San Francisco's Mikey Maramag has a gift for painting landscapes. As Blackbird Blackbird, Maramag has made our heads spin with dense texturing and ear-worm hooks that take you far away to a place untainted by the imperfections of daily life. Always alternating between driving pop accessibility and …
2014 is off to a great start for new music! Highlights include the long-awaited sophomore release from LA band Warpaint. KEXP Music Director, Don Yates, declares it a "more subtle and minimalist take on the band’s brooding dream-pop, featuring a dark, atmospheric sound with swirling guitars and key…
Take one DJ, one producer and one MC, mix with an eclectic lineup of guests and wrap it in a post-apocalyptic narrative, and you get one of the most unique groups to come about in the past decade, In the year 2000, Kid Koala, Dan The Automator and Del The Funky Homosapien joined forces as Deltron 3…
In Portland, it takes a village. Or nearly that, at least, to bring to life the songs of Kyle Morton. Over three albums and a handful of EPs, the 11-member group Typhoon build gorgeously orchestrated folk pop around Morton's uniquely intimate and personal lyrics. Morton, who nearly died of Lyme Dis…
It didn't take long for the third Saturday in April to become the highlight of every music lover's spring, and this year's Record Store Day lineup is sure to be another memorable year for vinyl's national holiday. On April 20th, music fans everywhere will wake up early and flock to their favorite l…
I figured it might be nice to have a post featuring a band that needed no introduction for a change, so today I bring you In My Tribe, the album that properly launched 10,000 Maniacs into the spotlight thirty years ago (give or take a couple months), where they remained for several years until Nata…
tUnE-yArDs are returning next week with a new album, I can feel you creep into my private life, and today we've received the third single from the album, "Heart Attack." The fun, upbeat track shows the new, more accessible direction the band is taking. This will be the first album where the band, p…
Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by John Richards, host of The Morning Show on KEXP, is "Take Me to Your Leader (feat. Death Valley Girls)" by Acid Tongue, from the 2021 album Arboretum on Freakout Records. .
There are lots of reasons for two bands to tour with each other. For example, they might have a similar fanbase. Or, they might have a similar sound, and can cater to a single collaborative night of music fairly easily. Or, in the case of Los Angeles pairing Gardens & Villa and De Lux, they mig…
The problem with cool stuff is there's always a process by which it becomes uncool. A handful of true artists perfect a craft and then an uncanny number of hackneyed copycats sample bits and pieces out of context and bastardize the whole thing to no end. This is maybe no better exemplified than wit…
Phantogram have dropped the cinematic new video for the song "Funeral Pyre," off of last year's Three. Directed by Gianluca Minucci, the video takes place in a car slowly cruising through Los Angeles, documenting all the things seen out of the passenger window. Minucci describes the video as, "a ph…
Julie Byrne makes a face when she doesn't have to sing, one that expresses a sheer contentment with what's going on around her. She leaned back and made this face - which is featured on the cover her sublime sophomore outing, Not Even Happiness - at least six times during her Sunday afternoon set o…
It's no surprise that Radiohead's Saturday show at Key Arena is sold out; the band have amassed a rabid fan base since forming in Abingdon, Oxfordshire back in 1985. And, it's no surprise that this roundup of Radiohead covers goes on and on; many of our favorite artists cite Radiohead as one of the…
The gaudy, sterile synths, the contrapuntal guitar and bass, the party ready drums, and especially the high-ranging, free-wielding, devil-may-care vocals - if you were there in 2005 when Clap Your Hands Say Yeah rose to indie-stardom with their self-titled, self-released debut, you remember it all.…
Good music may be one of the few things Iceland and Austin, Texas, have in common. Kaleo is a perfect example of that bond. The Austin-based Icelandic four-piece dance around their influences while delivering songs with such diverse sound you wonder if their songs all come from the same band. But u…
Leeds band Eagulls know how to incorporate punk fuzz and poppy hooks into a hard-hitting blend of speedy percussion, chainsaw reverb, and, well, demonic possession. Notorious for their thoughts on the so-called 'beach-bands' out right now, Eagulls aren't looking to make any long-time friends with a…
After a while, it's easy for a British indie pop band to fall into sense of safety and sameness, but Bombay Bicycle Club stay true to their name with their most adventurous and exotic album to date. The newly released So Long, See You Tomorrow channels singer and principle songwriter Jack Steadman'…
