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, …
A while back, a producer, a DJ and an MC, each with solid careers of their own, formed a sort of hip hop supergroup to face against rising corporate interests in their fields. Like Gorillaz, Deltron 3030 was high-concept, semi-fictional, character driven project that blew the minds of music fans of…
Ty Segall is like the American Horror Story of rock 'n' roll. The now-LA based maniacal, musical polymath constantly reinvents while rotating a cast of characters around a shifting approach to one theme: to rock the living shit out of you. Though his latest album - and what we can assume to be just…
There's a new pop-savvy sheriff in Sub Pop town, and he goes by the name of Cullen Omori, and instead of having to wield a Smith Western to corral a crowd's attention, all he has to do is coo his name. Omori quickly became a wunderkind as one of the instrumental brains of the Chicagoan outfit Smith…
Last week, Seattle sons Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight took their hometown for three straight sold-out nights at the Paramount Theater. It is truly mind-boggling how quickly and how flawlessly ODESZA has skyrocketed over the last three years. The band's debut album Summer's Gone came out only th…
A full bill of local punk rocked Chop Suey Thursday night in a debaucherous whirlwind of moshing bodies. Presented by Sonic Reducer, KEXP's Saturday night punk and hardcore show, the evening was sure to exhibit all the gems Brian Foss brings to any event: great music, great people, and great attitu…
"The Black Keys performing live on stage." That's one of a handful of statements on the Akron, Ohio duo's line of exaggeratedly plain tour merchandise, but it's also an unintentionally spot-on statement about the Black Keys' shows. Not only are their performances built around straightforward versio…
KEXP, the community of Everett, and the Everett Music Initiative banded together over the weekend of May 16th and 17th to bring some powerful sound (more than 50 bands in total!) to Snohomish County's own sleepy fishing town with the inception of the very first Fisherman's Village Music Festival. A…
Few bands have influenced Seattle's sound like Mudhoney. Twenty five years ago, to this month, Mark Arm and Steve Turner rejoined after leaving Green River to form a group that would weather all storms of the so-called "Grunge" scene. Their initial, poorly selling but highly influential single and …
Seattle super-group Walking Papers played a killer session in the KEXP studio for Audioasis, where they shared three songs off their Mike McCready (of Pearl Jam)-produced self-titled debut from October last year, released on Sunyata Records. Such an assured sound from a band that just released a d…
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 …
David Bazan has a knack for writing dark pop songs. Control, an album he released ten years ago with his former band, Pedro the Lion, is filled with lies, adultery, murder, and some melodies that you'll want to hear over and over again, even while the lyrics give you chills. Bazan and his band perf…
Texas indie band Shearwater have been dabbling in the world of covers for a while now. They released an all covers collection called Fellow Travelers late last year, and it seems their letting this trend continue. The band's newest cover is Nina Simone's melancholy "Black is the Color." [Stereogum]
For the rest of the year, we'll be spotlighting our KEXP DJs Top Albums of 2013. View all our DJ's favorite albums here, and see what KEXP listeners voted for in our 2013 Top 90.3 Albums Countdown here.
For the rest of the year, we'll be spotlighting our KEXP DJs Top Albums of 2013. View all our DJ's favorite albums here, and see what KEXP listeners voted for in our 2013 Top 90.3 Albums Countdown here.
For the rest of the year, we'll be spotlighting our KEXP DJs Top Albums of 2013. View all our DJ's favorite albums here, and see what KEXP listeners voted for in our 2013 Top 90.3 Albums Countdown here.
For the rest of the year, we'll be spotlighting our KEXP DJs Top Albums of 2013. View all our DJ's favorite albums here, and see what KEXP listeners voted for in our 2013 Top 90.3 Albums Countdown here.
For the rest of the year, we'll be spotlighting our KEXP DJs Top Albums of 2013. View all our DJ's favorite albums here, and see what KEXP listeners voted for in our 2013 Top 90.3 Albums Countdown here.
For the rest of the year, we'll be spotlighting our KEXP DJs Top Albums of 2013. View all our DJ's favorite albums here, and see what KEXP listeners voted for in our 2013 Top 90.3 Albums Countdown here.
For the rest of the year, we'll be spotlighting our KEXP DJs Top Albums of 2013. View all our DJ's favorite albums here, and see what KEXP listeners voted for in our 2013 Top 90.3 Albums Countdown here.
