KEXP can never get enough of Sóley. The charming Icelandic songstress has a knack for covering a deep emotional range and some occasionally morbid subjects in the most disarming and endearing way. In fact, we've recorded her six out of the past seven years we've been covering Iceland Airwaves, and …
HEALTH's new record Death Magic has a pretty significant lead up to it. After working on a third album for some time, the band got an opportunity to work on the soundtrack for Rockstar's Max Payne 3, which they knocked out of the park in every plausible way. The extra time focused on production and…
Brooklyn-based band Lucius blew into the KEXP Live Room back in June with a barrage of bedazzled instruments and beguiling harmonies.
On the show this time, it's a very special throwback episode, featuring a live performance from Oakland’s own, R&B singer - Raphael Saadiq.
It's the classic peanut butter meets chocolate kind of story. A chance meeting, or really, a shared bill, brought Amelia Meath (of the harmonizing folk trio Mountain Man) and Nick Sanborn (of psychsters Megafaun and his own electronic project, Made of Oak) together. A conversation led to the two sh…
"You don’t have to be anyone if you don’t want to / You don’t have to get a job if you don’t want to" and you definitely don't have to listen to Howler if you don't want to. But that would be a damn shame because the Minneapolis yeehaw boys have returned with their second album of infectious punky …
With rowdy organ and improvised slide guitar, Tango Alpha Tango is not your typical rock 'n' roll band. Since 2008, the Portland-based musicians have released three albums and a three-track preview. Their newest product, Black Cloud, is a longer, heavier, piece of work, placing Tango Alpha Tango on…
It's said the brightest flame casts the darkest shadow, but in the case of Brooklyn's Twin Shadow, that there's plenty of light there too. On his past two albums, filled with 80's synths, danceable rhythms and crunchy hooks, Brooklyn's George Lewis Jr. crooned stories of grief and heartbreak. Live …
Pixies have shared a new video for the atmospheric track "Magdalena" off their latest EP-2 (read an in-depth review of the EP on the KEXP Blog here). Check it out below, and don't forget to tune in to KEXP on Tuesday, February 18th for a LIVE session from this legendary band, including the debut o…
The Los Angeles band, Las Cafeteras, named themselves after a community space in El Sereno, L.A. where group members met one another and started to learn and play Son Jarocho music together, influenced by regional Mexican folk music. The band feminized the name to honor women, they note. Modern day…
Leave it to an Australian band to save Brit Pop. Actually, they may be destroying it because reportedly Noel Gallagher is too busy listening to Jagwar Ma to get the old band back together. In truth, the young Aussies have revitalized the Madchester sound, though rather than sustain one long bacchan…
If rock and roll music – specifically punk rock – is a genre for the young, then The So So Glos have done as much as anyone to help foster and support that spirit. Not only does the Brooklyn-based band -- comprised of brothers Alex and Ryan Levine, their step-brother Zach Staggers, and Matt Elkin -…
“It’s like watching a movie,” DJ Cheryl Waters exclaimed during the elaborate in-studio performance by Shugo Tokumaru. The Japanese musician, famous for using more than 100 different instruments in his album recordings, incorporates so many instruments in his music, from the more traditional guitar…
Recently, Seattle songwriter Shelby Earl, fresh off releasing her new album, Swift Arrows, stopped by KEXP for a live in-studio to play four new tracks off the record. Produced by Seattle folk hero Damien Jurado, Swift Arrows is a mix of piano ballads and guitar rock in the lineage of Seattle songw…
California surf rockers Cayucas have been keeping our summer quite lovely. They dropped their delightful debut LP, Bigfoot, back in May and we've been dancing to it ever since. Last month, they played a headlining gig at Barboza in support of the record with JBM to much acclaim. But before they too…
The love NYC drummer Miles Arntzen holds for the music of Nigerian legend Fela Kuti is so great it can't be contained by just one band. Arntzen, who drums for well-known funksters Antibalas, also started yet another 10+ member afrobeat-inspired group in EMEFE. Formed a year before his joining Antib…
After being pretty quiet for several years, Future Bible Heroes -- one of the projects of The Magnetic Fields mastermind Stephen Merritt and his collaborators Claudia Gonson and Christopher Ewen -- are making a big re-entrance into the music world with their soon-to-be-released box set Memories of …
Seattle songwriter Kris Orlowski has the honesty, voice, and soul needed in a great pop folk songwriter. Since the mid-2000s, Orlowski has been on the Seattle circuit building a reputation for the highest quality songwriting with an equally talented band that seems to understand every turn and moo…
In September, KEXP made our first journey out to Montreal, Quebec, to immerse ourselves in their vibrant and eclectic music scene during the 16th annual POP Montreal Music Festival. With the assistance of FACTOR, a fellow nonprofit that assists the growth and development of musicians across Canada,…
