Your Weekend With Travis: A Preview

Hello.

I’m Travis Holcombe and I’ve been one of the DJs at KCRW for the past year and a half. Previously, you could hear me on Tuesday nights from midnight~3AM. Since I’m sure many of you were fast asleep by the time I came on the air, our blog maven and station publicist, Rachel Reynolds, thought it would be a good idea for me to write a quick post with a few artists I’m excited about before I start my new shift on weekends from 3~6PM.

Consider this a re-introduction of sorts and a quick preview of some sounds you might hear.

La Femme

It’s weird, you don’t always know what’s going to connect with the audience and what isn’t.

This past Monday I was fortunate to guest host on Morning Becomes Eclecticand I kicked off the show with the appropriately titled, “It’s Time To Wake Up (2023)” by La Femme. Within minutes, my twitter account was lighting up with people inquiring about what I was playing and a few minutes later, Rachel bolted into the studio to find out what I knew about La Femme so she could get an Artist You Should Know post up on the blog ASAP. La Femme clearly connected.

I don’t know a ton about La Femme, but they are a French pop group with a dark edge. They had a song called “Sur La Planche” that I played a lot of last year, which existed at the nexus of surf rock, French pop and Goth rock. La Femme has a new album coming out called Psycho Tropical Berlin, which is already one of my favorite releases of the year.

Laura Mvula

I think Jason Bentley put it best when he called Laura “a revelation”. I was lucky enough to catch her at the Bootleg Theater on Wednesday night and was misty eyed and totally in awe of her from the first note. I’m still buzzing from it. It’s orchestral, it’s jazz, it’s soul, it’s just…WOW — music that makes you feel good to be alive. Her album, Sing To The Moon, is recorded perfection and her live show is breathtaking. When she comes back through town next month, do yourself a favor and GO! And bring a friend!! DO IT!!! You’ll thank me later.

If you missed it on Thursday morning, Laura’s appearance on MBE is one of finest hours of radio ever. And that’s not just me being a homer — it’s a fact, Jack.

Alpoko Don

I was talking to a friend about a month ago and gushing over Alpoko Don‘s The Ol’ Soul EP. I think I described it as what it would sound like if Scarface (the rapper from Geto Boys, not the Al Pacino character) recorded with Alan Lomax in South Carolina sometime in the middle of the last century. It’s raw, stripped down, timeless rap; just a dude telling stories about the game while rapping his knuckles on the railing of his porch and humming melodies. Simple but powerful stuff. I know the lyrics on the video below are not exactly radio friendly, but I firmly believe the visual will really helps you get where he is coming from.

Daft Punk

It’s been seven years since Daft Punk re-emerged on a magical night at Coachella with the most mind-blowing live show in a generation (or maybe even ever).

After literally years of rumors, speculation and occasionally, tiny nuggets of actual information, their new album, Random Access Memories, is finally within sniffing distance. Having only heard the first single, “Get Lucky” (which came out today, by the way), I am already penciling RAM in as my favorite album of 2013. Even if it’s only half as good as I’m hoping, it will be amazing. I think that for the months of May and June, we should just call KCRW Daft FM, because I have a feeling you’re going to be hearing a lot of Daft Punk on our airwaves during every shift.