Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear.
Tallinn Music Week is a music industry conference and major showcase for new and emerging artists from all over the world, with an emphasis on Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe. The festival takes place in Tallinn, Estonia, and many of the venues are located in Tallinn Old Town, the best-preserved medieval city in Northern Europe with Gothic spires, turrets, and winding cobblestone streets that only enhanced the magic of the experience discovering new music. Over 250 bands from a diverse array of genres performed, including hip-hop, R&B, indie rock, electronic, metal, punk, folk, jazz, funk, soul, pop, world music, and choral. Over 800 music and creative industry delegates attended, and I was invited to share the KEXP story. I participated in a number of panels including discussions about the trend and impact of the genrefication of music, and a talk about music discovery and the role of human curation in the Artificial Intelligence age. It was a great exchange of ideas, and an excellent opportunity to represent KEXP to the European music industry. I’m excited to share the great new artists and bands I discovered at TMW. I’ll be featuring them on the Afternoon Show and during the Song of the Day podcast this week.
Today’s pick is “Silmät kiinni ja kädet ristiin” by Finnish group Teksti TV-666 from their 2016 album, 1,2,3, on Svart Records.
Teksti TV-666 - Silmät kiinni ja kädet ristiin (MP3)It’s 1:00 in the morning and [KEXP Director of Programming & Production Operations] Chris Kellogg and I had already seen at least six bands, two of whom had blown our minds - Mikko Joensuu and Russian band Lucidvox. We were on a roll, but completely satisfied, and totally exhausted. We easily could have called it good, but walking the winding medieval cobblestone streets of Tallinn back to the hotel, it was as if the Finnish god of music and song, Väinämöinen, was beckoning us to check out the final band on our list for the night, Teksti-TV 666. We turned around, and went back past the Museum Of Medieval Torture, Biit Me Record Store, and a pharmacy that’s been open since 1442 (no kidding!) that has at times sold mummy juice and powdered unicorn horn (still no kidding!). Boy, am I glad we did. Teksti-TV 666 was where the party was, totally rocking out with a five guitar assault. Now, that sounds like it might be a mess, but it wasn’t - each guitar was totally distinct in the mix, playing off the others, creating a gargantuan, glorious sound. One massive anthem after another - pure unhinged joy. There was no need for the pharmacy; this was like mainlining rock and roll!
Listen to today's song and find more music by Taksti TV-666 on their Facebook page, and if you want to catch just a glimpse of their live assault, here's some show footage from earlier this year:
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear.
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear.
