They've been playing together in one form or another since they were kids, so maybe it's not a surprise that within a year of their first single, Los Angeles' HAIM feel like natural stars. The three sisters that comprise the band - Danielle, Este, and and Alana - give great interviews. They have hi…
KEXP’s Cheryl Waters recently caught up with St. Vincent to talk about Daddy’s Home, what about the 70s inspired her, the power of backup singers, and the women St. Vincent shouts out in her song, "Melting Of The Sun."
KEXP counts down the top albums of the last 50 years as voted on by our listeners in conjunction with our 2022 fall fundraising drive.
Santa Barbara synthpop group Gardens & Villa have been on the road for nearly four months straight. Ever since their sophomore LP Dunes dropped on Secretly Canadian, they’ve been road-tripping around this county and others, showing off what a new batch of tunes and a refined live show have to o…
KEXP has a special love for Operators in the live setting. Sure, synth-heavy brainchild of Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits) would fit on KEXP's airwaves regardless, but we have history together. Three days after the band announced it existed, they played on KEXP and later in t…
There's a great scene in Richard Linklater's film Boyhood where Mason Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) is about 10 or 11 years old and is in Houston sleeping over at his dad's place when he asks him this great question. "Dad, there's no, like, real magic in the world is there?" Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke) asks him…
Where do you draw the line between the man Ariel Rosenberg and Ariel Pink, the rock icon and sex god character he's brewed up to give to all of us over the last 15 years? That's not a rhetorical question - honestly, I couldn't tell you. I don't think there's a good answer. But then again, with a re…
From the downstroke of the show opener "Bullet" from their new record Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, Franz Ferdinand had Showbox Sodo off its feet. "Bullet" is an easy highlight off the band's fourth LP, with its furious bass line and scream-along chorus concert ready at impact, and the…
A student at Virginia Tech has to be giving credit for creating on of the most random news stories to surface in a while. This student sent an amusing and confusing email to local label Sub Pop, urging Nirvana to reunite and record a school-spirited video for Virginia Tech's homecoming. To fully u…
Touring heavy records is hard. In today’s day and age, heavy-handed works of staggering genius are hardly appreciated in the album form, let alone trying to communicate that weight in a crowded room facing a loaded bar. But in these heavy times, there are those who brave the difficulties and make i…
"I felt a blue wave coming on." If there were any way to sum up the trying events that led up to the amalgamation of Dan Boeckner's latest project Operators, the album's title track does it pretty well. Dan Boeckner, responsible for Wolf Parade (alongside Spencer Krug) and Handsome Furs (alongside …
In all the press shots for their new album, Swedish indie rock veterans Peter Bjorn and John are decked out in custom jumpsuits and armed with cartoon tools. They look like they are ready for a day of work at the zaniest garage or gear shop that you've ever seen. And yet, the imagery is fitting, pe…
Chromatics have had an unprecedented 2015. The world has been talking about their upcoming LP Dear Tommy since December. We've been listening to its singles since February when we got "Just Like You", quickly followed by "I Can Never Be Myself When You're Around". In April, we got the massive "In F…
Since he broke his band up in the most grandiose way possible, James Murphy has stayed incredibly busy - maybe busier than he was when he was in LCD Soundsystem. It seems like every couple months, there's word of a new project from James, though not necessarily musical in nature. Sure, James has co…
