Suuns are riding high this year following the release of their second full-length Images Du Futur, and when they showed up to play at KEXP's broadcast in Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop at SXSW the crowd got to see the band burn with confidence through a set of powerful, propulsive post-rock. Suuns alwa…
"It's not a perfect record, but then you wouldn't want it to be" - The Quietus' Emily Mackay hits the nail right on the head in her review of Palma Violets' debut album 180: the London quartet's most endearing quality isn't their pop-sensible hooks, psychedelically-tinged guitar hooks, or their sha…
Aaron Beam, bassist for Portland’s Red Fang, once told me that he believed the long-standing punk-versus-metal dichotomy died when Metallica’s 1984 sophomore album Ride the Lightning came out. I believe he is correct, and the fact that Oakland, California’s Neurosis formed in 1985 only provides mor…
At a festival, it's rare to get a performance that feels "intimate." It's something most fans reconcile with before they ever enter the gates and scan their wristbands. So walking into the KEXP Gathering Space on Saturday afternoon at the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival and finding the crowd …
KEXP listeners vote for their favorite performances from KEXP's YouTube channel.
Each week, The Cobain 50 podcast digs into albums Kurt Cobain listed in his journal as his "Top 50" and how they may have influenced him and Nirvana.
When Seattle hip-hop duo Shabazz Palaces announced an album release show for their sophomore LP, Lese Majesty, there was no question that the event would be a family affair. Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire both have deep Seattle roots and have helped assemble a brilliant coalition of artistic min…
Travel to the land of the midnight sun as we journey to Reykjavik, Iceland, once again to join our friends at Kex Hostel for a summer bash. KEXPort celebrates KEXP's ongoing relationship (now in its sixth year, believe it or not!) with our similarly named hosts of our annual winter broadcast during…
The MusicfestNW / Project Pabst teamup makes plenty of sense on paper - one had a great location on the Portland Waterfront last year, and one had a truly unique, interesting lineup - and at the end of day one of the newly-combined fests, it turns out it works in practice too. Despite being sold ou…
Earlier this month, we announced that grunge supergroup Temple of the Dog were reuniting for the 25th anniversary of their debut, self-titled, and only LP. Well, now, according to an interview in Rolling Stone, it sounds like there might even be new music from the team of Chris Cornell of Soundgar…
A Deerhunter show is never just going to be Bradford Cox and company playing songs for two hours. This, as they’ve established in the past decade, is just not how the Atlanta band works. The gig might not always be as chaotic as the now-infamous “My Sharona” show and Cox might not run offstage, lea…
Is there any band that has defined the sounds of early 80s like New Order? From the post-punk roots of "Ceremony" to "Age of Consent", and the new-wave brilliance of "Blue Monday" to "The Perfect Kiss", New Order are the figurehead of an era. They extended their reign through 1993's Republic, where…
It's hard to describe our anticipation for the full-length debut from Mr. Silla. We've featured Sigurlaug Gisladóttir, a longtime member of Icelandic band múm, with her own project for the past few years -- recording her first in her own Reykjavik studio in 2011, then during our broadcast at Icelan…
Ben Gibbard continues his campaign against L.A. with the Death Cab for Cutie video for "The Ghosts of Beverly Drive." The clip for the latest Kintsugi single features the band on a celebrity-sighting tour bus with Gibbard as the reluctant tour guide. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gibbard exp…
Seven years without a new album. Nearly biannual membership shuffles. Repeated reports of studio sessions without any release. For a minute, Modest Mouse looked like they might have been heading down the lucrative but artistically fruitless legacy act path that a few of their contemporaries are sta…
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…
In recent years, the Gorge has hosted some incredible singalongs: "Skinny Love", "Seven Nation Army", "Where It's At", and "Wake Up" have all been shouted by 15,000+ people in unison to make a you-had-to-be-there festival moment. As great as all of those are, there's something special about listeni…
