The legendary Bob Dylan releases "an album of vintage songs associated with legendary crooner Frank Sinatra." KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes, "it works beautifully, with spare, low-key accompaniment (ethereal pedal steel, softly plucked bass, gentle guitars and occasional muted brass) and his …
Sóley is the cutest creeper out there. The Icelandic singer-songwriter is so disarmingly charming, and her voice so exquisite, that even her songs about killer clowns, murderers and weird, one-eyed ladies are quite soothing. She's also an expert looper and a snappy dresser. In other words, there's …
We are HAM! If you aren't yet, that's okay. HAM is legend. It took years of inactivity to become the rock icons they are today. Following the Icelandic doom metal band's prolific years, from 1988 to 1994, their legion of fans grew, until finally their members stepped aside from their other careers …
Saturday night is the night for dancing - Decibel Festival fans have known that for 10 years. You'll dance every other night of the festival too, no doubt. But Saturday is where you can bank on the fact that you will work up a sweat on the dance floor and at one point consider buying drinks for eve…
It's hard to imagine a better indie pop dream team than this – a multi-Grammy winning producer Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton) and a beloved singer-songwriter James Mercer (of the Shins), each responsible for some of the most infectious songs you've heard in the past ten years, joining to create…
It's difficult to imagine Iska Dhaaf as only a two-piece, even when they're right in front of you. The sound of their full-bodied post-punk is supported by Benjamin Verdoes' (Mt. St. Helen's Vietnam Band) unique ability to simultaneously play the keyboard and drums. It takes a talented musician to …
Our broadcast during Iceland Airwaves isn't always about the Iceland bands. While we do enjoy spotlighting groups that KEXP listeners might not otherwise hear, we also love to share with our Nordic friends some of our own favorites, like NYC's Caveman, whose lush, dreamy indie pop sound translates …
"Be quick dear, times are uncertain, one month crawling, next year blurring, decades in the drain, and monograms on the brain. Decide what's working and what's moved on to the last phase - the floodgate alien days. I love those alien days." And so, Andrew VanWynGarden opens the third MGMT record wh…
Among the many great new releases out this week is our own annual benefit collection, Live at KEXP Volume Nine. Featuring 18 stellar tracks culled from the over 500 amazing live sessions we recorded in the past year, Volume Nine contains some serious heavy hitters like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis a…
Brooklyn indie synth rock band Small Black stopped by Seattle this past weekend in support of their great new record Limits of Desire (you can grab the lead single "Free At Dawn" from our Song of the Day podcast here). With Limits of Desire, Small Black grow the fuzzy enveloped psychedelia of their…
After releasing a pretty great teaser (in an era of pretty awful album trailers) for the album last week, Neko Case has released some more concrete details about her sixth studio album, The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You, which will arrive on September…
There is a place where the sounds and sights of summer are always abounding and where you can sing about the beach all year long. That place, according to Zach Yudin, is Cayucos, California. His project Cayucas (formerly called Oregon Bike Trails) is an unapologetic love letter to the feeling given…
Their name spoofs the The Shangri-Las, their songs check the sounds of the 60's, from British Invasion to West Coast country rock -- the record store rats of Allah-Las have long been interested in contextualizing the history of rock with the music of today, both with their on-going, lost classics-u…
Hamilton Leithauser recently shared a new song with folk chanteuse Angel Olsen called "Heartstruck (Wild Hunger)" and today that song has an official video. Directed by Peter and Nick Simonite and created by Austin based full-service creative company Preacher, the video follows Leithauser as a wand…
