Electronic music’s second massive wave of popularity is in full swing. For the first time since disco, Top 40 music is far more influenced by modern dance trends than traditional R&B or rock elements. By and large, the highest paid DJs do better than the highest paid rappers. After being critic…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of 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, selected by Midday S…
The alias of Merseyside, UK-based producer Matthew Barnes, Forest Swords has steadily emerged as one of the most exciting artists exploring the darker magnetic fringes of exploratory electronic music, folding numerous genres into his own undefinable sound since debuting in 2009 and unleashing early…
ADULT. for nearly 20 years, consistently evolving their sound over six studio albums released on revered labels Mute, Ghostly International, Thrill Jockey, as well as their own imprint, Ersatz Audio. Currently in the midst of a stacked US tour in support of their new collaborative-heavy studio albu…
A 12:30 a.m. timeslot on the final day of a four-day Sasquatch! Music Festival is a daunting test. You're either playing to whoever's passed out on the lawn or people who are, for any number of personal and chemical reasons, not ready to let their festival experience end. Jamie xx wasn't the most e…
Portland band Radiation City have come a long way since their cassette-exclusive underground releases, tapes that quickly earned praise for their vintage stylings, pleasant dream-pop explosions over 60's harmonies and sways, synth parts that sound like what people thought 1984 would sound like befo…
Even though Little Dragon were billed before the festival-standard massive DJ on the Bigfoot Stage on Friday night, they might have secretly been the night's best dance party. The common thread between each of the songs in the Swedish band's set was their innate danceability. Moving from elastic fu…
Hey, it's another Shimmy-Disc release! Apparently I have this unconscious attraction to their catalog. When People Were Shorter and Lived Near the Water is one of those bands whose name I've noticed (how could you not?) and admired for decades, but I don't believe I've ever heard them until just no…
Yes, yes, we're all excited that the Postal Service is playing tonight at Key Arena. But did you know that long before the Postal Service there was a band from Chicago called The Service? Neither did I until just now, but based on Trouser Press's description, this sounds like an '80s college radio …
Pigface is yet another band that I should have been all over in my high school years, as a fan of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Big Black, Foetus, and all things tinny and discordant and rhythmic and yelly. I know I was aware of their existence, but did I know their debut full length album, Gub, featu…
When it comes to long-lived makers of weird music, Einstürzende Neubauten is a fair match for Pere Ubu. Pere Ubu was founded a couple of years earlier, but as far as I can tell Neubauten has never had an officially inactive period. Pere Ubu is arguably the poppier of the two bands (most of their so…
While many people are compiling their year-end lists and shopping for gift-worthy deluxe reissues for the upcoming holidays, some bands are still releasing excellent new albums that you'll want to hear before you make any final decisions. A few of this week's releases see some KEXP favorites making…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of 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 Afte…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of 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, selected by Midday S…
