Yesterday, we lost the iconic New Orleans musician Allen Toussaint. The legendary composer, performer and producer passed away at 77 years-old from cardiac arrest in Madrid while on tour. In his life, Toussaint carried the New Orleans R&B traditions of Professor Longhair and others through to …
Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Larry Mizell, Jr., host of the Afternoon Show on KEXP, is "Listen to your Heart.” "No." by Cheekface, from the 2021 album Emphatically No. on New Professor Music.
Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Cheryl Waters, host of The Midday Show on KEXP, is "Virginia (Wind in the Night)" by The Head and the Heart, from the 2022 album Every Shade of Blue on Warner.
It's no surprise that British downtempo pop group London Grammar sold out their second Seattle show in six months Saturday night. Back when they played the Crocodile at the end of September, their excellent first full length If You Wait had just come out only weeks before in the states. Now that it…
You read that right. We're just as surprised to learn of his passing as you are. Chris Cornell, who was found dead in his Detroit hotel room late last night, has been a Seattle institution for decades, having formed Soundgarden in 1984 and predating in popularity nearly all of the so-called "grunge…
Plum Creek Sound at Dripping Springs in Texas Hill Country - it sounds like the setting of a story too idyllic to be true. And it almost is. There, in a Quonset hut studio on his own 15-acre ranch about 20 miles outside of Austin, Israel Nash has recorded a work of heart-swelling beauty. The lushly…
Whether it's the goal or method of art to turn complex thought into pure emotion, The Antlers are masters of their craft. The Brooklyn band frequently finds impetus in heady conceits, like on 2009's Hospice, for which vocalist and guitarist Peter Silberman compared an emotionally abusive romantic r…
Though the new album is called Lost in the Dream, The War on Drugs' Adam Granduciel seems like he's just woken up from one. While it's only the band's third LP since forming nine years ago, Lost in the Dream is leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessors, as Granduciel transforms his oft-meandering …
tUnE-yArDs are returning next week with a new album, I can feel you creep into my private life, and today we've received the third single from the album, "Heart Attack." The fun, upbeat track shows the new, more accessible direction the band is taking. This will be the first album where the band, p…
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 …
It’s time again for Friday on My Mind. Our weekly blog post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News. If you haven’t already called in sick to work on Friday yet, then do it now and get over to Ballard for Hood-to-Hood Day…
Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Cheryl Waters, host of The Midday Show on KEXP, is "I Woke Up With An Open Heart (feat. The Hempolics)" by Lost Horizons, from the forthcoming 2020 album In Quiet Moments on Bella Union.
Mac Demarco’s declaration of “make yourself at home” at the beginning of his set at Sasquatch! Music Festival on Saturday was a fitting notion, as Mac has been making himself at home in the ears and hearts of fans for years now. The Canadian songster has a knack for writing songs that float and dri…
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 Mynabirds took over a year to record Lovers Know, and while that’s far from unheard of for a band of their stature and import, it’s a figurative lifetime compared to the mere weeks the Omaha pop masters had spent on their previous two albums. Of course, all those additional hours make sense giv…
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 -…
After a while, it's easy for a British indie pop band to fall into sense of safety and sameness, but Bombay Bicycle Club stay true to their name with their most adventurous and exotic album to date. The newly released So Long, See You Tomorrow channels singer and principle songwriter Jack Steadman'…
While there was often a healthy debate on any given album's merits at KCMU, every once in a while it seems that everybody just ganged up on some poor defenseless record for no good reason. Icky Joey (not a name familiar to me until I pulled this record off the shelf) was a super group of sorts, fea…
"If you're meaning to seduce anybody, you don't announce your intention", Joe Henry joked when introducing his new song "Swayed", but nevertheless, the LA-based singer-songwriter hooked us by the heart during a recent in-studio. Undoubtedly, it's his warmth, openness and charm that has made him so …
Greg Vandy explores that summer feeling on this two-hour mix and nod to Barna Howard's new album, plus 18 other road trip worthy songs from up-and-comers like Banditos, Leyla McCalla, The Deslondes, Benjamin Booker, Saun & Starr, Steve Gunn, and Spirit Family Reunion, to name a few. 1. Benja…
