“One of my dreams is about to come true,” DJ Derek Mazzone said, introducing the psychedelic Brazilian rock band Os Mutantes before their performance live on KEXP's Wo'Pop. The band, part of the Tropicália artistic movement that bridged popular culture with the avant-garde in the 1960s in Brazil, c…
Eugene Fauntleroy is an enigmatic figure on the Seattle underground electronic scene, known for his skills behind the decks, his vast record collection that spans the gamut of quality house and techno, and his deft ability to string sleek rhythms together in a seamless sophisticated fashion. He's c…
Philadelphia band The War on Drugs return with the fourth album. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it, "an excellent set of expansive, '80s-steeped rock. Beautifully produced, the band's music has never sounded better than it does here with a bliss-inducing combination of expansive guitar leads, …
Lots of great local releases this week, including the sophomore full-length from Seattle supergroup Childbirth, featuring members of Chastity Belt, TacocaT and Pony Time. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it, "a strong set of snarky garage-punk with primal, grungy guitar lines and pounding rhythm…
Highlights for this sleepy summer week include the debut from Toronto-based band Alvvays (pronounced "always," if you were wonderin'). KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes the release as "a promising set of hazy, surf-inflected dream-pop. Produced by Chad VanGaalen, the album features a reverb-d…
I hate to break it to you, but you're gonna be heading toward Record Store Day this Saturday at a deficit. Why? Because there are too many excellent new releases coming out today that you'll want to pick up right now. First and foremost: the latest from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, whose fourth album our Music…
Veteran LA-based artist Moby debuts his new project, Moby & The Void Pacific Choir, and KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes their first LP is "a potent set of noisy, goth-tinged post-punk with loud, distorted synths, rumbling guitars, pounding industrial rhythms, dour vocals, soaring song hooks…
Highlights this week include the latest from London/NYC-via-Atlanta trio Algiers. KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes their debut as "an electrifying blend of edgy post-punk with soul and gospel, featuring a dark, haunting sound with ominous guitar squalls, icy synths, hypnotic drum-machine rhy…
They say March is "in like a lion, out like a lamb," and out this week is the sophomore release from Lady Lamb (formerly Lady Lamb The Beekeeper)! KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes the release is "a bolder, more direct-sounding album with a dynamic indie-pop sound featuring driving rhythms, guita…
August is closing out with some seriously highly-anticipated new albums. Highlights include the fifth album from Baltimore duo Beach House, which KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes as "another beautifully crafted set of atmospheric dream-pop with a floating, reverb-drenched sound combining dro…
It's another busy fall week, but KEXP's Music Director Don Yates definitely spots some highlights, like the latest from NYC's The Juan Maclean. Now "officially" a duo, producer/musician Juan MacLean and vocalist Nancy Whang share "a strong set of muscular disco, house and related styles, combining …
Recover from the holiday weekend with some new music, like the latest from KEXP favorite Sharon Van Etten. KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes her fourth release as, "a masterful set of brooding folk-pop... the album features a sparsely produced, mostly slow-burning sound with solemn piano and …
Underneath shimmering textures and spiky rhythms, The Drums have always kept their heart on their musical sleeves, with Jonathan Pierce effortlessly dropping sentimental expressions alongside darkly-tinted humor alongside each other. That's no different on the band's latest album “Abysmal Though…
Although the musicians surrounding them aren't always the same, the couple of Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia's impeccable chemistry has kept their Malian rhythms dazzling for more than 30 years. Their first record in five years, La Confusion, is as vibrant as any of their previous wo…
To name your debut LP The Epic takes quite a bit of confidence, but in the case of Kamasi Washington, it's the only title that would make sense. The Californian saxophonist, composer, and bandleader's sweeping style of jazz is nearly overwhelming in its scope and scale, but Washington's virtuousti…
Older acts dominated this week's batch of new releases, but a standout LP from a new band is the sophomore release from L.A. duo Girlpool. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes the album "finds them recording with a full band for the first time, and the end result is a more muscular and fully realize…
Nashville band Diarrhea Planet get this week's gold star with their third LP, Turn To Gold. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes the album "features a bigger, more polished sound for their hook-filled blend of punkish power-pop and epic hard rock, along with crisper, more sophisticated songs with mo…
Brooklyn band The Antlers release their fifth album, Familiars, today, and KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it, "a gorgeous, deeply felt set of dreamy ambient-pop tinged with elements of elegiac jazz and southern soul on lengthy, slowly swelling songs featuring muted guitars, mournful trumpets, …
There are moments during Valerie June's return to KEXP where she steps away from the mic and simply begins dancing to the rhythm, regardless if the song in question is a blues rocker or a sparse, country crawl. Performing four varied tracks from The Order of Time, the Tennessee songwriter an…
It's hard to feel sad about British band The Clientele's uncertain future and potentially permanent hiatus while Amor de Días glows brightly. With songwriting partner Lupe Núñez-Fernández (also of the duo Pipas), Clientele frontman Alasdair MacLean continues to carry the torch of happy-sad songs of…
