I was talking to KEXP engineer extraordinaire Kevin Suggs the other day, and the band Diamond Fist Werny came up in conversation. Having moved to Seattle in 2001, well after their heyday, I had never even heard the name, but apparently they were a pretty big deal around here in the '90s, doing thei…
I don't know if there is a physical, mental, or spiritual way to come away from a Darkside show unaffected. Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington brought their two-man gateway to musical nirvana to Neumos Wednesday night for a sold out show and wowed the room from the first second to the last. The build…
The nation is catching on to the wealth of amazing music coming out of Seattle's experimental hip-hop scene. This year listeners have become entranced by Seattle's THEESatisfaction, and before that Shabazz Palaces -- expect the same kind of attention soon for OCnotes (Otis Calvin, III) and his gen…
Every time a Little Big Show happens, our accomplishments seem to get bigger and better. Our must recent show, at Neptune Theatre last Friday, marks the fourteenth occasion on which Starbucks, STG, and KEXP have put their heads together to line up a crazy good show. And not only that - like all oth…
It’s not hard to imagine a chandelier once hanging from the gold, grated circle located smack dab in the middle of The Neptune ceiling. What’s considerably tougher is spotting the marks of an elaborate and ornate paint job that once encompassed the gold center’s edge but has now faded into the stru…
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Andrew W.K. is a brilliant capitalist. Need proof? Here's one: he's still a cultural zeitgeist even now in 2015. Generations have come to Andrew through a stunning variety of mediums. You may know him from his now-classic 2001 party soundtrack to end all party soundtracks I Get Wet, or from his con…
Since he broke his band up in the most grandiose way possible, James Murphy has stayed incredibly busy - maybe busier than he was when he was in LCD Soundsystem. It seems like every couple months, there's word of a new project from James, though not necessarily musical in nature. Sure, James has co…
The problem with cool stuff is there's always a process by which it becomes uncool. A handful of true artists perfect a craft and then an uncanny number of hackneyed copycats sample bits and pieces out of context and bastardize the whole thing to no end. This is maybe no better exemplified than wit…
Topping this week's list of new releases is the third album by Chicago band Smith Westerns. While the band's 2011 release, Dye It Blonde, drew tons of comparisons (and a tiny bit of flak) for its fuzzy glam nods to Nuggets-era gems, their new release finds the band aiming for what our Music Directo…
It’s KEXP’s 50th anniversary, and to celebrate we’re taking an in-depth look at each year of our history – from 1972 to 2022.
If Brooklyn producer The Range and Atlanta rapper Rome Fortune have any one thing in common, it's an unfettered line of sight towards a marvelous horizon. Both artists make music that is wrought with present-tense turmoil, but the future always looks brighter - and not only that, it looks magnanimo…
At this pace, 2014 is well on its way to outdoing 2013 in new releases. The streak continues this week, topped by a terrific new album by Future Islands, which our Music Director, Don Yates, calls "a masterful set of impassioned, ‘80s-steeped electro-pop with glittering synths, streamlined guitars …
KEXP celebrates Mixtape Week, August 26-30.
This week in El Sonido, I’ve got a video round-up and mixtape preview of Primavera Sound 2017.First though, a quick recap of my favorite things from last year. Hands down I have to say my favorite performance from 2016's edition of Primavera was PJ Harvey. I've been a super fan since the early 90s,…
