For nu disco bands, there is no greater home than Italians Do It Better. Johnny Jewel and his cohorts have been driving the genre in daring, exotic directions since 2007. Back then, Jewel released a stellar DJ mix of his signees called After Dark. The collection sparkled with all the glitter and fi…
Following the smoky energy of Rose Windows, the Yeti stage was taken over by Secret Canadian's Suuns. The crowd swelled as they dove into their set. At times the trio went into nearly ambient jams, reverb heavy and almost ominous. But mostly the set was rhythm heavy, the audience waving their hands…
Day two started off cool and got warm - and at the sun drenched Yeti Stage, Rose Windows started the day with their deep psychedelic mystic rock. Singer Rabia Qazi's voice rumbled high and low as the Seattle band played through most of what we can assume comes from their upcoming album, The Sun Dog…
As was made our way to the mainstage for Built to Spill, slow drops of rain began to fall. The rain would never become hard or steady, instead lending the stage a golden glitter - the sun setting came in beams across the stage as Doug Martsch carefully but effortlessly lead the way through classic …
As night came over the Gorge, people began to flock one of two ways - towards mainstage to try and catch good views for Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, or toward the Bigfoot Stage to squeeze a place in for Vampire Weekend. I chose Vampire Weekend almost strictly as a guilty pleasure - though they may c…
After Red Fang had totally shredded the Bigfoot Stage, punk rock Vancouver-based duo Japandroids jumped on stage and after fairly minimal sound checking, started their sweaty and awesome set. Though the sound was a bit strange (it would later cut out during a Vampire Weekend song), their energy was…
Yes, that is a real bill. Electronic genre-blending genius Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison) brought some of his closest associates along with him on his second trip through Seattle in support of excellent new record, Until The Quiet Comes. Thundercat has been a long time collaborator, playing all of t…

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.