarming movie and the music, much of it from from Tiersen’s early albums, matched it perfectly.
We were treated to a bunch of songs from his latest album “Skyline” and his music has this transportive nature – it doesn’t take you anywhere specific, it just takes you away, particularly a longer song like “Till The End”.
Yann says he aims to make his music abstract, simple and beautiful, which is as good a …

This morning “Queen of Disco” Donna Summer passed away. Her iconic voice is and ever shall be the definitive voice of an era.
In a familiar narrative, Summer (born LaDonna Adrian Gaines) was raised in a devout Christian family and sang in church as a teen until she got the theater bug and decided to move to New York City.
Where the narrative takes it’s legendary turn is that she performed in the Broadway production of Hair (which traveled to Germany,) sang back-up vocals on a Three Dog Night record, met young producers Giorgio Moroder …

UK electronic duo Simian Mobile Disco has captured the ears of our DJs since their debut “Attack Decay Sustain Release”. Their sophomore album “Temporary Pleasures” featured guest spots from members of Yeasayer and Hot Chip and was followed by 2010’s “Delicacies”, which compiled a series of 12” singles named after exotic delicacies James Ford and Jas Shaw discovered while touring around the world.
Now they are back with a new full length — “UnPatterns”.
Jason Bentley said the album “transported him to some after after after hours club without even leaving the …

From KCRW DJ Jason Kramer:
About a year ago, I was browsing the web and came across an amazing video called “Atlas Hands”. The singer had a soft and inviting voice and style of writing that grabbed my attention.
Fast forward to today – and a million hits later — UK singer Benjamin Francis Leftwich is packing houses on his new world tour. He signed a deal with Vagrant Records last year and released a record called “Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm”.
I got in touch with Ben shortly after hearing the song. …

KCRW’s Top 50 Most Played Albums for the Week of 05/14/2012
 1 BEACH HOUSE == Bloom >> [Sub Pop]
2 SANTIGOLD == Master Of My Make-believe >> [Atlantic]
3 WHITE, JACK == Blunderbuss >> [Third Man/columbia]
4 WATERHOUSE, NICK == Time’s All Gone >> [Innovative Leisure]
5 MIIKE SNOW == Happy To You >> [Universal Republic]
6 OM COMPILATION == Om Lounge 12 >> [Om]
7 KEANE == Strangeland >> [Island]
8 SHINS == Port Of Morrow >> [Columbia]
9 JONES, NORAH == Little Broken Hearts >> [Blue Note]
10 BENSON, BRENDAN == What Kind Of World >> [Thirty Tigers]
11 …

A number of years back, Art Brut released a song whose catchy chorus went, “Modern Art. Makes Me. Want to ROCK OUT.” As a guy who religiously visits the Duchamps room at the Philadelphia Museum of Art whenever I go back East, this sentiment is not lost on me.
Later this week, like Eddie Argos and myself, you too can rock out to Modern Art by a legendary rocker, as starting May 18th (through June 16th, 2012) Will Sergeant, from the Liverpool post-punk band Echo & the Bunnymen, will be showing …

Soaring choruses are The Big Pink’s specialty and “Stay Gold”, complete with fuzzy guitar licks, is a perfect example.  I was addicted to the song “Dominos” off the UK band’s previous album and they treated us to that track, as well as “Velvet” (which Lykke Li covered in our studios last year) and “Superman” (inspired by Laurie Anderson’s  “O Superman”) in this live session recorded while the band was on the West Coast for Coachella.
Enjoy it in the archives here.
RR

The Big Pink Live on KCRW
Stay Gold
Velvet
Superman
Dominos