Sometimes it’s the simplest words that stop you cold. Soft-spoken Tuareg artist Omara ‘Bombino’ Moctar proved this to me on a stiflingly hot summer evening at the 2012 Pickathon Festival backstage. I was talking to him for their post-performance video interviews, aided by French-Canadian guitarist…
It is proving quite difficult to find out much information about Che (pronounced, we are informed here, "Shay") or Alix Plain, the person behind this project. The very minimal Allmusic entry mentions that Plain was the odd man out when his previous band, Modern Eon, broke up and the other four memb…
"Bouncing keyboards." "Thumping four-on-the-floor beats." "Synth-driven." Those are just a handful of phrases that probably wouldn't have been used to describe Ra Ra Riot prior to 2013. However, for their third full-length, Beta Love, the now-quartet moved away from their string-laden sound in favo…
Monotown: it's a name you'll be hearing a lot on KEXP, and hopefully everywhere else, in 2013. Over the past several years, our trips to Iceland have allowed us to discover bands sometimes even before they've released any albums (as was the case with Of Monsters and Men in 2010), or at least before…
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,…
From the downstroke of the show opener "Bullet" from their new record Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, Franz Ferdinand had Showbox Sodo off its feet. "Bullet" is an easy highlight off the band's fourth LP, with its furious bass line and scream-along chorus concert ready at impact, and the…
Describing My Morning Jacket's live show is almost as difficult as describing their music. While tagging it with a reductive broad stroke isn't that hard ("rock music"), listing out the individual elements that play into the band's style can come off as too disparate to make it their music seem com…
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba are set on changing the way we think about world music. Pushing the limits of traditional West African instruments themselves to embrace western styles and a more versatile melodic range, Bassekou Kouyate is proud of the modern innovations he's made with the ngoni, a…
Ty Segall is like the American Horror Story of rock 'n' roll. The now-LA based maniacal, musical polymath constantly reinvents while rotating a cast of characters around a shifting approach to one theme: to rock the living shit out of you. Though his latest album - and what we can assume to be just…
Seattle, you never cease to amaze us with your passion for music, and we love you for it! Despite rare high temperatures in the mid-90s, over a thousand of you came out last Friday for the latest edition of Concerts at the Mural. And, a little heat was so worth it with the great bill we had. Local …
There are many ways to “get down,” and Thao and crew seemingly discovered them all on Monday at Sasquatch! Music Festival. Thao and the Get Down ripped through a festival ready set, encouraging the crowd to get down in every possible way. Whether it was through the plucky rhythm the group often hel…
British psych pop four-piece Temples have garnered a lot of attention in the short time since their formation in 2012. Their 2014 debut, Sun Structures, made its way onto lots of best-of lists. Consequently, the Bigfoot stage was considerably crowded as they launched into the single "Shelter Song".…
Fisherman's Village Music Festival — you had us at The Helio Sequence, hook, line, and sinker. The Helio Sequence always deliver an amazing show, and this one promises to be extra special, as it's days before the Portland duo release a new record and hit the road for a national tour. New music abou…
Portland quartet Summer Cannibals are hungry for more, returning with their sophomore release Show Us Your Mind, self-released via their own New Moss Records on March 3rd. Recorded and mixed by the famed Larry Crane at Jackpot Recording Studios, the album features the sharp Northwest punk-pop sound…
