It goes without saying that Elliott Smith cannot be replaced. He was a one of a kind talent, a songwriter whose gift for melody often served as the vessel for his often harrowing narratives and disclosures. In the wake of his tragic death at 34, his reputation for intimately capturing deathly stark…
Thanks to everyone who came out last week for our reading and signing of Trouble Boys: the True Story of The Replacements! We will thrilled to be joined by author Bob Mehr, and former Replacements manager and co-founder of Twin/Tone Records, Peter Jesperson. After Mehr shared the story of how the b…
What was it like to discover The Replacements and surprise them with a record deal? Or hear John Peel talk about your label? Or hear the first Ramones album before 99.9% of the world? One guy, Twin/Tone Records co-founder Peter Jesperson can, and does, answer all those questions posited by KEXP pro…
Yeah, yeah, sure — The Replacements, Wu-Tang, Elvis Costello... Everyone knows how amazing this year's musical line-up is for the 2014 Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, but, Bumbershoot has always been more than just the tunes. Let's take a closer look at some of the art exhibits, lectures, an…
If something was happening in the Minneapolis music scene, writer Jim Walsh was there to cover it. A former City Pages music editor (think, The Stranger) and award-winning columnist for the Pioneer Press, Walsh writes about music and culture. He is the author of the oral history The Replacements: A…
Just announced: LCD Soundsystem has joined the 2017 Sasquatch! Music Festival lineup. The beloved New York City band will replace Frank Ocean as the headliner on Friday, May 26th, as he had to drop out due to production delays beyond his control.
Hot off their stellar set at Sasquatch!, Tame Impala have debuted their new music video for "Cause I'm A Man." Puppets replace the band in the video, and even if The Muppets were never your bag, it's pretty entertaining. The song will be available on their highly anticipated album, Currents (out on…
They may not have made the majors like The Replacements and Hüsker Dü did, but Minneapolis-based band Arcwelder were more than a perennial local favorite, cracking John Peel's Festive Fifth countdown in 1992 and getting crowned NME's "Punk Rock Single of the Week" by none other than guest editors, …
Too much awesome to keep track of on Sunday at Bumbershoot 2014. Saturday may have gotten the party started, but Sunday is where jaws started dropping left and right. Chris Stamey made the Big Star's Third performance one of the most beautiful and captivating things that has ever happened on the mu…
The most exciting new release this week is The Most Lamentable Tragedy by New Jersey band Titus Andronicus. On this 29-song, 94+-minute rock opera, frontman Patrick Stickles details his struggle with manic depression. KEXP Music Director Don Yates says the album, "features a full, grand sound to ma…
The light rain didn't keep the crowds away from attending the first day of the 2014 Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, and the improving weather will only make today more enjoyable. No doubt people will come rain or shine for legendary bands like Big Star's Third and The Replacements, but you m…
Back in 1989, The Replacements covered the song "Another Girl Another Planet," originally by late '70s UK power-punk band The Only Ones, and it never would've happened if not for their former manager Peter Jesperson, who put the song on a mix tape for the tour van. Jesperson will be familiar to KEX…
Presenting Songbook: KEXP’s Music & Literature Series, bringing together authors and artists for engaging discussions in the KEXP Gathering Space.
"You don’t have to be anyone if you don’t want to / You don’t have to get a job if you don’t want to" and you definitely don't have to listen to Howler if you don't want to. But that would be a damn shame because the Minneapolis yeehaw boys have returned with their second album of infectious punky …
La Luz has been through a lot since their debut EP Damp Face hit the airwaves and internets. From a U.S. tour, to playing with Of Montreal and The Head and the Heart, to sustaining serious injuries after getting hit by a semi while on the road, to releasing their new LP, It's Alive, to replacing th…
Was he mad he had to sit at a different table? Reunited shoegazers Lush have canceled their remaining tour dates as bassist Phil King has left the band. So, you won't get to see them at Iceland Airwaves or Rolling Stone Weekender after all. King replaced original bassist Steve Rippon before the re…
Steve Fisk, not unlike Jack Endino, is a figure in the Seattle rock universe who has had an enormous influence on the sounds coming out of this city, despite not being a household name to those who don't often peruse album credits. As a producer and engineer he's worked with everyone from Screaming…
As festival organizers can tell you, sometimes everything doesn't go to plan. With all of the moving pieces involved in a fest, it's not too uncommon that you have to replace an act, and occasionally cancel parts of the festival. (In one recent case, one festival had to evacuate 60,000+ people in t…
The Replacements were one of the most original and influential rock bands of the 1980s. Their hard-drinking ways made them infamous to many clubs in the Twin Cities and around the country -- including the time when they got themselves famously banned from Saturday Night Live after a particularly i…
Well, can't say we saw that one coming! In the next phase of the ever-evolving state that has come to define them, experimental indie rock chameleons Liars come to us now as... a synth pop band?! Well, perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration. But still, on new record Mess, we find Liars a far cry a…
