Audioasis host DJ Sharlese presents KEXP's Sound Off! podcast. Featuring bands participating in the 2016 Sound Off! competition, the premiere Northwest battle of the bands hosted by the Experience Music Project (EMP) Museum. 1. Copalis - Deep End 2. COSMOS - House Warming 3. Jazzy Tee - Heartles…
Those Pretty Wrongs frontman Jody Stephens was a key member of the seminal Memphis band Big Star, but while he was behind the drum kit in that outfit, he's front and center on his new project with Luther Russell (The Freewheelers). In this acoustic performance, Stephens and Russell's so…
Dan Boeckner may have followed his own advice to “start again”, but even with a new moniker, a new band, and a self-released debut EP released four days after its announcement, there seems to be nothing preventing Boeckner from shining through the darkness, no matter how often he disappears back in…
While the standout track of Ages & Ages' 2014 sophomore album, Divisionary, surely still has you singing "Do The Right Thing" in grandiose fashion, the Portland group has not been content to sit idly behind the success of a past project. Instead, they have been hard at work crafting their third…
It's gonna be a busy weekend for Seattle grassroots organization Skate Like A Girl! Not only are they partnering with KEXP to present the 16th Annual Expansions MLK Unity Celebration on Sunday, January 17th, but on Friday, January 15th, we're teaming up with them to present the 3rd Annual Girls Tha…
At just 27, singer-songwriter Kevin Morby has accomplished much, both as a band member of NYC-based projects such as Woods and The Babies and as a solo artist. The songs on the third album under his own name, Singing Saw, are his sharpest and also most spacious, reflecting the divide between city a…
Writing these pieces often causes me to reflect on how lucky I am to have grown up in a town with multiple college radio stations playing obscure, often difficult, music. It didn't hurt that it was also a town that produced brilliant bands such as Mission of Burma, Morphine, and today's subject, Bi…
RNDM - the side project of Joseph Arthur, Richard Stuverud, and Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament - performed their song "Disappearing Acts" on Conan last night. Their performance felt like it was straight out of the 50s, complete with doowop hairstyles (wigs?) and very dapper suits. It was even filmed…
Morning Show host John Richards presents a mix of some his favorite new music, featuring Savages side-project Kite Base, new music from Shearwater, and upcoming music from Belfast duo Ex Magician. 1. TRAAMS - Costner 2. Ex Magician - Job Done 3. Holy Esque - Hexx 4. Beliefs - Leaper 5. Working f…
Second on the KEXP Broadcast live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves Music Festival was Icelandic folk-rock band Markús and the Diversion Sessions. Frontman Markús Bjarnason formed the band in 2011 after the breakup of his previous band, Skátar, for which he was the singer and keyboardist. A huge …
A band is like a marriage; the divorce rate for groups started two decades ago is high. Add in more members, each with significant side projects, and the odds of a split only climb higher. By all estimates then, The New Pornographers, formed twenty years ago in Vancouver, B.C., by players from a ha…
With a wash of funky synth and a splash of dancey pop, Seattle's Pillar Point is making waves on the electronic scene. Having transitioned from indie rock to indie synthpop, Scott Reitherman has just released his one-man project's sophomore album, Marble Mouth, on Polyvinyl Record Co. In-studio at …
Ever since his debut single in 2009 for his longtime label Captured Tracks, Virginia musician Jack Tatum's Wild Nothing project has consistently unleashed some of this decade's finest expansive dream-pop and shoegaze music. Now based in Brooklyn, his new third album, Life Of Pause, is yet another K…
The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach has shared more information about his upcoming album with his new music project called The Arcs. The 14-track album is called Yours, Dreamily and will drop on September 4. They've shared a laid-back, folksy number called "Stay in My Corner." Listen, below. [CoS]
Happy backwards, Yppah is the music project of Long Beach, CA-via-Texas producer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Corrales Jr. Over three albums on the esteemed Ninja Tune label, Yppah has become a KEXP favorite with his lush and psychedelically welcoming sound that uniquely blends downtempo, shoegaze…
The unstoppable Dan Boeckner is back with a new synthpop smash from his dance project Operators. Stream the single "Ecstasy In My House" below, out now via Last Gang Records. A full-length album will be out later this year. In the meanwhile, watch last year's KEXP in-studio session here. [Stereogu…
Known for her lo-fi electro-opera stylings, Wisconsin's Zola Jesus (a.k.a. Nika Danilova) switches things up on her upcoming album, Versions. The project, a collaboration with Foetus' J.G. Thirlwell, will disassemble Danilova's previous work, rebuilding the tracks into string arrangements. Listen t…
Yoni & Geti's Testarossa project is one of the most refreshing albums of the year, full stop. It brings two repeat collaborators together for a project that plays into each of their strengths with twice the strength and precision of any previous joint efforts by a mile. Furthermore, it's a larg…
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 Aft…
