She'll haunt your dreams and shreds guitar with the best of them, so its no surprise Courtney Barnett chose Freddy Krueger as her alter ego on Halloween. The whole band, in fact, took to the holiday with gusto, dressing up for their in-studio set at KEXP in some inconvenient but very entertaining c…
"There are some people in tinsel costumes around me... uh... that's what's happening." When Helado Negro is asked to describe his "bandmates" in the studio, that's how he does it, smirking with just enough hesitation to leave a sense of intrigue. On his latest album, Double Youth, the artist someti…
Despite the recent years of turmoil that almost resulted in a break-up, the beat goes on for Brooklyn band The Drums. Now stripped down to founding members Jonny Pierce and Jacob Graham, it's been a three-year wait for their latest album, Encyclopedia, out now on Minor Records. As Pierce notes hims…
The otherworldliness of Iceland's landscape is never lost on those who live or travel there. Not just a land of fire and ice, it is also a land of light and dark, starkness and majesty, community and isolation. The only thing that isn't a wonder about Iceland is how artists of all kinds echo its un…
In 1998, Old Crow Medicine Show were busking in front of Pike Place Market. In 2014, they're headlining the 2,800-capacity Paramount Theatre. Along the way, the Nashville, Tennessee-based group became one of the primary figures in the 2000s roots music revival, bringing the same energy from their b…
Prepare for liftoff with London duo Simian Mobile Disco's kosmische influenced electronic beats. While their array of sequencers, keys, colorful wires, and a mixer might call the duo's namesake mobility into question, they've had no trouble traveling with their equipment (or "mobile studio"). Their…
Swedish singer-songwriter Alice Boman's subtle vocals and delicate instrumentals could get a response from even the chilliest of hearts. The minimalist musician, who released her second EP, EP II, this year, creates such an uncluttered sound that it disguises the fact that she is accompanied by thr…
American influences from John Coltrane to Bob Dylan are clear in U.K. singer-songwriter Pete Molinari's acoustic bluesy-folk. Scratch the surface of his four albums and you'll find a broad range of sounds in the low-key Brit's music. Molinari grew up in an Egyptian, Maltese and Italian family, whic…
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.
