Across the last three years, Project Pabst has quietly become one of the more reliably interesting festivals in the Pacific Northwest, which is no small feat considering its large-scale competition to the north of its site in Portland, Oregon. It's essentially the Room on Fire of Northwestern music…
The sounds that come out of a computer aren’t often what we enjoy listening to. The sound of your email, the sound of an error, the sound of typing, it’s all mundane. To some, however, the computer is an endless opportunity for sound. The artists beginning Decibel Festival 2015 have made their comp…
When Passion Pit broke through at the end of the '00s, they were a band bristling with potential, but still discovering how to follow through as a live band. Although frontman Michael Angelakos' health struggles gave the touring cycle behind their sophomore effort Gossamer a rough start, by the end…
The best collaboration projects seem to happen effortlessly. When two masters of their craft come together, both bringing all their respective elements to the table and begin mixing them, oftentimes, they end up with a heterogenous mixture, swinging unevenly between two opposing poles. Some pieces …
"Product of partition" - that's how Himanshu Suri, a.k.a. Heems, defines himself on Eat Pray Thug closer "Patriot Act". On that track, he talks about how growing up as a man of Indian descent in post-9/11 NYC was a nightmare. "From then on they called all of us Osama", he recalls towards the end, "…
When recording, San Fermin is the creative project of Ellis Ludwig-Leone, a Brooklyn-based composer who began shifting away from classical arrangements to pop ones towards the end of his college years. On tour, San Fermin is an eight-musician tour de force that brings those compositions to life. Wr…
I remember the first time I heard "Swim" by Surfer Blood - it was summer, I was looking for the kind of joyous surf rock that would reflect the hot/cold feelings of a northern summer. They might be from Florida, but their music has the touch of the East Coast that I needed that summer, and apparent…
It's real. After teasing fans on and off for the better part of 22 or so years, guitarist/vocalist Kevin Shields has delivered the third full-length My Bloody Valentine album, m b v. (Take a deep breath.) Since its release on Saturday night (which resulted in the cancellation of the evening plans o…
With one more day of paradise ahead of them, Pickathon attendees spend the day diversifying their interests. Sure, there is plenty of incredible music to take part in later on, but throughout the experience, it's the culture of Pickathon that dominates, winning over those who don't regularly partic…
Though he performs ceaselessly with superhuman energy, though he's already dropped two records this year (Demos Vol. 1 and last week's Some Other Ones) and this will be his third for 2015, and though his character and charisma both shine like a demigod of whimsy, Mac DeMarco is more human than all …
So I might have been ranting about various shows this weekend being the best shows I saw - but here's the thing. Yes, they were amazing performances by talented musicians, but Killer Mike's set at the Yeti stage topped all of them. There is something about witnessing a brilliant musician finally re…
Overnight Afrobeats host Lace Cadence takes us on a journey through current African pop music, along with a bit of old-school
Morning Show host John Richards presents a mix to wake up to, to take on the day and burn brightly when it feels like the world is already on fire.
Join the KEXP Radioheads as we take you 200 miles through forests, over mountains, and along the sea.
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For the rest of the year, we'll be spotlighting our KEXP DJs Top Albums of 2017, leading up to our 2017 Top 90.3 Album Countdown! Tune in on Friday, December 15th from 6 AM to 6 PM PT as we countdown the Top 90.3 Albums of 2017, as voted on by our listeners. And check out the top albums from more K…
Man alive, is it a good time to be the 80s or what? We have Stranger Things still tearing up the Netflix ratings, and the show's soundtracking band S U R V I V E on a world tour behind their new album (you can catch them at Crocodile 10/12). Death Waltz and Mondo are introducing a new generation to…