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…
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…
How is walking through the woods on a foggy, chilly late spring day similar to strolling past the closed fun houses and ferris wheels on a boardwalk at the end of summer? You could just as easily listen to the melancholic surf bee-bop of Seattle's La Luz in both of the situations. What started at a…
The world is never ready for a new Jamie Lidell album. Jamie Lidell is his fourth record following his work as Super Collider with Cristian Vogel, and ever since Multiply, his 2005 return to solo work, Lidell has been pushing the envelope of his music landscape further and further into oblivion. At…
Rapper, singer, and writer Dessa shares a poem about how to live a life in music called “How To Stage Dive.”
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 Mid…
As the sun set behind the main stage at Sasquatch Festival, global gypsy dub punk rockers Gogol Bordello played an uptempo set that kept crowd energy high. Formed in New York in 1999, this group has always drawn upon a wide palate of sonic influences. The eight-piece band's unique instrumentation i…
Indie rock stalwarts Interpol returned to the scene earlier this year with a fantastic new LP, El Pintor, ten tracks of ageless Interpol mastery, heavy on the guitar hooks and light on filler. After a brief foray on a major label with 2007's impossibly underrated Our Love To Admire, tumultuous band…
It’s not hard to imagine a chandelier once hanging from the gold, grated circle located smack dab in the middle of The Neptune ceiling. What’s considerably tougher is spotting the marks of an elaborate and ornate paint job that once encompassed the gold center’s edge but has now faded into the stru…
Anyone who's read any music journalism over the last six months already knows this, but Sleater-Kinney spent the first half of this year coming back with a fantastic new record and a ferocious live show. However, Sasquatch was their first (of two) festival headlining slots, so until Friday, it had …
What exactly constitutes a festival "headliner" hasn't really been an issue until recently, but no artist has ever raised more skepticism regarding their headlining slot at Coachella 2013 than Phoenix. Sure, there was a Tumblr dedicated to collecting tweets from people who were unaware of the Stone…
KEXP celebrates Mixtape Week, August 26-30.
Legacy is such a weird concept. "We tried so hard", Wilco sing on Schmilco closer "Just Say Goodbye", "as if I have the answers". Back in a July 2009 interview with SPIN mag, describing the band's self-titled record contract wrap-up seventh album, frontman Jeff Tweedy told the world, "I think peopl…
"We're here for a rock n roll good time", Ryan Devlin chuckles as Hounds of the Wild Hunt finish another total jam. He points to the Tractor Tavern door. "If you aren't here for a rock n roll good time, you best just turn right around." Tonight, the Hounds open up for the infamous Nashville rock ba…
