For Thurston Moore fans, it truly is the "best day" as the former Sonic Youth frontman shares the title track from his forthcoming solo album, The Best Day, out October 21st via Matador Records. As we mentioned earlier this month, Moore's supporting band consists of longtime collaborator Steve She…
DJ El Toro shares some of his favorite music of 2015 and previews upcoming releases from Shearwater, ANOHNI, Gazebos, and the Cave Singers. Speaking of next year, don't forget: everything you enjoy on KEXP, including the free podcasts, is made possible by support from music lovers like you. P…
For months now, we've been playing tracks from the new Temples album and just saying "out next year." Now, we have an actual date to share! The LP Volcano will be out March 3rd, 2017 via Fat Possum, their first new album since their 2014 debut, Sun Structures. Via a press release, frontman James B…
British band Cheatahs sped over to the Cutting Room Studios in NYC, all the way from London, to play a raw live set just for KEXP. Well, not exactly. Last month, the UK group, consisting of Dean Reid, James Wignall, Marc Raue, and Nathan Hewitt, made a quick 7-city jaunt in the U.S. to introduce th…
Nine decades deep into the electronic music genre, and the most startling and effective instrument it uses is still the human voice. From the earliest days of sampling and vocal splicing to the revolutionary vocal manipulations of Bruce Haack and Kraftwerk up through the live vocal looping we've en…
Brooklyn-bred band Grizzly Bear return with their fifth LP, a release KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls "an adventurous set of densely layered and intricately arranged prog-pop, featuring a punchier, more beat-driven sound to more forcefully drive home the band's dark, imagistic lyrics of decay a…
Wolf Parade were always going to be a band that would age well. With all of the members having hands in other projects at any given time, it wasn't ever that farfetched of a concept to see them moving away from Wolf Parade, so when it happened in 2011, they did the opposite of what James Murphy did…
The Prince cover tributes keep coming; the latest is a surprisingly poignant performance of "It’s Gonna Be Lonely" from Mac DeMarco. DeMarco wrote on Instagram, "We lost a true hero of mine the other day. Although it's sad, I'm sure he's ripping a hot solo right now in the next dimension. RIP." Ev…
Seattle's silver-haired soul singer and her backing band, Grace Love & The True Loves stopped by KEXP to perform a few tracks off of their eponymous debut album, and the nine of them filled our live room to beautiful capacity. Their performance was pure vintage - her rich baritone echoing the i…
He's never lived so far away, yet he's never sounded so much like himself. After a move to London, former Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore reclaimed his place as a ranking don of noise-rock while reassembling his band with some true ringers, namely former SY bandmate Steve Shelley on drums and D…
As Americans we are no longer surprised by European artists who bring their amazing music to our humble shores. The Joy Formidable is another among the ever-growing list of impressive British talent that has taken the US by storm. In 2007, childhood best friends Rhiannon "Ritzy" Bryan and Rhydian D…
Broken Social Scene are releasing their highly anticipated new album Hug of Thunder this Friday, July 7th but, luckily for us, NPR is streaming it ahead of time. Seven years after last release, Forgiveness Rock Record, the album sees all 15 original members featured on the album, including Feist, M…
Influential icon Thurston Moore shares a new track today: stream the stand-alone single "Cease Fire" below. The former Sonic Youth frontman explains the inspiration for the track, "Guns are designed to kill and we, as non-violent human beings, are against the killing of any person or animal. The s…
It's hard to believe that That's It!, the new album by Preservation Hall Jazz Band, is their first record of all new material, not just because they've had a prolific 50 year history already, but also because the songs fit so seamlessly into the rest of the New Orleans traditionalists' catalog. Ban…
Fans of The Joy Formidable are used to seeing guitarist and vocalist Ritzy Bryan thrashing about wild-eyed on stage, practically destroying her guitar, her amps and the audience's ears. She and bassist/vocalist Rhydian Dafydd and percussionist Matthew James Thomas always seem to keep it together, …
There was something magical about the Sunday night Sasquatch Music Fest performance by The Shins. Or maybe it just felt "magical." The stage was covered in giant paper flowers, with stems taller than the musicians and blooms bigger than their heads. (Ego jokes aside; everyone seems to have perfectl…
Canadian indie legends Metric have undoubtedly "made it." They're at the glorious stage in a career where they have the commercial success to justify any off-kilter choice they make, while still being independent enough that they have the freedom to make those off-kilter choices without any corpora…
First band on air for the 2013 Iceland Airwaves broadcast, live from KEX Hostel, is the 14-man Samúel Jón Samúelsson Big Band. First formed in early 2000 for a short series of performances in their native Iceland, the band was reformed in 2007 and released their first studio album Fynkur. In addit…
Pitchfork published an article last week titled, “What it’s Like to Be Black in Indie Music.” Its author, Matthew James-Wilson, talks about his personal experience in the scene as well as what he gathered from various musicians he interviewed for the story.
&nb…
Anticipation is high for the forthcoming full-length from Temples, totally heightened by last month's awesome performance in the KEXP Gathering Space. While we have to keep waiting 'til next year for Volcano to hit stores, today we've got a remix of the track "Certainty" by Scottish rockers Franz …
