Toronto rave gods Crystal Castles are known for their brutally intense live show. Alice Glass smokes nearly an entire pack of cigarettes on stage and makes some good progress on a bottle of Jack Daniels, while Ethan Kath barely looks up from his table, making sure that every pulsing bass drop shake…
South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela has sadly passed away today at the age of 95. The revered statesman was imprisoned for 27 years, eventually released in 1990 after an international campaign fueled by many prominent musicians. Mandela was elected the first black president of South Af…
It was one of the most highly-anticipated sessions of our Musicfest NW broadcast: Scottish electropop group CHVRCHES had been blowing up the music blogs for months, yet their debut album, The Bones of What You Believe hadn't hit stores at the time. From the packed audience of the Doug Fir Lounge t…
It was a year ago today that KEXP celebrated our annual Intergalactic Bowie Day celebration on what was David Bowie's 69th birthday, sadly followed by an on-air mourning of his passing mere days later. While the passing of time has done nothing to dull the pain, the power and influence of his music…
If something was happening in the Minneapolis music scene, writer Jim Walsh was there to cover it. A former City Pages music editor (think, The Stranger) and award-winning columnist for the Pioneer Press, Walsh writes about music and culture. He is the author of the oral history The Replacements: A…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Aft…
DJ Morgan presents the latest installment of the KEXP Music That Matters mixtape-style podcast, featuring new music from Goldfrapp, Washed Out, and Stres, that acts as the perfect soundtrack as we segue from Summer into Fall. 1. Volcano Choir - Byegone 2. Okkervil River - It Was My Season 3. Gold…
When Finn Andrews first entered the KEXP studios in 2004, he was barely 20 years of age, but his evocative songwriting was already fully-formed. Returning in 2017, The Veils leader is more refined and potent than ever on the Auckland-via-London group's fifth album Total Depravity. Embracing "…
Much was made of Nao's jazz backgroud when she was a buzzy artist in 2015, but the London musician's debut full length, this year's For All We Know (named for a jazz standard) displays a singer with significant funk credentials and forward-thinking, electronic-tinged production. In this kinetic se…
The 22-song album was curated by Cameron Crowe and photographer Joel Bernstein
The prolific vocalist died after a long fight with cancer. He was 56.
The Port Townsend songwriter passed away on March 27. He was 43-years-old.
Groundbreaking producer SOPHIE died early Saturday morning after an accidental fall in Athens, Greece. SOPHIE was 34.
The legendary musician, who played with the band from 1963 to the present, was 80 years old.
Iconic songwriter and performer Tina Turner has passed away following a longterm illness. She was 83.
Second on today's broadcast live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves was Australian artist Gordi. Gordi is the stage name of Australian Folktronica artist Sophie Payten, who began playing music while in university, and began to gain traction across Australia after she was featured in prominent radi…
All the way back in August, when Father John Misty was on his Pure Comedy tour, he recorded an episode of Austin City Limits for PBS. Recorded at The Moody Theater in downtown Austin, he delivered a shorter set than the other shows on his tour (his Seattle show at the Paramount was over two hours l…
Appropriately, the artist that opened Sasquatch 2014 was part of one of the key sets of Sasquatch 2013. When Mary Lambert made an appearance to sing the chorus of "Same Love", it was one of a number of peaks in Macklemore's triumphant headlining set last year. In her Friday afternoon mainstage set,…
Al Doyle is a wunderkind. Whether he's hopping between three or four different instrument setups at a Hot Chip show, turning the guitar part on "Losing My Edge" into a rock 'n' roll masterpiece at LCD Soundsystem's last show, or having the time of his life jamming out with fellow Hot Chip member Fe…
The song was recorded for and released by W Hotels' new imprint, W Records