I’ve been a longtime fan of Kaki King (the best guitarist to emerge from NYC’s subways), but her new album Until We Felt Red took me by surprise. By now we know to gawk at her percussive guitar acrobatics, but unlike previous albums, Red adds the virtuoso’s surprisingly sweet vocals to the mix and the end product is gorgeous. John McEntire produced, which always helps. Take a look/listen, and you’ll see Kaki’s upped her game. The video for “Yellowcake”:

Check out more videos on this slick media player, and read the songwriter’s blog…

I am not bitter about my life. I love my life. I love making music for a living. It’s just that it’s not all making music. It’s about 85% sitting in car/bus/plane, 5% talking to my business manager about my IRA and my chances of buying a nyc apartment before I’m 30, 5% lying to writers about myself and how the new record is such a departure blah blah blah, 3% learning elliott smith/morrissey covers, and 2% actually playing music in front of people. I do it all for that 2%.

This is what I get for quitting drinking. Instead of passed out and happy I am wide awake at 5:30 am writing insane blogs. I wasn’t much of a drinker to begin with. I think it’s also because my psychiatrist lowered my clonopin dosage because I have to get off this shit. I only needed it for my freak-outs after I saw that accident in France, but I got completely hooked. Someone told me that was what Stevie Nicks was addicted to, and although I love Stevie Nicks to pieces and would love to be her, I would never want to be what happened to her, know what I mean?

…and tell me you don’t love her.

2% comin’ at ya this fall:
08/19 Los Angeles, CA @ MOCA Night Vision
09/07 New York, NY @ The Knitting Factory
09/08 Philadelphia, PA @ North by Northwest
09/10 Falls Church, VA @ The State Theatre
09/12 Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre
09/25 Los Angeles, CA @ the Knitting Factory
09/27 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
10/01 Seattle, WA @ The Triple Door
10/07 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre
10/09 Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
10/10 Ames, IA @ Iowa State University
10/13 Champaign, IL @ The Hi Dive
10/14 Chicago, IL @ Schuba’s
10/15 Ann Arbor, MI @ The Ark

If you go, buy some merch so she can afford a NYC apartment before she’s thirty. Until We Felt Red is in stores now (Amazon | iTunes).