If you happen to break up with someone don’t go on a drinking binge and record emotional songs with the hopes of playing them for your ex. Right? Well, usually. This equation actually worked for Stuart McLamb, however, frontman for the North Carolina-based group The Love Language. McLamb originally…
A few years ago, "chill wave" seemed all anyone could talk about, and Washed Out was among the first on the scene with the ubiquitous single "Feel It All Around". But while the fad died out, the Georgia-based bedroom composer Ernest Greene developed the his free-floating sound into a full live proj…
Hearing his voice, you'd hardly believe that Jake Bugg was born in 1994. His song “Trouble Town” speaks to a world of experience, and the British singer isn’t yet 20 years old. “In this trouble town, troubles I’ve found. In this trouble town, word soon gets ‘round,” he sings. He may be young, but t…
"I know everyone here by name", Ólafur Arnalds said during his first in-studio performance at KEXP. It was in fact the fifth time the Icelandic composer and performance has recorded with us, though previously it had been within his own apartment in Reykjavik (in both 2010 and 2011), live from KEX H…
With their brand-new EP Fade Away, California band Best Coast prove they're not doing any such thing. The seven-song release just came out this past week, but we were lucky to have the band in the KEXP studios back in August for a sneak-peek at these new summery-sounding songs. You can't help smil…
If composers like Mozart and Tchaikovsky were born today, would we recognize their work? Would they create the same kind of heady and emotive symphonies and concertos as they did in the past? Or would the history of rock and electronica bend them in a new direction? Maybe only time will tell if we'…
What would a broadcast in Portland be without the city's most rocking political punk-pop band, The Thermals? Guitarist/vocalist Hutch Harris and bassist Kathy Foster have been pumping PDX audiences and fans all over the world for more than a decade with their high energy shows and thought-provoking…
There is nothing extinct about The Dodos. In fact, they've been playing music together consistently since 2005 and are continually evolving. While playing, The Dodos are always changing speeds, messing with time, all the while imbuing an unassuming – yes – confidence, as on their recent single of t…
Do you like dancing in your underwear? Yeah? Do you like dancing in public in your underwear? Well, !!!'s Nic Offer sure does. For their performance at KEXP's broadcast from Doug Fir Lounge during Musicfest NW, the frenetic frontman stripped down to his Some Girls-inspired skivvies before thrusting…
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.
