FFS, the eponymous debut album from the collaboration project between Franz Ferdinand and Sparks, feels a bit like a beautiful car crash in slow motion. I say slow motion because the two objects that make up the collision seen here have been careening towards each other since the good old days of 2…
Some gigs feel like a secret you have all to yourself. The first time Savages played in Seattle, the band had released one song and the room was half full. Half a year later, they sold out Neumos months in advance of the date. The first time HAIM played Seattle, their Neumos date sold out a week be…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unrealeased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Mi…
When I’ve seen Nils Frahm in the past, it’s been during Decibel Festival, an annual electronic music and visuals festival in Seattle which KEXP covers every year. Because of the event’s interest in creative collaborations, Frahm has been given ample attention to look and sound his best, often paire…
Warhol would've been proud. Although the wigged genius fostered relative grumps like the Velvet Underground as his house band, his own art was often considered just this side, if not over the line, of parody. Warhol was both revered and despised for presenting such common items as soup cans or doll…
Al Doyle is a wunderkind. Whether he's hopping between three or four different instrument setups at a Hot Chip show, turning the guitar part on "Losing My Edge" into a rock 'n' roll masterpiece at LCD Soundsystem's last show, or having the time of his life jamming out with fellow Hot Chip member Fe…
"You got your peanut butter on my chocolate?" No, we got your chocolate on Thurston Moore! Or maybe it was the other way around! Either way, a simple chocolate bar wrapper was the inspiration for a brand new song, written on the spot, by Thurston and his new project Chelsea Light Moving. No doubt …
With so many indie rock legends on one stage, you wouldn't be faulted for being a little overwhelmed during Filthy Friends' set at the Mural Stage during Day One of the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival. The band boasts -- deep breath -- Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, The F…
A year after his debut album release, it is no doubt that Benjamin Booker is a rockstar. He's played the festival main stages, toured across the country, and even guitar dueled with Jack White. It's deserved notoriety for a man who makes such a unique blend of punk, rock, blues and folk. And even w…
“Everyone is dressed up, everyone to the nines”, Mike Kinsella whispers on the album’s closing track, “Someone must have found love or someone must have died”. That sentence - perhaps better than any other on the record - embodies the perfect mixture of awareness and distance that has haunted Ameri…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Aft…
Through years of hard work and countless projects, producer Kurt Feldman has made a name for himself as one of the greatest auteurs of the 80s who was also born in the 80s. Earlier this year, Feldman brought this knack for timeless synth pop to Kristin Welchez for her debut as Kristin Kontrol. Else…
Don't be fooled by the inflatable tube dancer guy on the front cover – behind that hapless smile is a maniacal, beastly force waiting to be unleashed. Chaz Bundick continues to prove himself as one of the most capable, surprising, and provocative producers on the scene today. Last year, he dropped …
If there has been a moment where the now-common phenomena of massive reunion tours jumped the shark, it was in January, when Outkast announced that they'd be getting back together for the express purpose of playing their storied catalog at 40 festivals. More so than Pavement, My Bloody Valentine, o…
It's been five years since Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have toured America, and in the unique and never-predictable story of Nick Cave, five years is a long time. After the release of 2008's Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, Nick has authored the screenplay for a major motion picture, published his second nove…
Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by DJs Miss Ashley, Kevin Sur, Tory, and Isabel Khalili, is "I'm From Jerusalem" by Riad Awwad, Hanan Awwad, and Mahmoud Darwish, from the 2023 (reissue) album The Intifada 1987 on Majazz Project.
Johnny Jewel makes music that calls upon the venue of cinema so regularly, that when he actually creates something meant to go along with film, it almost seems more meta than the imaginary films he's themed in other projects. Likewise, the whole of the Italians Do It Better catalog exists in this s…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unrealeased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Mo…
Barboza, the intimate venue underneath Neumos, feels cut off from the rest of the world, with no sight or sound of the rest of the world. In some ways, it's the perfect venue for a band like Hælos, whose particular brand of UK club R&B feels wholly detached from the rest of the world, cinematic…
Listening to In A Dream, the new LP from DFA powerhouse The Juan MacLean, we're reminded that it's been a long five years since John MacLean dropped his last proper record, The Future Will Come, back in 2009. That fantastic dance record was laden with Human League-esque back and forth narration bet…
