Given the number of groups to perform at the Bumbershoot music festival and to pass through the KEXP halls, you’d think we’d seen everything. Well, it still comes as a surprise to see a band featuring a belly dancer balancing a jug on her bejeweled brunette head while doing the splits. And that is …
"Nine Inch Numan" -- it was a comment left on the KEXP Facebook page, and echoed among the audience from our Bumbershoot Music Lounge session. Who knew synthpop pioneer Gary Numan had taken such a darker, more industrial turn in his later career! Even his 1979 new wave hit "Cars" took on a harder…
It was one of the most highly-anticipated sessions of our Musicfest NW broadcast: Scottish electropop group CHVRCHES had been blowing up the music blogs for months, yet their debut album, The Bones of What You Believe hadn't hit stores at the time. From the packed audience of the Doug Fir Lounge t…
Nearly 35 years in music and Bob Mould shows no signs of slowing down! From his early punk roots with Hüsker Dü in the 1980s through his alternative pop years with Sugar in the 1990s, and in the years between and afterwards with his ten solo albums, the veteran songwriter has explored a variety of …
Robert Glasper was exposed to music at a young age. His mother brought him as a boy out to her jazz and blues gigs, and he also learned much about music in church, where he began to sing and mix gospel and jazz harmonies. Since those humble but enriching beginnings, Glasper has built a strong caree…
This past August, Cloud Cult took the stage at scenic Camp Long in West Seattle for the 15th annual Arts in Nature Festival, presented by Nature Consortium. Usually, the native Minnesotans are known for their dynamic live shows with a variety of electric and acoustic instruments, they decided to ma…
As DJ Cheryl Waters declared, “Let’s welcome one of the greatest bands to see live, Superchunk!” And boy, did their Bumbershoot Music Lounge performance live up to her introduction. The veteran indie rockers attacked their set with the energy and intensity of bands half their age, tearing through 2…
Opening our three-day broadcast during Bumbershoot this past Labor Day weekend, Thao and The Get Down Stay Down brought their brand of entertaining indie folk populism to the Music Lounge. On stage, Thao Nguyen and her bandmates alternate their fairly serious, socially minded songs with an easy and…
Though they'd been playing reunion shows for the past six years, no one expected the first Redd Kross album in 15 years to be so mind-blowing. The Hawthorne, CA, band, started by brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald, played their first gig opening for Black Flag in 1980, and went on to perform with co…
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.
