A name change and an absence from the Sasquatch! Music Festival app will definitely effect the number of people at a show. But if the crowd at Preoccupations was any reflection of their controversial previous name, their show on the Yeti stage Saturday night was surely a reflection of their promisi…
When's the last time you listened to a record and thought to yourself, "Wow, that's a sound you don't hear every day". Calgary based post-punk quartet Viet Cong (featuring members of now-defunct Calgary act Women) drop their self-titled first LP this week on Jagjaguwar, and it's one of those record…
On the last day of KEXP's broadcast from Upstream, local four-piece Versing filled Little London Plane to the brim with post-punk perfection. Whether channeling the layered guitars of Built to Spill or the raw emotionalism of Modest Mouse, there was also something quintessentially Northwest about t…
Leading up until the Upstream Music Fest + Summit, KEXP will be featuring a new local artist from the lineup with an interview and suggested tracks for where to start. Today’s post features Seattle indie rocker Ruler, performing Saturday, May 13 on the Barsuk stage.
This week's new release highlight came as a surprise: last week, UK artist FKA twigs stealthily unleashed a new EP via Young Turks. KEXP Music Director Don Yates says, "this British artist follows up her masterful debut album with a powerful 5-song EP blending futuristic R&B with deep post-dubs…
Highlights this week include the latest from London/NYC-via-Atlanta trio Algiers. KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes their debut as "an electrifying blend of edgy post-punk with soul and gospel, featuring a dark, haunting sound with ominous guitar squalls, icy synths, hypnotic drum-machine rhy…
Seattle's own experimental hip hop outfit, Shabazz Palaces take on a dark, post-apocalyptic wasteland in their new "#Cake" video. There's an intense game of chase going on while beautiful, yet terrifying, giants roam the city. Check it out below. [Pitchfork]
The warm, golden Finnish-style Americana of Tuomo & Markus flows with the aqueousness of jazz and bursts of a post-rock glow. Backed with a crack band, the Helsinki duo join Kevin Cole in the KEXP Live Room to play songs from their latest releases, tell the story of how they became a band, and…
It's a very short list of new releases this holiday week, so you can probably tie your record store shopping to your quest for 4th of July BBQ supplies. While you're stocking up on burgers, weiners, beer and soda, you might stop to grab the latest from British producer Zomby, whose third album, our…
Join us this Friday, October 28th as KEXP welcomes Laurence “Lol” Tolhurst, founding member of iconic post-punk band The Cure, and author of the new memoir, Cured: The Tale of Two Imaginary Boys, out now on Da Capo Press.
Leading up until the Upstream Music Fest + Summit, a Northwest regionally focused festival with over 300 acts, KEXP will be featuring a new local artist from the lineup with an interview and suggested tracks for where to start. Today’s post features Seattle power-pop group Bread & Butter, perfo…
Leading up until the Upstream Music Fest + Summit, a Northwest regionally focused festival with over 300 acts, KEXP will be featuring a new local artist from the lineup with an interview and suggested tracks for where to start. Today’s post features Seattle rock and roll trio The Black Tones, perfo…
Leading up until the Upstream Music Fest + Summit, a Northwest regionally focused festival with over 300 acts, KEXP will be featuring a new local artist from the lineup with an interview and suggested tracks for where to start. Today’s post features Seattle electronic producer Hanssen, performing S…
Leading up until the Upstream Music Fest + Summit, KEXP will be featuring a new local artist from the lineup with an interview and suggested tracks for where to start. Today’s post features Seattle country outfit Ole Tinder, performing Friday, May 12 on the Macefield stage.
Leading up until the Upstream Music Fest + Summit, KEXP will be spotlighting a new local artist from the lineup with an interview and suggested tracks for where to start. Today's post features Seattle hip-hop collective COSMOS, performing Thursday, May 11 on the Sound Off! stage.
Our thoughts go out to members of the band and crew of Twin Shadow, who were injured this morning as their tour bus was part of a multi-vehicle crash in Aurora, Colorado, with heavy fog to blame. Rescuers have brought a dozen individuals to a local hospital to treat minor to severe injuries. [The …
The music of Explosions in the Sky has always lived up to the expectations set by the band's evocative name, and on their seventh studio album, The Wilderness, the Austin, Texas outfit continues to create singular, cathartic, and often breathtaking instrumental compositions. Joining host Tro…
The nation is catching on to the wealth of amazing music coming out of Seattle's experimental hip-hop scene. This year listeners have become entranced by Seattle's THEESatisfaction, and before that Shabazz Palaces -- expect the same kind of attention soon for OCnotes (Otis Calvin, III) and his gen…
This week's short list of new releases sees some old names returning with fresh new sounds. 80's electronic alternative icons Depeche Mode return with their thirteenth studio album, perhaps their strongest effort yet in this post Y2K world. Delta Machine contains the familiar tropes: dark eroticism…
From last week's Spud War, we continue our tuberous theme with Tater Totz, which you might think would be even more contentious than Devo's synth-heavy fifth album, but which seems to have been more well received at KCMU. What is the deal with Tater Totz? I think just attempting to explain this pro…
