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…
Sam Beam's new label Black Cricket Recording Co. has released Archive Series Volume No. 1, the first collection in a series of archival Iron & Wine songs. Most of the tracks were recorded while he was working on his 2002 debut, The Creek Drank The Cradle. The album will officially drop on Febr…
Seattle-based musician and producer Scot Porter makes beautifully layered electronic music under the name Vox Mod. Recently, he stopped by to perform live in the KEXP studio for Audioasis -- and it's good the cameras were on him because Porter also creates wonderfully strange animations, which are…
Yo La Tengo have premiered a new video for their song "I'll Be Around" (which, by the way, is their first new video in 16 years), and it features Mac McCaughn, founder of Superchunk and the Merge record label, singing the song and picking at a guitar in a woodsy field somewhere. The video is also …
This week sees new albums from two soul greats. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings share their seventh and final album, recorded before Jones passed away from cancer in November 2016. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it "a strong set of buoyant old-school soul and funk, with songs mostly written b…
Suquamish musician Calina Lawrence and KEXP DJ Gabriel Teodros co-curate and co-host this Indigenous Peoples Day special for 2020, sharing both some of the latest new music they are feeling along with stories and songs by Indigenous musicians that helped raise them up.
"High energy" barely begins to describe Rubblebucket. The seven-member Brooklyn-based band is actually pared down in size from when they originally met in the Northeast, but the core members keep the joyous spirit of Rubblebucket alive through their quirky multi-insturmental dance pop, which can ge…
We couldn't describe Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires' recent Sub Pop debut any better than label co-founder Jonathan Poneman himself, who claims in his own press release for the album, "Dereconstructed is a careening, road raging, all night party of a record", adding that even frontman Bains' "…
It's a great week for local music. The latest from Olympia-via-Seattle artist Briana Marela is what KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls, "her strongest set to date of adventurous electro-pop. Co-produced by Juan Pieczanski and Ryan Heyner of Small Black, the album features a brighter, more dynamic …
"This is the most beautiful festival we've ever played," beamed Bully's Alicia Bognanno. "I mean, I've still got sand in my pedalboard from Hangout, which was cool, but nothing like this." Bognanno's sentiment about playing while facing the Columbia River Gorge is one that's often repeated througho…
West coast faves Silversun Pickups kick off their three-month-long North American tour with a video for the track "Circadian Rhythm." The clip spotlights bassist Nikki Monninger (with a cute doggie co-star) in a dreamy, sparkly scene. Watch below, and then watch the band's KEXP New Home benefit pe…
The Arcs, Dan Auerbach's new music project, have released a brand new single called "Fool's Gold." In an interview with Rolling Stone, Auerbach described the meaning of Fool's Gold as having "the same thrilling discovery, the same shiny luster and perceived weight as gold, but it isn’t gold and wh…
"Lovely" and "infectious" — mash those words together and it sounds something like Lucius. Watch and hear the band perform, and those words seem even more apt. Led by co-vocalists Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe, the NYC-based five-piece blends gorgeous harmonies and lively percussion in girl group in…
"Are you digging our laid-back vibe?" Band of Horses band leader Ben Bridwell asked the audience during their recent concert at Seattle's Moore Theatre. Following their recently released live recording, Acoustic at the Ryman, Bridwell and co. chose to perform very loose, rootsy interpretations from…
It was Lucius co-lead singer's Holly Laessig's birthday on Sunday, as her partner in crime Jess Wolfe so enthusiastically pointed out, and what better present than to have a sizeable crowd of adoring fans at Sasquatch sing to you? That's what happened, of course, but in addition to being a kind ges…
For the better part of a year, Thunderpussy has been going through a list of local Seattle clubs and conquering them one by one. For their second Sasquatch consecutive appearance (they explosively opened the small Yeti stage at last year's fest), the quartet roared the main stage open on Monday aft…
Eddie Bermuda is the alias of Eddie Sumlin, a DJ and producer originally from the Pacific Northwest, with strong roots in the Tacoma area, who currently calls Los Angeles his home base. Known for his smooth DJ sets that explore house, disco, soul, hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and anything fresh in-betwe…
J-Nasty is the alias of Seattle's Janice Ibarra, an emerging DJ and co-founder of the Women.Weed.Wifi collective/movement, who also finds time to teach yoga, run the online thrift shop Seamlessly Supernatural, and help out at Moksha, an art gallery and clothing boutique in the U-District. A multi-f…
West coast rapper Tyler, The Creator shares his fourth LP, which boasts the FCC-unfriendly title Scum Fuck Flower Boy. (A representative for TTC says the "official title" is just Flower Boy.) The album features guest appearances by Frank Ocean, ASAP Rocky, Anna of the North, Lil Wayne, Jaden Smith,…
April ended strong with new releases from some of our favorite artists. It's been five years since the last album from Feist, and the Canadian songstress returns with what KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls "a powerful set of dark, intimate folk-rock. Recorded mostly live, the album features a sta…