Surprise! Baltimore duo Wye Oak have sprung an EP on us titled Tween, out now digitally and available physically on August 5th via Merge Records. The title reflects the contents: via a press release, they explain the songs "don’t make sense for album number five," but "just because they don’t belo…
Last year, Sasquatch! Music Festival quite arguably had one of the best festival lineups in all of North America. Not counting the headliners, featuring leading voices in hip-hop, punk, and rock, the lineup was rich from bottom to top, covering a wide breadth of genres with a precisely-timed, (most…
This morning, John Richards celebrates the 68th birthday of composer, producer and performer Brian Eno, featuring four hours of ambient and other music created, produced and inspired by the all-around musical mastermind. While he's most directly connected to the genre of "ambient", a term he coined…
Who doesn't want to learn how to play guitar like Bob Mould? The veteran musician has certainly honed his chops over the last 40 years with previous projects Hüsker Dü and Sugar, and last night on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he broke down his technique. Watch below. He and his fantastic ba…
Electropop pioneers New Order stopped by the Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night in support of their most recent release, Music Complete -- their first new release in over a decade, and their first without founding bassist Peter Hook. Watch them perform the single "Singularity" below, compl…
West coast faves Silversun Pickups kick off their three-month-long North American tour with a video for the track "Circadian Rhythm." The clip spotlights bassist Nikki Monninger (with a cute doggie co-star) in a dreamy, sparkly scene. Watch below, and then watch the band's KEXP New Home benefit pe…
Scottish band Frightened Rabbit share a video for the song "Get Out," a single off their upcoming album Painting of a Panic Attack. The poignant clip, directed by Greg Davenport, was shot in Kiev, Ukraine, and captures the struggle of two women in love. Painting of a Panic Attack was produced by A…
Tomorrow, not only will iconic rocker David Bowie celebrate his 69th birthday, but he releases his 25th studio album ★ (pronounced "Blackstar") via Columbia Records. Today, he shares the video for the track "Lazarus," which features the influential artist, well, hallucinating in a mental hospital.…
When Julia Holter sings "Can I feel you?" on "Feel You", it's more of a question of capability than one of permission, recalling a feeling of faint familiarity mixed with a lingering inquisitiveness. That gap between existing in a moment and fully grasping it is where the songs on Have You In My Wi…
Today, we conclude our weekly series of Polish bands KEXP recorded while at the OFF Festival in Katowice with a bang. Wrocław trio Ukryte Zalety Systemu, whose name translates to "Hidden Benefits System", clearly reference bands like Gang of Four as they decry the erosion of individualism in the fa…
The middle set of today's broadcast live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves is British pop artist Lonelady. The pseudonym for british pop artist Julie Campbell, LoneLady combines funky guitar riffs with fun, dancy synths and beats, and influences the likes of “That’s Us/Wild Combination”-era Arthu…
George Lewis Jr., or as he's known by his stage name Twin Shadow, is one of the most gifted indie pop artists in music today, and now, he's proven to be one of the most resilient. Earlier this year, the Brooklyn based singer/producer/writer released Eclipse, his third studio album, to critical accl…
Some artists write songs about themselves, pulling facts from their lives in hopes of finding some mutual truths that can connect with their audience. Others create more from their imagination, searching for the universal within the abstract. Still even more operate in a sort of grey area between t…
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…
The Mynabirds took over a year to record Lovers Know, and while that’s far from unheard of for a band of their stature and import, it’s a figurative lifetime compared to the mere weeks the Omaha pop masters had spent on their previous two albums. Of course, all those additional hours make sense giv…
The gaudy, sterile synths, the contrapuntal guitar and bass, the party ready drums, and especially the high-ranging, free-wielding, devil-may-care vocals - if you were there in 2005 when Clap Your Hands Say Yeah rose to indie-stardom with their self-titled, self-released debut, you remember it all.…
Real Estate frontman Martin Courtney has announced he'll be releasing a solo album, titled Many Moons, out October 30th via Domino. A press release states the full-length, "is squinting-at-the-sun bright, full of subtle introspection, an elliptical document of Courtney’s transition into family lif…
American influences from John Coltrane to Bob Dylan are clear in U.K. singer-songwriter Pete Molinari's acoustic bluesy-folk. Scratch the surface of his four albums and you'll find a broad range of sounds in the low-key Brit's music. Molinari grew up in an Egyptian, Maltese and Italian family, whic…
"High energy" barely begins to describe Rubblebucket. The seven-member Brooklyn-based band is actually pared down in size from when they originally met in the Northeast, but the core members keep the joyous spirit of Rubblebucket alive through their quirky multi-insturmental dance pop, which can ge…
It took losing her voice for Wye Oak to rediscover theirs. On the heels of their successful previous album, Civilian, the Baltimore duo were playing arenas, opening for acts like The National and The Decemberists. And then, sadly, frontwoman Jenn Wasner developed vocal-cord nodules, and under docto…
