"Are you digging our laid-back vibe?" Band of Horses band leader Ben Bridwell asked the audience during their recent concert at Seattle's Moore Theatre. Following their recently released live recording, Acoustic at the Ryman, Bridwell and co. chose to perform very loose, rootsy interpretations from…
Hot on the heels of the release of excellent new album Avalanche, Danish soul duo Quadron are touring the states and bringing the marvelous combination of Robin Hannibal's production and Coco O's angelic voice to the stage. While Hannibal was not on stage with Coco and the band, their tunes still c…
For good reason, Foals have earned a reputation for some wild and frenetic peformances, mixing high energy math rock with modern take on 90's Britpop. It's not really a show if frontman Yannis Philippakis isn't surfing the crowd or climbing the walls. Yet Foals have never been one-dimension and thr…
May has been a big month for Mary Lambert. In the wake of the success of "Same Love" - her 2012 collaboration with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis that served as a rallying cry to same-sex couples worldwide - the Seattle-based singer/songwriter has been writing new songs, playing a series of local show…
Tickets are now on sale for the annual Noise For the Needy music festival taking place in Ballard on June 20th - 23rd. Get your tickets on the festival's website, noisefortheneedy.org, and get ready to see great Seattle bands performing in favorite Ballard venues like the Tractor Tavern, the Sunse…
From their very first single, "Found Love in a Graveyard," London by way of Glasgow band Veronica Falls set the tone of their future releases: their sunny take on gloomy topics makes for happy listening in the darkened Northwest, that's for sure. Their 2011 self-titled debut channeled everyone from…
Seattle emcee DoNormaal offers surprise after lyrical surprise in the tightly packed, staccato rhymes brimming on her latest LP, Third Daughter. The rapper, who burst on the Emerald City scene in November 2015 with the release of her beloved first full-length Jump Or Die has maintained status as on…
As a born and bred Northwesterner, seeing a dual lineup of my teenage (and adult) favorites Modest Mouse and Built To Spill play at the fair I went to every single year from the time I was a child until I was a pre-teen, the Puyallup Fair (I'm sorry, but it will never be the Washington State Fair t…
San Francisco experimental indie band Deerhoof have contributed a cover of Madonna's "Live to Tell" to a new benefit compilation called Post - Trash: Volume Three. The proceeds of the compilation are benefitting the Maria Fund, which is a relief agency to help those affected by the hurricane in Pue…
Mary Lambert, who sings the beautiful hook on the Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ song about marriage equality, “Same Love”, recently released her solo EP, Welcome To the Age of My Body, on Capitol Records. KEXP caught up with Mary as she was in Los Angeles preparing for the Grammy Awards, where “Same L…
Is March too early to get your festival season started? We don’t think so and, frankly, we don't care. Treefort Music Fest, running now until Sunday, March 26 in downtown Boise, Idaho, is too good to miss. Looking at headliners alone, the festival boasts two of the biggest names in independent musi…
As if today isn't heartbreaking enough with the death of Prince, but the news also reports that Richard Lyons, founding member of Negativland, passed away earlier this week from complications due to a nodular melanoma. He had just turned 57 years old the day before. Lyons, better known to fans as …
Unlike a lot of teenagers out there, 19-year-old Bridie Monds-Watson, a.k.a. SOAK, seems to handle success with a modest and casual confidence. Her career has taken off rather quickly, from writing songs in the basement of her home in Derry, Northern Ireland, to flying from country to country perfo…
"We could be in an igloo inside of a cave of ice," gasped a sweaty Dan Deacon. "And I would still be a puddle." To be fair, the KEXP studio's ventilation was only partially the reason why the Baltimore-based musician was drenched in sweat. The other reason was that he was two songs into a breakneck…
Twelve years ago, a New York band called Interpol released a song called "NYC". The third track on the band's debut LP Turn on the Bright Lights and the song that makes reference of the album's title within, it's the first of many emotional high points on the record. But more importantly, it's a di…
For creators and fans alike, music has always provided catharsis, relief and healing. But Few artists tap so directly into that power as Tim Showalter, whose project Strand of Oaks goes so far as to name its most recent album Heal. Like pages from a diary, the Philly-based songwriter's lyrics delve…
Wherever Chickfactor goes, I will follow. The premiere indiepop zine, Chickfactor began in 1992, around the same time the east coast pop scene was starting to explode. Labels were forming, like Slumberland and Teen-Beat, and founders Gail O'Hara and Pam Berry were on the scene, interviewing bands, …
Get ready of an alt-country battle royale when local musicians take on the songs of Uncle Tupelo vs. The Jayhawks on Thursday, January 30th at the Tractor Tavern! Don Slack of KEXP's Swingin' Doors will referee the rockin' ruckus, but really, everyone wins because all proceeds from this event go to…
