Next on KEXP's broadcast live from KEX Hostel at Iceland Airwaves was a stellar set from Icelandic band Vök. The band was formed just this year to compete in (and then win) the Icelandic Music Experiments, a competition focusing on helping young and emerging bands advance their careers, much like S…
For the final night of Decibel Festival 2013, Sunday September 29, I headed to the Crocodile for the Timetable Records showcase, featuring Nosaj Thing, with Lorn, Teebs, and D Tiberio. Aside from Nosaj Thing—a veteran of Decibel Festival I'd seen before — I was unfamiliar with the lineup and unsure…
Thursday night’s Decibel Festival awesomeness continued at Neumos with the Psychotropic showcase, featuring Neon Indian, Teen Daze, Big Black Delta, and Seattle’s own Vox Mod. The bill was brave – all of these bands come from radically different places in the musical spectrum – but eclecticism has …
Though he'd been playing a variety instruments and styles for years, Oakland music Luis Vasquez never intended his current project, The Soft Moon, to catch on. A true bedroom project, The Soft Moon was originally meant to be a device of self-exploration, a spelunking of the depths, as it were, of V…
We're always excited to feature Oklahoma singer-songwriter, vintage rock and roller JD McPherson any time he comes to town. Not only was he one of the highlights of our SXSW broadcast, but he and his smoking-hot band tore up the KEXP studio this past summer. Right now, JD is celebrating the holiday…
It's easy to lose context with how massive grunge was in the early '90s. Bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Nirvana are so ubiquitous with the region at this point that it's hard to imagine what the Northwest was like before they came barreling through with heavy punk riffs with lots and lots o…
The line-up for the 2016 Sasquatch! Music Festival was just announced, and it looks like it's going to be an another amazing Memorial Day weekend! Head out to The Gorge Amphitheater the weekend of Friday, May 27th through Monday, May 30th, and you'll see performances from:
Last Tuesday night, Benjamin Verdoes graced the Triple Door stage for the vinyl release show of his solo project, The Evil Eye. It was an evening of gratitude, love, and meaningful music.
Kurt Vile is commemorating his upcoming album by commissioning a mural in his hometown of Philadelphia. Violators guitarist Jesse Trbovich posted a photo of Steve Powers' mural on Facebook yesterday and confirmed that Wakin' on a Pretty Daze is, in fact, the title of the record. When asked if Vile …
The legendary MC was graciousness enough to talk through the mindset the group found themselves in while creating this masterwork. From drawing inspiration from his time working in radio and their aspirations to creating the hip-hop equivalent of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On?, the incredible rhyme…
The Michigan outfit Heaters took the “space rock” tags that were put on the band after their debut to heart, naming their sophomore outing, Baptistina, after the asteroid that was once presumed to have ended the dinosaur. Doubling down on the heavier, more gauzy elements of their music for their s…
Yoni & Geti's Testarossa project is one of the most refreshing albums of the year, full stop. It brings two repeat collaborators together for a project that plays into each of their strengths with twice the strength and precision of any previous joint efforts by a mile. Furthermore, it's a larg…
While the Saturday lineup of Capitol Hill Block Party leaned heavily on Seattle's DIY punk and electronic strengths, Sunday was where got to see the city's pop strengths shine through. And truly, our fair city is not lacking in this department. On the Vera stage, Sassyblack put her incredible voice…
Death Cab for Cutie is a band that embodies change. From the light-hearted melancholy of "Photobooth" to the heavy-handed post-marital blows of "Cath...", Death Cab have shown us hundreds of ways in which circumstances shift and we find ourselves to be different people when the light changes. We mi…
Back in 1989, The Replacements covered the song "Another Girl Another Planet," originally by late '70s UK power-punk band The Only Ones, and it never would've happened if not for their former manager Peter Jesperson, who put the song on a mix tape for the tour van. Jesperson will be familiar to KEX…
If there is one singular takeaway from 25 25, it's this: Factory Floor are done introducing themselves. A lot of young bands feel immense pressure coming into their first full-length record, and there's no doubt that the duo of Gabe Gurnsey and Nik Colk Void (then also joined by Dominic Butler) fel…
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 great to see all the celebration of various independent radio stations around the country this week. Part of what makes this series so fun for me is digging through the scribblings of college radio DJs who were on the air around when I was discovering some of my favorite music through col…
What was it like to discover The Replacements and surprise them with a record deal? Or hear John Peel talk about your label? Or hear the first Ramones album before 99.9% of the world? One guy, Twin/Tone Records co-founder Peter Jesperson can, and does, answer all those questions posited by KEXP pro…
