A very cool piece of Northwest history has emerged today. Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie has shared a recording of their very first show in Bellingham at a house venue called the Pacer House from November 22, 1997. Gibbard's friend Trevor Adams had the foresight to record the gig on his dictap…
Well, it is the album that beat out Nevermind in Spin Magazine's Best Albums of 1991 list: Ben Gibbard has announced he'll be covering Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque in its entirety. "Bandwagonesque is my favorite record by my favorite band of all time," he said, via a press release. "It came al…
Ben Gibbard continues his campaign against L.A. with the Death Cab for Cutie video for "The Ghosts of Beverly Drive." The clip for the latest Kintsugi single features the band on a celebrity-sighting tour bus with Gibbard as the reluctant tour guide. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gibbard exp…
When you are hurting, there's only one place that really makes it feel like everything's alright: home. When all is lost and your judgment's on the brink, going home gives you perspective. You remember where you've come from, and furthermore, just how far you've come between the last chapter and th…
This week we celebrate the 15th year of one of Seattle’s favorite hometown labels: Barsuk Records! Since its birth in 1998, Barsuk has helped create a platform for dozens of great bands, from the Pacific northwest and otherwise, to get off the ground and put forth incredible music. Even in the deca…
The Postal Service has spent this year celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Give Up, with a re-release and a huge world tour. Now, director Justin Mitchell has brought us a 14 minute documentary about the band called, Some Idealistic Future. The documentary features interviews with each band memb…
After all the speculation last month about a Postal Service reunion, it looks like the whole thing has been confirmed by an update earlier today to the band's website which revealed simply the image above with the band name and year. Ben Gibbard has been very clear that there is no likelihood of a…
Little Big Shows tend to sell out - that much is true. But with Little Big Show #10, Seattle broke a ground speed record, as tickets were gone almost before they even appeared. Every few months, KEXP joins Starbucks Seattle Theater Group to spotlight a Seattle charity with a show at the Neptune The…
To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of their Give Up, album The Postal Service is heading out on tour. The duo of Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello and Death Cab's Ben Gibbard released this video (done by Sub Pop Records) to share their story. It tells the humble story of how these two made such an impact…
CHVRCHES and Death Cab for Cutie have recently hit the road together, and last night in Charleston, SC, frontwoman Lauren Mayberry joined the Seattle band on stage for "Brothers on a Hotel Bed," a track from 2005's Plans. Watch fan shot video of their collaboration below. We've also got fan shot f…
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…
Yoko Ono turned 89 last Friday, the same day a new covers album of her music was released. The album was curated by Ben Gibbard and features artists like Japanese Breakfast, Sharon Van Etten, and David Byrne.
New York based Freelance Whales may have gotten their start playing on subway platforms in 2008, but now they are one of the most critically acclaimed indie rock bands in years. Judah Dadone, Doris Cellar, and company stopped by the KEXP studio in October to play some tracks off of their Diluvia al…
Local faves Death Cab for Cutie share another track from their upcoming release, Kintsugi, their first new full-length without founding member Chris Walla. Stream the album's opening track "No Room In Frame" below. Kintsugi hits stores March 31st via Atlantic, and the boys play two nights at The P…
Well, doesn't that photo look weird? But, it's time to face the new line-up for Death Cab for Cutie: the band will release their first album without founding member Chris Walla, titled Kintsugi. What's a "Kintsugi", you might ask? It's a style of Japanese art where broken ceramics are fixed using …
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 …
Even with a full band backing her on stage at the KEXP Gathering Space Stage on the second day of the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, it seemed like Seattle singer songwriter Shelby Earl hardly needed a mic. Her voice rang clear, powerful, and true even when she stepped back from her mic to …
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, unrealeased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Mi…
Death Cab for Cutie is a band that embodies change. From the light-hearted melancholy of "Photobooth" to the heavy-handed post-marital blows of "Cath...", Death Cab have shown us hundreds of ways in which circumstances shift and we find ourselves to be different people when the light changes. We mi…
