Although they're mostly critical darlings in the United States, Elbow have been headlining stadiums and festivals in their native UK for a few years now, so it's no surprise that their Sunday evening set on the main stage at Sasquatch was a brilliant display of showmanship. Their latest album, Marc…
After the band finished ripping through a particularly danceable rendition of "Spirit" off their new record Singles, Future Islands frontman Sam Herring looked down at his sweat soaked shirt and pants. After a failed attempt to wring a piece of it out, he just laughed along with the rest of the cro…
Weighing Barboza's Tuesday night festivities by pictures alone would be a crime. What you don't see behind camera - in view of the focused eyes of Russell Whyte and Reed Juenger - is a bloody marvelous party. There's little-to-no room to move or breathe, dozens of couples or just-mets dancing toget…
As you can expect, Saturday night's Mad Decent Presents Showcase during Decibel Festival was one of the biggest parties thrown all weekend. The Philadelphia via LA label headed by Diplo (smash hit dub/hip-hop producer, founding member of Major Lazer, and unofficial god of Instagram twerking) has be…
Sometimes it’s the simplest words that stop you cold. Soft-spoken Tuareg artist Omara ‘Bombino’ Moctar proved this to me on a stiflingly hot summer evening at the 2012 Pickathon Festival backstage. I was talking to him for their post-performance video interviews, aided by French-Canadian guitarist…
In the late 90's, few bands were like Firewater. The NYC band was mixing Balkan folk with contemporary post-punk for sound that would eventually inspire others like Gogol Bordello, Balkan Beat Box, Devotchka and even Beirut. Led by former Cop Shoot Cop frontman Tod A, Firewater became musical world…
Beck has shared a new (but not first) cover of The Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting For The Man," off The Velvet Underground and Nico. The song is for Spotify's "Music Happens Here" series, which has previously included songs from Local Natives, Twin Peaks, and Allen Stone. Beck previously recorde…
Throngs of people filled Memorial Stadium during Bumbershoot to watch Seattle's favorite son headline night two of his hometown festival. The excitement in the audience was palpable, buzzing with anticipation, bursting into a deafening roar at any small hint that the show might be starting—a flash…
On the last day of KEXP's broadcast from Upstream, local four-piece Versing filled Little London Plane to the brim with post-punk perfection. Whether channeling the layered guitars of Built to Spill or the raw emotionalism of Modest Mouse, there was also something quintessentially Northwest about t…
Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival was in a time of fairly major transition in 2015, as it entered its 44th year. Many long time fans of the festival wondered how the beloved event would change under the new management of AEG, which penned a five year deal with the nonprofit OneReel after the orga…
This past Thursday at the Sunset Tavern over in Ballard was blessed to be hosting an intimate showing of some of the most face melting and forward thinking UK indie rock that’s around today. You might think that’s a big statement - and it is. The band, you ask? None other than Drenge. And if you mi…
Mindie Lind has a timeless voice. She has a silky, sultry, smokey sound that transports you to the place of dark night clubs, cigarette smoke and charm. She also fronts the new Seattle band Inly. KEXP caught up with Mindie to see what was up with the new project, what singers inspire her and how Ca…
During our CMJ broadcast last month, KEXP was excited to host a performance from New York's own HAERTS, a band clearly on the brink of something big. With just a couple of singles and one EP to their charmingly-misspelled name, we felt fortunate to share some of their unreleased tracks with the wor…
Just like that, another year of Bumbershoot festivities has come to a close. Quite similar to Saturday and Sunday, Monday was packed to the gills with a nearly endless list of acts worth your time and attention. We braved the impossible for the third day in a row and tried to catch them all. Find p…
Once again, Capitol Hill Block Party has come to a close. In the dark of the night, the cleaning crew will hit the devastated block on Pine between 12th and Broadway and by the morning, you won’t even know there was a festival there at all. But for those of us lucky enough to make it out to Sunday’…
When Darto's Nick Merz was 21 years old, he found himself crossing a bridge. Not a metaphorical bridge, but a literal one. As he walked with his friend, the man gave him some sobering criticism.
Welcome to Review Revue, where every Thursday I dig through the KEXP stacks to share DJ reviews and comments written on the covers of LPs (and occasionally CDs) in the '80s and '90s, when the station was called KCMU, the DJs were volunteers, and people shared their opinions on little white labels i…
Greta Morgan went into an “intense headspace” for her latest album as Springtime Carnivore, and the result was Midnight Room, her most finessed and melodic set of songs to date. Morgan returns to the KEXP studios for a semi-acoustic session featuring four Midnight Room tracks and a conversation wi…
With three album released in the span of 13 months across 2014-15, there was a lot of musical ground for Wand to cover when they made their KEXP debut in July 2016. But across four songs and countless crushing riffs, the Los Angeles outfit ran through the rapidly-expanding "story of Wand”, …
Last September, ODESZA were slotted for Saturday night of Decibel Festival at Neumos, along with Slow Magic and a headlining set from Gold Panda. Set to open the night's festivities up, the boys were a bit nervous. As our photographer Dave Lichterman recalls from a conversation with Harrison, they …
