Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova is on a hunger strike, protesting an atmosphere of “slave labor” in her Russian prison. Today, she writes in a letter proliferated by her husband, “I am going on hunger strike and refusing to participate in colony slave labor. I will do this until the administrat…
You won't find many wallflowers growing among the hills and dales of Scotland. Even in their quieter moments, Scots tend to go big. Witness Glasgow band Frightened Rabbit, who on their latest album, Pedestrian Verse, play "folk rock" at its most anthemic. The impassioned lads are no strangers to KE…
Tomorrow, Beat Connection drop their new LP, Product 3, on ANTI- Records. Everything about that sentence makes me want to run outside shouting for joy and hug the first person I see. Beat Connection fans, both in their home town of Seattle and afar, have been waiting on Product 3 for a minute now. …
As we waited at the Paramount Theatre for the Father John Misty show to begin, a fellow show-goer said to me, "Sometimes he walks around the crowd during the opener. He followed me on Twitter today and I literally died, so I'm gonna say hi to him if I can find him." I wondered in my head how this g…
Despite their being named after my favorite brand of pants and the fact that I loved me some poppy punk rock music in my early teens, I don't believe I ever got into The Dickies. Maybe they were just a little too goofy for me, or maybe I was so busy with the output of Dischord and Lookout! Records …
KEXP's Afternoon Show host Kevin Cole pumps up the volume with a great mix of new music and live rarities in celebration and appreciation of KEXP's Amplifiers Club donors! Turn it up! 1. Sonic Avenues - In Your Head 2. Guided By Voices - Psychotic Crush 3. Thee Oh Sees - Drop 4. Sharon Van E…
New York indie outfit Cymbals Eat Guitars have premiered a new video for their third single "Have a Heart," off of last year's album Pretty Years. The overtly political video, directed by Geoffray Barbier, is framed like a fake TV newsreel, featuring footage of protestors in front of Trump Tower, a…
Partly-local band Widowspeak has announced the follow up 2015’s All Yours. Their new album is titled Expect The Best and will be released later this summer. Frontwoman Molly Hamilton wrote the songs while she was living in her hometown of Tacoma, Washington. The band, formed in Brooklyn, have under…
As a teenager, Jordan Gatesmith fronted the Minneapolis-based band Howler, whose sneering garage-rock sound caught the attention of UK label Rough Trade. (You can check out their KEXP performance during SXSW 2012 here on the blog, and a 2014 in-studio session here.) After two albums, Gatesmith disb…
Seattle's Wishbeard is one of those great bands that keeps the high hat and snare drum going. This is part of what makes them eminently danceable. With etherial guitars and vocal shouts like wolves howling into the night, the drum keeps a tight, pushing rhythm highlighted by the quickly hit snares …
If you happen to break up with someone don’t go on a drinking binge and record emotional songs with the hopes of playing them for your ex. Right? Well, usually. This equation actually worked for Stuart McLamb, however, frontman for the North Carolina-based group The Love Language. McLamb originally…
Brooklyn-based (formerly San Francisco) shoegaze band Weekend came into the picture at the turn of the decade with Sports, a strong introductory statement that could have seen the band go in plenty of different directions in the future. But in the form of Jinx, their sophomore step mixes dense text…
The Flaming Lips have plans to release a new EP based on the themes from the novel Ender’s Game. Originally, the group had signed on to write a song for the film adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s well-known book, but decided to extend the scope of the project to an album. The name of the record? Pea…
The expectations are always a little different when you go see a musician who is potentially past his/her prime. John Cale has been playing for over thirty years, and as a seminal member of the Velvet Underground and a striking solo artist since the 70s, there is an incredible amount of material h…
Moving homes can be hard. Even if you're staying in the same city, there's a sense of emotional attachment that can be hard to let go of — after all, you're making a major adjustment to the functionality of your everyday life. If you're making a cross-country move, well, you can imagine the interna…
Something felt different in the Neumos basement last week as the crowd packed in to see Shy Girls. The Portland electronic act, led by Dan Vidmar, has been around for a couple years, dropping lush EPs including the lauded Timeshare, making earnest love songs for the introspective bedroom-ridden lis…
Seattle's dj100proof is the alias of Jeff Lawrence, one of most assured and smoothest DJs in the local music community. Well-known for his vibrant cutting-edge blends and his "Backyard BBQ" mixtape series, he's been a driving force and resident behind a flurry of on-going DJ nights and parties - cu…
