Born out of the humid Athens, Georgia, southlands, the music of Futurebirds washes over the ears like a welcomed rain. Utilizing pedal steel and a myriad of other instruments on their studio albums - the most recent of which is Baba Yaga, a tight, catchy collection - the band writes songs like acti…
Long standing but ever moving Gypsy punks Gogol Bordello are almost constantly on the road. Like wandering Gypsies of yore, the band travels from city to city, festival to festival, throughout the world, on a mission to provoke audiences to dance -- and open their minds -- through infectious and of…
The Postal Service has spent this year celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Give Up, with a re-release and a huge world tour. Now, director Justin Mitchell has brought us a 14 minute documentary about the band called, Some Idealistic Future. The documentary features interviews with each band memb…
If you don't have any plans for this weekend, March 21st - 24th, (or even if you do) I highly recommend you hightail it to Idaho. Opening tomorrow in Boise Treefort Music Festival kicks off with quite the impressive lineup. The festival was started just last year with an impressive 137 bands, this …
The fact that Turn Blue, the eighth album by The Black Keys, is full of songs about being hurt by a woman shouldn't be all that surprising. Although they, sonically speaking, haven't been a dirty, traditionalist-leaning blues band in a few years now, they remain one at heart, which is why Dan Auerb…
"I heard today was the first nice day in quite a while, right?" As his band Cayucas starts in on another track of bright, warm, surf pop gold, he banters with a Seattle winter crowd who got to go out in the sun in early March - a near miraculous event by any account. "Coincidence? I don't think so,…
Swedish indie pop band The Radio Dept. have never been optimists, but with new record Running Out of Love, they are really going out of their way not to see any silver linings. "There's nothing gracious about our kind", Johan Duncanson sings on opener "Sloboda Narodu" (yes, that is the famous Yugos…
The final day of Bumbershoot 2015 finally saw sunshine and good weather all around. Maybe the crowds could sneak in one more summer festival after all, after the torrential rains that started the whole thing off. The lineup for this day included another solid dose of excellent local bands, like Sis…
Considering the early 80's were the heyday of The Dream Syndicate, you're forgiven if, like the song says, you're "just trying to remember the days of wine and roses". As leaders of the so-called Paisley Underground, the LA band carried the sounds of the previous decade, particularly of The Velvet …
For those lamenting beloved NYC band The Walkmen's indefinite hiatus, rejoice in the band's bassist Peter Matthew Bauer's solo album, Liberation!. Don't be offended by the title, it's not an enthusiastic goodbye to the band Bauer has dedicated 13 years of his life to. The album marks an opportune m…
Listening to The Long Ryders for the first time, it's not clear to me that they should have been lumped in with the Paisley Underground bands of the '80s (covered previously in this Rain Parade post). They definitely had '60s influences, but as far as I can tell they were much more a country-rock b…
Toronto rave gods Crystal Castles are known for their brutally intense live show. Alice Glass smokes nearly an entire pack of cigarettes on stage and makes some good progress on a bottle of Jack Daniels, while Ethan Kath barely looks up from his table, making sure that every pulsing bass drop shake…
Today marks the release of Dormarion, the third full-length from Seattle power pop project Telekinesis. The band was in-studio this morning celebrating its released, and a couple of weeks ago they played a bunch of material from the new album for the crowd assembled at Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop in…
The Canadian hardcore band F*cked Up is out with a new record, called Another Day.
Sunny Day Real Estate came out of the hardcore scene in Seattle in the '90s and eventually became a major influence on “emo” music.
In the midst of a hellish year, the self-described "postmodern beach music family band" wrote and recorded a salvo of togetherness and perseverance. Martin Douglas explains.
Before breaking up due to the pressures of their sudden explosion in popularity, the Olympia band created one of the most important punk releases in recent memory. Martin Douglas explores.
In this month's edition of In Our Headphones, KEXP's Digital Content team share the music that's resonating with them right now.
Notable adult punk rocker Martin Douglas speaks with the Olympia "adult-punk" band about their past life together, the spiritual drain of having to work for a living, and what being punk means to them.
KEXP is thrilled to present a lunchtime performance from legendary UK band The Wedding Present on Tuesday, April 25th. The long-running pop perfectionists are on tour in support of their ninth LP, Going, Going…, out now via their own label Scopitones.
