It's our second Runcast featuring live sessions from KEXP faves like Of Monsters and Men, Ibibio Sound Machine, IDLES, Melenas, and more.
It's only the end of July, but it's already been an eventful year for Heems. The New York rapper dropped his first proper solo LP, Eat Pray Thug back in March, an excellent record that tells a heavy-handed story of what it's like to like in a perpetually post-9/11 New York as a person of Indian des…
There are few producers on the scene today with as much silent sway as Clams Casino. Over the last six years especially, the New Jersey beat-maker has completely changed the approach to emotion and empathy in beat-making. Artists like A$AP Rocky, Mac Miller, and Vince Staples have been able to thri…
What was it like to discover The Replacements and surprise them with a record deal? Or hear John Peel talk about your label? Or hear the first Ramones album before 99.9% of the world? One guy, Twin/Tone Records co-founder Peter Jesperson can, and does, answer all those questions posited by KEXP pro…
Here's another one: How is this the first time I've covered a Ramones album in this almost decade-long series of blog posts? I mean, the Ramones! Come on! Is there a more influential band with a deeper catalog more filled with albums that college radio DJs are likely to have intensely critical and …
If you're anything like me (and who isn't?), the first Icelandic band you ever heard of was The Sugarcubes. If you were a college radio DJ in the early '80s, though, you might have gotten wind of Þeyr (pronounced "Theyr," more or less) before the rest of the U.S. got wind to the crazy stuff going d…
Like the wily vikings who first settled there, Ballard has risen victorious, staking their claim in KEXP's Hood-to-Hood Challenge with their fifth win in the nine years we've held the competition. Join us this Friday, May 30th as we toast their 'hood with an all-day party throughout the neighborhoo…
Tacocat is a band of closet-knit friends who like candy, having different color hair, joking and experiencing ice-cream-induced food comas together. Emily Nokes is the frontwoman for the band, and, it should be noted, sent the responses to these question over in different colored font! I hope you e…
Iceland Airwaves Music Festival share the first wave of their line-up, including international acts like Blood Orange and Snail Mail, as well as Icelandic acts Mammút, Hatari, and more.
If you’ve spent any time on social media lately or keep up with music news in general, you’ve probably heard people talk about NFTs. Non-fungible tokens, they’re called, and their rise is linked to the world of cryptocurrency. While they’re not an entirely new phenomenon, as digital artists and eve…
DJ Troy hosts the newest addition to our Music That Matters series, featuring new music from Jacuzzi Boys, Porcelain Raft, and Crocodiles. 1. Crocodiles - I Like It in the Dark 2. The So So Glos - Everything Revival 3. Jacuzzi Boys - Double Vision 4. Friends and Family - Green & Yellow Basket…
Grammy-nominated singer Mary Lambert has been doing things for herself lately. And, she says, it feels exhilarating. But between performances and business moves – like signing her own distribution deal and releasing her latest EP, Bold, in May – she’s been playing a lot of The Sims computer game, c…
Minneapolis must have been a magical place in the '80s with bands like Hüsker Dü breaking through the mainstream, and venues like First Avenue and the 7th Street Entry helping hone these rising new stars. A little bit of that magic was in the KEXP studios this day as Hüsker Dü's former frontman, Bo…
Even as it feels like rock 'n' roll is losing too many of its heroes lately, we should also remember those who continue to carry the flame. Among them, KEXP favorites Capsula, who exalt the rock gods of yore with a fiery passion. On eight kinetic LPs, plus a handful of collaborations, compilations …
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…
Saturday night is the night for dancing - Decibel Festival fans have known that for 10 years. You'll dance every other night of the festival too, no doubt. But Saturday is where you can bank on the fact that you will work up a sweat on the dance floor and at one point consider buying drinks for eve…
Among the many great new releases out this week is our own annual benefit collection, Live at KEXP Volume Nine. Featuring 18 stellar tracks culled from the over 500 amazing live sessions we recorded in the past year, Volume Nine contains some serious heavy hitters like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis a…
Easily one of the best albums of the year so far, Muchacho most fully realizes the ideas, sound and aesthetic that Brooklyn (by way of Alabama)'s Matthew Houck has been developing for the past decade as Phosphorescent. Whether spare, lush, atmospheric or raucously barn-burning, the songs on Muchach…
Legendary Philadelphia hip hop crew The Roots threw the best party at this year's Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, performing a jaw-dropping headlining slot at the Fisher Green Stage on Saturday night. Like any good host, they kept the vibes going, flowing seamlessly from song to song, withou…
