The Drums played a packed Neumos on July 17th, with frontman Jonny Pierce giving a spirited rendition of tracks from across The Drums discography. The Seattle show was the kickoff to an extensive tour for the band, which goes on until the end of the year, and includes a lengthy stint in Europe. A h…
Broken Social Scene released their first album in seven years, Hug Of Thunder, a couple of weeks ago and now they've shared a video for the track "Vanity Pail Kids." BSS's Kevin Drew directed the rather strange video, which seems to be a commentary on the music industry via a toilet who's trying to…
Bruce Springsteen is playing tonight, right next door to KEXP's New Home at Key Arena. He'll be revisiting his 1980 album The River, which was just re-released as a 35th anniversary box set at the end of last year. If you can't get tickets, watching videos on YouTube could be the next best thing. T…
Mavis Staples releases another teaser off of her February 19th album, Livin' on a High Note, the Nick Cave written "Jesus Lay Down Beside Me" which is available below. The album, produced by M. Ward, features songs written by a variety of artists specifically for the 76-year-old R&B titan-esse,…
It's been four years since we last had a full-length from Philly-based dynamo Santigold, but the eclectic artist announced her third album, 99¢, will be out in early 2016. Check out the first single "Can’t Get Enough Of Myself" below, via Zane Lowe's Beats 1. In an interview with Lowe, Santigold e…
No, we haven't time-warped to twenty years ago: on this holiday week, the reissues and anniversary editions dominate the new release list. One of the highlights is the reissue of Flake Music's 1997 debut (and sole release) When You Land Here, It’s Time to Return. Flake Music was an early incarnatio…
Toronto-based trio The Rural Alberta Advantage burst onto the scene back in 2006, racking up countless awards and accolades with each release: two Juno Award Nominations (Best New Group, Video of the Year), a long list nomination for the Polaris Music Prize, and rave reviews across the board. KEXP …
Last year Frankie Rose, formerly of the dream pop bands Vivian Girls/Crystal Stilts/Dum Dum Girls, stepped into her own solo career and released her breezy debut album, Interstellar. This September she will follow it up with Herein Wild and today we have the first single to sink our teeth into. "S…
Farewell, Kevin Ayers. The co-founder of the pastoral prog-rock group The Soft Machine in the late 60s and celebrated solo artist died two days ago in his sleep. Ayers had came out of a 15-year reclusive existence in France in 2007 to release The Unfairground, on which he collaborated with member…
When Seattle prog-rock purveyors Merso released last year's Red World, they sought to examine what it's like to become a monster, drawing heavily from Alan Moore's iconic run of the Swamp Thing comics. Monsters can be a hard thing to define. They're not always the mythic beasts we see in literature…
Afternoon Show host Kevin Cole lays down fifteen of his current faves including new music from The Heavenly States, EZTV, The Space Merchants, Ezra Furman, and OCnotes. Perfect soundtrack for driving the backstreets or interstellar escapades. 1. The Cairo Gang - Be What You Are 2. EZTV - Bury Yo…
It's been a long time coming, but British post-industrial trio Factory Floor have finally made it out to the US west coast. The band dropped their self-titled debut LP last year on DFA after releasing one-off singles and remixes in the current lineup for the better part of four years. Over the year…
Latin-infused Americana band Calexico and folk singer-songwriter Sam Beam, better known as Iron & Wine, are gearing up to release their debut collaborative full-length, Years to Burn. The record comes 14 years after they released the EP In the Reins and is due for release on June 14 via Sub Pop…
Details and a FAQ to the KEXP.ORG redesign.
Baltimore synth-pop group Future Islands found a new home on 4AD for their fourth LP, Singles. Though their prior years at Thrill Jockey have given us some incredible music over the years, whoever it is over at 4AD that got the wonderful task of marketing this band and this record for a Future Isla…
It's that time of year again: MoPOP’s Sound Off! has been pitting local bands against each other for 16 years now. The all-ages "battle of the bands" has introduced us to acts like The Lonely Forest, Naked Giants, Manatee Commune, and more. Every Friday night this month, a new band will progress to…
This morning, Pickathon announced its 2016 lineup, and it's a doozy! Wilco's Jeff Tweedy headlines along with Yo La Tengo, Beach House, and Ty Segall & The Muggers, plus so many other KEXP favorites - like Black Mountain, Thee Oh Sees, Dan Deacon, Ibeyi, Fruit Bats, My Bubba, Hurray for the Rif…
Happy 2015! As always at the beginning of a new year there's been a lot of looking back at the year that just passed, but in this series I tend to cast my glance a bit farther back. So let's take a trip to 1984, and a little straight edge hardcore band from Boston called D.Y.S. I'm actually pretty …
It's nice to pick up a relatively obscure album from the KEXP stacks and discover that it's found a bit of new life in this century. It's not exactly a mysterious discovery along the lines of Light in the Attic's release of L'amour (though I will be looking for a vintage copy of that gem next time …
