We may not have understood it when angelic frontwoman Lauren Mayberry started speaking in Jawa to the eager crowd at the Doug Fir Lounge this morning, but the dreamy sounds of Scottish electro-pop band CHVRCHES transcends any language.
In the last year, CHVRCHES win the award for biggest spontaneous combustion by a mile. After dropping the crazy good Recover single and EP, the band exploded. They timed the synth pop wave, hitting the mainstream perfectly, and dropped their tracks to insane reception. And now, all of us heavily anticipate the band's debut LP The Bones of What You Believe, out September 23 -- maybe even more so after hearing a sneak peek at new tracks like "We Sink" and "The Mother We Share."
Between their EP release and the present day, the band has been slowly developing their public image from Internet mystery to flesh and blood. Iain Cook (of Aereogramme) and Martin Doherty (of The Twilight Sad) join Mayberry to create CHVRCHES in the studio and on stage. Proving that they aren't a studio band alone, BBC recently named them among the top five most promising new talents of the year. Now, they are conquering the states from east to west, and at MusicFestNW, we get a taste of CHVRCHES ourselves.
We knew The Baseball Project would be a hit at our MusicFestNW broadcast, especially with this line-up of ringers. Scott McCaughey, Steve Wynn, Mike Mills, and Linda Pitmon brought their A-game to the Doug Fir Lounge with an exuberant lunchtime session.
The crowd is already forming as we set up for Day 1 of KEXP's broadcast from Doug Fir during Musicfest NW. We've got a killer lineup today starting with the ever-charming Scottish electropop trio CHVRCHES, followed by the all-star group The Baseball Project, electrifying dance-punks !!!, and the ar…
As Americans we are no longer surprised by European artists who bring their amazing music to our humble shores. The Joy Formidable is another among the ever-growing list of impressive British talent that has taken the US by storm. In 2007, childhood best friends Rhiannon "Ritzy" Bryan and Rhydian D…
