Listening to The Lonely Forest is like looking up at the Northern Lights. On a crisp evening, a river rushing behind you, pine trees spotting the landscape, the shimmering aurora borealis hypnotizes. This is what it’s like taking in the grand, pleasantly wavering vocals of Lonely Forest lead singer…
It was a session DJ Cheryl Waters had been waiting 20 years for: The Waterboys, a band who are actually celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, despite frontman Mike Scott being a mere 24-years-old, wink. The long-running group are on tour supporting their seven-CD collection, Fisherman's Box…
It had to be one of the stranger pairings we heard about this year: acclaimed electronic producer Nicolas Jaar and the relatively unknown Dave Harrington. That the two might be friends from their Brown University connection (both studied there) mades sense, but what would a composer of heady ambien…
What is Iron and Wine anyway? A man? A band? A concept? A sound? For the past decade, Sam Beam has used his stage name to mean all of those things. The Southeastern raised songwriter first caught people's attention in the Northwest, actually, through a demo featured in Yeti Magazine and followed by…
Brooklyn synthpop trio Au Revoir Simone are back after a four year hiatus, and we were thrilled to have them as part of our CMJ broadcast from Judson Memorial Church. After a lovely walk around Washington Square Park with their young superfan, we stopped for a chat about parenthood, '80s beats, and…
Good morning! How about a little funky Afropop, all the way from Iceland, to start your morning? That's how we began our broadcast from Iceland Airwaves last month, with the 13 member Samúel Jón Samúelsson Big Band blasting you awake at 6AM. Now you have the luxury to enjoy the SJS Big Band wheneve…
Weekend the band are much like their music: intense, a little intimidating, but you can't help but be drawn in. The dark, moody songs from their sophomore album, Jinx, were perfect in the gothic interiors of New York's Judson Memorial Church. KEXP managed to grab the guys for a quick chat after th…
You might call it Flying Nun 2.0, for the venerable New Zealand label recently began signing new Kiwi acts after a long hiatus. Considering Flying Nun signed and released many of its country's most celebrated acts including The Clean, The Bats, Bailter Space, The Verlaines and The Chills, any newco…
Icelandic singer-songwriter Snorri Helgason is known for his gentle voice and seductive ballads, but when he returned to play live on KEXP during Iceland Airwaves this year, he went big and bold. Previously, we've featured Snorri in Iceland and even in Seattle, but for his set live at KEX hostel la…
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.
