Summer just got hotter, as the Capitol Hill Block Party has announced the first wave of bands playing their annual festival, scheduled for July 24th through July 26th in Seattle. The sidewalks are gonna sizzle with headliners like TV on the Radio, The Kills, RATATAT, Toro Y Moi, Built to Spill, and…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of 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 song, featured on the Midd…
Today marks the birthday of James Yancey, better known as J Dilla, one of the most influential hip-hop artists of this century. Just days after his 32nd birthday, back in 2006, the Detroit-based DJ and producer passed away, leaving an enduring legacy for others to follow. Above the nine albums he p…
The line-up for the 2015 Sasquatch! Music Festival was just announced, and it looks like it's going to be an another amazing Memorial Day weekend! Head out to The Gorge Amphitheater the weekend of May 22nd through 25th, and you'll see performances from:
When Sólstafir plays for KEXP, the gods take notice. Two years ago, during KEXP's broadcast at Iceland Airwaves, hurricane-level gales swept across Reykjavik as the hard rocking band brewed up their own storm inside Kex Hostel. Last month, on their first tour of the West Coast, heavy winds followed…
There's nothing pretty about Girl Band. In fact, the Dublin-based four-piece play some of the most abrasive pop songs you're likely to hear. But it hadn't always been that way. Singer Dara Kiely and guitarist Alan Duggan had played together in more conventionally "indie" type bands before hitting u…
It's mind-boggling how a place so small can create so much terrific music. This year, as I was compiling my list of top Icelandic releases, I couldn't help but wonder if I'd find as many great albums as last year and the year before. Would I find ten? Twenty? Actually, as it turns out, a lot more! …
My favorite song of the year is “Color Decay” by Icelandic singer-songwriter Júníus Meyvant. I wasn’t blown away by the song the first time I heard it, but it’s not that type of song. It’s deceptively subtle, with a quality that pulled me in, haunted me, and made me want to listen to it again, and …
In Icelandic their name means "seasons", but the warm, acoustic chamberpop songs of Árstíðir are particularly comforting on these cold days of winter. Recently, the group has been busy recording and crowd funding their third LP, Hvel (due February 2015), but they took time to share a handful of gor…
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.
