"Trouble is my name" is how Dee Dee Penny chooses to end the new Dum Dum Girls record Too True. There's a great reason - the girls are a quietly devastating storm. Their refusal to give way to the all too familiar tropes of the business means that Penny and her band members will never become click-…
It's hard enough to make money nowadays as a musician, let alone when you have to ditch all momentum you've gained thus far and start again. But watching the bands the make the cut and bottle lightning a second time is like watching a boxer come off a loss stronger than ever. It's not just good - i…
Congrats is one of the most aptly titled records to come out in the past few years. Truly, Toronto electronic band Holy Fuck face a very welcome return to the scene with this year's record. Given the strength of the band's discography and the influence they've held on the Toronto electronic scene, …
For years, Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace stood in center stage at raged away, sometimes at others, sometimes at herself. When she came out as transgender in 2012, that fury subsequently turned to a newfound onstage fire, transforming the flagging band from an increasingly cult concern to …
On November 5, we learned the horrible news that Mimi Parker of the band Low had lost her battle to ovarian cancer. Mimi was only 55 when she passed, but had done so much in her life as a mother, as a musician, and as a human. She was married to Alan Sparhawk, her bandmate. They met in grade school…
At just 27, singer-songwriter Kevin Morby has accomplished much, both as a band member of NYC-based projects such as Woods and The Babies and as a solo artist. The songs on the third album under his own name, Singing Saw, are his sharpest and also most spacious, reflecting the divide between city a…
Brooklyn band Caveman are back with their first new album since their 2013 self-titled LP. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it "a well-crafted blend of driving, War On Drugs-style rock and atmospheric, '80s-steeped pop-rock." We can't wait to hear the new songs live when the band perform at Conc…
Any local bands want a free studio session? Converse, the iconic footwear of indie rockers, presents the Converse Rubber Tracks Pop-Up Studio. Last month, across the country, Converse offered free recording sessions to bands in legendary studios like Abbey Road Studios in London, England; Tuff Gong…
Album, schmalbum. Modest Mouse fans have been waiting for news on a follow-up to the band's 2007 breakout, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, and instead the humble rodents have announced a cross-country tour! Sure, why not. Chances are, attendees will hear some new material in the set list; …
The Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne recently partook in a "record store tour" where he sold some special tidbits from the band's earlier days. One of the amazing offerings was a Lips recording from 1983 called 2nd Cassette Demo, and you can listen to both sides of the tape below. It's an awesome…
Today on the Morning Show, we debuted a new song by TV on the Radio, and now the single, entitled "Million Miles", is available for you to hear and watch again and again. Though the band recently left Interscope Records, they haven't stopped turning out amazing material, now on band member Dave Sit…
Tommy Stinson put Bash & Pop on hold for just over two decades before reviving it last year, but the Minneapolis group's raucous, delightfully unhinged energy remains intact because, as the onetime Replacement says, “I'm not pretending to be anything other than what I am.” Stinson and the band…
The crowd at Kex Hostel is abuzz with excitement in anticipation of the triumphant return of Icelandic indie-rock band SUÐ (appropriately, Icelandic for “Buzz”). The band originally formed in the late 90’s, releasing only one album, 1999’s Hugsunarvélin, and played together until 2003. After reconn…
Many in the area have known Seattle's Success for a while, but it was last year that these hometown heroes got some love on a national level. Their breakout LP, Radio Recovery, was released by Chicago indie label Red Scare Industries and the quartet accepted tour offers from bands like Masked Intr…
If the city of Seattle created a position for a house band, The Cave Singers would immediately top the shortlist. Across their eight-year run, Peter Quirk, Derek Fudesco, and Marty Lund (along with sometimes-member Morgan Henderson) have steadily become one of the city's more reliable bands across …
Tycho has seen a marvelous ascent to brilliance in the last couple years. With each album, Scott Hansen seems to find himself in a brighter sense of awareness and emersion in the beautiful, captivating world that the music of Tycho embodies. The band is now two albums deep with a fleshed out live s…
Well, that was a sure way to wake up the neighborhood! Kicking off KEXP's 2013 CMJ broadcast was New York's own Bear Ceuse, a band whose pounding drums, searing guitars, and loud, belted vocals definitely woke up the group of caffeinated New Yorkers who gathered at Judson Memorial Church for their …
London post-punk band Savages made an explosive entrance onto the American scene last year at CMJ (and then this year at SXSW) and have quickly become one of the most anticipated new acts of year. And after witnessing them live for the first time on Seattle soil, all this writer can say is this: no…
Another Icelandic band whose debut we are eagerly looking forward to is Mr. Silla, a "supergroup" of sorts, led by Sigurlaug Gísladóttir (a.k.a. Silla) of of múm, and members of Sin Fang, amiina, Seabear, Tilbury and other great bands. We caught them in their studio a year ago, when they had just a…
