There was only one line longer than the Big Mario's line on Saturday at Capitol Hill Block Party 2016. In the middle of the day, with the sun out and shining down, keeping everyone warm, the line to get out of it and down into the basement shelter of Cha Cha was stacked fifty deep at pretty much an…
Writer, actor, director, songwriter, rapper, and all around entertainment superman, Donald Glover is a man who wears many hats. His hip-hop career under the moniker Childish Gambino hit full stride in back in 2011 with his Glassnote debut, Camp, which took his general awareness from niche rapper to…
Today's Song of the Day, featured as part of our Music Heals: Mental Health programming, is "Times Up (Remix) feat. Junglepussy" by Sampa the Great, a 2020 single on Ninja Tune.
Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Cheryl Waters, host of The Midday Show on KEXP, is "Rae Street" by Courtney Barnett, from the 2021 album Things Take Time, Take Time on Mom+Pop/Marathon Records.
Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Kevin Cole, host of Drive Time on KEXP, is "hold on to me" by Amelie Siba, from the 2021 self-released EP when is our time.
For the third episode of Live on KEXP featuring Courtney Barnett, Troy Nelson focuses on her third studio album, Things Take Time, Take Time.
Now in its sixth year, KEXPort celebrates KEXP’s ongoing relationship with Kex Hostel in Reykjavik, where we broadcast every year during Iceland Airwaves. Typically, it's a music marathon consisting of 12 bands in 12 hours, but this year they've expanded the program to feature 15 bands over two da…
Today, legendary singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen celebrates his 82nd birthday, and we're the ones who get a present. Check out the title track from his upcoming release, You Want It Darker, out October 21st via Sony. A press release explains, "Cohen created this hypnotic groove with the addition o…
Scottish post-rock band Mogwai are releasing their 9th studio album in twenty years called Every Country's Sun next week. We got a taste of the album via previously released tracks "Coolverine" and "Party In The Dark" but today they're giving us a non-album track, the B-side to "Party In The Dark" …
Nobody does wistful like Nada Surf. The veteran NYC band have long made longing a thing, crafting some of the most loveably poignant pop melodies you're likely to hear. (Even their "Happy Kid" ain't so happy.) Thankfully, age hasn't settled them, and two decades after their debut, they return with …
The thrill is gone. Yesterday, B.B. King passed away at age 89. Born Riley B. King in 1925 in Itta Bena, Mississippi, the legendary guitarist and songwriter became known worldwide for his distinctive voice and nimble finger picking, particularly on his constant companion, the Gibson guitar he named…
I have no idea what this album from 1959 was doing being added to the KCMU library in 1990, but I'm sure glad it was - and it seems like I would have been in good company at the time. Tom Lehrer is (and let me just jump in for a second to say how happy it makes me to type that "is," having establis…
It's time to move on. KEXP is moving to a new home. There's still a great deal of work to be done before it's up and running, but the waiting doesn't have to be the hardest part, thanks to KEXPetty, a benefit for KEXP's new home campaign. On Tuesday, May 5th, you'll get lucky with an all-local line…
It's uncanny that yesterday just happened to be Australia Day, and the highlights of this week's new releases are dominated by the down under! Merge Records release the latest from Melbourne pop quartet Twerps, which KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes is, "a masterful album of jangly indie-pop rem…
In Icelandic their name means "seasons", but the warm, acoustic chamberpop songs of Árstíðir are particularly comforting on these cold days of winter. Recently, the group has been busy recording and crowd funding their third LP, Hvel (due February 2015), but they took time to share a handful of gor…
While his previous release, Temple Beautiful, looked backwards, particularly at the storied past of San Francisco, Chuck Prophet's latest, Night Surfer (out today!), looks brazenly forward. But even if the future isn't always bright on this, his 13th album, the songs are characteristically punchy, …
After pumping out five albums in seven years, The Hold Steady were due for a break. But during the time between albums, the Brooklyn-via-Minneapolis band just couldn't keep from working. While vocalist Craig Finn released and toured a solo album of his own, guitarist Tad Kubler got the guys togethe…
It's been six years, but former Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis returns with her third solo album, Voyager, this July on Warner Bros Records. She explained to the Charleston City Paper, "I worked on these songs for a long time so there’s no stone unturned, lyrically. I thought about them while w…
What a happy coincidence! When I began my usual internet research for this week's piece on Northwest heroes Mecca Normal, I fully expected to find the usual nostalgic laments for a great band that was no more. How wrong I was! Not only is the two-piece guitar/voice unit of Jean Smith and David Lest…
"This is a really beautiful city", Keith Morris remarked halfway his El Corazon set with super punk supergroup OFF!. He was talking to the punk kid who had fought his way to the very front of the crowd, sweating profusely through the leather jacket he dared not remove in the pit. "You don't know th…
