Yesterday, we shared a poignant cover of Joey Ramone's “I Got Knocked Down (But I’ll Get Up)” that School of Seven Bells recorded before the passing of Benjamin Curtis to a rare type of Non-Hodgkins Lymphona. Today, we have news that his bandmate Alejandra Deheza is currently in the studios, finis…
In the wake of their 2013 full-length Folly, the first new album from Kitchens of Distinction in 19 years, the UK trio celebrates Record Store Day with the limited-edition 10-inch single "Extravagance," featuring two B-sides culled from the band's KEXP in-studio session last year. I asked Patrick F…
The Flaming Lips pulled off a hilarious April Fool's joke when they released Flaming Side of the Moon as "a companion piece to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon." Now the album does really exist, but it turns out that it was all part of a big stunt by the band and Funny or Die. Watch the band "se…
Where Brooklyn at? No, really. Where is Brooklyn, PA? Because that's where the band Hunters calls home (not the more famous borough of New York City). Nevertheless, the four-piece Hunters incorporates many different influences in their music, from straight up rock and roll to a pinch of metal to a …
The Portland trio Modern Kin seem to be addicts for live performances. After stopping by KEXP for a live in-studio with DJ John Richards, the band set up a streaming concert series – seven shows in twenty-four hours – in Mississippi studios for fans all across the world. “The idea of a live show, i…
Fans of Seattle's indie-pop act Throw Me The Statue were saddened to see the band's hiatus announcement back in October, but the break has proven its value since frontman Scott Reitherman's new project Pillar Point has completed their debut album, due out in early 2014. However, Pillar Point diverg…
Closing out day two of the KEXP broadcast live from KEX Hostel at Iceland Airwaves is dancetastic Icelandic disco band Boogie Trouble. The population may be small, but Iceland leaves no stone unturned when it comes to exploring genres. Tonight’s closing act is a great example. Fronted by sweet-voic…
It’s a long way from Toronto, Ontario, to the Doug Fir lounge in Portland, Oregon, but any travel issues the critically-acclaimed Canadian band Austra had to endure didn’t show at their MusicFest NW performance on KEXP. The band, as usual, was composed, in control, and luminous. Throughout their em…
While Shearwater may have traveled two-thousand miles to be at the Sub Pop Silver Jubilee, the Texans seemed right at home in Seattle. KEXP went backstage at the Jubilee to capture Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg deliver not only his work with Shearwater and Blue Water White Death but a song by a ban…
Close your eyes. Recall that garage with cardboard boxes in the corner, shelves stacked with hammers, duct tape and screwdrivers, and the faint aroma of fresh paint? You’re laying on your back, daydreaming, and you hear rock and roll music playing somewhere. This is the sound of Beach Fossils. The …
Bassist Kim Deal has left the Pixies, the band announced today on their Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pixiesofficial?rf=106226122747445) page. “We are very proud to have worked with her on and off over the last 25 years,” the statement read. “Despite her decision to move on, we will always con…
2013 is going to be a great year for Seattle music, with so many new bands on the verge of blowing up. Seattle trio Dude York stands out among them with a promising 5-song EP released last June. Though band founders Peter Richards and Andrew Hall are such fans of their male moniker as to label thei…
There's history to bands covering Pavement's "Box Elder." When The Wedding Present recorded their interpretation of the track from Pavement's Slay Tracks (1933–1969) EP track back in '89, it caught the ear of renowned BBC DJ John Peel and helped generate buzz for the release abroad. Nearly three de…
Every once in a while, I post an album from a band that's been so minimally documented on the Internet that I feel I'm adding significantly to the body of public knowledge about them with one little blog post. This is dangerous because usually I know next to nothing about these bands. Take Ism, for…
It’s a rare opportunity to see a band as hyped as Whitney at a venue as intimate as the Sunset Tavern. Or as frontman Julien Ehrlich noted with an off-the-cuff affect he deploys for most his on stage thoughts, “This show’s been sold out a long time.” No surprise there. With the June release of thei…
While gale winds canceled some early main stage shows, a different force of nature was met with far warmer reception on the Bigfoot stage. Yo La Tengo is certainly a force of nature in the indie music scene and a walk back through their discography is a long one, as the group have consistently rele…
As Cheryl Waters jokes, it's taken over ten years to get Trevor Powers' band Youth Lagoon in the KEXP studio. Really, the band has only been around since 2010 - it just feels like we've all been waiting that long. We were all happy finally to have wrangled Youth Lagoon come grace us, and the timing…
It's an impressive week for new releases! Beloved Northwest band Sleater-Kinney end their hiatus with the release of No Cities To Love. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes, "The recently reunited trio’s eighth album (and first in 10 years) is a strong return-to-form, with an intense blend of punk, …
Talk about a storied past. The Jayhawks rose from the fertile era of Twin Cities rock that also produced such contemporaries as The Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Soul Asylum and Prince. Though they often get tagged as "country rock revivalists" or "alt-country icons", the band's sound and personnel shif…
