The music of Explosions in the Sky has always lived up to the expectations set by the band’s evocative name, and on their seventh studio album, The Wilderness, the Austin, Texas outfit continues to create singular, cathartic, and often breathtaking instrumental compositions. Joining host Troy Nelso…
Heads Up on the dance floor! LA band Warpaint sound the drums on their rhythmically driven third LP by infusing their typically broody post-punk with more hypnotic dub and funk grooves. The battle-ready four-piece charged the KEXP live room to perform their first single, "New Song", and three other…
For the past decade, The Coathangers have been scrapping their way out of Atlanta's indie punk scene and pull no punches on Nosebleed Weekend, their fifth release, and fourth on Seattle label Suicide Squeeze. Live in-studio, the heavy hitting trio, who originally formed as a joke, have serious fun …
Formed after the disastrous 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Port-au-Prince band Lakou Misik combines the diverse talents of elder and younger musicians and of modern and traditional styles into a unified message of hope, strength, and pride for listeners at home and beyond. The 9-member multigenerational…
It was one of the most highly-anticipated sessions of our Musicfest NW broadcast: Scottish electropop group CHVRCHES had been blowing up the music blogs for months, yet their debut album, The Bones of What You Believe hadn't hit stores at the time. From the packed audience of the Doug Fir Lounge t…
Montreal-based band Loon is Tessa Dawn K, Gregory Burton, Alexander Thibault, Tamara Sandor and Alex Nicol. They played a lovely set of ethereal, down-tempo dream pop, with Tessa’s delicate, crystalline vocals shining through, reminiscent at times of Kate Bush and Lauren Mayberry of CHVRCHES. Their…
There's a reason Seattle's Nail Polish called their most recent release Authentic Living. The trio's rapid-fire punk pulls no punches when it comes to documenting the struggle for finding authenticity in an ever-evolving Emerald City. Joining DJ Sharlese on Audioasis, the band cuts straight to the…
Join KEXP for the 26th Annual Expansions MLK Unity Party and Live Broadcast on Sunday, January 18th! The party will kick off with DJ Supreme La Rock for a Live Broadcast of Sunday Soul, and will continue through Expansions and Beyond with DJs Riz, Brit Hansen, Kid Hops, Sharlese and Alex Ruder. It…
The sheer volume of great pop music coming out of the UK can be overwhelming, and that’s only what makes it Stateside. Imagine actually living there, surrounded on all sides by unending legacy and talent. That’s exactly the type of pressure cooker from which London based pop artist Oscar has emerge…
It's a holiday week, so for new releases, we get a cornucopia of reissues, remixes, retrospectives, and more. Husband-and-wife duo Shovels & Rope share a surprise covers album that KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes features appearances "ranging from Shakey Graves and JD McPherson to Lucius an…
Even if you don’t know Mac McCaughan, you still know Mac McCaughan. Whether fronting indie-rock A-list bands like Superchunk and Portastatic, or running the wildly influential Merge records (home of recent KEXP guests Destroyer and Telekinesis), the veteran musician has had an omnipresent effect on…
Hailing from Brooklyn, NY, but represented by Seattle's own Sub Pop Records, Obits came by the KEXP studios for a live — part tribal, part rock — set to celebrate the release of their new album, Bed & Bugs. Lead singer Rick Froberg mixed his Jack White-style singing voice with a penchant for sc…