There are many ways to “get down,” and Thao and crew seemingly discovered them all on Monday at Sasquatch! Music Festival. Thao and the Get Down ripped through a festival ready set, encouraging the crowd to get down in every possible way. Whether it was through the plucky rhythm the group often hel…
The Cure celebrate their fortieth anniversary this year. Let that soak in for a second. Then consider that the English quintet are playing three-plus hour sets with multiple encores night after night. Needless to say, Robert Smith and the current Cure lineup are doing right their legacy night after…
Arto Lindsay, the guitaring/singing half of the art-pop duo Ambitious Lovers, is one of my favorite - and one of the most underrated - musical artists of the late 20th century (he has gone relatively quiet in the past decade or so, although some recent posts on his facebook page instill hopes that …
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba are set on changing the way we think about world music. Pushing the limits of traditional West African instruments themselves to embrace western styles and a more versatile melodic range, Bassekou Kouyate is proud of the modern innovations he's made with the ngoni, a…
More clouds? More rain? When have these things ever mattered to Seattle? Capitol Hill Block Party 2015 ventured onwards with nothing but smiles as time for Day 2 arose. Between Jamie xx and Built to Spill yesterday, Saturday had a high bar to clamber over. But the festivities got underway very quic…
Saturday night in West Seattle, history was made... or remade... when Northwest legends The Sonics performed a special set at Easy Street Records on Record Store Day to benefit KEXP's New Home. The iconic Tacoma band alone were a huge draw to the legion of fans inside and surrounding the store, but…
London's Kitchens of Distinction, like so many bands championed by KCMU, were a promising and critically acclaimed band in the late '80s and '90s that never quite broke as big as they might have hoped, but have maintained a devoted following over the years. Last year, almost two decades after break…
There’s an art to first impressions. As an artist, you really only get to make one first step onto the scene, and whether everyone cares or no one cares, that’s the point from which you take every single step after. For Thomas Arsenault, that first step has been a long time in the making. He’s been…
Not sure if it's a compliment to be called a "thinking man's metal band" (or at least, it's not so nice to the other metal bands), but long running alternative metal band Helmet have always made smart music that never loses its punch. Vocalist/guitarist Page Hamilton founded the group back in '89, …
It's hard to know where to begin with a legendary rabble-rouser like Jello Biafra (still rousing the rabble with his new band Guantanamo School of Medicine, whose White People and the Damage Done came out this year - actually, that band name and album title probably tell you a lot more about Jello …
It's no surprise Portugal. The Man broke into "Dayman" midway into their set during their Triple Door performance for KEXP last month. Not only has the band been playing their own gorgeous rendition of the song, taken from a classic episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, during shows and hav…
Radiohead fans are tweaking for today's release of Thom Yorke's new project, Atoms for Peace. The group - featuring producer Nigel Godrich on keys, Ultraista's Joey Waronker on drums, Flea on bass, and Forro in the Dark founder Mauro Refosco on additional percussion - formed originally as the backi…
Beach Fossils have done a lot of growing in the past couple years. Their 2010 self-titled debut was pleasing to the ear and to the heart with it's quiet, introverted finesse. But in 2011, by trimming some lo-fi fat off their tracks, they created a timeless experience with the What A Pleasure EP. Su…
This summer, folk rockers The Lumineers played a special show at Barboza in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood as part of KEXP's VIP Club concert series. The band has gained major momentum in the current thirst for rootsy, soul-stirring music, and this year they're up for two Grammys -- for Best …
Last month, Charles Bradley and the Menahan Street Band stopped by our studio to deliver a special joint session for KEXP listeners. The Menahan Street Band -- featuring members from the NYC Daptone Records soul and funk world including the Budos Band, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, and Antibalas…
Chalk it up to: You'll never see that again. Last week, Mercury Prize winners and KEXP fan-favorites Alt-J performed their headlining Seattle debut at the Crocodile, a venue whose size they've long outgrown. While previously they opened for Grouplove at the Moore (and I'd say at least half the full…
From last week's Spud War, we continue our tuberous theme with Tater Totz, which you might think would be even more contentious than Devo's synth-heavy fifth album, but which seems to have been more well received at KCMU. What is the deal with Tater Totz? I think just attempting to explain this pro…
Irish songwriter Dolores O'Riordan, most famously of The Cranberries, has passed away at the age of 46. A statement from her publicist says that O'Riordan was in London for a recording session, but not further details are available at this time. O'Riordan was born and raised in Limerick, Ireland, a…
Halfway through the American Football show at Neptune Theatre, the band is tuning up guitars and getting ready to launch into another number, and there's a small, singular moment of silence. Then, from somewhere in the throng of voices, someone yells out, "I still can't believe this is even happeni…
Sometimes, you don't know how good you have it in Seattle. Just last month, Sheffield garage rock duo Drenge packed the John Peel stage tent so full at Glastonbury that you'd have to fight your way through about 10,000 bodies to get even a reasonable view of the band. This past Monday, you could ca…
