2013 has been a good year for guitarists. Chelsea Light Moving's Thurston Moore, Savages' Gemma Thompson, My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields, Marnie Stern, and Mikal Cronin have spent the year reminding listeners why the six-stringed instrument remains rock's weapon of choice. Playing with the pro…
"Only 340 more songs to go," said Icelandic soul singer Júníus Meyvant, hiding a sly grin under a thick red beard at the start of his set at the KEXP Gathering Space Stage on Saturday evening. Fans on the concrete floor in front of him, sitting like children arranged around a teacher, chuckled. Tho…
Beach Slang either have terrible luck or are possibly not very good at locking up their equipment. The band announced today that they were, once again, robbed. The unfortunate event happened right here, in Seattle, after their November 11 show at Chop Suey. Their brief statement on Facebook reads: …
When given the chance to introduce himself, Scott Teske of the Seattle Rock Orchestra had a pretty straightforward agenda at Monday night's Neumos show. "We just like music", he laughed, jostling his bass, "and we like this crazy collaborations". Crazy collaboration does not begin to describe the m…
Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Larry Mizell, Jr., host of The Afternoon Show on KEXP, is "LOVE YOU GOOD" by Rochelle Jordan, from the 2021 album Play With The Changes on UNDRGRND / Young Art Records.
Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Larry Mizell Jr., host of The Afternoon Show on KEXP, is "I'm Good at Not Crying" by Alabaster DePlume, from the 2022 album GOLD on International Anthem.
Last month, we introduced you to a new group called Pinemen, whose late 2015 debut EP, Pleasant Pain, offered a much needed dose of jangly surf-rock psychedelia. More than just a taste, our featured Song of the Day, "That Certain Flavor", suggested a wider palate that the young Stockholm band might…
It's been four years since Coexist, but London trio The xx re-emerge with a new song today, and lots of good news. Stream the single "On Hold" below, which features a pretty sweet sample of the 1981 Hall & Oates hit "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)." It's just a taste of their highly-anticipat…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Mor…
Though at this point a remarkable DoNormaal performance is no unusual occurrence, Friday's set from the artist (as part of the 2017 Upstream Music Fest + Summit) found DoNormaal in quite good form, the artist's enthusiasm returned by a sizable audience in the Court in the Square venue. Since before…
It's a good week for comebacks. UK band Slowdive return with their first new album in 22 years. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it "a strong return-to-form of shoegazerish dream-pop with swirling, reverbed guitars, ethereal vocals, hazy harmonies and blissed-out melodies." It's been 17 years si…
I have no idea what this album from 1959 was doing being added to the KCMU library in 1990, but I'm sure glad it was - and it seems like I would have been in good company at the time. Tom Lehrer is (and let me just jump in for a second to say how happy it makes me to type that "is," having establis…
Okay, this is going to seem kind of weird. It's late March now - Spring is finally upon us - and here we are presenting Courtney Barnett and her band decked out in costume. There's actually a pretty good reason for it. When the Australian indie sensation stopped by the KEXP studio last Halloween to…
Like all good things from the '90s, The Juliana Hatfield Three are back! It's been 22 years since the release of their breakthrough album Become What You Are, but on February 17th, 2015 they'll return with Whatever, My Love via American Laundromat. Today, they share the first single "If I Could," …
For Seattle garage rock fans, Friday night's bill at Tractor Tavern was a dream come true. San Francisco's Mikal Cronin made his way up the coast in support of his highly acclaimed new record MKII and brought along Oakland friends Shannon & The Clams and rising local three-piece Dude York. Each…
If he weren't so dead-set on making music that could be deemed as capital "A" art, Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox could be a very good rock star. He's outspoken, audacious, practically writes his own headlines, and is absolutely impossible to look away from when he brings his A-game (and, occasio…
Seattle-based musician and producer Scot Porter makes beautifully layered electronic music under the name Vox Mod. Recently, he stopped by to perform live in the KEXP studio for Audioasis -- and it's good the cameras were on him because Porter also creates wonderfully strange animations, which are…
I don't know how much needs to be said about Hasil "Haze" Adkins that wouldn't be better communicated by merely listening to any of the approximately one million songs he recorded to various fidelities of tape over his fifty-ish year career. The first song I ever heard by Mr. Adkins (thanks to a ca…
Avant-garde electronic music is probably the last thing people think of when they hear “dinner theater”, but that’s exactly what Decibel Festival attendees got if they were lucky enough to snag a spot at the sold out Optical 1 showcase. After fine dining courtesy of the famed Wild Ginger kitchen, a…
