Lusine is the alias of Seattle-based electronic producer Jeff McIlwain, a veteran artist within our local music community who's sublime and meticulous blend of techno, house, ambient, and downtempo styles has found a home on the premier American record label Ghostly International for over a decade …
Baltimore synthpop trio Future Islands have an undeniable '80s influence, so who better than Vince Clarke, frontman of Erasure and former member of Depeche Mode, to remix them? Clarke takes the track "Doves" from the band's most recent release, Singles, and transforms it into a smooth dance-club s…
If Fanfarlo's right, there'll be a definite beauty in our demise. Their third album, Let's Go Extinct, looks at both the big and small pictures of our lives -- who are we? what are we made of? what are we doing? where are we going? how will we end? And by the sound of it, there's a joy in singing a…
Earlier this year, post-punk legends Wire conceived of a music festival, DRILL. Frontman Colin Newman explains, "The concept is simple: it's an unpretentious city festival featuring artists from across all genres actively curated by Wire with a lot of input from local, informed media partners. The …
Midday Show host Cheryl Waters loves Fall and her reward is more great music, including a song called Halloween and beaucoup bands from Seattle. 1. The Weather Station - Shy Women 2. Sóley - Halloween 3. Youth Lagoon - The Knower 4. Israel Nash - LA Lately 5. Hamilton Leithauser & Paul Maroo…
Vagabon will talk about her latest album and the meaning behind her song, “Every Woman.” Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon will fill us in on how materialism, LA culture, and her “trashy aesthetic” influenced her first solo record, No Home Record. Jónsi & Alex talk about touring on their 10-year-old album, …
Today we talk with two mastering engineers, who put the final touches on music before it’s released. It’s Seattle’s Rachel Field, who has worked with Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam, and the Cairo-born, Brooklyn-based engineer Heba Kadry, who has worked with Björk, Lucy Dacus, Slowdive, The Mars Volta a…
I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp is exactly the succulently-written, shit-talking, salty dog memoir you’d want from the man who dreamed and ignited punk. Richard Hell was a fun-loving little Kentucky cowboy as a kid, loving TV, growing up with peak period 60s Stones and Dylan LPs, dreaming of tak…
At nearly every day of any festival, there's an artist who's set time becomes a casualty to equipment changeover delays, and on Friday, that artist was Phosphorescent. But maybe it was a blessing in disguise, because those who waited through the nearly 20-minute delay at Sasquatch were rewarded wit…
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. Using inspirational songs during sports competitions helps pump up and motivate both athletes and fans. Music plays a pa…
I've probably said this before, but this is kind of the perfect Review Revue album. Released on RR favorites Shimmy Disc (see also here and here and here and here and oh yes, over here), featuring members of Half Japanese, partially recorded at Inner Ear studios (okay, that's more of a me thing), b…
Anyone who's stared at the iconic Seattle landmark the Space Needle has wondered when that thing would blast off. On July 11th, it did as long running Seattle legends Mudhoney rocked the top of the Needle during KEXP and Sub Pop's Silver Jubilee Broadcast, celebrating the label's 25th anniversary. …
Desaparecidos, who released their first new pair of songs last years since their one and only album in 2002, have followed up with a new pair of songs today. The new tracks from Conor Oberst and co. are "Anonymous" and "The Left is Right", and they tackle the obvious political associations with th…
Suzi Quatro is probably the first person I've covered in this blog series who was also a cast member on Happy Days - which I watched quite a bit as a kid, but I don't remember much of. But perhaps Quatro's bass-playing character Leather Tuscadero was an early influence, subconsciously leading me to…
Unlike many of the bands I tend to cover in this space, Soul Asylum were a college rock band who made it out of the '80s to become one of the biggest "alternative" rock bands of the '90s - they were one of the alternative-era major label signings that stuck, having been affiliated with a major labe…
When we last left off, the crew and I were on our way to the Parc Expo where a majority of the Trans Musicales shows are held. It’s a 15 minute shuttle ride from the neighborhood where we are staying. The Parc Expo is a large compound of warehouses the size of airline hangers to accommodate the app…
Here's a piece of Capitol Hill Block Party trivia for you: Diplo is the only artist on the bill this weekend who has performed for 500,000 people at one time. At a free show in Havana, Cuba, in 2016, the first by an American artist since the US and Cuba re-established diplomatic relations in 2015, …
Our second live performance of the day came from Mr. Karl Blau, long a fixture of the local music scene in Anacortes, WA, who has released upwards of 30 records since the early-90s. Playing tracks from a forthcoming record, as well as his interpretations of songs from the 60s and 70s presented on 2…
This week, we continue sharing our discoveries from the Trans Musicales festival in Rennes, France, where last December we captured twelve exclusive sessions. We’re sharing with you one unique session each Friday, and you can watch all the previously released ones here. This week we present cinemat…
