Our third live show of the day from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves was Mammút. This rock band won acclaim with their latest album Komdu til mín svarta systir (Come to Me, My Dark Sister), scoring eight nominations at the 2013 Icelandic Music Awards. Eventually they snagged wins for best album, song…
For Seattle electronic music fans, Decibel Festival has spent the last 11 years working its way from mythical creature to household name. The festival has hosted some of the best electronic music in the Emerald city since 2003, and in the last couple years, has expanded into an year-round sponsor t…
Electronic music’s second massive wave of popularity is in full swing. For the first time since disco, Top 40 music is far more influenced by modern dance trends than traditional R&B or rock elements. By and large, the highest paid DJs do better than the highest paid rappers. After being critic…
Montreal experimental band Suuns have grown in leaps and bounds in the last couple years. No doubt, their debut LP Zeroes QC was a solid entry point, with a clever mixture of noise and pop and a good sampling through the various electronic derivations of alternative rock we’ve seen in the last 20 y…
The MusicfestNW / Project Pabst teamup makes plenty of sense on paper - one had a great location on the Portland Waterfront last year, and one had a truly unique, interesting lineup - and at the end of day one of the newly-combined fests, it turns out it works in practice too. Despite being sold ou…
What does the passing of time sound like? That's the question that Santa Barbara retro synth-pop band Gardens & Villa seem to be asking often on their sophomore record Dunes, out this week on Secretly Canadian. We first met Gardens & Villa back in 2011 with a self-titled LP decorated with j…
Finally. This week, that's probably the only thought that comes to mind as M.I.A. sees her fourth LP hit shelves. It's just shy of three years since we first heard a sample of "Bad Girls" on Maya's new year's eve Vicki Leekx mixtape. Now, the song has been an international hit for over a year and a…
Seattle duo The Spider Ferns don't make music, they create worlds. Each of their songs is like a new landscape. You may have heard the sounds before -- drums that seem to echo into infinity, bass lines that throb and pulse like they have lives of their own, electronic sounds that shimmer like a cre…
Fly Moon Royalty lit up the KEXP stage this afternoon with their glorious, funky jams. Originating as a twosome in Seattle in 2011, with the powerful voice of Adra Boo and the rapid rhymes of Mike Illvester, they've now grown into a full band, synchronized backup singers and all. Always a crowd fav…
davOmakesbeats is a San Francisco-based DJ/producer, co-owner of Molly House Records, resident DJ and co-owner of Swagger Like Us, and former member of the electro-hop duo Double Duchess. Heavily involved in the Bay Area queer music community since moving to SF in 2007 from the Baltimore/Washington…
Seattle songwriter Raven Matthews goes by many names, from his birth name to RVN and now Raven Hollywood. With each new moniker, you can feel his progression as an artist. On his latest EP, IRL, the Raven Hollywood name aptly embodies the grand and murky folk noir visions. Following up last year's …
From the second Claire Boucher steps on the main stage at Sasquatch! Music Festival, it seems as if there are two versions of Grimes present during her shows. One, perhaps more reflective of the artist than her art, is the sincere, enthusiastic, slightly awkward person that speaks on the mic in bet…
It's about as difficult to claim a favorite Nick Cave album as it is to claim a Tom Waits one. That the two artists get compared so frequently by critics and fans isn't due so much to their similar penchant for the seedier aspects of life but rather to their shared mastery of the album's form. Each…
Joining us in the studio for a KEXP Secret Stage performance at Bumbershoot is Austin post-rock powerhouse Explosions in the Sky. Playing together for over 15 years, their sound is hugely emotive, accented with glistening guitar. It’s a unique listening experience, both cathartic and calming, comfo…
Among the Polish artists we discovered during the recordings KEXP captured while at the OFF Festival in Katowice, Poland, perhaps none better exemplifies the country's musical diversity as Olo Walicki. The Gdansk-born composer, performer and bass player has recorded many albums of his own throughou…
Over the past few years, we've tried to make KEXP videos not only fun to watch but also instantly recognizable. But when artists and other guests visit our actual studio space and see the dark and starry walls, they almost always say, "Wow, this is much smaller than it looks!" Charming as it may be…
LA producer Shlohmo (Henry Laufer) has been establishing himself over the last couple years, and it's really only a matter of time before he seriously pops. He's release two full length records and a handful of singles and EPs, and all of them set him just far enough apart from his competition that…
Knox Fortune is a Chicago-based, Grammy Award-winning artist and producer that's been a prominent behind-the-scenes figure within his home city's vibrant music scene over the past couple years. First making waves on collaborations with fellow Chicago artists Chance the Rapper, Joey Purp, Vic Mensa,…
Through in-studio performances, interviews with local and national artists, co-curators and DJs Darek Mazzone and Chilly explore the immigrant experience.
