This year is Wilco's twentieth anniversary, but the posit of Wilco merely being a band for two decades is a somewhat reductive statement – across their career, they've covered as much musical ground (and employed as many personnel) as three or four bands. They started out as alt-country lifers tryi…
Happy 2015! As always at the beginning of a new year there's been a lot of looking back at the year that just passed, but in this series I tend to cast my glance a bit farther back. So let's take a trip to 1984, and a little straight edge hardcore band from Boston called D.Y.S. I'm actually pretty …
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. Super Bowl Sunday is almost upon us. This year the battle will take place at The MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New…
In true Seattle fashion, locals embraced the rain last Friday to enjoy the first in the Concerts at the Mural series this month, No Depression Night, presented by KEXP and Seattle Center, and curated in partnership with No Depression. It was easy to forget about the weather while watching talented …
If you've been listening to the Morning Show with John Richards, you've probably heard a lot of up-and-comers Wild Cub, whose energetic, electronic-infused sound takes the best from 80's new wave romanticism, R&B and indie rock and makes it impossible to sit still. Back in February, the Nashvil…
Record Store Day may yet be three weeks away, but you'll find a ton of great new music at your favorite record shop today, including the latest from The Black Angels. KEXP listeners have long been fans of this Austin band, and in fact we even had them perform in-studio before the release of their v…
Twenty freaking years. That's how long this ridiculous party has been going on in Capitol Hill. Every July, we all march up the hill and pack out the block for a madcap weekend of music and festivities at the Capitol Hill Block Party. $1 Rainiers at Sam's, free snacks everywhere, the Bus trying to …
HEALTH's new record Death Magic has a pretty significant lead up to it. After working on a third album for some time, the band got an opportunity to work on the soundtrack for Rockstar's Max Payne 3, which they knocked out of the park in every plausible way. The extra time focused on production and…
Seattle noise fans know when you see "Debacle Records presents" at the top of a show poster, you are in for something. New York's Pharmakon may be on the fantastic Sacred Bones Records, but I think she'd be welcomed with open arms into a lasting relationship with Debacle Records, who supplied the r…
Death Cab for Cutie is a band that embodies change. From the light-hearted melancholy of "Photobooth" to the heavy-handed post-marital blows of "Cath...", Death Cab have shown us hundreds of ways in which circumstances shift and we find ourselves to be different people when the light changes. We mi…
Categorization systems are important for us as humans. It's how we make sense of this sometimes nonsensical world we live in. Which is why as soon as radio delivered us a bevy of different styles of music, we immediately had to put everyone into categories, starting with the basics: jazz, rock, cla…
With Oh My Virgin Ears!, KEXP's (young) intern Gabe Pollak takes a first listen at iconic albums in music history. With revered UK group Radiohead playing a sold out show next door at Key Arena tonight, we had him spend some time with the band's third LP -- often called "one of the greatest albums …
This Saturday, August 13th, The Vera Project & Friends of Waterfront Seattle present Vera at the Waterfront: a much needed, free, all-ages excuse to pretend the summer's end isn't rapidly approaching. Complete with a stacked lineup of local musicians and art installation provided by Vera's scre…
A name change and an absence from the Sasquatch! Music Festival app will definitely effect the number of people at a show. But if the crowd at Preoccupations was any reflection of their controversial previous name, their show on the Yeti stage Saturday night was surely a reflection of their promisi…
When asked how they deal with the stress of extensive touring, Yelle quips, "We are planking. Every day." Maybe we should be taking notes. Hailing from Brittany, France, electropop duo Yelle (Julie Budet) and Grandmarnier (Jean-François Perrier) have captured a wide following in recent years with f…
With their new release The Wanting, Seattle’s Nightmare Fortress have created the perfect blend of somber and emotionally intense sonic streams of grandiose grave wave soundscapes. Enthralled by this ambiguous and unnerving artwork, KEXP caught up with guitarist Cassidy Gonzales to discuss the maca…
"I just wanna keep very, very quiet," admits Aly Spaltro (a.k.a Lady Lamb) at the end of the fourth verse of "Billions of Eyes". It's not an inaccurate statement, but it also doesn't mean she won't get loud when she needs to. Spaltro builds intricate songs that move through dynamics and lyrics more…
Will Butler, best known as a core member of Arcade Fire, opened up the second day of Sasquatch on the main stage with a fun set of driving rock. Butler is a multi-instrumentalist, and seems equally confident on guitar, keys, or just playing the front man and singing. Indeed, his dynamic stage prese…
It didn't take long for Merchandise frontman Carson Cox's dry sense of humor to set in with his band's Saturday afternoon crowd. "So we're from Florida," he deadpanned. "Can you believe it?" On a hot afternoon, the hazy qualities of Merchandise's music were brought to the forefront, an effect that …
