In this stunning set, William Doyle brings his alter-ego project, East India Youth, into the KEXP live room, unfurling a collection of intriguing tunes from his April 2015 release, Culture of Volume. Marshalling strange, ingenious ideas into coherent, interesting pop music, East India Youth flirt b…
808(Directed by Alexander Dunn, UK, 2015)
Although they hit you immediately, the depth of Unknown Mortal Orchestra's songs belies their urgency. Underneath a pulsating rhythm or Ruban Nielsen's expressive vocals is always a subtle, just-as-infectious keyboard melody or a texture that alters Nielsen's voice. On the Portland group's latest a…
"We could be in an igloo inside of a cave of ice," gasped a sweaty Dan Deacon. "And I would still be a puddle." To be fair, the KEXP studio's ventilation was only partially the reason why the Baltimore-based musician was drenched in sweat. The other reason was that he was two songs into a breakneck…
"I just wanna keep very, very quiet," admits Aly Spaltro (a.k.a Lady Lamb) at the end of the fourth verse of "Billions of Eyes". It's not an inaccurate statement, but it also doesn't mean she won't get loud when she needs to. Spaltro builds intricate songs that move through dynamics and lyrics more…
Fire up your Winnebagos and ready your best port-a-potty stance because it’s that time of the year again kids... give it up for Sasquatch!
When a band self-titles an album midway through their career, it's usually for one of two reasons: they've either run out of ideas or they've taken a significantly new tact. For Portland duo The Helio Sequence, the reason is obvious. Rather than mull over songs in their usual slow-going and contemp…
Showcasing tracks from his recently released MCIII on Merge Records, Californian singer-songwriter Mikal Cronin fills the KEXP live room with his most realized, beautifully arranged, and well-crafted works to date. With an ear for melody and and a knack for emotional resonance, tracks like the open…
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.
