Understandably, Vancouver band Weed often has difficulty crossing the border. In fact, KEXP's John Richards had to write a letter so they could travel from Canada to perform live with him on the Morning Show last month. But it's really not the sticky green stuff border guards try to sniff out that …
Mac DeMarco shares another new track from his forthcoming album This Old Dog, out May 5th via Captured Tracks. Check out the lovely single "On the Level" below. In a statement, DeMarco explains, "This record has a lot to do with my family and my life right now and the way I’m feeling. One of the m…
Director Brandon Vedder settled in for a long drive, coming home from a shoot. He was in the process of finishing his short film A Certain Kind of Light and had his sensors out for the next story he wanted to tell. He turned on an episode of Pete Holmes’ You Made It Weird podcast and heard a famili…
It's only fitting that he's on a record label called Truth & Soul Records, because that's exactly the kind of music the legendary Lee Fields creates. The 63-year-old music veteran is still going strong after 43 years in the business, and his most recent release, Emma Jean, is just as vital as e…
The Seattle International Film Festival has had a succulent series of movies based on sounds for a while, sponsored by KEXP and called Face The Music. Whether they be documentaries or fictional narratives or band concerts or somewhere in between, up to a dozen independent and/or international films…
Like a kind of watershed moment, there are live show experiences before seeing Arcade Fire and live show experiences after seeing Arcade Fire. They're really a gauge for everything now. A religious experience whether you’re religious or not. A spiritual “Wake Up” call. A concerted church. An eideti…
When Vancouver-based band Black Mountain stepped in the studio, we got a contact high. Not necessarily from their clothing, but definitely from their heavy, sludgy, psychedelic sound. Vocalists Stephen McBean and Amber Webber trade verses over a Black Sabbath-inspired wave of droning guitar and key…
The alias of Seattle's Allen Huang, DJ Hojo has been forging a unique lane in the local music and nightlife scene as the driving force behind the diverse and progressive CUSTOMS parties as well as being the co-founder of the beloved JK Pop DJ night. Combining a deep knowledge of music from all over…
I know, I know, didn't I just post an R.E.M. album a month or so ago? I guess I kinda did. But I have my reasons! First of all, Fables of the Reconstruction was released 30 years ago next week (and checked into KCMU 30 years ago tomorrow, as you can tell by the sticker on the bottom). Happy birthda…
We woke up Kex Hostel this morning with a surprise dorm room performance by DJ flugvél & geimskip, who rolled in all her equipment on a cart equipped with a speaker, lit incense, turned on some DJ lights, and greeted the sleepy travelers with charming electronic backed songs about evil cats, ma…
Following in the wake of their reunion-EP-of-sorts Songs for Slim, which benefited guitarist Slim Dunlap's recovery from a stroke, The Replacements have announced they will be performing together again as The Replacements for the first time since 1991's infamous "It Ain't Over 'Til The Fat Roadie P…
British shoegazers Ride made a triumphant return earlier this year with Weather Diaries, their first album in 21 years. Today they've shared a new song called "Pulsar" which, according to drummer Loz Colbert, "re-imagines old organ samples, transmissions from space, effects, heavy beats and pulsin…
Besides being the director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory, and an associate professor at Berklee, Susan Rogers is also the person who worked most closely with the late Prince during quite possibly his most important period artistically. From 1983 to 1988, it was Susan who …
It's not often you get to say you saw a three band gig where all three bands blew you away for completely different reasons. Luckily for those crammed in Neumos basement at the sold out Pallbearer, Sólstafir, and Mortals show Thursday night, that was 100% the case. Each with an entirely different f…
"It's not the average, kind of whiny divorce record... You can dance to half the record and cry your eyes out to the rest of it." That's how Sondre Lerche describes his seventh and newest album, Please. Despite the innate heaviness of the subject material, Lerche is eager to explore every facet of …
It's the classic peanut butter meets chocolate kind of story. A chance meeting, or really, a shared bill, brought Amelia Meath (of the harmonizing folk trio Mountain Man) and Nick Sanborn (of psychsters Megafaun and his own electronic project, Made of Oak) together. A conversation led to the two sh…
With rowdy organ and improvised slide guitar, Tango Alpha Tango is not your typical rock 'n' roll band. Since 2008, the Portland-based musicians have released three albums and a three-track preview. Their newest product, Black Cloud, is a longer, heavier, piece of work, placing Tango Alpha Tango on…
Paul Janeway's vocal range is some kind of miracle. For the young Alabama-based soul stirrer and his band, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, the sounds of Memphis and Muscle Shoals go marrow deep. On Half The City, their unbelievable mature debut, Janeway channels '60s R&B greats like Otis Reddi…
It's said the brightest flame casts the darkest shadow, but in the case of Brooklyn's Twin Shadow, that there's plenty of light there too. On his past two albums, filled with 80's synths, danceable rhythms and crunchy hooks, Brooklyn's George Lewis Jr. crooned stories of grief and heartbreak. Live …
Leave it to an Australian band to save Brit Pop. Actually, they may be destroying it because reportedly Noel Gallagher is too busy listening to Jagwar Ma to get the old band back together. In truth, the young Aussies have revitalized the Madchester sound, though rather than sustain one long bacchan…
