As a teenager, Jordan Gatesmith fronted the Minneapolis-based band Howler, whose sneering garage-rock sound caught the attention of UK label Rough Trade. (You can check out their KEXP performance during SXSW 2012 here on the blog, and a 2014 in-studio session here.) After two albums, Gatesmith disb…
For the uninitiated, Kyle Craft can sing. At once raspy, evocative, and grandiose, Mr. Craft's voice sounds straight from his soul, imbuing his music with an immediate punch and anchor. His voice was the clear focal point of an excellent performance at Day 3 of Sasquatch Music Festival at the Yeti …
Leave it to a neuroscientist to create an out of body experience. UK's Sam Shepherd blows minds post-doc with his experimental electronic project, Floating Points, combining jazz, space rock, prog, EDM, classical and other genres that can but shouldn't be named into an out of this world experience.…
Kyle Craft leads a storied life. The Portland-based singer-songwriter trails with him a cast misfit characters and messed up relationships from his former home in Shreveport, Louisiana, to populate is his rollicking full-length debut, Dolls Of Highland. He also carries with him a sound with a past …
Not New York City. Not Los Angeles. Lush’s first U.S. show in 20 years was right here in Seattle. The honor was not lost on the hundreds of fans who lined up early outside the venue to get closer to the stage, and who swarmed the merchandise table immediately upon entering The Showbox, like ravenou…
Although Aly Spaltro's musical beginnings as Lady Lamb lie in the basement of a video rental store in Maine, she's got sights on something bigger. Granted, it doesn't take much to move onto a bigger ambition than playing to yourself at 4 a.m., but Spaltro's aiming for every heart in the room, and t…
"Girls to the front!" This was the mantra for feminist artist Kathleen Hanna when she fronted the influential punk band Bikini Kill in the '90s. Twenty-five years later, Hanna is on tour, presenting the lecture Riot Grrl: Then and Now, and the girls were down in front at the Neptune Theatre, excite…
West coast weirdo Ariel Pink shares a video today for the track "Jell-O" off last year's stellar full-length Pom Pom. The psychedelic clip, directed by Dan Kapelovitz, showcases vintage meat industry footage interspersed with the band making Jell-O shots. The video is dedicated to the late Kim Fow…
Twenty two years is a long time to wait for a group's second album, but The Juliana Hatfield Three have not missed a beat on the new songs from their recently released, Whatever, My Love. Unlike the vast majority of '90s bands currently slugging it out on the road, this trio does not have to rely o…
Armed with a fine assortment of tracks from their new Seattle-recorded release, Ohio band The Sidekicks unleash their brand of hooky rock in the KEXP live room. On Runners in the Nerved World, they've branched out from their punkish roots and now take pleasure in crafting out songs that are invigor…
Beloved Boise band Built to Spill share another track from their upcoming eighth album, Untethered Moon. Stream the single "Never Be The Same" below, which appears to have some excellent kitten action for the cover art. You can catch the boys at a hometown show on Friday, March 27th at the Treefor…
KEXP faves Parquet Courts share a new video today for the track "Pretty Machines," off the release Content Nausea from their side project "Parkay Quarts." (Still with us?) Guitarist Austin Brown takes to the streets in this clip co-directed by Johann Rashid (of the band East Link). Check out the m…
Proof that Jack White has always been inventive with his musical releases: back in 2004, White and his friend Brian Muldoon were part of a band called The Upholsterers, named for their actual day job professions. Inspired by their own name, White and Muldoon, um, upholstered 100 copies of their fi…
December kicks off with another slew of great reissues, including a deluxe version of Yo La Tengo's 1994 release Painful. As frontman Ira Kaplan delightfully quips, "Anyone who ever said they liked our older records more than Painful, I just told them they’re wrong." The deluxe version, titled Extr…
We've recorded a lot of unique performances during Pickathon over the past few years, but there's nothing quite like lush orchestration and natural harmonies to complement the gorgeous wooded oasis that is the Bunny Glade. Two of the bigger ensembles this year were also two of the most enjoyable, i…
Lena Simon is a wizard. She plays bass, guitar, drums, keys and sings. She's been on Leno with Mary Lambert, has toured Europe with La Luz (who, incidentally, just announced a tour with Ty Segal) and writes songs for her band Kairos. She's also a generous soul with a great deal of compassion and in…
"It's what turns the kids on," guitarist and vocalist Chuck Cleaver said, defending a bit of questionable narrative during a recent in-studio. We've been fans of Wussy since their first LP, but this year's Attica! is easily one of the year's best. Even if the kid's aren't listening to it, we're gla…
The Shins have shared a new song "So Now What," their contribution to the soundtrack for Zach Braff's upcoming film Wish I Was Here. The band's participation makes sense, because a decade ago Braff's film Garden State put The Shins on the map. A brief snippet of the song was featured in the film's…
atTentIoN, huManS of eArtH. Hightek Lowlives bring greetings and great sounds from the distant future. The Seattle duo of Otieno Terry and Kjell Nelson toss everything you know about R&B, beat-making, hip-hop and rap, throw it into a time-machine, and send it careening like a bizarre blast from…
Seattle's Wishbeard is one of those great bands that keeps the high hat and snare drum going. This is part of what makes them eminently danceable. With etherial guitars and vocal shouts like wolves howling into the night, the drum keeps a tight, pushing rhythm highlighted by the quickly hit snares …
