It takes a lot for a song to enter the Christmas canon. Most of the songs we sing every year have survived generations, outlasting our memory and seemingly always existing. It's not that new holiday songs aren't still being written -- good ones still emerge constantly, but very few can reach the ub…
Troy Nelson gets you primed for a killer Memorial Day weekend in the Gorge with a preview of this year's Sasquatch! Music Festival, featuring high energy rock, scuzzy punk, rootsy folk rock, and hard-hitting hip hop. 1. Sleigh Bells - Rule Number One2. Jagwar Ma - O B 13. The Radio Dept. - Committ…
Midday show host Cheryl Waters presents a new mix of great music, featuring songs from Kyle Craft, Fauna Shade and more. 1. Kyle Craft - Pentecost 2. Woods - Sun City Creeps 3. Prism Tats - Pacifist Masochist 4. DMA's - Timeless 5. DRÆMHOUSE - Lucky 6. Conner Youngblood - Diamonds 7. Kevin Morby…
Audioasis host DJ Sharlese dishes up the first in a two-part 2014 Pacific Northwest Round Up! Featuring sounds that came out of the region this year like Vox Mod, Fruit Juice, Low Hums and more!1. Cabana - Wet Brick2. Helms Alee - Pinniped3. Kithkin - Altered Beast4. Low Hums - It's in the Air5. L…
Join Midday Show host Cheryl Waters as she celebrates a wonderful year in music and offers this gift for the holiday season, featuring new music from Francisco the Man, The Vaselines, Black Whales and more! 1. Francisco the Man - Loaded 2. The Rosebuds - In My Teeth 3. We Were Promised Jetpacks …
Paris Combo's most recent album, this year's Tako Tsubo, is named for the Japanese-named condition of what's commonly known as “broken heart syndrome”, but it's hardly morose. If anything, the colorful, flowing sounds of this session imply that there's anything but sadness…
From trip-hop to R%26B to bossa nova - to name only a few styles incorporated in the Washington D.C. collective's music - Thievery Corporation's diverse rhythms and textures remain a vibrant touchstone to numerous styles of music 20 years after the band's formation In a career-spanning session on …
"It was like being in a car that hit the brakes and suddenly we had all this stuff to say." After spending nearly two years on the road behind their 2013 debut Wildewoman, Lucius had plenty of stories to tell on what would become their 2016 sophomore effort Good Grief, resulting in their…
Reflecting on American pathologies during the creation of the band's eighth album, Shearwater leader Jonathan Meiburg sought to make what David Bowie once called an oblique protest record. The result, this year's Jet Plane and Oxbow, is some of the Austin, Texas group's most expansive and impactfu…
4AD has been on a roll this year with unique new signees that are bringing the atmospheric R&B game to the next level. I guess this isn't terribly surprising, considering 4AD has been on the forefront for, I don't know, 35 years. But between last month's sleeper hit Lo-Fang set and last week's …
With great sadness the music world learned today of songwriter Scott Miller's passing. The brilliance of his pop sensibility and songwriting were the hallmarks of his work with his power pop group Game Theory, which despite plenty of adoration from critics and loyal fans remained a cult favorite a…
KEXP has been incredibly fortunate to return to Iceland these past six years, not only to discover new artists to share with our listeners, but also to witness the astounding growth of bands like Vök. When we first heard them in 2013, Vök had recently formed, starting as a duo and winning Músíktilr…
Last weekend saw the return of Reykjavik Calling, the annual showcase featuring artists from sister cities Reykjavik and Seattle. Each year, KEXP curates the bill, selecting likeminded artists whose complementary styles might lead to fruitful collaboration. This year, we made our choices with a min…
It's hard to believe, but LAKE are celebrating their tenth anniversary as a band this year. The charming Northwest outfit formed in Olympia, debuting at frontman Eli Moore's birthday party, and since then, have released eight full-lengths, four of those on legendary local label K Records. Over the …
For a band that's distinctly Scottish, The Vaselines couldn't be more "Northwest", and now more so than ever. Formed by current members, Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, the Glasgow group released only one album before breaking up in 1989. That might have been the end for their catchy, quirky, charm…
Everything I've ever thought about MØ is wrong. Well, maybe not all of it – I think she put together an incredible debut LP this year with No Mythologies To Follow, and I think that hard work has put her in league with the leaders of the new wave of indie pop like Grimes, Charli XCX, and others. Bu…
New York indie rock gods Yeah Yeah Yeahs make their long awaited return this year with a bludgeoning of contradictions. The trio - made up of singer Karen O, guitarist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase - has made the books in recent history with indie rock anthems like "Zero", "Phenomena", and "…
There are few moments in rock 'n' roll as iconic as the opening drum-and-breath line in "Time of the Season." Yet unlike many of their British Invasion co-horts (like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Moody Blues), The Zombies never reached the same level of success. Maybe it was tha…
What can I say about Slint that I didn't already say in my 2008 Spiderland post? I kept it short back then, but I pretty much covered the bases: they were an excellent band that has been very influential over the years and they were phenomenal live, even almost twenty years after anyone thought the…
Since breaking out of their native Wales in late 2010, The Joy Formidable have straddled a line that few bands in a post-Internet world have been able to. They're not quite artsy enough to be fully embraced by the Pitchfork crowd, and they don't have the commercial-baiting hooks that both televisio…
