At around 3 o'clock, I made my way to the fairly full audience of the Bigfoot stage to catch Cole Smith's (of Beach Fossils) project DIIV. Little did I know I was in for one of the more sun drunk performances I would see - and I mean that in the best and most innocent way. At one point guitarist An…
Can you believe it's been over a year since our last David Sylvian post? My, how time flies. Back in 2012, we looked at his 1986 album, Gone to Earth, so it seems only fitting to move forward in time by another year and see how KCMU reacted to its followup, 1987's Secrets of the Beehive, his last s…
Who would be in your dream band? If you could put together some of your favorite musicians into a fantasy project, you might very well have come up with Divine Fits. Britt Daniel of Spoon and Dan Boeckner of Handsome Furs and Wolf Parade have teamed up up with powerhouse drummer Sam Brown of New Bo…
Today on the Afternoon Show, Kevin Cole will be debuting a new 78 rpm single by The Head and the Heart. Recorded using all vintage analog gear by Seattle's groove-O-matic, who operate under the premise that "Recordings made from 1953 to 1965 tend to sound better than recordings made before or since…
Perhaps no other artist has brought Eastern music to the West like sitar master Ravi Shankar. His tutelage of George Harrison in the mid-60's kicked off a lifetime of cultural exchange. While rock bands like The Beatles were incorporating Eastern sounds in their music, Shankar himself was composing…
Eddie Bermuda is the alias of Eddie Sumlin, a DJ and producer originally from the Pacific Northwest, with strong roots in the Tacoma area, who currently calls Los Angeles his home base. Known for his smooth DJ sets that explore house, disco, soul, hip-hop, jazz, R&B, and anything fresh in-betwe…
DJ Taye -- the alias of Chicago native Dante Sanders -- is a member of the revered Teklife crew, joining the influential collective of juke/footwork artists in 2010 at the age of 16. His head-spinning beats, booming bass, and frantically cut-up samples proudly exemplify Teklife's genre-defining sou…
We’re back for our second and final day at the Halle de la Courouze for another day of filming bands during the 39th annual Trans Musicales Festival in Rennes, France. It’s another cold day here, but it turned out to be bright at sunny this morning, so we decided to take advantage of the light and …
KEXP celebrates Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, spotlighting artists and stories from our community and beyond.
Sleigh Bells have changed. I still remember the afternoon that my friend introduced me. "It's like a pep rally for gladiators", she said, laughing, pointing me to the self-titled EP, "their cover looks like Jimmy Buffett but their Myspace says they like Korn". It was a reasonable introduction, effo…
It’s time again for Friday on My Mind. Our weekly blog post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News. So there is this band that is going to be stopping by my show next Tuesday. Maybe you’ve heard of them - Pixies? Yeah. T…
UK quartet Savages share a new single from their highly-anticipated sophomore release, Adore Life, out January 22nd via Matador. The album was recorded in London with producer Johnny Hostile and engineer Richard Woodcraft, and mixed in Copenhagen with Trentemøller. The video for the track "The Ans…
If the city of Seattle created a position for a house band, The Cave Singers would immediately top the shortlist. Across their eight-year run, Peter Quirk, Derek Fudesco, and Marty Lund (along with sometimes-member Morgan Henderson) have steadily become one of the city's more reliable bands across …
J-Nasty is the alias of Seattle's Janice Ibarra, an emerging DJ and co-founder of the Women.Weed.Wifi collective/movement, who also finds time to teach yoga, run the online thrift shop Seamlessly Supernatural, and help out at Moksha, an art gallery and clothing boutique in the U-District. A multi-f…
It's been five years since she's toured the States, but who knows how long it's been since she's been to Seattle? That all changes in 2017 as PJ Harvey embarks on a North American tour in support of The Hope Six Demolition Project. A press release states she'll be joined by an impressive 10-piece …
This Friday, Radiohead are releasing OKNOTOK, a deluxe reissue of their iconic 1997 album OK Computer in honor of its 20th anniversary. The album includes a remastered version of the original album, eight B-sides, a hardcover book, and three previously unreleased tracks: "I Promise," "Lift," and "M…
The Greatest is gone. More than just a boxing legend, Muhammad Ali was a cultural icon and humanitarian above nearly all else. He passed away on Friday after a long battle with Parkinson’s. Ali didn't just fight inside the boxing ring. Outside of it, he stood up for those who couldn't or wouldn't, …
The guys of indie band The Lonely Forest represent much of what it is to be born-and-bred Pacific Northwest musicians. The four, from Anacortes, WA, were launched into the local music scene in 2006 when they won EMP's Sound Off! competition. This under 21 battle of the bands has been the catalyst f…
