KAKI KING – JUNIOR

With a musical heritage that owes a lot to college indie rock darlings Sleater Kinney and The Blake Babies before them, Kaki King is a one woman dynamo. Guitarist extraordinaire and songwriter of note, she has wisely backed herself with a band on her fifth alum, as doing it all yourself can be insular for the best of them. Multi-instrumentalist Dan Brantigan and drummer Jordan Perlson help round out this power-pop trio, and using her bandmates to bounce off has clearly helped give King even greater confidence in her material and her ideas. From moody experimental instrumentals – the cheerfully titled My Nerves That Committed Suicide –  to out-and-out pop song like equally charmingly titled Spit It Back In My Mouth – and then over to the punk rock of Death Head, these guys have the sort of breadth most artists can only dream of. And let’s face it, you don’t buy music for the song titles, or maybe you do. Either way King continues to be at the top of her class.

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