In early October, KEXP was thrilled to host an evening with leftist icon and buck-the-man songwriter Billy Bragg, as part of Songbook: KEXP’s Music & Literature Series. Over the summer, Bragg released his second nonfiction book Roots, Radicals, and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World, said t…
More new music from The Shins: stream the very Wilco-esque single "Mildenhall" below (frontman James Mercer is even singer lower than ever before). The band's fifth LP Heartworms will be out March 10th via Aural Apothecary/Columbia. Catch them at this year's Sasquatch! Music Festival, 5/26-5/28 at…
"Welcome to the show (We Missed You)", the projector screen read before Fleet Foxes made their homecoming on a warm May evening. From the chatter and mingling happening in the crowd ahead of the set, it was clear that the feeling was mutual. It'd been five years since the Seattle group played their…
It's Cinco De Mayo, or as we call it here at KEXP, "Gringo de Mayo." (Read our history lesson on the KEXP Blog here.) DJ Chilly, host of our Latin music show El Sonido, has rounded-up another excellent mix of new music from Mexico, covering many different genres! Discover even more on El Sonido, Mo…
Armed with a tidal wave of talent and tracks from their new release, Weirdo Shrine, Seattle’s surf rock songstresses La Luz light up KEXP with this stunning live session. With their dark, reverb coated strings and organic tones, the band delve deeper into the fabric of their sundrenched sound - wit…
Recently, KEXP returned to the grotto-esque space of Robert Lang Studios for another intimate session with one of our favorite bands. This time, veteran Tucson band Calexico performed an exclusive set for KEXP donors, featuring songs from their terrific new release, Edge of the Sun, plus an older f…
It's Cinco De Mayo, or as we call it here at KEXP, "Gringo de Mayo." (Read our history lesson on the KEXP Blog here.) DJ Chilly, host of our Latin music show El Sonido, has rounded-up another excellent mix of new music from Mexico, covering many different genres! Discover even more on El Sonido, Mo…
Even within its own darkness, Moonlight shines bright. LA rocker Hanni El Khatib improves upon his Dan Auerbach-helmed second album with his latest, and self-produced, LP. This time, Hanni El Khatib pulls just about everything he can find off the shelf to add to his garage-rock riffs, including psy…
In 2013 Laura Marling starred in a short film called Woman Driver,as part of a 72-hour National Film Challenge in Marfa, Texas. Marling debuts three new songs in the film, in which she portrays a hitchhiker. One of the songs may even appear on her upcoming album Short Movie (out March 24). Check o…
Sasquatch! 2014 started off so great on Friday. Everyone arrived on the grounds happy and smiling in their festival best - a range of fringe, platforms, sports sandals, sailor hats, Pokemon costumes, and crop tops with a stacked line-up from the get go. One gentleman in the crowd put it well saying…
Just before Seattle’s Rose Windows played an evening set on the Elysian stage for the Sub Pop Silver Jubilee, a celebration of the record label’s 25th anniversary, Rabia Shaheen Qazi showed off their pipes during an exclusive session for KEXP backstage. While her voice filled the room of The Stable…
The darkwave music project of Wesley Eisold, Cold Cave, has released a new single from the two-track EP Oceans With No End. True to Eisold's style, "People are Poison" is a blend of pessimistic lyrics and raving synthesized percussion. The song even ends with the depressing sound of rainfall and,…
Donald Glover has done a lot of thinking in the past two years. “That Camp was a million years ago, sing me a different song” he raps on the closer of his new record Because the Internet. The referenced 2011 studio album debut does feel like forever ago now. After self-releasing three albums and th…
If the Internet age is defined by one thing, it's probably disposability: the temporal state of everything we define ourselves by. We live in a world that is exponentially unsatisfied with singularity and smallness. Our good intentions for globalization and interconnectedness have gone by the waysi…
Radiohead are coming to Seattle! Following the Coachella announcement earlier this year, the guys have revealed some additional U.S. tour dates, including a Saturday, April 8th stop at Key Arena. Sure would be easy for them to walk next door to KEXP and hang out. Anyway! Keep it tuned to KEXP all …
Red Wedding (and my selection of this album for this particular week may or may not be related to the start of the new season of Game of Thrones) was a pretty obscure band even by Review Revue standards. It sounds like they had quite the reputation as a live band around L.A., but they only released…
KEXP listeners know: we love Canada Day. We were honored to have Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stop by the station to record a station ID for us. We've even teamed up with the Consulate General of Canada in Seattle to include Vancouver-based artist Louise Burns to our Rocks the Dock line-u…
With eight members, it's no surprise that the afro-funk of Seattle's own Polyrhythmics packs a mean punch of energy. Beyond the vibrant wall of sound that struck audience members of our Occidental Park at Upstream, festival-goers were also hit with a massive dose of sheer joy. The highly-danceable …
Summer Cannibals are a band which announces their presence. Since the release of 2016's Full of It record, released on Kill Rock Stars, the band has fine-tuned an impressive live show, as evidenced by their set today at Little London Plane, as part of Day 3 of our Upstream Fest & Summit coverag…
Just last week, we had Craig Finn (of The Hold Steady) in the KEXP studios in support of his forthcoming solo LP, We All Want The Same Things. Even earlier this year, Finn did a small Living Room Tour, which you can see in the video to "Tracking Shots." Director Julian Muller captures scenes of hi…
