Musical lore has it that Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the iconic South African mbube group, was founded by Joseph Shabalala after having a series of dreams in which he heard their sounds. It goes unmentioned whether or not Joseph dreamt of 50 years of worldwide success as perhaps the most well-known cu…
Simon Fisher Turner seems like a fascinating individual. He has been an actor on several BBC series; recorded music under his own name (both with and without his middle name) and as The King of Luxembourg and Deux Filles; and been a member of both the Portsmouth Sinfonia Orchestra and The The. Curr…
In celebration of Black History Month, KEXP spoke with soulful Seattle singer/songwriter Tiffany Wilson about what "Black History Month" means to her, and the continued relevance of Nina Simone.
Stockholm, Sweden based indie singer-songwriter Simon Stålhamre of the band Small Feet stops by the KEXP studio and performs an intimate and very special performance of songs from their new record "From Far Enough Away Everything Sounds Like The Ocean" live on KEXP's The Morning Sho…
The innovative releases continue for Lena Simon’s band, KAIROS. Who doesn’t like it when one masterful band takes the work of another for the sake of reinterpretation and homage? And today, we have two examples of this collaboration: a Cock & Swan remix of the KAIROS track, “Can / Cannot” and a…
Influenced by the year he spent on the road while writing the record, Simon Green's latest record, Migration, is Bonobo's most progressive album to date, with a wider spectrum of sounds bursting into his electronic compositions. Joined by a full band in his return to KEXP's Live Ro…
Texas indie band Shearwater have been dabbling in the world of covers for a while now. They released an all covers collection called Fellow Travelers late last year, and it seems their letting this trend continue. The band's newest cover is Nina Simone's melancholy "Black is the Color." [Stereogum]
Simon Stålhamre may be the creative force behind Small Feet, but it was not until he found the assistance of his band mates Jacob Snavely and Christopher Cantillo along with the inspiration of an island cabin residence that he was able to create music without self-sabotaging. It's a good thing he f…
Jack White's Third Man Records is teaming up with Seattle's own Light in the Attic Records for the children's compilation, This Record Belongs To __________. As the press release boasts, "You won’t find boy bands, princesses, or purple dinosaurs here." Instead the collection features tracks from N…
Crime and the City Solution are one of many Australian bands that never really got their international due. For example, I first heard of them via their appearance in Wim Wenders' film Wings of Desire. My attention was further drawn to them by the involvement of Mick Harvey, whose name you might no…
The roots of Owl John lie in the idea that to save something, sometimes you need to walk away from it. That's what caused Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchinson to take a break from the Scottish indie rock group and return to writing songs the way he did when he started the band a decade earli…
British DJ/producer Simon Green, a.k.a. Bonobo, has been known to tear up the dance floor during his regularly sold-out shows, but when he dropped by KEXP for an in-studio with Cheryl Waters recently, the vibe was breezy and chill. Accompanied by a full band, Green featured songs from his atmospher…
Thurston Moore has thrown us for a couple loops in the last couple years, starting with the long-time coming disbandment of Sonic Youth. Arguably one fo the most influential American bands of all time, Sonic Youth have, for many years, had a turbulent air about them, but after 2009's noisy but exce…
Ontario electronic duo Junior Boys share a clip for the track "No One's Business," off their latest Big Black Coat. The video, directed by Simon Mercer, features time-lapse footage of a man getting ready to perform in his basement. (No, not like in a Silence of the Lambs kinda way.) Watch below, a…
Before they headlined our fourth Little Big Show at the Neptune, Swedish duo First Aid Kit stopped by our studio to chat with Stevie Zoom about Bright Eyes, the Polar Music Prize, and their remarkable harmonies. Klara and Johanna Söderberg made a great first impression with their cover of Fleet Fox…
Man alive, the last five years have seen some dramatic shifts in the dance music scene. When last we saw Felix Burton and Simon Ratcliffe on a proper Basement Jaxx record, they were finishing out a full decade of releasing dance music with not one, but two incredible full length records. One, Scars…
As the days get shorter, so do our lists of new releases, but don't give up on 2013 just yet. You may need to revise your own Top Ten list of 2013 after you consider some of the new releases hitting record store shelves today. A definite contender: Purgatory/Paradise by Throwing Muses, their first …
