Touring heavy records is hard. In today’s day and age, heavy-handed works of staggering genius are hardly appreciated in the album form, let alone trying to communicate that weight in a crowded room facing a loaded bar. But in these heavy times, there are those who brave the difficulties and make i…
If the Fremont Abbey and its team are known for anything, it's for finding new visions for how we see intimate shows in Seattle. For a singular example, earlier this year, the Abbey hosted Baltimore dream pop band Beach House for the smallest show the band has put on in Seattle almost a decade. Sho…
The increasingly common trend of anniversary tours has further validated a longstanding posit that, for better or for worse, audiences and performers both hold: almost everyone wants to hear your old material more than they want to hear your new material.(There is a reason Paul McCartney closes wit…
It's the quintessential story of grunge, or at least how we've come to know the Seattle music scene of the '80s and '90s. It involves friends, music, an isolated region, heroin, grief and rampant commercialism. It's the story of talent lost too soon before its time, and of the musicians who gathere…
Aside from the table topped with laptops, controllers, and a mixer, there was only one thing adorning the Sunset stage on Monday night, and that was a giant blow-up swan pool float (you can cop your own for a cool $25 over at Amazon). As experimental pop singer Kitty burned through her forty minute…
It's been half a year since the last Little Big Show, which feels like a lifetime considering the streak the series has held in the last couple years. As it always has, the Little Big Show brings together Starbucks, STG, and KEXP to benefit a local youth arts organization through tickets sales. It'…
It's hard enough to make money nowadays as a musician, let alone when you have to ditch all momentum you've gained thus far and start again. But watching the bands the make the cut and bottle lightning a second time is like watching a boxer come off a loss stronger than ever. It's not just good - i…
Local Natives might as well be full-time residents at KEXP. With their sunny indie rock melodies and radiant vocal harmonies, the LA-based quintet have cranked out three amazing albums since 2009, including their joyous 2016 release, Sunlit Youth, which finds the band taking their expansive folk-po…
It’s a fact proven time and time again by the emerging stars of our time - if you pay close enough attention to the masters, eventually, their greatness will rub off on you. Tonight at the Crocodile, the two stars of the evening had, at the very least, one master in common: Prince. Tributes to the …
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.
