I assumed when I pulled out this record by 17 Pygmies that this would be one of those bands who released a DJ-beloved album or two in the '80s and then quietly dissolved, leaving almost no trace to survive into this Internet age of ours. How wrong I was! It turns out this band - originally a Savage…
Portland synth pop legends STRFKR are no strangers to KEXP, but they came through the studio once again after returning stateside from a quick jaunt over to Japan and played a quick set that included cuts spanning their whole career. Their sound has often been difficult to define: at times straight…
Eagles of Death Metal have returned to Paris for the first time since the November 18 terror attacks. Last night, during a U2 concert, Bono welcomed EODM to the stage, saying, "They were robbed of their stage three weeks ago. We would like to offer them ours tonight." Together they performed a cov…
Ugh, not again: another beloved local musician has been the victim of theft. Producer/musician extraordinaire Erik Blood had his South Seattle studio robbed yesterday. He reports on Facebook, "The thieves attempted to remove the door to the studio, but were only able to pry it open a small amount,…
Holy hell, what an epic finish! Legendary Icelandic band HAM took over Kex Hostel for our final show of the day from Iceland Airwaves. And when we say took over, we really mean it. These heavy rockers formed in 1984, but it was a series of opening gigs for The Sugarcubes in 1988 that began to garne…
When Aaron Dessner of The National hands you the keys to his recording studio, you don't say no. That's exactly what happened when Australian indie-folk duo Luluc relocated to Brooklyn to record their second album, Passerby, out now on Sub Pop Records. The duo of Zoë Randell and Steve Hassett had b…
There are very few bands that find a way to capture the absolute euphoria of endless, boundless love and affection. Plenty manage to navigate the confusing space between love and infatuation, the infinite battle of reconciling affection and compassion, and find countless new ways to spell the woes …
Graduating high school early to pursue music, The Orwells have been rocking the Chicago suburbs since 2009. The release of Remember When on Autumn Tone Records jettisoned them into the spotlight, eventually leading to their appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman. Like the many apartment c…
"It happens to be the most played album on the Afternoon Show this year", Kevin Cole gushed about Sun Structures, the shimmering debut by Temples. The young UK group has been touted by Brit pop luminaries no less than Johnny Marr and Noel Gallagher, and though they may not yet be Top of the Pops, T…
Augustines's new album is cause to rejoice -- as much for the band as for fans. From the ashes Pela, the Brooklyn band beloved by KEXP listeners but embattled by a disinterested music industry, songwriters Billy McCarthy and Eric Sanderson formed this new band named after their shared birth month, …
The title for their latest album, Adios I’m a Ghost, fits The Moondoggies aptly – for, who are they, exactly? Always somehow be-shadowed, always off to the side somewhere, always somehow physically obscured. Upon listening, this is the sense they exude. In fact, lead singer Kevin Murphy noted of th…
The 10th anniversary edition of Decibel Festival begins on Wednesday, September 25, and gathers the crème de la crème of the international electronic music and visual arts community. Holding their own among them are some of Northwest's best electronic artists, like Seattle duo ODESZA. These two you…
Today, millions of Canadians celebrate Canada Day, their nation's birthday, dating back to 1867, when the four current British colonial provinces joined to form the country consisting of ten provinces and three territories that we know today. We at KEXP feel a particular kinship with our polite nor…
Although it began as an anonymous solo project, Arthur Ashin's Autre Ne Veut has emerged as one of the leaders of the current electronic and indie-tinged R&B explosion. Now that the project has evolved into an entity outside of his bedroom, Ashin's live takes on the songs from Anxiety, his seco…
Trends come and go quickly in music. Something can be hot one day and out the next, while some things take hold and never let go. The latter can be sincerely said of The Zombies enduring jazz-infused psychedelia, especially their handful of American hits and acclaimed album Odessey and Oracle. Al…
Montreal's Suuns make a particular kind of low-drone heavy but never "drone music" - they walk the fine line between being experimental and being simply loud rock music. There's never really been the kind of rock n roll vibes you get from other bands walking that line, but instead an industrial syn…
Brooklyn-based band Antibalas, which is Spanish for "bulletproof", released their fifth studio album last August. This release really launched them on a sizable worldwide tour and lucky for us they happened to make a stop in Seattle. Founded in the late 90s, Antibalas has never strayed from their s…
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…
Closing out another unbelievable night of music at KEX Hostel was English rapper and poet Kate Tempest. A “wayward youth” in her early teens, she was later inspired by an english teacher who got her into poetry, and at age 16 began her career as a poet, playwright, rapper, and spoken word artist. S…
For fans of '90s shoegaze, the past few years have been a rush of reunions: Slowdive. Ride. Lush. Swirlies. Okay, hear me out. Unlike their UK contemporaries, the at-the-time Boston-based band followed a more lo-fi path, combining a DIY, punk aesthetic with their swoony, well, "swirly" guitars. In …
