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KSPC DJs are spinning between sets on the Santa Monica stage from 12:30-4PM on Sunday. Come say hi!

Excellent news! There's a lovely local show tonight at The Hip Kitty in Claremont. Summer Twins, Naive Thieves, The Blank Tapes, and The Thing About Rivals. 8:30PM. 21+ (Go to the show's facebook event for more info)

Larry the Fox's interview of Jazz Vocalist/Bassist & Educator Kristin Korb on Larry's show "Claremont Straight Ahead", on April 18, 2011, has been posted to the KSPC website (https://kspc.org/interviews.asp). Check it out!

This week at KSPC tUnE-yArDs have the top album of the week! Yeah tUnE-yArDs! w h o k i l l is the sophomore album of Merrill Garbus’s project and we have a full review of the album here for you guys to read! Tune in to KSPC 88.7FM to hear more and check out after the jump to read the rest of the charts from this week.

Tune in to "Flowerhours" this Tuesday, April 26, at 5:45PM for a live in-studio performance by Summer Twins! The Riverside-based band, fronted by real life sisters Chelsea and Justine Brown, are regulars around the southern California scene who are about…

Well, the new Tune-Yards album rules.

On her new album w h o k i l l, Merrill Garbus spends 40 minutes doing what I like best: looping shit. Throughout the album, layers upon layers of noises are piled up to create endless soundscapes, at first seemingly random and rather abrasive. However, these collections of sounds twist and turn into some sort of melody that, God knows how, can for real get stuck in your head. I keep finding myself trying to hum along to heavily-distorted and hard-to-listen-to vocals over blaring saxophone, as is the general feel of “Gangsta”, as if that is even possible. (I fail, of course.) Also note the (French?) police siren that opens the song. I think that acknowledgement alone captures the general essence of Tune-Yards sound on w h o k i l l.

Congratulations to The Babies for having the top played album on KSPC last week! Their self titled album was put out by Shrimper and is the collaborative product of Vivian Girls’ Cassie Ramone and Woods’ bassist Kevin Morby. Oh, and it rules. Tune into KSPC 88.7FM or listen online to hear more from them, and check out the rest of the Top 30 after the jump!

Chiptune artist MIKE BLEEDS will be an in-studio guest on the Video Game Music Show this Friday 4/22 at 6pm.  He will be doing a live interview and a live performance on air.  Tune in!! MIKE BLEEDS is a 25-year-old…

Cool local show alert! Tonight at the Motley Coffeehouse (at Scripps College), KSPC proudly presents Sarah Negahdari (of The Happy Hollows) performing a very special solo set.  She will be debuting songs from her up and coming solo album.  Also…

Virtuoso Jazz Vocalist & Bassist Kristin Korb will be a guest on Larry The Fox's show, "Claremont Straight Ahead", at about 1:00 pm on Monday, April 18, 2011, prior to her gig at the Hip Kitty Jazz & Fondue in…

The Mountain Goats inspire intense reactions—usually positive ones, but even the most rabid of fans might qualify their fandom. Starting with 2002’s Tallahassee, the Mountain Goats transitioned from lo-fi, homemade recordings featuring only singer-songwriter John Darnielle to professional studio recordings with a full band. This drastic alteration in style—previously the Mountain Goats had even been known to record on a boom box—inspired the aforementioned split in the fan base. Since 2002 the band—still only Darnielle, really, but featuring a rotating lineup of other musicians—has produced seven albums, the latest of which is called All Eternals Deck and which was our most-played album here at KSPC last week. It’s their most obviously produced yet, and sounds increasingly like straight-up indie rock a la the Hold Steady, with more focus on the instrumental musicians that decreases the customary spotlight on Darnielle. Otherwise, All Eternals Deck sounds, well, like a Mountain Goats release. This means that you can expect a lot of acoustic guitar, one or two surprisingly jagged-edged tunes mixed in among the wistful melancholy, and plenty of spiky, literate lyrics that unfurl their poetic meaning gradually, rewarding repeated listens.

Peter Pants

On Saturday, April 9, with the help of numerous other 5C organizations, CCLA Live Arts hosted Vajammin’, a festival showcasing female achievements in the music industry. The one day event took place throughout the afternoon and evening at Pomona College on the South Lawn (and was later moved indoors to Doms Lounge due to temporarily inclement weather). With several hundred students and community members in attendance, Vajammin’ was a huge success! Check out the set list, links, and more pictures after the jump.

Kurt Vile makes American music—rambling, loose, confident—and Smoke Ring For My Halo is no exception. Layers of guitar weave in and out of each other, loose acoustic strumming, rapid finger picking and chunky electric riffs dance and overlap. Vile understands space. Each guitar part has room to meander, loop, mingle and fall back into place. There’s often a lot going on but the album never feels cluttered. A confident fluidity pervades Vile’s songs. Of course, floating in and out of the mix is Vile’s distinctive singing voice—an easy, deadpan croon. While not a traditionally beautiful voice, Vile’s vocal style creates a sense of intimacy. He often seems to musing out loud and just happened to have had a guitar in hand at the moment.

Congratulations to Toro Y Moi for having the most spins at KSPC this week! Underneath the Pine is the sophomore album from chillwave god Chazwick Bundick, and was released in February. Tune in to KSPC, as usual, to hear it! Continue after the jump for the rest of our charts. (And I apologize for reposting their album art… it’s not for the faint of heart.)

I walk out of the Troubadour on Friday night with the sound of horns still ringing in my ears, vibrant and unshakeable as my new-held belief that Dan Bejar is most certainly not a chill dude.

On the side of the Troubadour overlooking the stage is a small room. This is where Dan Bejar et al hang out during the opening act. The curtains in the room are pulled shut, but inside you can catch little flickers of action– a sleeve of somebody important, maybe; their half-finished drink on the windowsill. The spectacle is surprisingly tantalizing. Most people keep one eye trained on the sill throughout the pre-show shuffle: (“Hey, is that the sax guy”) while mushing themselves between the elbows of strangers. Tonight’s crowd is noticeably old. The guy next to me is sipping whiskey while rapidly balding. It strikes me that I’ve never seen so much chest hair in Los Angeles before.

Das Racist came to Pitzer this past weekend to the delight of 5C students from all music genre-associated demographics. By the time the set was over, I spent at least a minute trying to escape the crowd… which is a reasonably long time to be walking through an audience of a 5C concert.