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Live Reviews

Live Review: Gardens & Villa with Tom Eddy at Barboza 5/13/14

Santa Barbara synthpop group Gardens & Villa have been on the road for nearly four months straight. Ever since their sophomore LP Dunes dropped on Secretly Canadian, they’ve been road-tripping around this county and others, showing off what a new batch of tunes and a refined live show have to o…


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Album Reviews

Album Review: Little Dragon - Nabuma Rubberband

A rubber band is the perfect picture to fit Swedish electronic outfit Little Dragon. Up to this point, the band has been carving a unique sound that occupies a haunting modern space somewhere between historical influences like Massive Attack and Bjork. After singer Yukumi Nagano made an appearance …


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Agitated Atmosphere Album Reviews

Agitated Atmosphere: Vacation Club - Heaven is Too High

As major labels continue to exist behind the times, artists and labels with little capital and lesser reputations are producing some of the most innovative, interesting, and inspiring music. Whether it’s creating a new niche in digital technology or looking to once obsolete formats, Agitated Atmosp…


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Agitated Atmosphere Album Reviews

Agitated Atmosphere: Vacation Club - Heaven is Too High

As major labels continue to exist behind the times, artists and labels with little capital and lesser reputations are producing some of the most innovative, interesting, and inspiring music. Whether it’s creating a new niche in digital technology or looking to once obsolete formats, Agitated Atmosp…


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Live Reviews

Live Review: Childish Gambino at Paramount Theater 5/10/14

Writer, actor, director, songwriter, rapper, and all around entertainment superman, Donald Glover is a man who wears many hats. His hip-hop career under the moniker Childish Gambino hit full stride in back in 2011 with his Glassnote debut, Camp, which took his general awareness from niche rapper to…


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Album Reviews

Album Review: The Black Keys - Turn Blue

The fact that Turn Blue, the eighth album by The Black Keys, is full of songs about being hurt by a woman shouldn't be all that surprising. Although they, sonically speaking, haven't been a dirty, traditionalist-leaning blues band in a few years now, they remain one at heart, which is why Dan Auerb…


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Live Reviews

Live Review: Lo-Fang with Erik Walters at Barboza 5/6/14

It’s been quite a year for Matthew Hemerlein. The Los Angeles-based musician operating, under the name Lo-Fang, has been piecing together his debut record Blue Film since 2009. First as a mixtape, now as a fully rendered personal work, the collection of songs seen here is awe-inspiring and striking…


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Album Reviews

Album Review: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Days of Abandon

There are very few bands that find a way to capture the absolute euphoria of endless, boundless love and affection. Plenty manage to navigate the confusing space between love and infatuation, the infinite battle of reconciling affection and compassion, and find countless new ways to spell the woes …


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Live Reviews

Live Review: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart with Fear of Men & Ablebody at The Vera Project 5/3/2014

In his interview with Stereogum, Kip Berman historically described The Pains of Being Pure At Heart as a project about writing songs and playing them with friends. Now, almost five years since the band’s divine eponymous debut, with a new backing lineup that helped record the new LP out in a week a…


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From the Archives:

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Sub Pop 30th Anniversary Count-Up

In 2018, KEXP celebrated the 30th anniversary of local record label Sub Pop with a four-month retrospective, "counting up" every catalog number in their vast discography of over 1,200 releases. Dig into the archives of our catalog coverage, featuring in-depth coverage on the history of their releases.


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