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 …
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…
When Laura Marling first emerged out of the West London folk scene in 2008, her age (then 18) belied her eloquent lyrics, deft guitar playing and strong voice, but as her has career progressed, critics have stopped using her age as a talking point and begun championing her consistency. Her fourth a…
After years of extensive touring, Seattle band Ivan & Alyosha released a new album called All the Times We Had. The group celebrated its release by hanging with DJ Cheryl Waters earlier this year and playing a live set at the KEXP studios. “I want to be the man who understands his woman and you…
When I first heard of Chastity Belt, it was through word of mouth. My friends highly endorsed this band from Walla Walla, WA. They had just moved here and were playing some shows around town. Their song titles kinda freaked me out in the beginning, but that quickly changed when I got the chance to …
Probably among the most beloved hilarious trouble making tongue in cheek Canadians making the music rounds right now is Mac DeMarco - and he's all of these things plus some in his new video for "My Kind of Woman" off his recent album 2. Plus he's in drag. Sort of - and he winks like a pro every tim…
Today is National Pet Day! While you probably don't need a lot of reminders to appreciate that furried, feathered or finned one in your life, who might right now be curled up beside you, romping around your yard or sitting eagerly waiting for food, today is for remembering all our little friends. P…
Dan Deacon will release "Konono Ripoff No. 1" as an exclusive run of 500 hand-numbered 7" for Record Store Day on the 20th. Deacon has played the song live in recent months but this will be the first time it's been released. The song is performed by two different pairs of drummers -- the A-side i…
Boise isn't one of those places where you hop out of bed and say "I think we should go to Boise this weekend!" Actually, I don't think it would have ever been a destination on my list, but then low and behold Treefort Music Festival was born. So many people talked up this fledgling festival last y…
The COMPLETE lineup for the Pitchfork Music Festival was announced today! On July 19-21 Chicago's Union Park will be saturated with killer live music. Joining the already impressive lineup include- Glass Candy, Yo La Tengo, Phosphorescent, Metz,Julia Holter, M.I.A. and MANY more. A full, detail li…
Noise-rock duo Stagnant Pools have been compared to the likes of Sonic Youth and Disappears, but they truly have a flavor all their own. Bryan and Douglass Enas are recent graduates of Indiana University that are using this exciting time in their lives to make a dream a reality. The brothers have t…
Welcome to another installment of Review Revue in which I wonder how the heck I got through my adolescence without hearing some band or other from the '80s. Today I bring you The Room. Before that moniker referred to a sublimely terrible movie by Tommy Wiseau, it was a short-lived but relatively pr…
Things are picking up! In the world of new releases, that is. 2013 has fully arrived, and as you head back to work, school or whatever your day-to-day, it's time to put record shopping back into your regular routine. The shelves of your favorite record shops are now being lined with anticipated new…
All day tomorrow, we'll be counting down KEXP listeners' Top Albums of 2012 all day, and there's no doubt that local band The Helio Sequence will have a strong showing. That it took four years to release Negotiations isn't too surprising, considering the Portland duo usually take their time perfect…
Covered in pink and gold paint, J GRGRY took the Mural Amphitheatre stage in Seattle Center. Under the gaze of the Space Needle with the sun beaming down on the band, it made for an electric opening for the first day of the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival. Lead vocalist, Joe Gregory, moved ac…
Björk's new "Tinder album" is on its way and we finally have a taste of what it might sound like with lead single "The Gate." The storyline of the song picks up where Vulnicura left off, with Björk healing from the heartbreak of the dissolution of her 13-year relationship. “My healed chest wound/Tr…
Paris-based French-Cuban sister duo Ibeyi share their sophomore LP. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls the latest from Naomi and Lisa-Kainde Diaz "another stunning, beautifully crafted blend of electro-pop, soul, hip-hop and traditional Cuban percussion, combining a spacious, beat-driven sound wit…
