This week, as we continue to post KEXP DJs’ Top 10 Albums of 2015 lists, we also want to share the favorites of KEXP's staff, volunteers and interns, the many many dedicated people who work behind the scenes at KEXP, and who are all passionate music fans themselves. We've already shared Part 1 and …
The name Erik Lindgren was not familiar to me at first glance (nor, for that matter, was the name of the currently-more-famous celebrity poker player Erick Lindgren), but it turns out I have heard his work before - and even covered it on this blog. Lindgren has lived all over and been affiliated wi…
George Lewis Jr., or as he's known by his stage name Twin Shadow, is one of the most gifted indie pop artists in music today, and now, he's proven to be one of the most resilient. Earlier this year, the Brooklyn based singer/producer/writer released Eclipse, his third studio album, to critical accl…
Some artists write songs about themselves, pulling facts from their lives in hopes of finding some mutual truths that can connect with their audience. Others create more from their imagination, searching for the universal within the abstract. Still even more operate in a sort of grey area between t…
For the third Friday evening in our free Concerts at the Mural series, on Donor Appreciation Night, clear sunny skies and sweet tunes beckoned fans to fill the Seattle Center lawn. KEXP truly is a community effort, and Friday night showed what the community is all about. Justin Chan won a chance to…
"We're gonna play 'til they kick us out." Nobunny spoke to the crowd at El Corazon Saturday night, clad in a bunny mask and black briefs with a white poof tail. "Nevermind, they already locked the doors. None of us are getting out alive. This is it. Welcome to Hell, this goes on for your life." If …
You might not know the name Barry Adamson, but if you're a KEXP listener you've likely heard him - if not any of his excellent solo work, then as a member of bands such as Magazine and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. (Those are, in fact, the two things that anybody knows about Adamson, as one of the D…
It's mind-boggling how a place so small can create so much terrific music. This year, as I was compiling my list of top Icelandic releases, I couldn't help but wonder if I'd find as many great albums as last year and the year before. Would I find ten? Twenty? Actually, as it turns out, a lot more! …
To call Mammút's live act "emotive" is a huge understatement. Frontwoman Kata Mogensen seems to enter a completely different state onstage, even covering herself in fake blood or painting her face ominously, while the rest of the band unleashes a colossal sound. We've been fortunate to watch the yo…
Jenny Lewis has always been a voyager. Whether it was way back when penning heartbreak after heartbreak with Rilo Kiley or finding fresh, rocky footing on her own Rabbit Fur Coat and Acid Tongue, she's wandered around like an ongoing cameo in someone else's story. Lewis is a gifted spectator, bless…
We couldn't describe Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires' recent Sub Pop debut any better than label co-founder Jonathan Poneman himself, who claims in his own press release for the album, "Dereconstructed is a careening, road raging, all night party of a record", adding that even frontman Bains' "…
As frontman and principle songwriter of rock band Eels for over 20 years, Mark Oliver Everett has created a cast of unique characters, but none may be as interesting as the one that is himself. On The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett, the band's eleventh studio album, Everett, or just "E", p…
tUnE-yArDs — even the typography of the name seems to pop off the page like the ecstatic rhythms of the band's new album. For Nikki Nack, Merrill Garbus has traveled far, sonically and literally, expanding upon the conceit of her self-recorded debut and turning tUnE-yArDs into a communal arts tribe…
Star Anna released her latest full-length album, Go To Hell, last summer and has been playing gigs all around Washington - and the country, for that matter - showcasing her distinctively beautiful, gravely voice to crowds of all sizes. Often, Star can often be found with her dog Forest by her side …
"Lovely" and "infectious" — mash those words together and it sounds something like Lucius. Watch and hear the band perform, and those words seem even more apt. Led by co-vocalists Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe, the NYC-based five-piece blends gorgeous harmonies and lively percussion in girl group in…
You're not alone if the crummy weather this season makes you wish it were a different time of year. It's what makes sharing today's exclusive video premiere even more special. For "Summer Is Almost Gone", Icelandic singer-songwriter Snorri Helgason ventures to New York City on a hot summer day, wal…
"If you're meaning to seduce anybody, you don't announce your intention", Joe Henry joked when introducing his new song "Swayed", but nevertheless, the LA-based singer-songwriter hooked us by the heart during a recent in-studio. Undoubtedly, it's his warmth, openness and charm that has made him so …
It's never in any band's plan to break up, but it's much less anticipated for a band to reemerge as a more mature version of their past selves. But to everyone's surprise -- even their own -- The Dismemberment Plan are back with a new record, Uncanney Valley, that not only recognizes that they've g…
“I don’t care what you think,” sings the red-dressed Portland native Sallie Ford. The lyric is definitely in line with the spirit of her newest album, which has as much to do with the idea of freedom, of not being captured in any genre box, as it does with the huge punching sound of Sallie Ford and…
The band name of Lonesome Shack came from frontman Ben Todd’s experience living in, well, a lonesome shack that he built himself in New Mexico. In it, Todd learned Mississippi Fred McDowell songs and honed his facility on stringed instruments like bass, banjo and guitar. It is impossible not to not…
