DJ Alex shines a spotlight on 16 artists performing at this year's 11th annual Decibel Festival, Seattle's premier electronic music and arts event, happening all over the city from September 24th to September 28th! As with years past, tune in to get a taste of this year's massive, diverse internat…
So I might have been ranting about various shows this weekend being the best shows I saw - but here's the thing. Yes, they were amazing performances by talented musicians, but Killer Mike's set at the Yeti stage topped all of them. There is something about witnessing a brilliant musician finally re…
Windy City singer/songwriter Ryley Walker shares his third album this week, which KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls, "his strongest and most sophisticated set to date, combining fluid guitar lines, intricate rhythms and elliptical lyrics on expansive songs that masterfully blend elements of folk-…
It's surely no coincidence that a couple of these new releases came out on the eve of the 2016 Presidential Election. Veteran Chicago rapper Common shares his 11th full-length, an album KEXP's Music Director Don Yates calls, "a powerful set of politically charged hip hop with gritty, cinematic, sou…
Back in April, Father John Misty (aka Josh Tillman) had an in-depth, intimate chat with DJ Cheryl Waters before his latest LP, Pure Comedy, had even arrived via Sub Pop Records. (You can listen to that here.) A month later, he reunited with Cheryl for this unique live in-studio session, performing …
Arcade Fire released a brand new single called "Electric Blue" this morning off their forthcoming highly anticipated (and highly promoted) new album Everything Now and then minutes later revealed a video for the single. Directed by Cousin Club, the video focuses on AF's Régine Chassagne strutting t…
It's been three years since the last record from The Drums, and a lot has changed for frontman Jonny Pierce. In that time, Jonny moved across the country twice, split up with his husband, and found himself without a bandmate as founding member Jacob Graham left the band to pursue other interests. J…
On November 6, Bob Dylan will release another installment of his Bootleg Series, called The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Volume 12. The collection includes six CDs with reworkings of many classic tracks, including "Like A Rolling Stone" and "Subterranean Homesick Blues." Pre-order th…
With Ibeyi, every song is a blessing, sometimes quite literally. The Parisian born twin sisters reach deep into their French-Cuban ancestry and call upon the spirits of Santería on their debut LP, which blends Yoruban evocations with contemporary expressions of love and loss. Their music is, as the…
Indie rocker Kurt Vile has shared new details about his latest LP, his first release since 2013's amazing Waking on a Pretty Daze. Vile has described the album, which will be titled All Over the Place, as his "darkest album to date" because it's "definitely got that night vibe." [Note: Kurt later …
If you think it'd be hard to bring all seven prolific members of Doomtree together to record, you'd be right. That's why the Minneapolis hip-hop collective called "all hands" for their first album in three years. Fortunately, All Hands is their most collaborative and socially-minded effort yet, sho…
A "rain plan" is practically unknown in the Northwest. It rains here too frequently, but rarely fervently, for anyone to need that kind of contingency. Instead, for us rain plans are active ones, scenarios for doing and being. Maybe that's why Israel Nash's 2014 album, Rain Plans, gripped us so fir…
Seattle's own Duff McKagan is here to help you start the new year off right. The longtime Guns N' Roses guitarist is releasing the book How To Be A Man (And Other Illusions), a collection of his old Seattle Weekly columns. McKagan explains, "It’s a how-to guide of things I’ve learned about life — …
The local four-piece that calls "Earth" its hometown, The Comettes have honed the sound born in the 1980's - that distorted, etherial, big-voiced rock - and made it their own here and now in 2014. Think: David Byrne, Lou Reed or even Pearl Jam if you slowed down the tape a bit. The band released th…
If Charms’ Facebook and Bandcamp pages are any indication, the Seattle band LOVES candy and chips. Perhaps as a result, the trio play driving rock and roll songs that feel like a sugar rush mixed with a touch of Cool Ranch. Big, boisterous songs come from this group, which has only been together fo…
After years of extensive touring, Seattle band Ivan & Alyosha released a new album called All the Times We Had. The group celebrated its release by hanging with DJ Cheryl Waters earlier this year and playing a live set at the KEXP studios. “I want to be the man who understands his woman and you…
Divine Fits tore it up on late night TV's Jimmy Kimmel Live! with their own "Like Ice Cream" and a cover of Tom Petty's "You Got Lucky". Even though Britt Daniel seemed like he was forgetting the words at one point, the performance is the kind of powerhouse one, complete with a creative cover (whi…
Natalie Mering, better known as Weyes Blood, has had a busy year. She released her latest (and very good) LP Front Row Seat To Earth late last year and followed that up a few months later with a collaborative EP with Ariel Pink called Myths 002. Next on her agenda is a 7" of two covers of two songs…
Swedish sister act First Aid Kit are releasing their first album in three years, Ruins, at the beginning of the new year. Today they've shared the third single from the album, "Fireworks." They've previously shared the songs "It's a Shame" and "Postcard." The duo also shared a one-off single for I…
The endlessly prolific Ty Segall has released a new track today called "The Main Pretender." The song is the latest in a stream of songs including "Alta," "Meaning," "My Lady's on Fire," and a cover of the Squidbillies theme. Mikal Cronin is featured on the song, playing sax. All the new singles s…
