Julian Casablancas kicked off his Showbox set Thursday night with an eleven minute experimental track about the corruption of the music industry and the doom of creativity called "Human Sadness". It is truly a new era for one of our generation's best songwriters, personally coming full circle with …
Everything I've ever thought about MØ is wrong. Well, maybe not all of it – I think she put together an incredible debut LP this year with No Mythologies To Follow, and I think that hard work has put her in league with the leaders of the new wave of indie pop like Grimes, Charli XCX, and others. Bu…
The Sasquatch mainstage in the Gorge has a way of elevating great vocal performances even further – ask Bon Iver, The Head and The Heart, or any other vocal powerhouse who's performed on it. Now, Johanna and Klara Söderberg of First Aid Kit can add their names to that list after their beautiful Sat…
Ever since we caught sight of Rising Mountains, their 2009 release, we've been fans of Capsula. The Bilbao by way of Buenos Aires band always thrills with their glam rock inspired riffs and pounding rhythms, reminding you as much of Sonic Youth as T.Rex and David Bowie. Their stage shows, in partic…
Today was spent traveling the winding road through the still snow spotted mountains, before breaking out into beautiful, cloud filled endless sky and the growing feeling of excitement. After much ado finding and pitching our tents, and a surprisingly short wait to enter into the grounds, I walked i…
New York indie rock gods Yeah Yeah Yeahs make their long awaited return this year with a bludgeoning of contradictions. The trio - made up of singer Karen O, guitarist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase - has made the books in recent history with indie rock anthems like "Zero", "Phenomena", and "…
Aminéisn't just up-and-coming anymore -- he's arrived. The Portland rapper made his Seattle debut in probably the biggest way possible -- playing to a packed out crowd at Key Arena at the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival. Walking on to the beastly, hyphy-like beat of "Red Mercedes," Aminé kept…
It’s a fact proven time and time again by the emerging stars of our time - if you pay close enough attention to the masters, eventually, their greatness will rub off on you. Tonight at the Crocodile, the two stars of the evening had, at the very least, one master in common: Prince. Tributes to the …
The last time they were at the Paramount Theatre, Sigur Rós were touring behind their just-released sixth album Valtari, their final LP with founding member Kjartan Sveinsson, who declined to tour with them that year and would fully quit the band not long after. That album remains the most mellow i…
We're a week away from the release of the new Father John Misty album, the highly-anticipated Pure Comedy, out April 7th on Sub Pop Records. He's been sharing tracks left-and-right all year, including a 13-minute opus titled "Leaving L.A." Today, he offers up the Radio Edit, which whittles it down…
These days, it's a lot easier to sell headlines than it is to sell records. If you write a great pop song, your best bets to sell are either to stack it so chock full of name-drops that you hardly see your own, or to dial the clickbait schtick meter up as high as it will go. But when presented with…
From the second Claire Boucher steps on the main stage at Sasquatch! Music Festival, it seems as if there are two versions of Grimes present during her shows. One, perhaps more reflective of the artist than her art, is the sincere, enthusiastic, slightly awkward person that speaks on the mic in bet…
It's a clear, crisp afternoon in beautiful Reykjavík, Iceland and locals and visitors alike are gearing up for what is sure to be another great year at Iceland Airwaves Music Festival. Here at Kex Hostel, the KEXP road crew is putting the finishing touches on our preparations for this year's off-ve…
Wow, another year of Bumbershoot action already over, and what a ride it was! This year's festival was truly a different beast. With the new overhead having a full year to strategize and plan logistics, it seemed like by day 3, a lot of these were starting to go out the window. Crowd rushing in the…
It's no surprise that British downtempo pop group London Grammar sold out their second Seattle show in six months Saturday night. Back when they played the Crocodile at the end of September, their excellent first full length If You Wait had just come out only weeks before in the states. Now that it…
The second day of Macefield Music Festival invoked thunderstorms and musical fanfare as dozens of bands faced ecstatic crowds of music lovers at the KEXP Mainstage, Tractor Tavern, Conor Byrne Pub, and The Sunset. Seattle rapper Grynch threw down his approachable, lyrical west coast rhymes for an e…
LA producer Shlohmo (Henry Laufer) has been establishing himself over the last couple years, and it's really only a matter of time before he seriously pops. He's release two full length records and a handful of singles and EPs, and all of them set him just far enough apart from his competition that…
The problem with cool stuff is there's always a process by which it becomes uncool. A handful of true artists perfect a craft and then an uncanny number of hackneyed copycats sample bits and pieces out of context and bastardize the whole thing to no end. This is maybe no better exemplified than wit…
Next on the roster for day two of Iceland Airwaves Music Festival live from Kex Hostel were the incredible young polish duo Coals. Hailing from the coal-mining region of Silesia, Poland, an area known for its coal mines, Coals are Katarzyna Kowalczyk and Łukasz Rozmysłowski. Formed in 2014, Coals h…
It's hard to believe that next month will be the one year anniverary of Scottish electronic band CHVRCHES releasing their first LP. At this point, it seems like the trio has been dominating indie and pop airwaves for ages. Every track on The Bones of What You Believe oozes with pristine pop majesty…
