KEXP broadcast live from KEX Hostel at Iceland Airwaves is Icelandic artist Pétur Ben. He first came into the spotlight following his collaboration with Icelandic virtuoso Mugisonm and the following year he released his debut record, Wine for My Weakness, and won an Icelandic Music Award for best a…
On Wednesday, I was excited to begin my fifth time attending Decibel Festival with the Abstract Earth Project showcase at the Showbox at the Market. This showcase featured Wax Tailor, an artist whose work I'd never yet picked up, but hearing some of it recently on KEXP had me saying "oh yeah, this …
As Americans we are no longer surprised by European artists who bring their amazing music to our humble shores. The Joy Formidable is another among the ever-growing list of impressive British talent that has taken the US by storm. In 2007, childhood best friends Rhiannon "Ritzy" Bryan and Rhydian D…
M.I.A.'s much-anticipated album Matangi has been rejected by Interscope for being "too positive". The album was supposed to be released last month, but now with apparently some "darkening up" needed, the release is expected around April 15th, in time for the Tamil New Year. It turns out M.I.A.'s …
Perhaps no other artist has brought Eastern music to the West like sitar master Ravi Shankar. His tutelage of George Harrison in the mid-60's kicked off a lifetime of cultural exchange. While rock bands like The Beatles were incorporating Eastern sounds in their music, Shankar himself was composing…
Sean Majors is a local legend when it comes to Seattle nightlife and its electronic music community. Over his 20-year career, he's performed at close to 4,000 shows and shared stages with a long list of national and international top-tier artists. He's also played a massive role in throwing thousan…
DJ Taye -- the alias of Chicago native Dante Sanders -- is a member of the revered Teklife crew, joining the influential collective of juke/footwork artists in 2010 at the age of 16. His head-spinning beats, booming bass, and frantically cut-up samples proudly exemplify Teklife's genre-defining sou…
KEXP's Roadhouse host Greg Vandy brings you a late summer soundtrack that features many of his favorite new songs and artists of 2014, such as Israel Nash, Black Lips, Pete Molinari, The Donkeys, Nikki Lane, Sturgill Simpson, Evening Bell, and Saskatoon teenagers Kacy & Clayton. 1. Black Lips…
Pickathon is a music festival from another time. Coming down from Seattle, you find yourself coming across the breathtaking Columbia Gorge, taking exit 17 off of I-205 straight onto Woodstock Drive, and maybe that’s no mistake. The closer you get to Happy Valley, the further back in time you seem t…
On this episode, Stas THEE Boss and her Black Constellation family reflect on her artistic journey, her heartbreaks, and the philosophies that made her one of America’s most gifted and slept-on rappers and producers. We also hear reflections on the term “Afrofuturism,” the burden of being the first…
For the rest of the year, we'll be spotlighting our KEXP DJs Top Albums of 2017, leading up to our 2017 Top 90.3 Album Countdown! Tune in on Friday, December 15th from 6 AM to 6 PM PT as we countdown the Top 90.3 Albums of 2017, as voted on by our listeners. And check out the top albums from more K…
J-Nasty is the alias of Seattle's Janice Ibarra, an emerging DJ and co-founder of the Women.Weed.Wifi collective/movement, who also finds time to teach yoga, run the online thrift shop Seamlessly Supernatural, and help out at Moksha, an art gallery and clothing boutique in the U-District. A multi-f…
I've covered a lot of obscure bands in the (gulp) 9 years I've been doing this series, but The Invisible really takes the cake. Interestingly, their album Dystopia seems to be available on all the usual internet music services, but the only smidge of information I can find on them is a discogs list…
Our girl Grimes always does the unexpected, and that's just part of the reason why we love her. Today, she has released not one, not two, but SEVEN new videos for tracks from her latest LP, Art Angels. The clips were created by Grimes, her brother, Mac Boucher, and her best friend, HANA, during a …
Montreal DJ/producer Jacques Greene has emerged as an integral and innovative artist within the underground electronic music scene since the release of his pivotal debut single, "(Baby I Don't Know) What You Want", in late 2010, displaying a cutting-edge style that uniquely infused R&B, progres…
April ended strong with new releases from some of our favorite artists. It's been five years since the last album from Feist, and the Canadian songstress returns with what KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls "a powerful set of dark, intimate folk-rock. Recorded mostly live, the album features a sta…
Seattle duo Crater - Ceci Gomez and Kessiah Gordon - stopped by for an in-studio, both to play us some tracks from their debut, Talk to Me so I Can Fall Asleep, and to talk to DJ Sharlese about drooling in their sleep and The Sims "Hot Date" Expansion Pack. Crater only emerged in 2014 to immediate …
Next on the KEXP broadcast live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves Music Festival is the boss MC of Iceland, Emmsjé Gauti. The stage name for Icelandic rapper Gauta Þeyr Mássonar) Emmsjé Gauti is reigning king of Iceland’s burgeoning hip hop scene. Though he’s only in his mid-twenties, he’s been r…
KEXP's Online Content Manager Jim Beckmann celebrates his birthday today, and for the occasion, singer/songwriter Kevin Morby has shared the video for "The Parade," one of Jim's favorite tracks from last year's full-length Still Life on Woodsist. (Okay, that might not be why the video came out tod…
