Touring heavy records is hard. In today’s day and age, heavy-handed works of staggering genius are hardly appreciated in the album form, let alone trying to communicate that weight in a crowded room facing a loaded bar. But in these heavy times, there are those who brave the difficulties and make i…
Angel Olsen has a voice powerful that it belongs on the list of singers compared to forces of nature. Considering that, it's a little ironic that Angel Olsen's Sasquatch set was delayed by an actual force of nature. But the wind and rain that forced a late start ended up playing to in St. Louis son…
It's been a great year and a half or so for writing albums about death. Most recently, Flying Lotus killed on impact with his incredible You're Dead!, but Noah Lennox, a.k.a. Panda Bear, isn't far behind. Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper has been whispered around the Animal Collective spheres for w…
The Sound & Vision podcast from KEXP features interviews, panels, reporting and commentary that digs into the stories behind the music, with in-depth discussion of the most important issues facing music and arts communities. Sound & Vision is hosted by Emily Fox.
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Every year, it seems like the number of music festival in the great Pacific Northwest grows. While it's easy to get cynical about the overlap and general spectator approach to the music, there are diamonds in the rough. Of these, Pickathon, located on the beautiful Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley, O…
18 year old Swedish rapper Yung Lean (Jonatan Håstad) may be one of the most polarizing, confusing faces on the independent hip-hop scene of the last few years. Pitchfork hates him. Fader loves him. The rest of us find ourselves somewhere in between, trying to balance all of the bizarre parts of th…
This Friday, Scottish band Belle and Sebastian are releasing the first EP in a series of three that they're calling How To Solve Our Human Problems. Today the band has shared a video for the previously released single "I'll Be Your Pilot" via TIDAL. Frontman Stuart Murdoch explained in an intervie…
As we announced last month, Seattle's own Perfume Genius (aka Mike Hadreas) has a new album coming out this Spring, titled No Shape. Stream a video for the first single "Slip Away" below. Via a press release, Hadreas elaborates, "I pay my rent. I'm approaching health. The things that are bothering…
Kendrick Lamar has developed very quickly to one of the most intelligent and humanely aware persons of our generation. This is only what we have been able to see. Kendrick has developed through his whole life, every experience, to what he is now, and he keeps us updated through his music. Following…
Seven years without a new album. Nearly biannual membership shuffles. Repeated reports of studio sessions without any release. For a minute, Modest Mouse looked like they might have been heading down the lucrative but artistically fruitless legacy act path that a few of their contemporaries are sta…
We've all heard of music's power to heal, but, as everyone who was or knew a rebellious teen in their life understands, it can also isolate, alienate or offend. In Ragnar Bragason's Metalhead (Málmhaus), music can be both a creative and destructive force for young Hera Karlsdottir, who witnessed he…
As far as guitarists who have stopped by KEXP recently go, Kurt Vile is the most-laid back of the bunch, letting his gauzy guitar playing do the talking as he hides behind his now-trademark long, brown hair. (In fact, one of the few points in the video where you can actually see his face is when Vi…
I had not expected to even make it to Disclosure at the El Chupacabra tent. And I never would have known what to expect from then electronic-music-genius brothers if I hadn't seen the video or "Control feat.Ria Ritchie", which is one of several songs featuring amazing guest vocals that they two hav…
While a room full of journalists listened to 22, A Million, the highly-anticipated third Bon Iver album, in the Oxbow Hotel on a Friday night in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Justin Vernon did what anyone else would do before a big interview: he smoked a cigarette. He knew he was maybe twenty minutes away…
There's probably a joke somewhere in the fact that Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats played a rousing workout of a show on Bumbershoot's first (and, in quintessential Seattle fashion, only) warm afternoon, but it wouldn't illustrate the Denver, Colorado-singer's performance any better than s…
Some shows, I'm seriously surprised when I exit Neumos after the set's over and am not witnessing irreparable damage running up and down the walls. Tuesday night, label-mates Liturgy and Lightning Bolt played one of those types of sets. When there's one guy in the front row that doesn't have earplu…
The second day of Macefield Music Festival invoked thunderstorms and musical fanfare as dozens of bands faced ecstatic crowds of music lovers at the KEXP Mainstage, Tractor Tavern, Conor Byrne Pub, and The Sunset. Seattle rapper Grynch threw down his approachable, lyrical west coast rhymes for an e…
I think I've found, in Ed Ka-Spel (and his band Legendary Pink Dots), an artist who could go up against Peter Hammill in terms of voluminous artistic output and lasting influence. Yet again I find myself faced with an insanely daunting discography and biography, and a raft of adoring comments (and,…
