After years of extensive touring, Seattle band Ivan & Alyosha released a new album called All the Times We Had. The group celebrated its release by hanging with DJ Cheryl Waters earlier this year and playing a live set at the KEXP studios. “I want to be the man who understands his woman and you…
Toronto production duo Southern Shores stepped up as one of Cascine Records' earliest acts, helping establish the NYC label's affinity for a dreamy, summery aesthetic with a pair of EPs at the turn of the decade. Four years since their latest release, they've recently resurfaced to unleash their de…
Back in April, Father John Misty (aka Josh Tillman) had an in-depth, intimate chat with DJ Cheryl Waters before his latest LP, Pure Comedy, had even arrived via Sub Pop Records. (You can listen to that here.) A month later, he reunited with Cheryl for this unique live in-studio session, performing …
This weekend, Saturday, April 29th and Sunday, April 30th, KEXP is proud to co-host the Punk Rock Flea Market alongside our neighbors at the The Vera Project and SIFF. More than 100 vendors will be scattered across our three buildings, and there will be DJs, booze, food, and live music from Bacteri…
Back in 2010, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim collaborated on the concept album and "disco musical" Here Lies Love, which tells the story of former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos. Following award-winning runs in New York, London, and Adelaide, Australia, the project has now arrived in Sea…
Not only is he a talented musician, Ty Segall is quite an accomplished visual artist (see one of his paintings below). And later this month, he'll debut his first-ever solo exhibition in Chicago, titled Assterpiece Theater. A press release reads, "These aren’t multi-media pieces; they are painting…
Hamilton, Ontario vocalist and electronic producer Jessy Lanza has emerged as a thrilling contemporary artist with her cutting-edge fusion of progressive electronic rhythms, ethereal R&B vibes, and experimental synth-pop sensibilities. Her new sophomore album, Oh No, recently released on the la…
From heartbreak to the end of the world: that's how DJ Troy Nelson describes the trajectory of albums from singer/songwriter Marissa Nadler. "I think this is album seven or something? I don't know," she says with a smile and a shake of her head. Over the past 16 years, this ethereal singer/songwrit…
I love it when I stumble across an album that got regular play in my house growing up in the KEXP stacks - especially when the super-cool college DJs of yore actually thought it was pretty good! I'm certain that by the time my parents were buying records by The Human League they were getting plent…
Die Kreuzen is one of the many bands of the '80s and '90s about whom my principal awareness derives from having seen their records in the bins at my usual Harvard Square haunts (I've always been much more of a browser than a buyer, alas). Since I studied German for all four years of high school, I …
After their blazing performance in the KEXP studio, DJ Troy Nelson quips, "Is the room still intact?" We're not sure about that, but now we do know that METZ is in all caps for a reason. Known for a ferocious, raw energy that funnels directly into their terrifyingly primal performances, METZ does n…
One of my favorite days of the year is fast approaching — Record Store Day, an international holiday for record collectors and music lovers! A day to celebrate the role of the independent record store in the community, as a gathering space to discover, share, and experience the joy of music and com…
"Should is a worthless word," advises the always-wise Bobby Bare Jr. "The only time you use the word 'should' is when you're talking about something that doesn't exist." On his seventh album, Undefeated, the Nashville artist clearly strives forward without any "shoulds" — laying himself, well, "bar…
The local four-piece that calls "Earth" its hometown, The Comettes have honed the sound born in the 1980's - that distorted, etherial, big-voiced rock - and made it their own here and now in 2014. Think: David Byrne, Lou Reed or even Pearl Jam if you slowed down the tape a bit. The band released th…
On-U Sound is a record label based in England since 1979, focusing on dub music in its many forms - or at least some of its many forms - from Lee Scratch Perry to label founder Adrian Sherwood's own work. Compilations have always been a great way for labels to give the world a taste of what they h…
Dum Dum Girls are no fools. The NYC group combines fashionable urban chic with a deadly cool to a devastating effect, and they approach music the same way. On their third album and latest album, Too True (which we adoringly reviewed here), Dum Dum Girls mastermind Dee Dee Penny filters girl band po…
With her otherworldly voice, it's hard to pinpoint where songwriter Cameron Mesirow, better as Glasser, is from. Upon first listen to her ethereal electronic sounds and acrobatic soprano voice, you might be inclined to guess she's from Iceland, but the L.A. artist actually just relocated to New Yor…
It was a session DJ Cheryl Waters had been waiting 20 years for: The Waterboys, a band who are actually celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, despite frontman Mike Scott being a mere 24-years-old, wink. The long-running group are on tour supporting their seven-CD collection, Fisherman's Box…