When we last left off, the crew and I were on our way to the Parc Expo where a majority of the Trans Musicales shows are held. It’s a 15 minute shuttle ride from the neighborhood where we are staying. The Parc Expo is a large compound of warehouses the size of airline hangers to accommodate the app…
Local Natives might as well be full-time residents at KEXP. With their sunny indie rock melodies and radiant vocal harmonies, the LA-based quintet have cranked out three amazing albums since 2009, including their joyous 2016 release, Sunlit Youth, which finds the band taking their expansive folk-po…
Electronic music icon Moby has been keeping busy with his mysterious new project, Void Pacific Choir. They've been slowly sharing songs online, and today, we get a windfall with three new tracks, playing in the background of the video below. All songs will be included on the release, These Systems…
Today begins KEXP's coverage for 2017's Upstream Music Fest + Summit from the Little London Plane in Pioneer Square. For the next three days, KEXP will broadcast programming, as well as exclusive live performances, all from our second home in Downtown Seattle between Occidental Ave & S Jackson.…
Florence + the Machine have shared their contributions to the new Final Fantasy XV game (out on September 30). In a statement on twitter, Florence Welch said: "In some ways the landscape of Final Fantasy and my own internal landscape seems to fit quite well. It's mythical and beautiful and epic." …
New Zealand-born, NYC-based artist Tamaryn has emerged as one of the most striking artists crafting atmospheric shoegaze/dream-pop over the past five years. Her third and latest album, "Cranekiss", finds her adding more electronic elements into her potent and grandiose sonic mix, yielding some of h…
Atoms for Peace's Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich will mark the release of their new album, Amok, with a brief series of shows. The duo will take on London, Berlin, and New York in the coming weeks to perform DJ sets along with special guests like Actress, Throwing Snow, Shed, and Anstam. Pitchfork ha…
On Labor Day weekend 2007, Tim Lennon was working the perimeter at the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival. All weekend long, as others danced and partied, Lennon stood dutifully by the gates, occasionally letting artists in, but mainly just standing, waiting. He could hear the laughter of the fe…
Donald Glover has done a lot of thinking in the past two years. “That Camp was a million years ago, sing me a different song” he raps on the closer of his new record Because the Internet. The referenced 2011 studio album debut does feel like forever ago now. After self-releasing three albums and th…
For just three people, Seattle metal trio Helms Alee make a big noise. Performing tracks off their third album Sleepwalking Sailors, they rocked the KEXP studios with their pounding rhythms, insistent vocals, and heavy guitar riffs. How do they do it? "We don't use our heads, basically," laughs dru…
The Portland trio Modern Kin seem to be addicts for live performances. After stopping by KEXP for a live in-studio with DJ John Richards, the band set up a streaming concert series – seven shows in twenty-four hours – in Mississippi studios for fans all across the world. “The idea of a live show, i…
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…
Next on the KEXP video stream live from KEX Hostel at Iceland Airwaves Music Festival were genre-bending Icelandic post-punk band Mammút. Formed as a trio called ROK in 2003, the band expanded in 2004 and changed their name before winning Iceland’s Músiktilraunir (a battle of the bands similar to S…
The last time I saw Sylvan Esso was over two years ago, in a much smaller room about 2,500 miles away. It was a cold January night in Charlotte, North Carolina (my hometown), about three hours outside of Sylvan Esso’s hometown of Durham. It was just a few months after the release of their debut sel…
If you caught last week's KEXP session, you know Diarrhea Planet's forthcoming full-length, Turn to Gold, is a rollicking set of rock n' roll fun. Check out the album version of "Let It Out" below, a barely-three-minute 'slice of '80s-inspired rock (does anyone else hear some Bryan Adams in there?…
Though a relative unknown here in the states, singer/songwriter Marlon Williams is a star in his native New Zealand and his recently-adopted home of Australia. At the age of 17, he, some high school classmates, and their apparently-pretty-cool science teacher formed the band The Unfaithful Ways. In…
California quartet Silversun Pickups share a glimpse into their studio life via the video for "Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance)," which you can watch below. The track appears on their forthcoming full-length Better Nature, their first new album in three years, out September 25th on their own label, N…
It's not difficult to assay Purity Ring's latest album, Another Eternity. Based on the first three singles, the sophomore effort was undoubtedly pure gold in its alchemic union of Corin Roddick's beats and production and Megan James's resonant voice. The Edmonton duo have added further luster to th…
Seattle's own THEESatisfaction return with their first new album in almost three years: EarthEE. The sophomore full-length was co-produced by Erik Blood, who also makes a guest appearance, along with Shabazz Palaces, Porter Ray, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Taylor Brown. Check out the first single “Re…
