Buried Treasures & Ex Hex

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Jim and Greg are ready and raring to go with some new buried treasures: recent, under-the-radar albums that you need to hear. They also talk with the rock trio Ex Hex, led by Mary Timony, about their new record, plus they give a live performance.

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Buried Treasures

Looking to rehab your playlist with new, exciting music? Jim and Greg have a fresh batch of buried treasures you need to hear!

Greg

  • The Comet is Coming, Trust the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery
  • Dave, Psychodrama
  • Jade Bird, Jade Bird

Jim

  • The Wildhearts, Renaissance Men
  • Kingdom of Birds, Glitz
  • Justin Michael Williams, Perfect Man

Anne Litt (DJ at KCRW in LA)

  • Wajatta, Casual High Technology
  • The Shacks, Haze

Ex Hex

Ex Hex is a trio who celebrate guitar rock, even 1980s albums by bands like Def Leppard and Poison, which is surprising if you consider the indie rock scene from which they sprang. Mary Timony was the singer and guitarist of Helium for much of the 1990s and before that the short-lived Autoclave. Both were groups that could almost be considered the exact opposite of arena rock. But, as she tells Jim and Greg, Timony heard bands like Van Halen with fresh ears when working as a guitar teacher after quitting music in her mid-30s. Students would ask to learn classic rock songs and in order to teach them, Timony would learn them, too. When members of Sleater Kinney and The Minders asked her to join the supergroup Wild Flag in 2010, she brought her new knowledge of guitar shredding with her: rolling on the floor and doing windmill guitar moves frequently while on tour.

When Wild Flag split up before doing a second album, Timony took the songs she'd already started and formed Ex Hex with Betsy Wright of Bat Fangs and drummer Laura Harris. Ex Hex takes that guitar hero aspect and turns it up to eleven. On their second album, It’s Real, Ex Hex seems to be fully committed to this approach to music that would have been so at odds with Timony's early work. As our audience at the Goose Island Tap Room knows, the band is more concerned with making good, fun music than expressing deep angst.

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