Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Afte…
Los Angeles artist Ramona Gonzalez launched her Nite Jewel project back in 2008, unveiling a magnetic fusion of dreamy synth-pop, ethereal R&B, woozy funk, and hazy disco on early hotly-tipped releases for Italians Do It Better as well we her own label, Gloriette Records. A prolific artist and…
In recent years, few one-off side projects have led to the mass following and devotion that The Postal Service has mustered. Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard first teamed up with DNTEL mastermind Jimmy Tamborello back in 2001 for "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan", from Jimmy's indie el…
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…
On stage Annie Clark, or as she's known, St. Vincent, is like an alluring, otherworldly android. She skitter steps around rapidly on high stiletto heels, staring blankly and doe-eyed, smiling at odd times while tearing through guitar lines seemingly effortlessly. Much of her show seems almost chore…
"Oh London moon, help me stumble home, help me lose myself along the way." So begins the return of Broken Bells, the all-too-perfect team up between now legendary producer Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) and the genius songwriter who gave us the Shins, James Mercer. After The Disco is the soundtrack to…
This year, !K7 Records celebrates a massive milestone, entering the twentieth year of their ongoing DJ-Kicks series and releasing the fiftieth entry in the series. Over its fifty entry catalogue, DJ-Kicks has carved a niche that no other electronic serial really taps into. For Fabric, it's the club…
Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be a phenomenally awesome trend happening right now where dance bands are accompanying thumping tracks with a lyrical message of higher understanding and deeper self-knowing. Last fall, Cut Copy gave us Free Your Mind, a record musically inspired by rave cultu…
I don't know about you, but I feel like it's been a long time coming for Phantogram. Maybe that's just because the New York two piece has found a way to write songs that stick with you and make a deeper, lasting impact on the heart and mind than their counterparts. Or, maybe they've just spent thei…
As time goes by, it's harder than ever to determine what makes a good electronic show from a bad one. Mainstream EDM DJs can make insatiable amounts of money from a pre-mixed "just press play" setlist that they only have to half-heartedly interact with in order to pull off. And with top notch equip…
What better way to get out of the sun than to spend a bit of time digging crates at your local record shop? While the summer weeks tend to be slow for new releases, you'll find plenty of excellent new albums in stores this week. Among them is the second album from Seattle's Shelby Earl, whose Damie…
To call James Blake's second LP "greatly anticipated" may be a bit of an overstatement, but only because it's been hardly two months that we've even known that a new album would be available some time this year. Despite the short time to process the news, fans certainly were eager to hear what the …
So deep is the pool of local talent these days, there was sparsely room for out-of-town acts on the KEXP Gathering Space stage this weekend. One worthwhile exception was shoegaze four-piece Froth, who traveled from Los Angeles to pay a visit to the crowd at the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival…
The deeper we get into Animal Collective's Painting With chapter, the more it feels like a real renaissance for the band. As the band themselves described it, the process for the new record felt natural and fun - a far cry for the laborious process it took to put forth Centipede Hz. Spending time i…
Hunter Hunt-Hendrix cannot catch a break. With his work as Liturgy, he has crafted some of the most vivacious, jarring metal records we've heard in recent years. Take 2011's Aesthetica as an example. The record operates between quiet and loud like little else on the market. Its use of black metal t…
