There are very few artists who can pull off what Stephin Merritt did this night at Benaroya Hall: a 26-song set with the song titles performed alphabetically, from A ("Andrew in Drag") to Z ("Zombie Boy"). Songs were culled from his extensive catalog of not only his most well-known project, The Mag…
For almost five years now as Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ruban Nielson has been learning how to give himself away. On his eponymous debut, it was from behind the closed door of a bedroom, where we heard psychedelic funk gems muffled through the wall and wanted to know more. On 2013's II, the door cra…
For Friday night's Neumos crowd, reality became something entirely separate from what we knew it to be. The night's headliner, Canadian electronic wunderkind Dan Deacon, bends the strings that we dangle by enough on his own, but combined with the dystopian shimmer of New York synth rock act Prince …
At every great concert, there's a moment where everything, for lack of a better word, clicks. When the audience moves from excited to engaged, when "wow" turns "holy shit". On the closing night of Sleater-Kinney's three-night stand at the Showbox at the Market, that moment was two-and-a-half minute…
Although Aly Spaltro's musical beginnings as Lady Lamb lie in the basement of a video rental store in Maine, she's got sights on something bigger. Granted, it doesn't take much to move onto a bigger ambition than playing to yourself at 4 a.m., but Spaltro's aiming for every heart in the room, and t…
"Girls to the front!" This was the mantra for feminist artist Kathleen Hanna when she fronted the influential punk band Bikini Kill in the '90s. Twenty-five years later, Hanna is on tour, presenting the lecture Riot Grrl: Then and Now, and the girls were down in front at the Neptune Theatre, excite…
The good folks over at Decibel Festival have made April of this year really special for Seattle. For those of us who are waiting on pins and needles for this year's lineup to drop, the announcement of DB Micro Fest was a wonderful surprise. All April, we've had incredible shows, from John Talabot &…
Elvis Costello was in fine form at his solo show at The Paramount Theatre on Sunday night. The very nearly sold-out crowd was abuzz with anticipation, and there was a palpable sense that this was going to be a special event. The stage was dressed with several guitars, a piano, a high backed chair o…
Some shows, I'm seriously surprised when I exit Neumos after the set's over and am not witnessing irreparable damage running up and down the walls. Tuesday night, label-mates Liturgy and Lightning Bolt played one of those types of sets. When there's one guy in the front row that doesn't have earplu…
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.
