Ziggy Marley, the multi-Grammy award winning musician and son of Reggae legend Bob Marley, likens being a musician to being a farmer – he waits for the writing season, tends the seeds of ideas, and harvests a crop of songs. "The music comes organically," he says. And what sweet fruit it is. Watch a…
Seattle. 1998. The Murder City Devils, a band of Seattle's top garage punks, is playing shows with Pacific Northwestern 90s greats Pearl Jam, Built to Spill, and The Black Halos. Flash forward to 2014, and the band has gone through three albums, a deficit of one member, and most importantly, one br…
Considering his past, The Lightness of Being might be a suitable alternative to name Hiss Golden Messenger's new album, The Lateness of Dancers. Whether he's has found answers to the questions haunting his darker, folkier albums or just accepted the mystery and moved on, the Durham, NC, songwriter …
This weekend was without a doubt the best music festival I’ve ever been to. I still haven’t been to the greats like SXSW or Primavera Sound, but All Tomorrow’s Parties Iceland went above and beyond your run-of-the-mill weekend festivals like Coachella, Sasquatch, Outside Lands, and Lollapalooza. Th…
With all Los Angeles' sunny stereotypes, it's easy to miss the darkness there for the light. But not Chelsea Wolfe. The SoCal singer-songwriter has carved a unique place in the music landscape with her epic "drone-metal-art-folk" style. On her recent third album, Pain Is Beauty, she takes a decided…
When it comes to whimsical multi-instrumentalist Kishi Bashi, we should've known we had nothing to worry about. A couple of years had passed since his beloved debut release, 151a, and as DJ Cheryl Waters said to a co-worker a few months before the release of his latest, Lighght (pronounced "Light")…
Catch up on new music this holiday weekend: NPR Music is currently streaming the forthcoming debut from The Walkmen frontman Hamilton Leithauser, which hits stores on June 3rd. Titled Black Hours, this solo release features contributions from fellow Walkman Paul Maroon, as well as Vampire Weekend'…
There's not much information out there about the '80s Seattle band Mondo Vita. Their leader Eric "Travis" Wilson (who has been working as a musician in Las Vegas for the past decade) claims on his own web site that the band "appeared on every TV station Seattle had to offer. They also populated th…
Paul Janeway's vocal range is some kind of miracle. For the young Alabama-based soul stirrer and his band, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, the sounds of Memphis and Muscle Shoals go marrow deep. On Half The City, their unbelievable mature debut, Janeway channels '60s R&B greats like Otis Reddi…
Happy Earth Day, everybody. Today we celebrate the birth of our planet... oh, wait, no, today we pay attention to the giant sphere hurtling through space that we all live on, and hopefully take a few moments to reflect on the valuable gifts it gives us and our own impact upon it. Earth Day itself s…
Recently, Alec Ounsworth, frontman of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, happened to be in the vicinity of the KEXP studio. He wasn't scheduled, and we only learned he was in town the same day, but we grabbed him anyway, sat him down, and asked him to play a few songs on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters. …
New Zealand band Ghost Wave blew us away with their hypnotic set of moody psych-rock songs at our CMJ broadcast last year, so we're especially thrilled to debut the band's music video for the track "Orb." The closing track off their debut Flying Nun Records release, Ages, "Orb" finds the group of A…
Mychal Cohen, lead singer for Seattle band Campfire OK, seems to always be singing behind a wry smile. In fact, each of the band members seem to share this sense of playing through a wink. From keyboard player, to vocals to banjos, bass and drums, the band imbues an aura of comfort and happiness – …
Throughout Okkervil River's in-studio session, frontman Will Sheff keeps breaking into giggles. And if you look closely around the room, you'll see plastic action figures perched on the keyboard or suspended from the mic stand. It's that sense of childlike wonder that Sheff taps into for the band's…
It's always a delight when psychrock voyagers Wooden Shjips return to dock in the KEXP studios. The band have just released their fourth album, Back to Land, on Thrill Jockey Records, an album that captures the feelings of home from frontman Erik "Ripley" Johnson, who has just thrown down anchor in…
Rounding out tonight’s broadcast live from KEX Hostel at Iceland Airwaves is Borko. Though it is not uncommon for Icelandic musicians to have their fingers in many pots, Borko (Björn Kristiansson) takes the idea to a whole new level. He immerses himself in essentially every aspect of local music, …
HAIM introduced themselves to Seattle Wednesday night with a show at Neumos, and if you’ve been following anything about this band for the last year, you know that’s no small event. The sold out gig had lines starting up outside in the cold more than an hour before doors (that’s pretty much unheard…
Is today really the day you can get a free Nirvana tattoo? Why, yes it is. From noon to 6PM today at Seattle's Silver Platters (and a couple of other places in the U.S.), you can get the squiggly Nirvana smiley face tattooed permanently on your body for free... well, for free if you pick up the 20t…
Seattle band Ivan & Alyosha, in the lineage of local powerhouses the Head and the Heart and the Fleet Foxes, are masters of the bright, jangly guitars, tight, soaring harmonies and steady kick-drum rhythms. But there is something distinct about them, too – the band has more joy to it than maybe…
Some artists have a real gift for creating worlds. In an interview with Pitchfork talking about Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, M83's Anthony Gonzalez said, "I would rather live in an imaginary world forever. My music is my retreat". You can here the escapism in that record - a neon brilliance of clouds …
