KEXP seems to get gayer every year, and this year's Big Gay Podcast, featuring twenty tracks spanning more than 40 years, is no exception. With everything from vintage queer country to an electronic interpretation of a black metal classic, El Toro's 2014 roundup of songs by, for, and about the LGB…
The crew behind High+Tight have been staples within Seattle's electronic music community for well over a decade, all heavily involved within Decibel Festival during its heydays, and currently spearheading some of the city's best underground parties that attract highly-touted national and internatio…
R-Pal is the DJ alias of Seattle's Rachel Kramer. Active on the local DJ scene since first getting behind the decks in 2013, Rachel currently runs a cassette mixtape series called Technodad alongside KEXP's own DJ Sharlese and is a member of Seattle's TUF, a female/non-binary/trans collective based…
There's a lot of things we love about our KEXP New Home, like having the space to house a beautiful baby grand piano (on permanent loan), and then hearing the gorgeous playing of artist John Grant down the hallways, with each chord reverberating and filling our in-studio space with the purest of so…
Backed by swaying chains of light that were only made to look more grandeur by the high winds that accosted Sasquatch! Music Festival throughout Sunday, Purity Ring captivated the Bigfoot stage from start to finish. Generating the largest crowd (at Bigfoot) of the weekend, the duo did not disappoin…
This morning, Pickathon announced its 2016 lineup, and it's a doozy! Wilco's Jeff Tweedy headlines along with Yo La Tengo, Beach House, and Ty Segall & The Muggers, plus so many other KEXP favorites - like Black Mountain, Thee Oh Sees, Dan Deacon, Ibeyi, Fruit Bats, My Bubba, Hurray for the Rif…
The Nocturnal Showcase at Decibel Festival kept things moving right along Friday night with one of the best beginning to end bills we saw all weekend. Headlining the night was a solid set from British synth pop goddess Little Boots. Preceding her were stellar sets from Light Asylum, Young Galaxy, a…
For many of us who grew up in the punk era, the sound of the Sex Pistols -- that power, energy, propelled by a sneer -- was life-changing. For me, it was those guitar chords. That sound -- copied over and over by legions of guitarists since -- changed my life on a cold, sunny day in a Victorian hou…
KEXP's Morning Show host, John Richards, presents the first in a new series of Music That Matters podcasts, it's our Runner Powered Podcast, Volume 1. Enjoy this one hour training podcast, featuring 16 high-energy local and international artists with songs about running and songs that wi…
Much talk surrounding Capitol Hill Block Party's 2016 notes the intentionally electronic turn that the festival made this year with its headlining choices. Of those, the crowning evening of the weekend had to go to Saturday night, where hometown heroes ODESZA played to maybe the biggest crowd ever …
True to style, every year, there are one or two bands that manage to navigate the Sasquatch! Music Festival contracts and squeeze in a Seattle date right before they head east. For 2015, that band was UK electronic showcase Jungle. While they absolutely wowed crowds with their Sasquatch! set on Day…
It may be Halloween, but this week's batch of new releases is pretty heavy on the Christmas theme, with collections out from She & Him, Jennifer Nettles, Kacey Musgraves, and Neil Diamond. I'm sure there will be more to come. For non-holiday albums, KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes the lates…
Half-man, half-enigma, UK electronic producer Darren Cunningham has been transfixing listeners over the past decade with his experimental electronic productions under the alias Actress, offering up releases on his own label Werk Discs as well as a steady supply of fascinating sounds for both Honest…
Ever since moving to Seattle from Lansing, Michigan, in 1989, Shomari Shanks (a.k.a. DJ Sho Nuph (f.k.a. Sho Nuff) has been immersed within the local music community, first connecting with seminal 1990s local hip-hop crew Tribal Music before diving into the electronic music scene in the early 2000…
DJ NativeSUN is a Washington, DC-based DJ/producer and also the co-founder of the Future R&Bass collective, hosting events in the nation's capital with kindred crews such as Soulection, HW&W, Radar Radio, and OkayAfrica. Well-known in the DC area for his ability to jump between Afrobeat, ho…
Geotic is the alias of Los Angeles' Will Wiesenfeld, a multi-faceted artist that also releases music under the name Baths. His works under the Geotic moniker have often been self-categorized as "passive listening" music, quietly providing a home for his more ambient and meditative creations that fa…
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…
At first I thought it was an piece in The Onion, but no, Seattle rapper Macklemore really did appear with President Barack Obama this past Saturday morning for the weekly White House Address. (Did you catch Obama's sly "same love" pun?) And the topic is certainly no joke: the two addressed opioid …
Who would have thought a "Big Black Coat" could be so inviting? The album of that name is the first in nearly five years for KEXP favorites Junior Boys, and it comes not just as a return to form but a revisitation of the pop sounds they've cherished for some time - house, techno, soul, disco and R&…
“Deltron is our hero, if he can’t do it nobody can”, sings the entire Showbox. On stage, Dan the Automator conducts the audience as Del the Funky Homosapien preps for the follow up. “With the wave of a hand and a flick of the wrist, word wizardry will certainly give you a glimpse”, re raps, smooth …
