Vancouver, BC artist Dan Bejar -- better known as Destroyer -- returns with his 11th album, which KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes as "a powerful set of dark,'80s-steeped New Wave/post-punk with prominent percussive synths, gleaming guitars and occasional strings and horns accompanying his d…
KEXP seems to get gayer every year, and this year's Big Gay Podcast, featuring twenty tracks spanning more than 40 years, is no exception. With everything from vintage queer country to an electronic interpretation of a black metal classic, El Toro's 2014 roundup of songs by, for, and about the LGB…
Don't expect to take the title of the second solo album by Kevin Morby literally. Still Life was written during a particularly busy time in his life, which included touring with two bands -- Woods (his former band) and The Babies (his project with Vivian Girls' Cassie Ramone) -- and switching coast…
Zola Jesus is releasing her 6th album Okovi in September via Sacred Bones. She previously shared the lead single "Exhumed" and today the correlating video for the song has been released. Directed by Jacqueline Castel, the creepy black and white footage bears a resemblance to The Ring, with a simila…
Last night at Chop Suey, the full lineup for the third annual Macefield Music Festival was announced. The 2015 lineup is the best yet, featuring a deep roster of NW artists including Mark Lanegan, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, Grace Love & the True Loves, Thunderpussy, Fox & the La…
Beck released the effervescent pop album Colors this past fall and today he's shared a cute video for the track "Fix Me." Directed by Brook Linder, the clip focuses on the true story of a little girl in Japan named Mame who lives with three poodles that dress up in a variety of costumes. The four o…
Closing out a fantastic week of music live from KEX Hostel at Iceland Airwaves Music Festival were London-based power-pop trio Dream Wife. The band is comprised of London-based musicians Alice and Bella, and Icelandic singer Rakel, who are known for their super-fun performances and strange, beautif…
Chaz Bundick, who now goes by Chaz Bear, has announced a new Toro Y Moi album, Boo Boo, and shared a video for its first single, "Girl Like You." Boo Boo will be released July 7th via Carpark. In a lengthy statement about the album, Bear describes falling into a crisis of identity because of his fa…
"How much do you think we're gonna cry tonight?" I ask my friend as we enter the Neptune for another legendary Little Big Show, this one featuring the incomparable Mitski. The 18th iteration of KEXP, Starbucks, and STG's Little Big Show series, which donates 100% of the ticket sales a local non-pro…
From a KEXP Song of the Day in 2013 to a Grammy nomination and Saturday Night Live in 2016 -- it's been fantastic watching the rise of our beloved Courtney Barnett! Over the weekend, the Aussie superstar made her first live TV appearance in the U.S. with "Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the…
At first I thought it was an piece in The Onion, but no, Seattle rapper Macklemore really did appear with President Barack Obama this past Saturday morning for the weekly White House Address. (Did you catch Obama's sly "same love" pun?) And the topic is certainly no joke: the two addressed opioid …
Though they hail from Los Angeles, Dengue Fever are like Cambodian ambassadors to the Pacific Northwest. On their recent return to the KEXP airwaves, the six-piece seemed right at home, even in our new studio. The band's instrumentation is uniquely cinematic, a multicultural modernization of the ps…
The Twilight Sad have always specialized in making the darker side of humanity seem so grandiose and alluring, but they've never made gloom quite so emotive and magnetic as they do on their fourth album, Nobody Wants To Be Here and Nobody Wants To Leave. When the Scottish band brought six cuts from…
KEXP, STG, and Starbucks kicked off the new year with another fine edition of our benefit series, Little Big Show. On January 31st, we joined together to raise money for Reel Grrls, a program where girls ages 9-21 can learn media production skills from volunteer professionals and voice their indivi…
She may be young (she just turned 22 in March), but New York's Frankie Cosmos (real name: Greta Kline) literally has too many albums to count, in that, I tried, and I got tired of counting. With album titles like the landlord LOVES restaurants! (2011) and Collaborative Farting (2011), and song titl…
Out in support of her third album, New View, Eleanor Friedberger stopped by the KEXP studios to share some of the new tracks. This wasn't her first time in studio - she was here back in 2013 in support of Personal Record , but it's clear that three years of grind have sharpened her act. Her albums …
As major labels continue to exist behind the times, artists and labels with little capital and lesser reputations are producing some of the most innovative, interesting, and inspiring music. Whether it’s creating a new niche in digital technology or looking to once obsolete formats, Agitated Atmosp…
When you wish upon some stars... I guess that's really the only way to start any write up of Polaris being active again 20 years after the recording of their only record. In the recent trend of album anniversary tours, there's one record that I and many, many other listeners never could have imagin…
