If you are at all like me, I Never Learn is not the Lykke Li album you were expecting this year. After the rapturous viral success of "Get Some" from her 2011 sophomore LP, Wounded Rhymes, it is easy to imagine Li taking her sensual, entrancing songwriting to a more pop-centric place. After all, th…
Even with a full band backing her on stage at the KEXP Gathering Space Stage on the second day of the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, it seemed like Seattle singer songwriter Shelby Earl hardly needed a mic. Her voice rang clear, powerful, and true even when she stepped back from her mic to …
More new music from The Shins: stream the very Wilco-esque single "Mildenhall" below (frontman James Mercer is even singer lower than ever before). The band's fifth LP Heartworms will be out March 10th via Aural Apothecary/Columbia. Catch them at this year's Sasquatch! Music Festival, 5/26-5/28 at…
Seeing Gazebos in the daytime feels a rare occurrence. Usually found in a dimly-lit club, the Seattle band graced the Yeti Stage on Day 1 of this year's Sasquatch Music Festival, largely playing tracks from their 2016 debut record Die Alone. As the opening band of Sasquatch, Gazebos earned the dubi…
As Country/Western icon Merle Haggard turned 79 years old today, he also sadly passed away this morning at home near Redding, CA. Haggard's manager confirms the Grammy Award-winning artist had been battling double pneumonia, and had spent 11 days at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage ea…
Though a relative unknown here in the states, singer/songwriter Marlon Williams is a star in his native New Zealand and his recently-adopted home of Australia. At the age of 17, he, some high school classmates, and their apparently-pretty-cool science teacher formed the band The Unfaithful Ways. In…
"I'm not explaining this really good," said a flustered Kurt Vile to KEXP DJ Cheryl Waters during this KEXP in-studio session. Thankfully, the young singer/songwriter is able to let his music speak for itself: his sixth and most recent full-length b'lieve I'm goin down... has been topping Best Albu…
Though a man of few words in person, singer/songwriter Dan Bejar finds his voice through music, which rang out loud and clear when his project Destroyer stopped by the KEXP studios. With his tenth full-length, Poison Season, what began as a mostly-solo project of Bejar's has expanded into a eight-p…
Captivating our ears and showcasing why he is a global superstar, Belgian singer, rapper and songwriter Paul Van Haver, better known by his stage name Stromae, stormed into KEXP to spread his infectious grooves in this stunning live session. Laced with pop hooks, nineties electronics and Afro-tinge…
"Utterly enchanting." That's how DJ Cheryl Waters described our recent in-studio session with the lovely Jessica Pratt, who was on tour in support of her sophomore release On Your Own Love Again, out now on Drag City. This young singer/songwriter emerged from the Bay Area's garage scene with an alb…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on The Midday …
A documentary about beloved singer/songwriter Elliott Smith is scheduled to make its world premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival on May 5th. Director Nickolas Rossi describes the film as "an intimate, meditative inquiry into the life and music of Elliott Smith." Titled Heaven A…
It’s a long way from Toronto, Ontario, to the Doug Fir lounge in Portland, Oregon, but any travel issues the critically-acclaimed Canadian band Austra had to endure didn’t show at their MusicFest NW performance on KEXP. The band, as usual, was composed, in control, and luminous. Throughout their em…
Close your eyes. Recall that garage with cardboard boxes in the corner, shelves stacked with hammers, duct tape and screwdrivers, and the faint aroma of fresh paint? You’re laying on your back, daydreaming, and you hear rock and roll music playing somewhere. This is the sound of Beach Fossils. The …
Seattle’s Leeni Ramadan (aka the glitter-gloom pop singer, Prom Queen) has established herself as a singular-voiced, bouffant-boasting player in the Emerald City music scene. If the ultimate goal of any creative person is to establish an immediately recognizable style, Ramadan has done that already…
It's one of those touchstones of rock that if you don't have in your collection, you're likely to add immediately on first hearing. Big Star's Third never reached the commercial success it deserved upon its release, but over the years it grew into a cult favorite frequently name-checked (and cribbe…
Now here's an interesting one. Ry Cuming dropped his first full length album back in 2010, top to bottom filled with coffee shop ready singer-songwriter wanderings, guest spots on the record going to Sarah Bareilles and Jesse Carmichael. Then in 2013, we got a complete reintroduction with the Austr…
Tacoma-based singer Will Jordan's Friday night set at the KEXP's Occidental Stage may have only lasted around an hour, but, in a sense, he's been preparing for it nearly every night of his career. Jordan, who has penned Grammy-nominated hits for artists like Rihanna and Nicki Minaj, creates most of…
New Zealand singer-songwriter Marlon Williams brought his band and their foot-pounding vintage folk to the KEXP studios in support of his first solo record. Longtime the front-man of The Unfaithful Ways, Williams relocated to Melbourne to record and release his eponymous solo album. The rocksteady,…
