Last month, The Drums shared their first new single in a few years, the super-danceable "Blood Under My Belt." Today, we've got a video for the track, featuring frontman/sole member Jonny Pierce posing against colorful backdrops. In a press release, he shares, "I hate making music videos. But, ala…
Yumi Zouma are four friends that originally grew up together in Christchurch, New Zealand, found themselves in three cities (New York, Paris, Auckland) upon graduating from high school, yet reconnected over the internet to create their charming debut EP in 2014. Their romantic, nostalgia-tinged dre…
Is it really only the fourth annual Fisherman's Village Music Festival? In just a few years, this Northwest fest has established itself as a must-see musical bonanza. This year is no exception: from Friday, May 20th through Sunday, May 22nd, the streets of Everett, Washington will shake with the so…
KEXP's own DJ Kevin Cole (our Afternoon Show host and Senior Director of Programming) has curated a special mix for Nordic Playlist, a site that devoted to the best sounds from the North. As he explains to the site, "I went with a mix of mostly newer releases, like the Samaris track, which I love, …
Minneapolis' ubiquitous underground hip hop figure P.O.S has a long list of credentials: guitarist for Building Better Bombs, vocalist and keyboard player for Marijuana Deathsquads, member of well-populated supergroup Gayngs, and a founding member of the Doomtree collective. All of these were runni…
“I got knocked down, but I’ll get up.” That’s how School of Seven Bells’ Alejandra Deheza said goodbye to bandmate Benjamin Curtis a little more than two years ago. The Joey Ramone cover was recorded from Benjamin Curtis’s hospital room in late 2013. After a long battle with T-cell Lymphoblastic Ly…
This morning, Pickathon announced its 2016 lineup, and it's a doozy! Wilco's Jeff Tweedy headlines along with Yo La Tengo, Beach House, and Ty Segall & The Muggers, plus so many other KEXP favorites - like Black Mountain, Thee Oh Sees, Dan Deacon, Ibeyi, Fruit Bats, My Bubba, Hurray for the Rif…
Car Seat Headrest came dressed for success to their first KEXP in-studio session. Adorned in suits and ties, the young Seattle band got down to business with a fantastic five-song set of lo-fi epic indie rock. Despite his relatively young age, frontman and songwriter Will Toledo (reportedly just 22…
Next on KEXP's Iceland Airwaves broadcast live from Kex Hostel was Icelandic band Low Roar. Low Roar is the brainchild of American Ryan Karazija, who moved to Reykjavik from Oakland, CA in 2010. To combat the loneliness of moving to a strange new place, he recorded his self-titled debut on his lapt…
The music of Duluth, MN-based trio Low has always evoked great emotion, so it's no surprise their videos do, too (except for that one with John Stamos; we don't talk about that). For the track "Lies," off their latest Sub Pop full-length Ones And Sixes, the band turned to Spanish film director Man…
Earlier this month, we reported on the fantastic pairing of Matt Berninger of The National and Ramona Falls’ Brent Knopf, recording under the name EL VY (pronounced like the plural of Elvis). Today, Berninger explains a bit more about their forthcoming debut, Return to the Moon, out October 30th o…
It was an afternoon of contrasts when Wilco performed for a packed room of KEXP donors at Columbia City Theater earlier this month. You've never seen a sold out show so quiet, so reverently enraptured, as the band presented song after song in their set, ranging from old favorites to new singles fro…
It's shoegaze, not navelgaze. Oyama may have a strong My Bloody Valentine-streak, but the Icelandic five-piece have followed up their initial EP with an invigorated their sound on their debut LP, Coolboy, whose woozy, pitch-bending melodies range between airy dream pop and fuzzy psychedelia. We rec…
Northern soul? How about arctic soul? That's yet to be a thing, but if young Icelandic singer-songwriter Júníus Meyvant has anything to do with it, you'll be hearing a lot more similarly soul-stirring melodies from way up north. Júníus Meyvant -- real name Unnar Gísli Sigurmundsson -- has yet to re…
It's been a few years since Black Joe Lewis has visited the KEXP studios, and during that time, the Austin, TX musician has changed his line-up and dropped "the Honeybears" from the band name. "We never liked the name," Lewis explained to DJ Shannon. "We booked a couple of gigs when we first starte…
L.A. dance music duo Classixx is band who gets what they want: when the pair decided they wanted LCD Soundsystem vocalist Nancy Whang for their track "All You're Waiting For," they flew out to New York, and as explained to KEXP DJ Cheryl Waters during a recent session at KEXP, they had to "kidnap h…
Thursday night’s Decibel Festival awesomeness continued at Neumos with the Psychotropic showcase, featuring Neon Indian, Teen Daze, Big Black Delta, and Seattle’s own Vox Mod. The bill was brave – all of these bands come from radically different places in the musical spectrum – but eclecticism has …
Though they'd been playing reunion shows for the past six years, no one expected the first Redd Kross album in 15 years to be so mind-blowing. The Hawthorne, CA, band, started by brothers Jeff and Steve McDonald, played their first gig opening for Black Flag in 1980, and went on to perform with co…
In true Seattle fashion, locals embraced the rain last Friday to enjoy the first in the Concerts at the Mural series this month, No Depression Night, presented by KEXP and Seattle Center, and curated in partnership with No Depression. It was easy to forget about the weather while watching talented …
San Francisco garage rock band Weekend have been doing some serious growth over the last couple years. On their 2010 debut Sports, Weekend gave us an enjoyable, noisy introduction that put them in tune with the scene and its direction. Now, with a couple years under their belt and a fresh batch of …
