Stereo Embers The Podcast 0192: Kaki King

Stereo Embers: The Podcast

“Modern Yesterdays” Over the course of her career, the Georgia-born, NYU-educated Kaki King has put out nine spellbinding albums, including her 2003 debut Everybody Loves You, the staggering 2006 effort Until We Felt Red and her brand new one Modern Yesterdays. Kaki King is a force. But she’s the kind of force that you can’t really define. She plays guitar like nobody else—and whether she’s incorporating jazz or flamenco or post rock, whatever she does sounds like something nobody’s ever done. Her percussive style and her fret tappings and her open tunings are beyond us to explain in a technical sense so let's just say this: Kaki King plays the guitar with an otherworldly flair. But even that falls short. Kaki King is a Jedi. And what we mean by that is what she does is so special, so rare and so staggering, when you listen to her play you can feel the force at work. And you can’t put words to it—you only know that what she’s doing is one of the great mysteries of the universe. And though that mystery is mysterious to us civilians, Kaki is in complete control of her gift and she’s fluid, she’s powerful and she’s got the kind of percussive finesse that’s about as mystical as it gets. If you know her music you know what we’re talking about. And if you know her music you know that there’s not way to talk about it. In this conversation Kaki talks to Alex about life during quarantine with two small children, how normal it will actually feel when things go to normal and her love of Spoon...