Sharon Van Etten wrote and recorded a new song inspired by the horrible events of the Pulse Club shooting in Orlando back in June. "Not Myself" is a beautiful and haunting tribute to the victims. Proceeds will go to the gun control nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety. [Pitchfork]In her statement, V…
7/14 update: The GoFundMe has since been removed. Soulful singer/songwriter Shawn Smith has come across bad times. The vocalist for Pigeonhed, Brad, and Satchel, to name a few, is currently "homeless" (i.e. he has temporary housing, but friends aren't sure how long that will last). A longtime frie…
I love it when I stumble across an album that got regular play in my house growing up in the KEXP stacks - especially when the super-cool college DJs of yore actually thought it was pretty good! I'm certain that by the time my parents were buying records by The Human League they were getting plent…
It's the most wonderful time of the year... for a music lover. This Saturday, April 16th is the ninth annual Record Store Day, a celebration of independent music stores around the globe. It also happens to be the day of KEXP's New Home Grand Opening celebration! Our event doesn't start until noon, …
OK, you're all in trouble. Why am I only just now learning about Happy Flowers? Noisy, disturbing/hilarious songs written from the perspective of a toddler? Band members named Mr. Anus and Mr. Horribly Charred Infant? Covers of Big Star, Michael Schenker, and Silver Apples on the same album? These …
Die Kreuzen is one of the many bands of the '80s and '90s about whom my principal awareness derives from having seen their records in the bins at my usual Harvard Square haunts (I've always been much more of a browser than a buyer, alas). Since I studied German for all four years of high school, I …
There's nothing queasy about the latest from west coast dream-pop band Craft Spells. It's been almost a year since their sophomore full-length, Nausea, came out on Captured Tracks; since then, songwriter Justin Paul Vallesteros has relocated back to Seattle and overcome a depression that influenced…
"Discover new music at KEXP". You've probably heard those words countless times while listening to KEXP and watching our videos. In our relentless pursuit to achieve this goal, we search deeply within the Northwest community and more broadly around the world. Sometimes along the way we find not jus…
When a band self-titles an album midway through their career, it's usually for one of two reasons: they've either run out of ideas or they've taken a significantly new tact. For Portland duo The Helio Sequence, the reason is obvious. Rather than mull over songs in their usual slow-going and contemp…
As we announced earlier this year, Sam Beam (better known as Iron & Wine) is digging through his archives and releasing the findings on his own Black Cricket Recording Company label. Archive Series Volume No. 1 is out now, featuring demos and unreleased material recorded around the same time a…
Nashville's JEFF The Brotherhood may have been dumped by the major label that produced it, but their latest LP, Wasted on the Dream, is anything but. Its big, punchy sound adds fuel to their high octane blend of hard rock, metal, grunge and punk. And brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall dream big, but no…
A "rain plan" is practically unknown in the Northwest. It rains here too frequently, but rarely fervently, for anyone to need that kind of contingency. Instead, for us rain plans are active ones, scenarios for doing and being. Maybe that's why Israel Nash's 2014 album, Rain Plans, gripped us so fir…
It’s time again for Friday on My Mind. Our weekly blog post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News. As 99% of Seattle knows, whether they like it or not, the Seattle Seahawks are defending Super Bowl Champs and 2015 NFC …
Usually, you'd want to hustle the riff raff out, but when it comes to the New Orleans band Hurray for the Riff Raff, you want them to stick around. That's why we featured them three times this year: in our studio, at our SXSW showcase at Mellow Johnny's, and during our broadcast over Labor Day week…
Well, Day 1 of Decibel Festival was just about spectacular. The festival has never been short on prestige, but this year, festival organizers have really put time and effort into carefully crafting some brilliant programs for each venue each night. Each night, Decibel fest attendees can hit their f…
It's hard to believe, but we've literally watched Jessica Lea Mayfield grow up before our very eyes. She's been on our airwaves since she was a teenager, starting with her 2008 debut, With Blasphemy So Heartfelt, produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. Over the years, we've been lucky to have h…
"Should is a worthless word," advises the always-wise Bobby Bare Jr. "The only time you use the word 'should' is when you're talking about something that doesn't exist." On his seventh album, Undefeated, the Nashville artist clearly strives forward without any "shoulds" — laying himself, well, "bar…
NO? Why,"yes!". Serendipity gave rise to the band NO; the founding members met each other, by chance, in a Los Angeles diner and began sharing stories of their favorite musicians and disastrous relationships. Like all greats, their music has a melancholy tinge without being too sentimental. NO fron…
It's fitting that the Arts in Nature Festival is where Cloud Cult planted the seed. Their concert last summer inside the Lodge at Seattle's Camp Long marked the first time the the Minnesota band went fully acoustic. They had recently rearranged songs spanning their entire catalog for what would bec…
Even if you hadn't caught her 2011 solo debut, Last Summer, you'd know at first listen to the vocals on her latest album, Personal Record, who Eleanor Friedberger is. Hers is the unmistakeable nasal drawl that characterizes the songs of The Fiery Furnaces, which Friedberger comprises with her broth…
