"Put your hand on the chest / of a heart that is beating" -- the line comes from a song they didn't play during their recent session at KEXP, but it's the same tangibly intimate invitation you get whenever you hear The Barr Brothers's music, like you can actually touch the creative force coursing t…
A bad breakup rarely calls for celebration, but it is a cause for Ceremony. The Bay Area band builds their fifth full-length around singer Ross Farrar's recent romantic split, narrating his loss and resulting loneliness almost chronologically. The L-Shaped Man isn't all about doom and gloom, though…
Born out of the humid Athens, Georgia, southlands, the music of Futurebirds washes over the ears like a welcomed rain. Utilizing pedal steel and a myriad of other instruments on their studio albums - the most recent of which is Baba Yaga, a tight, catchy collection - the band writes songs like acti…
For the uninitiated, Kyle Craft can sing. At once raspy, evocative, and grandiose, Mr. Craft's voice sounds straight from his soul, imbuing his music with an immediate punch and anchor. His voice was the clear focal point of an excellent performance at Day 3 of Sasquatch Music Festival at the Yeti …
Seattle's Wishbeard is one of those great bands that keeps the high hat and snare drum going. This is part of what makes them eminently danceable. With etherial guitars and vocal shouts like wolves howling into the night, the drum keeps a tight, pushing rhythm highlighted by the quickly hit snares …
"Your hippocampus does it alright" That astute observation from Built to Spill's Doug Martsch on his cerebral ode to memory function is a heck of an understatement when it comes to Twin Cities band Hippo Campus. The young four-piece is quickly becoming the pride of the St. Paul scene with their bre…
Spaced out indie psych at its finest, Dreamsalon’s Soft Stab is another piercing offering from the misty shores of the Pacific Northwest. Consisting of members Min Yee, Craig Chambers and Matthew Ford, the Seattle band crafts original and honest songs stewed in complex chord progressions, melodic b…
If Waxwing broke up in 2003, then what are they doing playing live at KEXP? Let’s put this query aside for now –- for, why question the good fortune of hearing the Seattle band, which first got together in 1996, play again? Waxwing, who last released an album in 2002 (but whose members have release…
Iron & Wine, aka Sam Beam, has graced us with a brand new song written especially for the upcoming movie, The Lone Ranger. "Rattling Bone" has a rugged and laid-back style that fits a western like a pair of skin tight Levis. The films soundtrack will also feature tracks from Lucinda Williams,…
LA garage pop outfit Bleached have been rising strong on the scene in the last year with a number of fantastic singles and well known strong live presence. The band mixes West Coast surf tendencies with the gorgeous melodic punk of bands like Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls, delivered through tight …
I can't think of many one-hit wonders who have careers with the length and breadth of Chris Isaak. If you were alive in the late '80s, the song (and video!) "Wicked Game" is probably what comes to mind when you hear Isaak's name. That song was on his third album, though (a testament to Warner Broth…
"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 …
Paul Janeway's vocal range is some kind of miracle. For the young Alabama-based soul stirrer and his band, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, the sounds of Memphis and Muscle Shoals go marrow deep. On Half The City, their unbelievable mature debut, Janeway channels '60s R&B greats like Otis Reddi…
Seattle band Ivan & Alyosha, in the lineage of local powerhouses the Head and the Heart and the Fleet Foxes, are masters of the bright, jangly guitars, tight, soaring harmonies and steady kick-drum rhythms. But there is something distinct about them, too – the band has more joy to it than maybe…
The love NYC drummer Miles Arntzen holds for the music of Nigerian legend Fela Kuti is so great it can't be contained by just one band. Arntzen, who drums for well-known funksters Antibalas, also started yet another 10+ member afrobeat-inspired group in EMEFE. Formed a year before his joining Antib…
2013 has been a good year for guitarists. Chelsea Light Moving's Thurston Moore, Savages' Gemma Thompson, My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields, Marnie Stern, and Mikal Cronin have spent the year reminding listeners why the six-stringed instrument remains rock's weapon of choice. Playing with the pro…
Although it began as an anonymous solo project, Arthur Ashin's Autre Ne Veut has emerged as one of the leaders of the current electronic and indie-tinged R&B explosion. Now that the project has evolved into an entity outside of his bedroom, Ashin's live takes on the songs from Anxiety, his seco…
If you're a fan of Twin Peaks, Tim & Eric, and Beach House you are in for a treat this morning. Yep, that's Ray Wise riding a majestic stallion in the photo above. It's a screenshot from the new Eric Wareheim-directed video for Beach House's "Wishes". Wise lip syncs the song at a futuristic …
All throughout her conversation with Stevie Zoom, Mary Timony kept mentioning how Ex Hex "just came together". You'd be forgiven for thinking a band so fierce and tight could never be assembled so serendipitously, but when you've got a trio of D.C. punk lifers in the same room, there's no other pos…
Since forming in 2007, Seattle's Cumulus – comprised of Alexandra Niedzialkowski, Lance Umble and Leah Julius – have only recently released their debut album, I Never Meant It To Be Like This, last month. But the wait was well worth it! The record is tight and rife with cheerful pop music, from sin…
