I want to live in whatever atmosphere Seth Haley goes to when he writes material for Com Truise. If you don't know the story, Com Truise is an alter ego for Haley - he's a robotic astronaut going boldly where no man has gone before etc etc. Wave 1, his first offering of brand spanking new material …
Not sure if it's a compliment to be called a "thinking man's metal band" (or at least, it's not so nice to the other metal bands), but long running alternative metal band Helmet have always made smart music that never loses its punch. Vocalist/guitarist Page Hamilton founded the group back in '89, …
Our long-time musician friend, David Bazan, stopped by the KEXP studios the other day to play synth-ethereal songs off his new album, Blanco, which he so Bazanly described before the session as "basically electronic music with sadness." No surprise there! If you know anything about the man you know…
The final day of Bumbershoot 2015 finally saw sunshine and good weather all around. Maybe the crowds could sneak in one more summer festival after all, after the torrential rains that started the whole thing off. The lineup for this day included another solid dose of excellent local bands, like Sis…
Unless Kanye West decides to use the phrase on his next album, there will only be one love song with the lyric "fingering oblivion" released in 2015 and it's the title track to Father John Misty's sophomore effort, I Love You, Honeybear. It is probably the only time that phrase will ever be used ro…
Cambridge's WMBR, in addition to being key to the development of my musical tastes in general, is a big part of my fascination with these old records and what a bunch of college DJs thought of them. There was (and I'm sure still is) a lot to love about the station, but Pipeline!, their weekly local…
Okay, not "exactly" music news, but it's just been announced that none other than Stephen Colbert will take over for David Letterman as the host of CBS' The Late Show in 2015! Letterman announced his retirement earlier this month with a performance from Joseph Arthur, accompanied by R.E.M.'s Mike …
If there's a band member sweating on stage during Philip Selway's sets, how is it not going to be the drummer? Selway's work with Radiohead through the late 90s, 2000s, and even the 2010s continuously reinvents how we see and hear the art of drumming in the modern rock and electronic atmosphere. Th…
History was made (and relived) this weekend in Portland with the first ever Project Pabst. The festival, a testament to the PDX+PBR love affair, tossed Portland into a beer-fueled time warp. Along with newer acts, Zidell Yards hosted some 80s and 90s greats like Tears for Fears, Violent Femmes, GZA…
As Jamie Lidell started into his Neumos set Monday night, he recalled the Multiply tour, where at his Neumos stop back in 2006, he wore a leopard print suit that was blistering hot on stage. Here, he was dressed more akin to an R&B Dr. Who, with a dark full body coat over a simple v-neck. But t…
We've got new music to share from the hardest-working slacker in the biz: listen to two new tracks from Mac DeMarco below, "This Old Dog" and "My Old Man" off his upcoming release This Old Dog. The album was written before a cross-country move to Los Angeles. In a press release, DeMarco shares, "I…
Only two songs into the Long Beach rapper's performance and it was clear that the first big crowd of Sasquatch 2016 belonged to Vince Staples' ferocious sunset slot, Dressed in his usual onstage uniform of black pants and a white "Street Justice: Have A Taste", Staples breathlessly ran through cut…
Dan Deacon has one dynamic range: massive. Loud, soft, euphoric, cacophonous, it doesn't matter - what Dan Deacon does is at full blast, whatever the knob at hand may be. There are intimidating levels of passion and conviction in every second of his recordings, with or without any vocals attached. …
On their dreamy fifth album, Scottish band Camera Obscura adds a local flavor by recording with Portland based producer (and former Seattleite) Tucker Martine. Our Music Director, Don Yates, calls Desire Lines "a beautifully crafted set of bittersweet, soul-tinged indie-pop, featuring a warm, lush …
