In September, KEXP made our first journey out to Montreal, Quebec, to immerse ourselves in their vibrant and eclectic music scene during the 16th annual POP Montreal Music Festival. With the assistance of FACTOR, a fellow nonprofit that assists the growth and development of musicians across Canada,…
This Wednesday, November 16th, Brooklyn is stepping out to pay tribute to the Beastie Boys’ 1989 masterpiece Paul’s Boutique, an album that KEXP dissected last year. The event is being organized by the Hip Hop Loves Foundation, a non-profit based in New York with a worldwide reach, and a mission to…
All year long, Seattle's own Macklemore has been on the campaign path against the opioid crisis in America, even teaming up with President Obama for a White House Address (see here). Today, he shares a video for the track "Drug Dealer," a homebred single featuring guest vocals from Ariana DeBoo an…
This weekend, Saturday, April 29th and Sunday, April 30th, KEXP is proud to co-host the Punk Rock Flea Market alongside our neighbors at the The Vera Project and SIFF. More than 100 vendors will be scattered across our three buildings, and there will be DJs, booze, food, and live music from Bacteri…
They look like sisters, maybe even twins, the way that Lucius co-founders Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig style themselves and dress, but like any pair, they can also be opposites - the yin to each other's yang. That duality forms the core of Good Grief, the now LA-based band's second release, which e…
On November 6, Bob Dylan will release another installment of his Bootleg Series, called The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Volume 12. The collection includes six CDs with reworkings of many classic tracks, including "Like A Rolling Stone" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues." Pre-order th…
Indie rocker Kurt Vile has shared new details about his latest LP, his first release since 2013's amazing Waking on a Pretty Daze. Vile has described the album, which will be titled All Over the Place, as his "darkest album to date" because it's "definitely got that night vibe." [Note: Kurt later …
Even if you hadn't caught her 2011 solo debut, Last Summer, you'd know at first listen to the vocals on her latest album, Personal Record, who Eleanor Friedberger is. Hers is the unmistakeable nasal drawl that characterizes the songs of The Fiery Furnaces, which Friedberger comprises with her broth…
Dan Deacon will release "Konono Ripoff No. 1" as an exclusive run of 500 hand-numbered 7" for Record Store Day on the 20th. Deacon has played the song live in recent months but this will be the first time it's been released. The song is performed by two different pairs of drummers -- the A-side i…
Divine Fits tore it up on late night TV's Jimmy Kimmel Live! with their own "Like Ice Cream" and a cover of Tom Petty's "You Got Lucky". Even though Britt Daniel seemed like he was forgetting the words at one point, the performance is the kind of powerhouse one, complete with a creative cover (whi…
DJ Riz and Larry Rose co-host this year's edition of the Big Gay Podcast, bringing you an infectious mix of music by, for, and about the LGBTQ community with songs from Courtney Barnett, Blood Orange, The Drums, Goldfrapp, Austra, Hurray For The Riff Raff, and more. They also mix in songs from Rai…
Seattle-based DJ and producer Reverend Dollars (aka Renee Jarreau Greene) is the founder and co-organizer of the Darqness queer and trans people of color arts collective and the organizer of Soul-Fi. Her work focuses on bringing together marginalized black, trans, queer, and people of color communi…
It's a holiday week, so for new releases, we get a cornucopia of reissues, remixes, retrospectives, and more. Husband-and-wife duo Shovels & Rope share a surprise covers album that KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes features appearances "ranging from Shakey Graves and JD McPherson to Lucius an…
It's not like Conor Oberst needs much help sounding great. The Omaha, NE, native has been writing and performing with various projects, most notably with Bright Eyes, since his early teens, and he is a co-founder of not one but two independent labels: Saddle Creek and Team Love. In other words, we …
In an industry where auto-tune is often synonymous with lack of talent, the vocals of Channy Leaneagh, frontwoman of Minneapolis electro-pop group Poliça, are boldly filtered through reverb and auto-tune on each of their albums. But the use of these tools is an overt stylistic choice for Leaneagh a…
The boozy blues of obsession and regret never sounded so good... at least not in the last 16 years. It's been that long since The Afghan Whigs released an album and its members turned their attention elsewhere. Yet, while other 90's bands are now cashing in on their notoriety with 20- and 25-year a…
Divine Fits, a super-group of sorts featuring Britt Daniel from Spoon, New Bomb Turk's Sam Brown, and Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner, played their first show together in Austin last year before going on to release one of the best LPs of 2012 with A Thing Called Divine Fits. The came full circle last n…
Highlights this week include the latest from Swedish singer/songwriter Jens Lekman. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls Lekman's fourth LP, "a smartly crafted set of buoyant orchestral dance-pop inflected with disco, calypso, samba and other styles, combining bouncy dance beats and a variety of ins…
Grizzly Bear dropped their fifth album, Painted Ruins, today via RCA but before it released they stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to perform lead single "Mourning Sound." Ed Droste & Co played the beautiful, mellow song under a halo of red lights while Droste looked relaxed in a st…
There's a new super group in our midsts. Pearl Jam's Mike McCready, Guns N' Roses' Duff McKagan, and Screaming Trees' Barrett Martin have joined forces to create Levee Walkers. Their website describes them as "a Seattle band to be sure, but their roots are firmly dug into the foundational music of…
