As major labels continue to exist behind the times, artists and labels with little capital and lesser reputations are producing some of the most innovative, interesting, and inspiring music. Whether it’s creating a new niche in digital technology or looking to once obsolete formats, Agitated Atmosp…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Every Friday we spotlight a Northwest…
Suzi Quatro is probably the first person I've covered in this blog series who was also a cast member on Happy Days - which I watched quite a bit as a kid, but I don't remember much of. But perhaps Quatro's bass-playing character Leather Tuscadero was an early influence, subconsciously leading me to…
Almost exactly two years after the release of his last album, 2011's Kiss Each Other Clean, Iron & Wine's Sam Beam has announced the details of his next album. Entitled Ghost on Ghost, the 12-track effort will be released on April 16th via Nonesuch. Beam said the Brian Deck-produced set moves a…
The latest album from Malian songwriter and guitarist Sidi Touré, released in the US by Thrill Jockey, is called Koïma, named for a dune near his home city of Gao. "Koïma" can be translated to mean "go hear", and the dune, which sits at the edge of the Niger River, is said to be a sacred meeting p…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s selection, featured on the Mo…
On January 18, Seattle lost one of its valued treasures: Easy Street Records Queen Anne. Although vinyl sales continued to increase, they couldn't forestall rising rents, and so one of the city's small handful of excellent record stores closed its doors. Since the Queen Anne location was more than …
Yo La Tengo have premiered a new video for their song "I'll Be Around" (which, by the way, is their first new video in 16 years), and it features Mac McCaughn, founder of Superchunk and the Merge record label, singing the song and picking at a guitar in a woodsy field somewhere. The video is also …
Dee Dee, songwriter and main force behind the Dum Dum Girls, stopped by the KEXP studio to chat with Stevie Zoom and perform alone with just her heavy-tremolo-ed guitar. Her Girls-less performance is a throwback to the early 2008 to 2010 years, which saw Dee Dee's first CDR release on her own label…
In 2018, KEXP celebrated the 30th anniversary of local record label Sub Pop with a four-month retrospective, "counting up" every catalog number in their vast discography of over 1,200 releases. Dig into the archives of our catalog coverage, featuring in-depth coverage on the history of their releases.
