“I don’t care what you think,” sings the red-dressed Portland native Sallie Ford. The lyric is definitely in line with the spirit of her newest album, which has as much to do with the idea of freedom, of not being captured in any genre box, as it does with the huge punching sound of Sallie Ford and…
Side by side, Trampled By Turtles took the stage during KEXP's broadcast from the Bumbershoot Music Lounge. One can only imagine the roller coaster ride it’s been from the band’s first days to their recent Bumbershoot performance. “The first year of existence of this band was also the last year of …
Shut eyes, wide mouth, brow furrowed -- lead singer Tim Wilson’s face reads passion. If there was any doubt about his care for the songs he sings with the five-piece band Ivan & Alyosha, just take a moment to look at his visage. The band, one of the most well-coiffed in the business, took the M…
Given the number of groups to perform at the Bumbershoot music festival and to pass through the KEXP halls, you’d think we’d seen everything. Well, it still comes as a surprise to see a band featuring a belly dancer balancing a jug on her bejeweled brunette head while doing the splits. And that is …
Few Seattle bands put on as energetic and frenetic of a live show as Kithkin. In keeping with the fantastical woodland creatures they're named for (from Magic: The Gathering), the group is even known to decorate the stages they play with fir trees and other forest paraphernalia. They are slated to …
"Nine Inch Numan" -- it was a comment left on the KEXP Facebook page, and echoed among the audience from our Bumbershoot Music Lounge session. Who knew synthpop pioneer Gary Numan had taken such a darker, more industrial turn in his later career! Even his 1979 new wave hit "Cars" took on a harder…
For the final night of Decibel Festival 2013, Sunday September 29, I headed to the Crocodile for the Timetable Records showcase, featuring Nosaj Thing, with Lorn, Teebs, and D Tiberio. Aside from Nosaj Thing—a veteran of Decibel Festival I'd seen before — I was unfamiliar with the lineup and unsure…
It was one of the most highly-anticipated sessions of our Musicfest NW broadcast: Scottish electropop group CHVRCHES had been blowing up the music blogs for months, yet their debut album, The Bones of What You Believe hadn't hit stores at the time. From the packed audience of the Doug Fir Lounge t…
Saturday, September 28—day four of Decibel Festival 2013—found me headed back to the Showbox at the Market, this time for the Cosmic Adventures showcase, featuring The Orb with the godfather of techno Juan Atkins and newcomer Nick Monaco. The Orb was perhaps the act I was most excited to see at thi…
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.
