It’s time again for Friday on My Mind, our weekly blog post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News. Easter is around the corner, so we are looking at songs about rabbits. So let's talk rabbit facts. A male rabbit is a bu…
The kids are coming up from behind - James Murphy called it 12 years ago and not much has changed since then. Seen nowhere stronger than in the realm of dance music, youthful vigor and forward thinking to an increasingly younger audience seems to dominate the scene as the spectrum of influences see…
Scottish post-rock band Mogwai are releasing their 9th studio album in twenty years called Every Country's Sun next week. We got a taste of the album via previously released tracks "Coolverine" and "Party In The Dark" but today they're giving us a non-album track, the B-side to "Party In The Dark" …
It's a good week for comebacks. UK band Slowdive return with their first new album in 22 years. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it "a strong return-to-form of shoegazerish dream-pop with swirling, reverbed guitars, ethereal vocals, hazy harmonies and blissed-out melodies." It's been 17 years si…
Unbelievably, It's been almost exactly 8 years since I last shared an album by Hüsker Dü in this parts, and at the time I was surprised I hadn't already gotten around to it. That actually means that the amount of time between these two Hüsker Dü posts is longer than the band itself existed, and twi…
A quick look at the Restorations tour schedule might have your eyes glazing over. After releasing their third studio album (LP3) in only four years at the end of 2014, the Philly indie-rockers have spent most of 2015 tirelessly touring across the U.S., the U.K., and even Jamaica. Or as singer/guita…
What a happy coincidence! When I began my usual internet research for this week's piece on Northwest heroes Mecca Normal, I fully expected to find the usual nostalgic laments for a great band that was no more. How wrong I was! Not only is the two-piece guitar/voice unit of Jean Smith and David Lest…
Justin Vernon, James Blake, Thom Yorke, Pat Grossi — all artists whose voices soar happily in the upper register. Add to them James Vincent McMorrow. With his gorgeously produced new LP, Post Tropical, the Irish singer-songwriter left his folky debut in the dust, choosing instead horns, synths, and…
Take one DJ, one producer and one MC, mix with an eclectic lineup of guests and wrap it in a post-apocalyptic narrative, and you get one of the most unique groups to come about in the past decade, In the year 2000, Kid Koala, Dan The Automator and Del The Funky Homosapien joined forces as Deltron 3…
English post-dubstep engineer James Blake came to Seattle last month for an excellent show at the Neptune in support of widely acclaimed new record Overgrown. The same day, he stopped by the KEXP studio for a four song session with Cheryl Waters. Below, we have videos of Blake's entire performance,…
I figured it might be nice to have a post featuring a band that needed no introduction for a change, so today I bring you In My Tribe, the album that properly launched 10,000 Maniacs into the spotlight thirty years ago (give or take a couple months), where they remained for several years until Nata…
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…
Capitol Hill Block Party 2015 Sunday brought two things: rain and totally incredible music, and both in plentiful volume. But hey, this is Seattle right? Naturally, everyone has a jacket in their back seat/pocket and nothing about the festival seems to be missed under grey skies. The drop in temper…
Anika is the stage name of British-born, frequently Berlin-based singer, songwriter, and political journalist Annika Henderson, a magnetic vocalist and writer that emerged as a solo artist in 2010 with releases on Portishead member Geoff Barrow's Invada Records as well as the highly revered Stones …
It's a great week for local music. The latest from Olympia-via-Seattle artist Briana Marela is what KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls, "her strongest set to date of adventurous electro-pop. Co-produced by Juan Pieczanski and Ryan Heyner of Small Black, the album features a brighter, more dynamic …
I have covered Soul Asylum in this space a couple of times before, but it's been almost exactly four years since the last time. I have had four years to dig back into the earlier, and I presume cooler, albums by this long-running Minneapolis alt-rock mainstay (They still exist! They put out a new a…
This week sees the return of L.A.-based artist Aimee Mann. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls her ninth solo album, "a consistently strong set of intimate, smartly crafted folk-pop, combining a dark, acoustic-oriented sound with her plaintive vocals and often-poignant lyrics reflecting upon lost l…
I don't know how much needs to be said about Hasil "Haze" Adkins that wouldn't be better communicated by merely listening to any of the approximately one million songs he recorded to various fidelities of tape over his fifty-ish year career. The first song I ever heard by Mr. Adkins (thanks to a ca…
This week, as we continue to post KEXP DJs’ Top 10 Albums of 2015 lists, we also want to share the favorites of KEXP's staff, volunteers and interns, the many many dedicated people who work behind the scenes at KEXP, and who are all passionate music fans themselves. We've already shared Part 1 and …
It's Record Store Day Eve, so get to bed early so you can wake up and get in line at your favorite neighborhood store! Many KEXP DJs and staff will be in line, too, hoping to get some of the items below. (Part one of their lists is posted here, and DJ Kevin Cole shares his highlights here.) Plus, c…
