Earlier this year, post-punk legends Wire conceived of a music festival, DRILL. Frontman Colin Newman explains, "The concept is simple: it's an unpretentious city festival featuring artists from across all genres actively curated by Wire with a lot of input from local, informed media partners. The …
Focus on the present and join Cheryl Waters in the moment for a mix of fresh new tracks from Iron & Wine, Kelley Stoltz, and Wolf Parade. 1. Iron & Wine - Call It Dreaming 2. Jessica Lea Mayfield - Sorry Is Gone 3. Shake Some Action! - Waiting For the Sun 4. The Mynabirds - Shouting At t…
Fresh from her feature on this week's episode of "Twin Peaks," Sharon Van Etten has shared a remix to a track she wrote and released last year in honor of the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting, which happened one year ago yesterday. Titled "Not Myself," Etten explained the reasoning for its r…
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…
"Only 340 more songs to go," said Icelandic soul singer Júníus Meyvant, hiding a sly grin under a thick red beard at the start of his set at the KEXP Gathering Space Stage on Saturday evening. Fans on the concrete floor in front of him, sitting like children arranged around a teacher, chuckled. Tho…
I've covered Beat Happening records in this space before, but it's been just over six years, so I figure the time is ripe to go back to that well. For my previous post, I compared the reactions to the Oly DIY heroes' first and fourth albums. Today we'll split the difference (sort of) and go back to…
Howe Gelb is a goddamn institution. Over the past three decades he has released 25 albums with the mercurial outfit Giant Sand (originally known as Giant Sandworm, most lately known as Giant Giant Sand), and almost as many albums under his own name (#20, Dust Bowl, is available right now). His care…
Merrill Garbus' colorful campaign behind Tune-Yards' excellent third album Nikki Nack continues today with a vibrant video for the album cut "Real Thing." Mannequin-esque people, Sesame Street-style visuals, and a climatic dance scene featuring packaging peanuts are a few highlights from the below,…
It's an unlikely cover, but it's for a great cause: Moby gives his spin to the Duran Duran classic "Rio." The track appears on a tribute album to the '80s icons titled Making Patterns Rhyme that'll be out this July on Manimal Vinyl. Other artists on the comp include Warpaint, Little Dragon, Crocod…
We're excited to announce that Arcade Fire have announced North American dates for their Reflektor tour, including a stop at the Gorge Amphitheatre on Friday, August 8th. Mark your calendars: tickets for the general public go on sale starting Friday, November 22nd.Earlier today, we reported that th…
No one can make a pink wig look bad ass and terrifying quite like M.I.A. can. In the video for her track, "Bring The Noize," not only does she pull of this feat' but she also strings together lightening fast flows that she punctuates with a flick of her sparkly gold talons. It's one thing to hear …
It's been four years since Coexist, but London trio The xx re-emerge with a new song today, and lots of good news. Stream the single "On Hold" below, which features a pretty sweet sample of the 1981 Hall & Oates hit "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)." It's just a taste of their highly-anticipat…
Local art-rap heroes Shabazz Palaces have released a new single with producer Thundercat called "Since C.A.Y.A." which will be on their forthcoming release Quazarz: Born On A Gangster Star. It's one of the two brand-new albums the group is planning on releasing on the same day this summer, the othe…
FFS, the eponymous debut album from the collaboration project between Franz Ferdinand and Sparks, feels a bit like a beautiful car crash in slow motion. I say slow motion because the two objects that make up the collision seen here have been careening towards each other since the good old days of 2…
Arto Lindsay, the guitaring/singing half of the art-pop duo Ambitious Lovers, is one of my favorite - and one of the most underrated - musical artists of the late 20th century (he has gone relatively quiet in the past decade or so, although some recent posts on his facebook page instill hopes that …
This summer, folk rockers The Lumineers played a special show at Barboza in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood as part of KEXP's VIP Club concert series. The band has gained major momentum in the current thirst for rootsy, soul-stirring music, and this year they're up for two Grammys -- for Best …
Rounding out a stunning second day of the KEXP Broadcast live from KEX Hostel at Iceland Airwaves Music festival are the incomparable Kronos Quartet. The San Francisco-based string quartet has been around for over 40 years, with a roster of rotating musicians, currently comprised of David Harringto…
"Welcome to the show (We Missed You)", the projector screen read before Fleet Foxes made their homecoming on a warm May evening. From the chatter and mingling happening in the crowd ahead of the set, it was clear that the feeling was mutual. It'd been five years since the Seattle group played their…
Fleet Foxes are getting back together. The Seattle indie band went on hiatus five years ago after they released their sophomore album, Helplessness Blues. At the time, frontman Robin Pecknold had decided to go back to Columbia University to earn his degree. Now it seems the hiatus is coming to an …
We're sad to report that local rising surf band La Luz were in a severe accident that totaled their van, destroyed their gear, and incurred injuries to the band members. For those who feel compelled to help the band get back on their feet, their label Hardly Art has set up a Paypal account for lal…
