Call it rockabilly, psychobilly, punkabilly... whatever kind of "billy" you want to call it... The Reverend Horton Heat practically sets fire to the stage whenever he performs. After nearly 30 years and 11 albums, the Heat hasn't lost the spark, and still packs the house with fans of all ages and t…
While we consider all our Bumbershoot Music Lounge sessions "special," there's something undeniably extra-special about this one. When main songwriter Alex Chilton passed away in 2010, followed shortly by the passing of founding bassist Andy Hummel the same year, most assumed we'd never hear from t…
Jersey boys Real Estate head south of the border for the video for "Had to Hear," out 8/25 as a limited edition 7" single from Domino Records. (The b-side will be their cover of "Paper Doll" by The Nerves that they performed in their Seattle encore earlier this year.) Directed by Richard Law, the …
Bamboo is known for its uncanny ability to spring up from the ground, growing tall against all odds while covering everything in its path. With each sprout though, the stalks' compositions change, and an altogether different group of shoots emerge. Like the plants themselves, The Bamboos, a resilie…
Whether it's the goal or method of art to turn complex thought into pure emotion, The Antlers are masters of their craft. The Brooklyn band frequently finds impetus in heady conceits, like on 2009's Hospice, for which vocalist and guitarist Peter Silberman compared an emotionally abusive romantic r…
“Put your hands up if you love hip-hop!” shouted De La Soul as they opened a killer set of their career spanning hits cherished by fans of old and probably more than a few brand new fans. New York hip hop band of the last 25 years, De La Soul truly are masters of the craft and made it damn well kno…
It's been six years, but former Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis returns with her third solo album, Voyager, this July on Warner Bros Records. She explained to the Charleston City Paper, "I worked on these songs for a long time so there’s no stone unturned, lyrically. I thought about them while w…
As you might have noticed, the pictures I gathered on my most recent visit to the KEXP stacks were exclusively from the local section, and I feel like I've been learning a lot of our fair city's history that simply living here for 12+ years has not been enough to absorb. Case in point: Somehow I've…
"This is a really beautiful city", Keith Morris remarked halfway his El Corazon set with super punk supergroup OFF!. He was talking to the punk kid who had fought his way to the very front of the crowd, sweating profusely through the leather jacket he dared not remove in the pit. "You don't know th…
It's hard to believe that the album Dizzy Heights is only the third solo release from beloved singer/songwriter Neil Finn. From Split Enz to Crowded House to the Finn Brothers and his soundtrack work, the New Zealand icon hasn't stopped making music for the past 30 years. "It's confusing for the ge…
Though the new album is called Lost in the Dream, The War on Drugs' Adam Granduciel seems like he's just woken up from one. While it's only the band's third LP since forming nine years ago, Lost in the Dream is leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessors, as Granduciel transforms his oft-meandering …
Seattle is hot with football fever as the Seattle Seahawks head to Super Bowl XLVIII this Sunday, February 2nd! To show our hometown pride, DJs John Richards, Cheryl Waters, and Kevin Cole will be playing nothing but local music on Friday from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM PT. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll re…
Since Lake Street Dive's stunning performances during the last two years at Pickathon, fans in the Northwest have been clamoring for a new full-length from the Brooklyn based soul peddlers. Fortunately, they won't have to wait much longer, as Bad Self-Portraits is due February 18, 2014. In anticipa…
Part of Minneapolis' Doomtree collective, Dessa, the 7-member group's only female emcee, may also be their most well rounded. A degree in philosophy, a background in writing, particularly in creative non-fiction and spoken-word, and enough business acumen to run day-to-days of the label itself all …
In Portland, it takes a village. Or nearly that, at least, to bring to life the songs of Kyle Morton. Over three albums and a handful of EPs, the 11-member group Typhoon build gorgeously orchestrated folk pop around Morton's uniquely intimate and personal lyrics. Morton, who nearly died of Lyme Dis…
More than a band, Savages is an idea. Guitarist Gemma Thompson said it herself during an in-studio session at KEXP: "We had the idea originally and wanted to put everything we'd all accumulated individually into creating a performance that had a sonic representation of the name Savages." Their deli…
Yo La Tengo have premiered a new video for their song "I'll Be Around" (which, by the way, is their first new video in 16 years), and it features Mac McCaughn, founder of Superchunk and the Merge record label, singing the song and picking at a guitar in a woodsy field somewhere. The video is also …
Next on the broadcast live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves was Russian punk band Glintshake. Formed in 2012, much of their early music was in english, but they’ve since switched to making music in Russian, even re-recording some of their English songs in their native language and changing their…
Last year, The Shins released their fifth album called Heartworms. Next week, they're releasing a flipped version of the album entitled The Worm's Heart, featuring reworked versions of all the songs on the album. The basic premise is that all the songs keep the same lyrics and melodies but the slow…
KEXP celebrates Indigenous Peoples' Day, commemorating the importance of Indigenous history, culture, and connection to the lands.
