Hailing from Brooklyn, NY, but represented by Seattle's own Sub Pop Records, Obits came by the KEXP studios for a live — part tribal, part rock — set to celebrate the release of their new album, Bed & Bugs. Lead singer Rick Froberg mixed his Jack White-style singing voice with a penchant for sc…
There's a highly discernible trajectory between the first four albums by Baltimore dream pop act Beach House, from the bedroom whispers of their debut to the mountaintops of Bloom, the duo have, with each subsequent effort, come a bit more out of their shell, turning up the volume, fleshing out tex…
The otherworldliness of Iceland's landscape is never lost on those who live or travel there. Not just a land of fire and ice, it is also a land of light and dark, starkness and majesty, community and isolation. The only thing that isn't a wonder about Iceland is how artists of all kinds echo its un…
Brooklyn-based band Antibalas, which is Spanish for "bulletproof", released their fifth studio album last August. This release really launched them on a sizable worldwide tour and lucky for us they happened to make a stop in Seattle. Founded in the late 90s, Antibalas has never strayed from their s…
Scott Hansen is known as ISO50 for his photography and design work. For his music, he and his band mates are known as Tycho. Closing down Saturday night at Sasquatch! Music Festival, Hansen and crew displayed how the two creative works aren’t mutually exclusive. Sharp images of distant landscapes a…
Everyone's favorite gap-toothed songwriter shares a demo from the Mac DeMarco vaults: check out a four-track version of "Rollin Like A Dummy," which dates back to his 2012 album 2. Via Reddit, he says, "Everybody’s always asking for a recording of this song, so I’m finally getting around to it. It…
A quick look at the Restorations tour schedule might have your eyes glazing over. After releasing their third studio album (LP3) in only four years at the end of 2014, the Philly indie-rockers have spent most of 2015 tirelessly touring across the U.S., the U.K., and even Jamaica. Or as singer/guita…
One might have thought that after the wild party thrown by FM Belfast, Kex would have calmed down a bit. But the beer fueled buzz continued and the room stayed full. We closed out an amazing second day of our Iceland Airwaves broadcast live at Kex Hostel in downtown Reykjavik with yet another dose …
Seattle's own funk masters Polyrhythmics have become well known for their dynamic, hard-hitting live performances and today's Bumbershoot audience was experience it first hand. Polyrhythmics has made such a huge impact for such a young band, the eight piece orchestra was founded in 2010 by friends …
In sad news, drummer Scott Asheton, a.k.a. "Rock Action" Asheton, of The Stooges passed away over the weekend at the age of 64. Along with his brother, guitarist Ron Asheton, he helped form the influential punk band in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967. In a statement on the band's Facebook page, front…
The band name of Lonesome Shack came from frontman Ben Todd’s experience living in, well, a lonesome shack that he built himself in New Mexico. In it, Todd learned Mississippi Fred McDowell songs and honed his facility on stringed instruments like bass, banjo and guitar. It is impossible not to not…
This week sees the return of L.A.-based artist Aimee Mann. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls her ninth solo album, "a consistently strong set of intimate, smartly crafted folk-pop, combining a dark, acoustic-oriented sound with her plaintive vocals and often-poignant lyrics reflecting upon lost l…
Her newest album is called Have You In My Wilderness but Julia Holter doesn't typically play outdoors. "I'm not used to being outside in the sun, but I'm glad we're all here," the Los Angeles composer said after "Silhouette". This year's Sasquatch lineup is mostly a high energy affair, but Holter's…
The gaudy, sterile synths, the contrapuntal guitar and bass, the party ready drums, and especially the high-ranging, free-wielding, devil-may-care vocals - if you were there in 2005 when Clap Your Hands Say Yeah rose to indie-stardom with their self-titled, self-released debut, you remember it all.…
It took losing her voice for Wye Oak to rediscover theirs. On the heels of their successful previous album, Civilian, the Baltimore duo were playing arenas, opening for acts like The National and The Decemberists. And then, sadly, frontwoman Jenn Wasner developed vocal-cord nodules, and under docto…
Bands go through changes – name changes, member changes, sound transformations, covers. One of those bands that has recently changed names, members, and sound, but has survived, is Philadelphia’s Bleeding Rainbow. Starting as a duo of sludge-infused indie pop back in 2009, the band then known as Re…
A mosh pit of all smiles is a beautiful and wonderful thing. Real mosh pits are great to start with. Not fake circle pits where following the leader dominates any true form of atomic self expression, but a real "I drank a little too much and don't mind being throw around by the couple people who re…
How often do you drive your car to a show? When we're always on the go, it can be easy to settle for convenience without considering the consequences — like the fact that each gallon of gasoline used puts 20 pounts of CO2 in the air. It's a harsh reality that's easy to displace from your mind but t…
Donning a red jump suit, Olivia Merilahti, vocalist of The Dø, looked as if she took the spacey ambiance of the KEXP studio to heart and, based on the sonic transformation The Dø's sound undertook in the creation of their third album, it was a fitting sentiment. Leaving acoustic instruments behind,…
He's never lived so far away, yet he's never sounded so much like himself. After a move to London, former Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore reclaimed his place as a ranking don of noise-rock while reassembling his band with some true ringers, namely former SY bandmate Steve Shelley on drums and D…
