I'm very excited to announce the launch of Immigrant Songs, a cool new series that highlights foreign-born musicians and their music along with unique stories of the immigrant experience. I'll be curating the series alongside Wo' Pop host Darek Mazzone. While Derek and I have always championed a wi…
I can't think of many one-hit wonders who have careers with the length and breadth of Chris Isaak. If you were alive in the late '80s, the song (and video!) "Wicked Game" is probably what comes to mind when you hear Isaak's name. That song was on his third album, though (a testament to Warner Broth…
One thing about browsing through the KEXP stacks is that you never know when you'll come across something that should probably be in a museum, and not on a shelf where some grubby-fingered scribe such as myself can pull it out, snap a picture of the cover, and transcribe the pithy comments scrawled…
All day tomorrow, we'll be counting down KEXP listeners' Top Albums of 2012 all day, and there's no doubt that local band The Helio Sequence will have a strong showing. That it took four years to release Negotiations isn't too surprising, considering the Portland duo usually take their time perfect…
Larry Mizell Jr. revisits 1985 with the track "I Can't Live Without My Radio" by LL Cool J.
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As we mentioned earlier this month, Seattle's own Soundgarden are set to reissue their 1988 debut LP Ultramega OK. Like previous reissues, it'll come bundled with cool previously unreleased bonus tracks, like this early demo of "Beyond the Wheel." Sub Pop explains, "The [early versions] were recor…
Did all the new lights in the KEXP Live Room get to him? Because Will Toledo of Car Seat Headrest is talking about collaborating with... Smash Mouth. Yeah, the band behind karaoke go-to "All Star." In an interview with Australia's Triple J radio, he says a project "kind of remains a mysterious fro…
Thankfully, Failure never quite lived up to their name. Though in the 90's, they were never really allowed to sit at the cool table of grunge superstars, they found critical praise through their own inventive brand of heavy alt-rock. Record sales, unfortunately, never followed, and five years after…
