As a teenager, Jordan Gatesmith fronted the Minneapolis-based band Howler, whose sneering garage-rock sound caught the attention of UK label Rough Trade. (You can check out their KEXP performance during SXSW 2012 here on the blog, and a 2014 in-studio session here.) After two albums, Gatesmith disb…
While most of the well-known Minnesota bands hail from Minneapolis, out on the shores of beautiful Lake Superior is the city of Duluth, hometown to the band Low. In the early '90s, the local sound was loud, abrasive, and grunge-inspired. Someone made the joke, what if a band were to play quiet musi…
They may not have made the majors like The Replacements and Hüsker Dü did, but Minneapolis-based band Arcwelder were more than a perennial local favorite, cracking John Peel's Festive Fifth countdown in 1992 and getting crowned NME's "Punk Rock Single of the Week" by none other than guest editors, …
If something was happening in the Minneapolis music scene, writer Jim Walsh was there to cover it. A former City Pages music editor (think, The Stranger) and award-winning columnist for the Pioneer Press, Walsh writes about music and culture. He is the author of the oral history The Replacements: A…
It was exciting enough when Slowdive reunited in 2014 for a worldwide tour, but now the Berkshire-based shoegazers will release a self-titled LP tomorrow, Friday, May 5th, via Dead Oceans. It's their fourth album, and first new music in 22 years. Founding member, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist…
Besides being the director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory, and an associate professor at Berklee, Susan Rogers is also the person who worked most closely with the late Prince during quite possibly his most important period artistically. From 1983 to 1988, it was Susan who …
Back in 2010, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim collaborated on the concept album and "disco musical" Here Lies Love, which tells the story of former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos. Following award-winning runs in New York, London, and Adelaide, Australia, the project has now arrived in Sea…
Leading up until the Upstream Music Fest + Summit, KEXP will be spotlighting a new local artist from the lineup with an interview and suggested tracks for where to start. Today's post features Seattle hip-hop collective COSMOS, performing Thursday, May 11 on the Sound Off! stage.
When Molly Sides takes the stage fronting her band Thunderpussy, it'd be easy to mistake her for a cybernetically enhanced superhuman. How else could anyone prowl the stage and howl so ferociously? Amazingly, Sides is human like the rest of us. However, in director/writer Robert McGinley's new film…
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.
