Tuesday, February 14

Live Review: Wax Fingers at Doug Fir Lounge, Feb. 9

Music Watching Wax Fingers set up shop is a little like watching a seasoned specialist diffuse a bomb. The... More

Feb 14, 2012 03:42 pm by MARK STOCK  | Comments 0
 

Portland Hip-Hop is Having a Big Month

Music A handful of items of note from the local hip-hop world, in case you, like me, are bad at Twitter. S... More

Feb 14, 2012 03:35 pm by CASEY JARMAN  | Comments 0
 

PDX Charts

Top Selling Albums in Portland for Feb. 6-Feb. 12

Music What were you listening to last week, Portland? Here are the top selling albums from local record st... More

Feb 14, 2012 03:00 pm by Ruth Brown  | Comments 0
 

Cut of the Day: The Ghost Ease, "Being Born"

Music  Considering how much information pours out of a musician or a band via their Twitter, Facebook... More

Feb 14, 2012 09:16 am by ROBERT HAM  | Comments 0
 
TOUR DIARY

Loch Lomond Tour Diary: Hearts on Fire (Big Sur/San Francisco)

Music This is the final installment of the Loch Lomond tour diary (going up a bit late). We'd like to than... More

Oct 10, 2011 10:40 am by Loch Lomond  | Comments 1
 

Loch Lomond: Bathroom Sipping is Not a Crime (Santa Barbara/Visalia)

Music Almost everything is bigger in California. We pulled into Santa Barbara to play the Mercury Lounge. ... More

Oct 3, 2011 04:30 pm by Loch Lomond  | Comments 1
 

Nurses: Martial Arts and Drug Dogs

Music This is the first entry in Nurses' tour diary. We are super-stoked to have them, no matter how brief... More

Oct 3, 2011 04:10 pm by Nurses  | Comments 0
 

Loch Lomond: Trampolines and Tecate (Long Beach/LA)

Music Leaving our beach day respite in Santa Cruz was difficult, but we managed to pull ourselves away, re... More

Sep 28, 2011 01:00 pm by Maggie Summers  | Comments 0
 
 
 
Home · Articles · Music · Music Stories · Primer: Broadcast
October 28th, 2009 MICHAEL MANNHEIMER | Music Stories
 

Primer: Broadcast

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Formed: 1995 in Birmingham, England.

Members: Currently, just two: vocalist Trish Keenan and bassist-programmer James Cargill.

Latest release: Broadcast the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age, a collection of what Keenan calls “seancing songs and witch cult rumbles.”

Why you care: Nobody—and I’m looking at you, Stereolab—does spacey, soot-covered electronic pop quite like Broadcast. Since its first release for Warp Records, 1997’s singles collection Work and Non Work, the band has only gotten weirder, clouding its ’60s girl group melodies and Keenan’s icy and mesmerizing voice in layers of fuzzy ambience and jarring noise. 2003’s Haha Sound stands as one of the finest works of the decade, a record of Space Age lounge pop obscured by all sorts of blips and bloops. Once a four-piece band, Broadcast pared down to a duo for 2005’s Tender Buttons, and this tour (the band’s first North American dates in four years) promises to showcase new compositions and old classics reinterpreted for a mostly electronic backdrop. Still, hidden underneath the clutter are some fantastic pop songs, from Haha Sound’s “Before we Begin” to the flat-out gorgeous “Come On Let’s Go.”

Sounds like: Stereolab if it were obsessed with Thom Yorke’s The Eraser and ditched motorik rhythms for minimal, clunky beats and atypical song structures.

For fans of: The United States of America, Beach House, Warp Records.


SEE IT: Broadcast plays Sunday, Nov. 1, at Doug Fir, with Atlas Sound and the Selmanaires. 9 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.
 
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