In December 2013, Benjamin Curtis of School of Seven Bells passed away after a battle with T-cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. This February 2016, his bandmate Alejandra Deheza will release the album SVIIB, featuring parts Curtis recorded before his death. In a post on their website, Deheza writes, "Be…
When a band self-titles an album midway through their career, it's usually for one of two reasons: they've either run out of ideas or they've taken a significantly new tact. For Portland duo The Helio Sequence, the reason is obvious. Rather than mull over songs in their usual slow-going and contemp…
With Ibeyi, every song is a blessing, sometimes quite literally. The Parisian born twin sisters reach deep into their French-Cuban ancestry and call upon the spirits of Santería on their debut LP, which blends Yoruban evocations with contemporary expressions of love and loss. Their music is, as the…
Seattle's own Duff McKagan is here to help you start the new year off right. The longtime Guns N' Roses guitarist is releasing the book How To Be A Man (And Other Illusions), a collection of his old Seattle Weekly columns. McKagan explains, "It’s a how-to guide of things I’ve learned about life — …
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…
Today is National Pet Day! While you probably don't need a lot of reminders to appreciate that furried, feathered or finned one in your life, who might right now be curled up beside you, romping around your yard or sitting eagerly waiting for food, today is for remembering all our little friends. P…
This is The Party Podcast, a podcast that's about a state of mind and a way of being. DJ Sharlese has carefully selected each song for this podcast, featuring real-life party tips from Andrew W.K. and KEXP staff, because she and her friends would like to party with you! Put on your party hat …
We're calling all music fans to unite for a cause that matters. Join our PNW music community in donating blood and help keep the rhythm going in someone's life. Turn up the volume on kindness!
We're calling all music fans to unite for a cause that matters. Join our PNW music community in donating blood and help keep the rhythm going in someone's life. Turn up the volume on kindness!
Previous Mercury Prize-nominees Django Django have shared the second single from their forthcoming album Marble Skies. The track is called "In Your Beat" and comes with a pop-art inspired collage video directed by SKG (Sophie Koko-Gate) with art direction by Brodie Kaman. The band's producer/drumm…
In what seems like the longest album rollout of 2017, Arcade Fire have revealed some more information about their forthcoming album Everything Now. We now know the full tracklist via a video that shows the new album cover with scrolling words revealing each song, as well as a list on the pre-order …
Last year, the documentary The Smart Studios Story premiered, a tribute to the now-legendary recording studio, founded by also now-legendary producer/musician Butch Vig and Steve Marker. Opened in 1983 when the two were college students at the University of Wisconsin, and closed in 2010 after a dec…
The sheer volume of great pop music coming out of the UK can be overwhelming, and that’s only what makes it Stateside. Imagine actually living there, surrounded on all sides by unending legacy and talent. That’s exactly the type of pressure cooker from which London based pop artist Oscar has emerge…
Rounding out the first night of of KEXP's Iceland Airwaves broadcast live from Kex Hostel is Icelandic punk band Fufanu. The band began life as techno outfit Captain Fufanu, but after the theft of the computer containing their record, they cut “Captain” from their name and jumped into a completely …
As Oli Bayston, a.k.a. Boxed In, says, "Everyone who creates something is a product of their influences" - and he should know. The British record producer certainly has had a wide of array of influences, growing out of his previous work as frontman for the four-piece Manchester rock band Keith and …
Local hip hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis return with the sentimental track "Growing Up," dedicated to Macklemore’s baby daughter, Sloane. He says on his website, "When you try to escape yourself, life has an interesting way of creating situations that force you to come back. To look at who yo…
"An encore. How predictable," said a pre-recorded video of the cover model from Belle & Sebastian's latest album right before the Glaswegian pop stalwarts returned to the stage. And she was right. Contrary to their historical tradition, encores at modern concerts are almost always planned well …
Our second live Iceland Airwaves show of the day at Kex Hostel was friend of the station and amiable funny man Júníus Meyvant. This lanky ginger haired songster is a bit of an enigma, with no album and scant online presence. Unnar Gísli Sigurmundsson, his given name, began performing music a bit la…
Sometimes life's journeys lead us back home matter how far away we travel. It's been nearly eight years since U.K. born producer Will Holland released a solo album as Quantic. He was certainly busy the whole time, producing records, collaborating with Alice Russell, and most significantly, moving t…
