2011's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming didn't just turn M83 into a triple-A critical darling and unexpected commercial success, it pushed the band to become one of the biggest and outright best acts on the live circuit. Taking their records' widescreen ambitions and bringing them to life with a huge, bord…
Conor Oberst has spent an entire career fighting against expectations. Even if he wasn't saddled with the "new Dylan" tags upon his emergence in the early 2000s, there undoubtedly still would have been a focus on his age (20 at the release of Bright Eyes' 2000 breakthrough Fevers and Mirrors), his …
Death Cab for Cutie is a band that embodies change. From the light-hearted melancholy of "Photobooth" to the heavy-handed post-marital blows of "Cath...", Death Cab have shown us hundreds of ways in which circumstances shift and we find ourselves to be different people when the light changes. We mi…
Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by DJ Miss Ashley in honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is "Second Nature" by Drew Martin from the 2023 album Where's Your Feet on Kritter Records.
Timely does not even begin to describe the new record from NYC rappers Heems and Riz MC, a.k.a. Swet Shop Boys. While it's depressing as hell, these two dudes seriously could not have picked a better week to drop an album about basic human rights being put up into contention. As the race towards Vo…
As we waited at the Paramount Theatre for the Father John Misty show to begin, a fellow show-goer said to me, "Sometimes he walks around the crowd during the opener. He followed me on Twitter today and I literally died, so I'm gonna say hi to him if I can find him." I wondered in my head how this g…
Join KEXP on Monday, September 16th as we celebrate the music of Mexico to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month and commemorate Mexican Independence Day.
KEXP DJ Gabriel Teodros in collaboration with Jessica Ramirez of the Seedcast Podcast, sheds light on the orchestral Indigenous music of Jeremy Dutcher. Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day
Producer Sam J. Leeds talks with people who remember the harp and how it created community in the neighborhood.
There's been a lot of speculation about Amber Coffman's departure from Dirty Projectors. The lead single from her solo debut City Of No Reply is defiantly titled "All To Myself," yet the album was produced by her former bandmate David Longstreth. On the latest and seventh Dirty Projectors album, L…
Mean Jeans guitarist and vocalist Billy Jeans (Christian Blunda) took the stage for his second set of the night (he also performed in openers Patsy’s Rats). He was joined by Jeans Wilder (Andrew Bassett) on drums, and Jr. Jeans (Richard Messina) on bass. It was late, but the crowd at Chop Suey wasn…
"Product of partition" - that's how Himanshu Suri, a.k.a. Heems, defines himself on Eat Pray Thug closer "Patriot Act". On that track, he talks about how growing up as a man of Indian descent in post-9/11 NYC was a nightmare. "From then on they called all of us Osama", he recalls towards the end, "…
It’s time again for Friday on My Mind. Our weekly blog post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News. We here in Seattle are very lucky in that we always have the opportunity to see amazingly talented musicians, both natio…
It's a very short list of new releases this holiday week, so you can probably tie your record store shopping to your quest for 4th of July BBQ supplies. While you're stocking up on burgers, weiners, beer and soda, you might stop to grab the latest from British producer Zomby, whose third album, our…
With one more day of paradise ahead of them, Pickathon attendees spend the day diversifying their interests. Sure, there is plenty of incredible music to take part in later on, but throughout the experience, it's the culture of Pickathon that dominates, winning over those who don't regularly partic…
As the sun set behind the main stage at Sasquatch Festival, global gypsy dub punk rockers Gogol Bordello played an uptempo set that kept crowd energy high. Formed in New York in 1999, this group has always drawn upon a wide palate of sonic influences. The eight-piece band's unique instrumentation i…
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…
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…
On the first episode of this season, John Richards talks about the joys of getting back into races and running with other people, but ultimately, the importance of running for yourself.
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