Variety host Mel Trejo is your DJ for the 2013 CMJ Preview edition of KEXP's Music That Matters podcast. The mix highlights artists participating in this year's CMJ Music Marathon taking place in New York beginning Tuesday, October 15th, through Saturday, October 19th. The playlist includes choice…
We've got more new music to share from Return to the Moon, the highly-anticipated debut of EL VY, a collaboration between Matt Berninger of The National and Brent Knopf of Ramona Falls/Menomena, out October 30th on 4AD. Check out a lyric video, directed by Matt's brother Tom Berninger, for the sin…
Over the summer, Matt Berninger of The National and Brent Knopf of Ramona Falls/Menomena secretly played an EL VY show at Los Angeles venue Largo as part of Pete Holmes' monthly showcase. Matt's brother, Tom, captured video of the duo performing the track "Need a Friend," which you can watch on th…
What a fantastic way to send off the KEXP Live Room at our Dexter/Denny studios! When the members of EL VY arrived to the station in matching polka-dot shirts, we thought they looked pretty cool, but then once they stepped into our studio with its iconic twinkling lights, we realized how special th…
The National's Matt Berninger and Ramona Falls' Brent Knopf have joined forces on a new LP under the name EL VY (pronounced like the plural of Elvis). They've shared the lyric video for the title track from their upcoming album Return to the Moon. The LP drops on October 30. [Pitchfork]
There is nothing extinct about The Dodos. In fact, they've been playing music together consistently since 2005 and are continually evolving. While playing, The Dodos are always changing speeds, messing with time, all the while imbuing an unassuming – yes – confidence, as on their recent single of t…
Super-duo EL VY (that's Matt Berninger of The National and Brent Knopf of Ramona Falls/Menomena) made their television debut last night on Conan. Watch those two (backed by Wye Oak’s Andy Stack on drums) perform the title track from their forthcoming full-length album, Return to the Moon, out Octo…
This week we celebrate the 15th year of one of Seattle’s favorite hometown labels: Barsuk Records! Since its birth in 1998, Barsuk has helped create a platform for dozens of great bands, from the Pacific northwest and otherwise, to get off the ground and put forth incredible music. Even in the deca…
We love when one of our favorite bands remixes another favorite band, and that's just what we've got with the track below: hear Wye Oak's take on "Need A Friend," a single from EL VY, the collaboration of Matt Berninger of The National and Brent Knopf of Menomena and Ramona Falls. Find the origina…
Check out two new videos from EL VY -- the stellar collaboration of The National's Matt Berninger and Brent Knopf of Ramona Falls (and formerly Menomena). The clip for "Sad Case/Happiness, Missouri" is a NSFW affair, filmed by Michael Brown and Ben Krall, and edited by Kelly Lyon. Matt's brother T…
Among other things, Matt Berninger is known for making a live show count. Whether it's embodying the introverted distance of his work with The National in straightjacket contortions or diving into furious anger, throwing wine glasses into the air and crushing them under his feet, in all things, Ber…
Death Cab for Cutie is a band that embodies change. From the light-hearted melancholy of "Photobooth" to the heavy-handed post-marital blows of "Cath...", Death Cab have shown us hundreds of ways in which circumstances shift and we find ourselves to be different people when the light changes. We mi…
During KEXP’s Spring Fundraising Drive, we counted down the most-played albums in KEXP’s history, going back over a decade of airplay. See the list.
