It's not often that the Review Revue files intersect with what's going on in the present day, due to the archive-digging nature of this project, but every once in a while we get lucky. This week's band, Pere Ubu - perhaps one of the longest-lived bands I've covered in this series - is playing tomor…
After years of extensive touring, Seattle band Ivan & Alyosha released a new album called All the Times We Had. The group celebrated its release by hanging with DJ Cheryl Waters earlier this year and playing a live set at the KEXP studios. “I want to be the man who understands his woman and you…
When I first heard of Chastity Belt, it was through word of mouth. My friends highly endorsed this band from Walla Walla, WA. They had just moved here and were playing some shows around town. Their song titles kinda freaked me out in the beginning, but that quickly changed when I got the chance to …
The Strokes have unveiled the video for their new single "All The Time". If you just barely follow the band then I bet you've heard how they are prone to long, random breaks. We had to wait five years for the 2011 album Angels, so it's no wonder fans are thrilled to have another collection just TW…
Natalie Mering, better known as Weyes Blood, has had a busy year. She released her latest (and very good) LP Front Row Seat To Earth late last year and followed that up a few months later with a collaborative EP with Ariel Pink called Myths 002. Next on her agenda is a 7" of two covers of two songs…
Swedish sister act First Aid Kit are releasing their first album in three years, Ruins, at the beginning of the new year. Today they've shared the third single from the album, "Fireworks." They've previously shared the songs "It's a Shame" and "Postcard." The duo also shared a one-off single for I…
The last time they were at the Paramount Theatre, Sigur Rós were touring behind their just-released sixth album Valtari, their final LP with founding member Kjartan Sveinsson, who declined to tour with them that year and would fully quit the band not long after. That album remains the most mellow i…
Siouxsie Sioux, legendary lady of goth, has re-emerged after eight years of musical silence to provide her distinctive vocals to the eerie ballad "Love Crime." Listen below. The track was composed by Brian Reitzell for the series finale of the TV show Hannibal. Reitzell told TV Guide, "We knew tha…
Fresh from her feature on this week's episode of "Twin Peaks," Sharon Van Etten has shared a remix to a track she wrote and released last year in honor of the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting, which happened one year ago yesterday. Titled "Not Myself," Etten explained the reasoning for its r…
It had been a five years absence before Canadian electro-pop twosome Junior Boys released their latest, Big Black Coat, earlier this year. Now, just over five months later, they share a new EP which you can stream in its entirety below. Kiss Me All Night features four tracks -- three new, and one …
Local hip hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis return with the sentimental track "Growing Up," dedicated to Macklemore’s baby daughter, Sloane. He says on his website, "When you try to escape yourself, life has an interesting way of creating situations that force you to come back. To look at who yo…
It's been four long years, but folk-rock band Beirut will return with their fourth album, titled No No No, on September 11th via 4AD. Founding member and frontman Zach Condon reveals in a press release that the past years of touring and a messy divorce resulted in his hospitalization in Australia …
It's that time again: KEXP & Seattle Center are teaming up to bring you Concerts at the Mural! Now in its 8th year, the concert series continues the KEXP and Seattle Center tradition of starting the summer weekends off with a blast of engaging, all-ages culture. This August, join us at the Mura…
I love this record. Barna Howard is my new favorite artist. His previous, acoustic self-titled debut, which I played some last year, only hinted at this Missouri native, now Portland based artist's easy songwriting skills. His latest, Quite A Feelin', is already in the running for my album of the y…
The New Pornographers have always had a knack for explosive, shining melodies, but after two relatively experimental, more mellow albums, they've returned to playing to their strengths – multi-part harmonies and agile, punchy performances – on their new album, Brill Bruisers. The Vancouver supergro…
Pinch yourself, because this is really happening. Not only are The Dream Syndicate back in Seattle for the first time in 25 years - they also are playing an additional set for the KEXP Music Lounge to bring us as close as possible to this timeless and influential act. From their debut EP through fo…
Sometimes life's journeys lead us back home matter how far away we travel. It's been nearly eight years since U.K. born producer Will Holland released a solo album as Quantic. He was certainly busy the whole time, producing records, collaborating with Alice Russell, and most significantly, moving t…
It's been about two years since Hugo Manuel, a.k.a. Chad Valley, last released a record. "I've written a lot over the last year, I've just got to hone it down," says the angelic-voiced Hugo, who recently spent time in a house in France writing and writing (and biking to the nearest town for bread a…
The boozy blues of obsession and regret never sounded so good... at least not in the last 16 years. It's been that long since The Afghan Whigs released an album and its members turned their attention elsewhere. Yet, while other 90's bands are now cashing in on their notoriety with 20- and 25-year a…
At last year's Decibel Festival, as part of the Optical series, there was a live scoring to an incredibly absurdly spliced film from the 70s, unfortunately missing this year. Luckily, Optical 4 made up for it, featuring the doom electro-acoustics of London duo Raime, the terrifying ambient textures…
