As soon as word came out earlier this year that George Lewis Jr. had signed with Warner Brothers, there was one thing that was clear: Twin Shadow was getting bigger. Not just in the commercial sense - rather, all of the massive 80s indulgences explored on past records were now going to have the cei…
LA-natives Allah-Las are about as LA sounding as a car ride through the desert - their sound wasn't made for riding the waves, but for steaming on the beach. Beautiful guitar notes ripple out of a haze of vocal harmonies reminiscent of The Beach Boys. It's hot music for a hot day - "We're feeling k…
Today would have been David Bowie's 71st birthday and in honor of that, a previously unreleased demo of his 1983 hit "Let's Dance" has been unearthed by producer Nile Rodgers. The song was recorded in 1982 in Montreux, Switzerland and included a group of local musicians whose identities are unknown…
Midday Show faves Spoon plan to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Gimme Fiction with a double-album remastered version, out December 11th via Merge Records. The deluxe edition will feature 12 previously unreleased demos and nine bonus tracks, including the home-recorded version of "Was It You?" th…
Canada had their day. Of course, America did. And now France celebrates their independence on Bastille Day, or "La Fête Nationale" as they call it. It was on this day in 1789 that the Parisian prison The Bastille was stormed, culminating in the French Revolution. France, and Paris in particular, ha…
What a great way to kick off 2015: our very first in-studio session of the year was with Canadian musical craftsmen Dan Mangan + Blacksmith. On his fourth album, Club Meds, out now on Arts & Crafts, the Juno Award-winning singer/songwriter expands into new sonic soundscapes with his band, Black…
Ian McLagan, keyboardist for the '60s UK rock band Small Faces (later, known in the '70s as the Faces), passed away today at the age of 69. In a statement released by his management, it was reported, "He died today, December 3, 2014, surrounded by family and friends in his adopted hometown of Austi…
I got my first dose of Young Fathers after I bought a t-shirt from the Anticon Record Label’s online store. To promote them, Anticon slipped a copy of Tape Two with every shipped order, resulting in widespread dissemination of the new band's developing sound. Luckily, I was one of the many to recei…
By and large, the lineup for Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit is composed of electronically-based musicians. But like its namesake, it also swings a little left of center, and on Friday, it was the artists who weren't tied down to their computers, synthesizers, or sequencers that made the str…
Earlier this year, it was reported that Sharon Jones was diagnosed with stage-one bile duct cancer, but thankfully, she is said to be "doing much better," and she and her Dap-Kings have announced a January 14th release date for their next album on Daptone Records. To celebrate, they've shared a ne…
After Red Fang had totally shredded the Bigfoot Stage, punk rock Vancouver-based duo Japandroids jumped on stage and after fairly minimal sound checking, started their sweaty and awesome set. Though the sound was a bit strange (it would later cut out during a Vampire Weekend song), their energy was…
Before legendary soul singer Sharon Jones died last year from pancreatic cancer, she recorded a final album with the Dap-Kings. Today the album has been officially announced and the lead single has been shared. The LP is called Soul Of A Woman and will be out November 17 via Daptone. The single is …
"Let's Go (The Royal We)" was originally intended for the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack
It may be winter, but you won't want to hibernate once you see the line-up for the 2016 Timbrrr! Winter Music Festival, held January 29th through 30th in beautiful Leavenworth, WA.
I first met Cheb i Sabbah as most people did: through his music. I had been a lover of classical Indian music for years, and was completely transfixed by Chebiji's reworking of these classics for the intelligent dancefloor.
Lead vocalist Galen Disston transforms into cult figure head "Glean" in the wild video for this single from 2017's LoveJoys
This week, we’re celebrating the year 1996. KEXP’s Roddy Nikpour tells us how the late and great Coolio was his first exposure to hip-hop … thanks to a theme song he wrote for a show on Nickelodeon.
KEXP DJs Larry Mizell, Jr. and Riz Rollins discuss the new Aretha Franklin biopic. They talk about what the film got right and what was missing. Plus, we hear stories from Riz about seeing Aretha Franklin live.
Laura Marling breaks down hew new album, Patterns in Repeat, which was mostly written after becoming a mother.
