When Sweden's Shout Out Louds came onstage for their 6:50 p.m. show at Sasquatch Music Festival this year, the weather started to shift from sunny skies to cloudy weather, but where most bands would thrive in a warm-natured festival environment, Shout Out Louds' melancholy pop benefitted from the o…
Even if you hadn't caught her 2011 solo debut, Last Summer, you'd know at first listen to the vocals on her latest album, Personal Record, who Eleanor Friedberger is. Hers is the unmistakeable nasal drawl that characterizes the songs of The Fiery Furnaces, which Friedberger comprises with her broth…
There's no denying Surfer Blood's love for 90's indie rock. Fragments of Pavement, Pixies and Weezer are undeniable elements in their sound, but the band made a space for themselves on their 2010 debut, Astro Coast, by adding breezy surf melodies blown off the beaches of their Florida home. Since t…
Last month, KEXP, STG, and Starbucks hosted the 6th edition of the Little Big Show series at the Neptune Theater, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting The Vera Project, an all-ages volunteer-fueled music and arts venue on the grounds of Seattle Center. Jim James headlined the sold-out show with his…
It hasn't been that long since Seattle band The Cave Singers performed songs from their excellent 2013 album, Naomi, live in the KEXP studio, so when we asked them to perform a special session as part of KEXP's VIP Club Concert series just three months later, they went back to their own studio and …
2013 has been a good year for guitarists. Chelsea Light Moving's Thurston Moore, Savages' Gemma Thompson, My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields, Marnie Stern, and Mikal Cronin have spent the year reminding listeners why the six-stringed instrument remains rock's weapon of choice. Playing with the pro…
The love NYC drummer Miles Arntzen holds for the music of Nigerian legend Fela Kuti is so great it can't be contained by just one band. Arntzen, who drums for well-known funksters Antibalas, also started yet another 10+ member afrobeat-inspired group in EMEFE. Formed a year before his joining Antib…
The Sumner Brothers, the Vancouver B.C.-based alt-country band, co-led by brother Bob and Brian Sumner, stopped by KEXP to play a moving set on The Roadhouse with Greg Vandy. Looming with almost nightmarish instrumentation, but calming, yearning vocals, the band finds the listener’s ear immediately…
Conceived originally as a duo by singer/guitarist Brian Harding and singer/keyboardist Amalie Bruun (ex-Hymns and ex-Minks respectively), Ex Cops explore the depths of pop through a psych-tinged haze. Influences on their aptly titled 2013 debut, True Hallucinations, range from early 80's NZ jangle …
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.
