California quartet Silversun Pickups share a glimpse into their studio life via the video for "Circadian Rhythm (Last Dance)," which you can watch below. The track appears on their forthcoming full-length Better Nature, their first new album in three years, out September 25th on their own label, N…
San Francisco’s rocked out folk duo Two Gallants bring out their inner primal energy to the KEXP studio. Unleashing the musical fury of their 2015 release, We Are Undone, the guys bang out quality like it's their lifeblood - all immersed in Adam Stephens' fuzzed out prog sonics and Tyson Vogel's ki…
Captivating our ears and showcasing why he is a global superstar, Belgian singer, rapper and songwriter Paul Van Haver, better known by his stage name Stromae, stormed into KEXP to spread his infectious grooves in this stunning live session. Laced with pop hooks, nineties electronics and Afro-tinge…
For just three people, Seattle metal trio Helms Alee make a big noise. Performing tracks off their third album Sleepwalking Sailors, they rocked the KEXP studios with their pounding rhythms, insistent vocals, and heavy guitar riffs. How do they do it? "We don't use our heads, basically," laughs dru…
Close your eyes. Recall that garage with cardboard boxes in the corner, shelves stacked with hammers, duct tape and screwdrivers, and the faint aroma of fresh paint? You’re laying on your back, daydreaming, and you hear rock and roll music playing somewhere. This is the sound of Beach Fossils. The …
Uk band The Horrors return with their fifth LP; KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it "an expansive blend of brooding electro-rock, industrialized post-punk, shoegazerish space-rock and more, combining a majestic, adventurous sound with some of the band's most assured songwriting to date." Austral…
DJ Bricks is the latest alias of Louise Croff Blake, a non-binary Seattle-based DJ and artist, as well as a member of the local TUF collective. Their career began in Tacoma's house party scene in 2010, using college radio station KUPS 90.1 FM as a resource and incubator. Now, after four years in Se…
Portland band Battleme are lovers not fighters. Frontman Matt Drenik may have fueled his project's perpetually punchy new LP with hard-hitting beats and muscular rhythms, but Habitual Love Songs is Battleme's billet-doux to '70s-steeped power-pop and glam guitar rock, populated with characters from…
The Juan MacLean is the stage name of talented electronic musician and DJ John MacLean. While his roots trace back to post-hardcore Sub Pop band Six Finger Satellite in the first half of the 1990s, he's been a force on the revered DFA Records label for over a decade with three critically-acclaimed …
The latest from Australian band Royal Headache doesn't hurt KEXP's ears: our Music Director Don Yates calls it, "another first-rate set of urgent, soul-steeped garage-rock and post-punk, combining buzzing guitars and energetic rhythms with emotive lyrics and lead singer Shogun’s gritty, soulful voc…
If surf rock is making a comeback with the rise of bands like Seattle’s La Luz, then Portland-based band The Shivas may well be ahead of the curve. Their head-bobbing rhythms and cute, airy background vocals envelope the ears like a warm tropical day. The band can rock, too, like on their song “Sta…
Soul Clap is a renowned DJ and production duo from Boston, Massachusetts. Active in the club scene since 2001, they've become trusted club favorites with their top-notch mixture of house, disco, funk, soul and anything groovy, while also displaying their production skills on numerous singles, remix…
The instrumentation in Radiation City tends to add up to more than the sum of its parts, so if the droves of passersby drawn towards the Fisher Green stage early in the Bumbershoot afternoon weren’t sure of the cause for their attraction, that might’ve been why. Instead of screaming guitar solos, c…
Beacon is the project of Brooklyn-based duo Jacob Gossett and Thomas Mullarney III. The two have unveiled a top-notch brand of dark, seductive R&B-tinged electro-pop over two albums and a few EPs for stellar American electronic music label Ghostly International, most recently on their fantastic…
Rap Class is the alias of Portland's John Kammerle, a vast resource of knowledge and skills as a DJ, a chameleonic and exploratory electronic producer, a school music teacher, and also a founding member of the beloved Dropping Gems collective. While he's offered up his own productions on releases f…
Seattle’s own Nightmare Fortress crash the KEXP live room with their stronghold of sound to unveil a handful of unheard harmonics from their upcoming full length, ‘The Wanting’. Drowning in their heralded Grave Rave otics - guitar strings of tension are mixed with dark, sublime computer manipulatio…
One of the most exciting releases this week comes from Brooklyn-via-Jersey band Real Estate. KEXP's Music Director Don Yates describes their third album, Atlas, as "another masterful set of dreamy, surf-inflected indie-pop, featuring a more pristine sound this time around for their warm blend of ja…
Through years of hard work and countless projects, producer Kurt Feldman has made a name for himself as one of the greatest auteurs of the 80s who was also born in the 80s. Earlier this year, Feldman brought this knack for timeless synth pop to Kristin Welchez for her debut as Kristin Kontrol. Else…
Los Angeles-based DJ and music scholar Canyon Cody has been showcasing vibrant worldly dancefloor rhythms as both a veteran DJ of both radio and clubs, as well as through his own production and label A&R work. With his hands in cool, cutting-edge spots like Fania Records, Red Bull Music Academy…
Seattle's Wishbeard is one of those great bands that keeps the high hat and snare drum going. This is part of what makes them eminently danceable. With etherial guitars and vocal shouts like wolves howling into the night, the drum keeps a tight, pushing rhythm highlighted by the quickly hit snares …
