Before Black Pistol Fire even began performing, drummer Eric Owen stripped himself down to his skivvies, preparing himself for a loaded live session. And, yes, he is donning golf gloves. Coupled with the high energy guitarist and life-long friend Kevin McKeown supplied, the incredible duo flooded t…
As you might have noticed, the pictures I gathered on my most recent visit to the KEXP stacks were exclusively from the local section, and I feel like I've been learning a lot of our fair city's history that simply living here for 12+ years has not been enough to absorb. Case in point: Somehow I've…
Mutual Benefit's Jordan Lee has lived in various locations throughout the United States from Austin, Texas to Boston, Massachusetts. While traveling around America, Lee discovered and performed with many other musicians, eventually convincing them to join his music project. In fact, save for Lee, t…
Father John Misty continues to roll out new music from his forthcoming full-length Pure Comedy, out April 7th via Sub Pop/Bella Union. (Check out the title track on the KEXP Blog here.) Today, he shares a video for the single "Two Wildly Different Perspective" -- again directed by Matthew Daniel S…
Closing out another unbelievable night of music at KEX Hostel was English rapper and poet Kate Tempest. A “wayward youth” in her early teens, she was later inspired by an english teacher who got her into poetry, and at age 16 began her career as a poet, playwright, rapper, and spoken word artist. S…
It's a beautiful fall day in Reykjavik, and the small northern capitol is buzzing with activity, with bars, venues, shops, and restaurants in every nook and cranny of the city are busy with preparations for Iceland Airwaves Music Festival. While the KEXP broadcast begins tomorrow at 6 AM, you can c…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Mor…
Highlights this week include the latest from Swedish singer/songwriter Jens Lekman. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls Lekman's fourth LP, "a smartly crafted set of buoyant orchestral dance-pop inflected with disco, calypso, samba and other styles, combining bouncy dance beats and a variety of ins…
For fans of '90s shoegaze, the past few years have been a rush of reunions: Slowdive. Ride. Lush. Swirlies. Okay, hear me out. Unlike their UK contemporaries, the at-the-time Boston-based band followed a more lo-fi path, combining a DIY, punk aesthetic with their swoony, well, "swirly" guitars. In …
This week, French band Phoenix rises with their sixth album to date, KEXP Music Director Don Yates loves Ti Amo enough to call it "another sharply crafted set of buoyant pop-rock with a warm, streamlined sound featuring fizzy synths, glistening guitars, bouncy beats and sunny pop hooks". Brooklyn b…
It's a good week for comebacks. UK band Slowdive return with their first new album in 22 years. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it "a strong return-to-form of shoegazerish dream-pop with swirling, reverbed guitars, ethereal vocals, hazy harmonies and blissed-out melodies." It's been 17 years si…
Not sure of any Seattle sightings, but mysterious posters have been popping up in cities like London, Amsterdam, and Brooklyn. Bearing statements like "Worse Politicians/More Fear" and "More Public Fear/More Private Security," the words echo the lyrics of "Fitter Happier" the opening track of Radi…
Originally hailing from North Wales and now based in London, The Joy Formidable is a powerhouse dream rock trio. The live show-dominating, wild-eyed outfit recently released their third studio album, Hitch, once again demonstrating their emotional shoegaze and melody-driving arena pop. However, to …
LA-via-San Francisco band Thee Oh Sees return with their 11th album, a release KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls, "a more jam-oriented take on the band's adventurous blend of raw garage-rock, trippy psych-rock and motorik prog." Veteran Minneapolis duo Atmosphere release "a potent set of emotive …
Malik Taylor, aka Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest, passed away yesterday at the age of 45, as a result of complications due to diabetes. Taylor formed A Tribe Called Quest with his childhood best friends in 1985, releasing their now-legendary debut People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of …
UK artist East India Youth (aka William Doyle) shares a new digital EP today, remixing highlights from his sophomore full-length Culture of Volume, out earlier this year on XL. Blanck Mass and Yosi Horikawa each remix the track "Manner of Words" and Truss Total XTC remixes "Montage Resolution." St…
It's a song we've recently featured as a podcast and one that's gorgeously captured on their new LP, but to hear Israel Nash perform "LA Lately" live is like visiting the galaxy rather than viewing it from afar. This summer, KEXP caught up to the Dripping Springs, Texas-based singer-songwriter at P…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. This week, we are featuring artists p…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. This week, we are featuring artists p…
