Brooklyn label 100% Electronica has, in its short existence, become a great hub for low profile electronic music in New York. Their releases span the electronic spectrum, riding every wave (chill, vapor, etc.) but also diving deeper into the subterranean bass houses that pepper the ground floor of …
Before most of the festival’s attendees have even arrived at Seattle Center, KEXP’s Bumbershoot was already underway. Setting a high bar right from the get-go, gospel legends Blind Boys of Alabama opened the festival with an intimate set at KEXP's Secret Stage. From their humble beginnings nearly 8…
Portland band Radiation City have come a long way since their cassette-exclusive underground releases, tapes that quickly earned praise for their vintage stylings, pleasant dream-pop explosions over 60's harmonies and sways, synth parts that sound like what people thought 1984 would sound like befo…
A massive lighting rig. Pulsating four-on-the-floor beats. A constant, insistent bass presence in every song. Choruses that, in the moment, seem like they can actually propel the audience to the heights the singer is claming she'll go to. This is not Chvrches, the Glasgow basement project that emer…
Red Bull Sound Select are at it again: the caffeine-packed beverage people throw concerts around the world, curated by local taste-makers (KEXP has curated a few of these shows ourselves). This time around, legendary label Sub Pop Records have picked the bill, and on Wednesday, October 7th, you can…
I have to remind myself every single year, every time I look at the lineup, every time I hit a single event and walk into work dog tired the next day - Seattle is so lucky to play home to the visionaries that put on Decibel Festival year after year. There are so many electronic music festivals in t…
Even though Little Dragon were billed before the festival-standard massive DJ on the Bigfoot Stage on Friday night, they might have secretly been the night's best dance party. The common thread between each of the songs in the Swedish band's set was their innate danceability. Moving from elastic fu…
For every country music star who seems to pop out of nowhere with a new mega-hit single, too many other talented artists struggle to reach even half the audiences they deserve. It's a sad fact for musicians of all genres, but the ethics of "hard work for little pay" seem particularly true for count…
18 year old Swedish rapper Yung Lean (Jonatan Håstad) may be one of the most polarizing, confusing faces on the independent hip-hop scene of the last few years. Pitchfork hates him. Fader loves him. The rest of us find ourselves somewhere in between, trying to balance all of the bizarre parts of th…
Hey, it's another Shimmy-Disc release! Apparently I have this unconscious attraction to their catalog. When People Were Shorter and Lived Near the Water is one of those bands whose name I've noticed (how could you not?) and admired for decades, but I don't believe I've ever heard them until just no…
There is no group of people more passionate at festivals than Australians. Ineffably, Aussie bands and fans always give notable performances and serve as fervent audience members, which is why Cloud Control felt like they were playing the steps of the Sydney Opera House instead of the much-smaller …
What is Iron and Wine anyway? A man? A band? A concept? A sound? For the past decade, Sam Beam has used his stage name to mean all of those things. The Southeastern raised songwriter first caught people's attention in the Northwest, actually, through a demo featured in Yeti Magazine and followed by…
Icelandic singer-songwriter Snorri Helgason is known for his gentle voice and seductive ballads, but when he returned to play live on KEXP during Iceland Airwaves this year, he went big and bold. Previously, we've featured Snorri in Iceland and even in Seattle, but for his set live at KEX hostel la…
Electronic music’s second massive wave of popularity is in full swing. For the first time since disco, Top 40 music is far more influenced by modern dance trends than traditional R&B or rock elements. By and large, the highest paid DJs do better than the highest paid rappers. After being critic…
You'd be mistaken to think that the artists at Pickathon are all a bunch of wizened fingerpickers. One of the highlights of the Portland-area festival's carefully curated lineup is the pairing of musicians new and old. On stage, you'll hear veteran songwriters with more stories to tell than songs t…
A couple times a year, Starbucks, STG, and KEXP team up to put on the Little Big Show - a little show with a big impact - where 100% of the proceeds go towards helping the arts stay alive for young people. This evening's sold out show raised over $14,000 for The Vera Project, the non-profit all age…
As if the music was reflecting off the bicycles, Gliss' afternoon set at during our SXSW broadcast was a shimmering cooldown after Jovanotti threw a vibrant Italian party in Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop. As the group ran through a set of tunes from their latest LP, this year's Langsome Dans, frontwoma…
At 60 years old, Robyn Hitchcock has experienced a longevity that would be the cause for many musicians' envy. He began his career as a member of several small, local London bands until 1976 when he founded the psychedelic folk rock group The Soft Boys. In 1981 (about a year after The Soft Boys bro…
"It's not a perfect record, but then you wouldn't want it to be" - The Quietus' Emily Mackay hits the nail right on the head in her review of Palma Violets' debut album 180: the London quartet's most endearing quality isn't their pop-sensible hooks, psychedelically-tinged guitar hooks, or their sha…
What's old is new in Seattle. It has been that way for a while, since before even the grizzled-beyond-their-youth folkies made country rock a "thing" in Ballard during the last half-decade. But now, in hepper neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, organ is the new banjo as Western psychedelia of the late…
