2013 continues to bolt out of the gate with another solid week of new releases. With the long awaited followup to their well-received 2009 debut, Local Natives top our list of must-buys. Hummingbird finds the Silver Lake, Los Angeles, group pushing into new territories of song structure, challengin…
This Friday, Scottish band Belle and Sebastian are releasing the first EP in a series of three that they're calling How To Solve Our Human Problems. Today the band has shared a video for the previously released single "I'll Be Your Pilot" via TIDAL. Frontman Stuart Murdoch explained in an intervie…
We made it out to the Trans Musicales festival grounds last night after we wrapped up filming for the day. The festival grounds are located at the Park Expo, which is a complex of large buildings, a couple of which are the main festival areas, like the food court, for a lack of a better term and I …
On Away, his eighth album with Okkervil River, Will Sheff winds back to the spacious sounds of his early records while visiting more mature topics of death, dissolution and rebirth. During his latest visit to KEXP, the Austin-based troubadour brings a full band to further enliven his new songs and …
Temperatures and new releases are dropping this month, including the latest (and first in twelve years) from reunited UK band The Libertines. KEXP Music Director Don Yates says the album "finds them in fine form with their songwriting skills intact. More reflective, mature and diverse than their pr…
We haven't heard much from Shabazz Places this year. Thankfully, Seattle's own hip-hop outfit have returned with a contribution to Adult Swim's summer singles series. "The Mystery of Lonnie Don" is a fuzzy and haunting track that's worth the wait, listen below. Here's hoping we hear more from them…
Brooklyn duo Ratatat are gearing up for the July 17th release of Magnifique, their first full-length album in five years. They've shared a new song and it's accompanying video called "Abrasive". Be sure to catch them live at the Capitol Hill Block Party July 24-26! [CoS]
Your support of listener-powered KEXP not only brings you music from all over the world via specialty shows like El Sonido and Wo’ Pop, but you also enable music lovers all over the globe to enjoy the great sound of Seattle no matter where they live and work. This summer the Pena family (pictured a…
Oh, hey, lookie here, U2 sprung a new album on us! The Irish superstars surprised the world with the release today at an Apple press conference for the new iPhone 6, which concluded with a performance of the opening track "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)." The thirteenth album (and their first in five…
I used to have a regular gig reviewing album covers, so I can say with some confidence that D.O.A.'s fourth album possesses one of the greatest album covers ever printed. Look how terrified those rich jerks are, and how the crazy punkers are blowing their minds and smashing their dinners, while sim…
Every summer, the crowds pack into Pike street between Broadway and 12th to throw a party unlike any other. Capitol Hill Block Party is a tried and true block party, rocking the streets until 12:30 in the morning, showering them in confetti, and giving both attendees and nearby Capitol Hill apartme…
I knew nothing about ESG before starting to write this blog post, but my quick research made it clear that they really should have been on my radar for at least the past twenty years, if not thirty. Their releases in the '80s, and then after their reformation in the early '90s, impressed a lot of p…
When someone invites you into a van, you should probably run, but if that someone is actor Rainn Wilson, and you happen to be the 6'4" Win Butler of Arcade Fire, you're probably okay. Join them in the backseat for this fun chat in the latest episode of Wilson's Metaphysical Milkshake web series. […
MGMT is apparently very much interested in collaborating with the "Hobo Rocket" band Pond in the future. Talking about their forthcoming self-titled album, VanWyngarden said it is "less distraught, nervous and paranoid" than the last - and "Your Life is a Lie" is both confident and absurd, allowing…
There aren't as many comments as I usually like to see on this copy of In the Hothouse, the live album by the underappreciated British band (yes, yet another one) The Sound. But reading these, and then digging a bit into The Sound online (pro tip for bands with generic names like "The Sound": searc…
John Richards, host of The Morning Show, takes you on a musical vacation. In Geography, where an artist makes music is what makes them make music. Featuring new songs by Best Coast, Los Campesinos!, Black Hollies, Shad and more. 1. Gang of Youths - Evangelists 2. Minor Alps - Far From the Roses 3…
Kate Tempest's performance of the first half of her 2016 opus Let Them Eat Chaos at KEXP's broadcast from Iceland Airwaves 2016 was a highlight of both the festival and the whole year, so it's no surprise that her return trip to KEXP's Seattle studio is yet another furious rapt…
As we announced last month, Seattle's own Perfume Genius (aka Mike Hadreas) has a new album coming out this Spring, titled No Shape. Stream a video for the first single "Slip Away" below. Via a press release, Hadreas elaborates, "I pay my rent. I'm approaching health. The things that are bothering…
In the last few years, there’s been a slew of English, (mostly) London-based bands emerging from basement gigs with world-beating ambitions and the musical elements to make good on them: a heavy dose of pop melody, a balance of snarky storytelling and heartfelt appeal, and most of all, hooks that a…
There are some people that say there is art in restraint. Those are the types of people Sleigh Bells eat for breakfast. Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss are back for round three this week with Bitter Rivals, and they are going even harder and even heavier. And it’s a good thing too – now more than ev…
