Opening today’s broadcast live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves was Finnish singer-songwriter Mikko Joensuu. Over the course of the last year and half or so, Mikko has released a series of three records over the course of a year or so, called Amen 1-3 (Svart records) exploring coming into faith,…
Here in the Northwest, our love of biking is right on par with our love of local music. The Gigantic Bicycle Festival is the ideal intersection between these two passions, and then some. On August 18 to 20th, the festival returns to Snoqualmie with three days of energizing PNW bands, locally produc…
On September 22, Bikini Kill are releasing a special reissue of their 1991 demo Revolution Girl Style Now!. The release will feature three unreleased tracks, one of which is called "Playground." Listen to this gem of classic Pacific Northwest grunge, below. [Stereogum]
Thirty-three years after his first release on the label, Mudhoney’s frontman is still shipping out copies of his records as the Sub Pop warehouse manager. This is part of Sound & Vision’s Day Jobs series which explores musicians who juggle day jobs with their passion in music.
Even if the definition of "Northwestern band” has to be stretched a little to include the Alaskan outfit Portugal. The Man, they have plenty of Northwest ties. Returning to the KEXP studios for a session featuring songs from their last three albums (all of which had a portion recorded in Seat…
Hamilton Leithauser is a veteran of the KEXP studios by this point in his career, but his rough and tumble brand of doo wop-damaged rock has never sounded as rich as it has on his 2016 collaborative album with Rostam, I Had a Dream That You Were Mine. The New York City songwriter is in fine form a…
"This is the music of the spirit," proclaims host John Gilbreath ahead of Jaimeo Brown's Transcendence's majestic set. It's high praise, certainly, but the trio of percussionist Jaimeo Brown, guitarist Chris Sholar, and saxophonist Jaleel Shaw create music that is truly impossible to box…
With three album released in the span of 13 months across 2014-15, there was a lot of musical ground for Wand to cover when they made their KEXP debut in July 2016. But across four songs and countless crushing riffs, the Los Angeles outfit ran through the rapidly-expanding "story of Wand”, …
When a supergroup becomes a band, magic happens. For German electronic figureheads Modeselektor and Apparat, their work together as Moderat qualifies as a full time gig. Now that they're three albums deep, it's no secret that these three gentlemen enjoy working together and challenging each other c…
Finally! A reason to go to Spokane! This weekend, September 5th through 7th, launches the First Annual Bartfest, a music festival organized by a new all-ages venue in the small Washington town, The Bartlett. Together, with Nyne Bar located next door, they'll host a three-day indoor festival smack-d…
Back in 1999, Olympia-based queer feminist artist Wynne Greenwood started the electro-punk trio Tracy + the Plastics. Tracy was the bad-ass lead vocalist, Nikki was on keyboards, and Cola on drums. Oh, and all three band members were actually Greenwood herself.
Cellist Lori Goldston has been carving her own path in the world of rock music for over three decades. She’s performed and recorded with some iconic artists like Nirvana, David Byrne, and Cat Power among many others. She is also an unsung hero of Seattle’s music scene, continuing to work with new a…
Caitlin De Marrais, Kaia Fischer, and William Kuehn originally stepped away from the influential emo outlet Rainer Maria in 2006, but fate led to their return nearly a decade later, first as a performing band, then as a recording one. S/T, their first record in a decade, is full of the passionate …
The Cure celebrate their fortieth anniversary this year. Let that soak in for a second. Then consider that the English quintet are playing three-plus hour sets with multiple encores night after night. Needless to say, Robert Smith and the current Cure lineup are doing right their legacy night after…
One of the highlights of last year's Icelandic Airwaves Festival was the live session we did with Icelandic supergroup Drangar, recorded at Sigur Rós' Sundlaugin (or "Swimming Pool") studio. The three bandmates — Mugison, Jónas Sigurðsson and Ómar Guðjónsson — each highly respected musicians with …
Hey, are you going to be in Austin, TX, during SXSW next week? If you are, come join KEXP at Mellow Johnny's Bike shop for three days of free music. During the 2014 South by Southwest Music Conference, KEXP is teaming up with our friends Distiller Promo, Sub Pop + Hardly Art, and Merge Records for …
Named after the informal moniker of the musicians who helped him make the record, Floating Harmonies is one of Júnrus Meyvant's finest records, living up to its title's description of aqueous, serene melodies. Performing a stripped down set in the KEXP Live Room, Meyvant and his band play thr…
Toronto’s BADBADNOTGOOD’s first headlining show in Seattle proved that they have come a long way from their viral-video rap-cover roots, as the three-piece made some serious noise tearing through several familiar covers and even more originals from their debut album, III. With only a drum kit, elec…
Heads Up on the dance floor! LA band Warpaint sound the drums on their rhythmically driven third LP by infusing their typically broody post-punk with more hypnotic dub and funk grooves. The battle-ready four-piece charged the KEXP live room to perform their first single, "New Song", and three other…
Reverberation is the highly-revered and consistently on-point weekly online radio show curated and mixed by members of Allah-Las, a Los Angeles band that craft excellent 60s-inspired pop. Three of the band's members were working at the iconic record store Amoeba Music upon their formation, and thei…
