The southeast region of the US is home to the highest percentage of LGBTQ people in the country. KEXP's Bee Egan spoke with three LGBTQ musicians from the south to find out how southern culture and their sexuality impacted their upbringing and ultimately their music. Musician and poet Jamila Woods …
At this pace, 2014 is well on its way to outdoing 2013 in new releases. The streak continues this week, topped by a terrific new album by Future Islands, which our Music Director, Don Yates, calls "a masterful set of impassioned, ‘80s-steeped electro-pop with glittering synths, streamlined guitars …
Today, we conclude our weekly series of Polish bands KEXP recorded while at the OFF Festival in Katowice with a bang. Wrocław trio Ukryte Zalety Systemu, whose name translates to "Hidden Benefits System", clearly reference bands like Gang of Four as they decry the erosion of individualism in the fa…
Some artists write songs about themselves, pulling facts from their lives in hopes of finding some mutual truths that can connect with their audience. Others create more from their imagination, searching for the universal within the abstract. Still even more operate in a sort of grey area between t…
The phrase "music is a universal language" is sometimes overused, but is perfectly fitting when it comes to Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate. New York native Driscoll and Guinea-born Kouyate met at a music festival in Marseilles, France and instantly clicked. Despite the enormous language barrier -…
It's no surprise that Radiohead's Saturday show at Key Arena is sold out; the band have amassed a rabid fan base since forming in Abingdon, Oxfordshire back in 1985. And, it's no surprise that this roundup of Radiohead covers goes on and on; many of our favorite artists cite Radiohead as one of the…
Israeli shoegaze - it's no idle navel-gazing. Even amid intense political struggle and ongoing war, daily life has a way of proceeding in its usual vagaries, making mundane moments as likely as impassioned ones. Boredom, in fact, is a much part of Israeli life as it is anywhere else and is maybe of…
"We're not one-dimensional human beings, so why should our music be?" asked Honus Honus, the mastermind behind Philadelphia band Man Man. Their names may be repetitive (true to theme, the drummer goes by "Pow Pow"), but this experimental group is anything but, always striving to evolve their quirky…
Where does a young band go after making a name for themselves with a gorgeous album like Dye It Blonde, of Nuggets-mining jangly psych pop? They dig deeper. At least, that's what Smith Westerns did on their followup, Soft Will, as they dig deeper both into the history of rock and their own songwrit…
“I don’t care what you think,” sings the red-dressed Portland native Sallie Ford. The lyric is definitely in line with the spirit of her newest album, which has as much to do with the idea of freedom, of not being captured in any genre box, as it does with the huge punching sound of Sallie Ford and…
Following the smoky energy of Rose Windows, the Yeti stage was taken over by Secret Canadian's Suuns. The crowd swelled as they dove into their set. At times the trio went into nearly ambient jams, reverb heavy and almost ominous. But mostly the set was rhythm heavy, the audience waving their hands…
More anthemic than brooding, Scottish band Frightened Rabbit's songs pull no punches. You don't have time to dwell on their brutally honest lyrics, usually about love and relationships, as you're pumping your fist in the air and sloshing around a pint of. This week, their latest and fourth emotiona…
A brand new song from Björk has emerged called "Blissing Me," along with a video premiered via Amazon Music UK. The song recounts the story of Björk and a fellow "music nerd" crush “sending each other MP3s, falling in love to a song,” according to the lyrics. It's a beautiful change after 2015's h…
Brooklyn-via-Alabama singer/songwriter Katie Crutchfield, better known as Waxahatchee, shares a lovely new video for the track "La Loose," a single from her recent Merge Records release, Ivy Tripp. The clip was directed by Naomi Yang (Galaxie 500, Damon & Naomi) who says in a statement: "I wan…
It's hard to pick just a few highlights this week, as there's tons of great new albums in shops now. Seattle-based project Hibou (led by Peter Michel) releases their debut self-titled full-length on beloved local label Barsuk Records. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls the long-awaited album, "an …
Unlike a lot of teenagers out there, 19-year-old Bridie Monds-Watson, a.k.a. SOAK, seems to handle success with a modest and casual confidence. Her career has taken off rather quickly, from writing songs in the basement of her home in Derry, Northern Ireland, to flying from country to country perfo…
After a two year wait, and a rescheduled release date, we've finally got the latest from Phantogram on our hands. KEXP Music Director Don Yates says, the "New York duo's third album is a sleeker, more polished take on the band's moody electro-pop inflected with hip hop, funk and other styles." Swed…
Our second act of the day here at Kex Hostel was Sóley, one of our favorites in Iceland. Maybe you caught her unique live loops and beautiful singing at our Reykjavik Calling show at Neumo's back in October. Or perhaps you've watched one of the many times we've recorded sessions with her, either at…
For creators and fans alike, music has always provided catharsis, relief and healing. But Few artists tap so directly into that power as Tim Showalter, whose project Strand of Oaks goes so far as to name its most recent album Heal. Like pages from a diary, the Philly-based songwriter's lyrics delve…
Despite her delicate stature and soft-spoken voice, Malian musician Rokia Traoré is one strong artist. Since 2012, her West African home has been besieged by a military coup d'état in the capital city of Bamako. The political power struggle has created a tension that fueled her fifth and most power…
