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, …
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 …
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…
Last month, Street Sounds went old school, featuring veterans of hip-hop Mobb Deep, who've been keeping it real since the early 90's, when New York MC's Havoc and Prodigy first made a name for themselves depicting hardcore street life and became key players in the East Coast rivalry with West Coast…
Last night Nirvana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with enthusiasm and fanfare fit for one of the most influential bands of our time. With the 20th anniversary of frontman Kurt Cobain's death barely behind us, there was the question of who would fill in for him at the induction ce…
Longtime KEXP-friend Bob Mould has announced his next album, Beauty & Ruin, is slated for a June 3rd release on Merge Records. He'll continue to be backed by bassist Jason Narducy (Split Single, Verbow) and drummer Jon Wurster (Superchunk, Mountain Goats), who pretty much killed it on Mould's …
Seattle continues to prove how rich a music scene it really has. Sam Anderson, who plays in the popular Hey Marseilles, is continuing the trend of band members in well-established groups putting out solo projects that blow people’s minds. Before him just a few months ago, Benjamin Verdoes of Iska D…
"So, what did y'all motherfuckers do to get in here? What makes you VIP? Is this like one of those fucked-up... when the celebrities go play the show at the Eastern European child dictator's party?" So asked Travis Morrison, mischievous frontman for the DC post-punk veterans The Dismemberment Plan,…
To say Ian Moore has had a tumultuous career in music is an understatement. He was so popular of a blues guitarist early in his career that once screaming tipped his tour van over, leaving him and his band trapped for hours. He studied musicology in college, once fled to a cave near Krause Springs …
Steamier than a geothermal pool, My bubba write songs that will warm your heart (and other parts) on a cold winter's day. The Icelandic/Swedish folk duo, formerly known as My bubba & Mi, shared their sultry songs for the second year in a row at KEX Hostel in Reykjavik during Iceland Airwaves, t…
Considering all of the terrific live sessions Cheryl Waters is witness to in the KEXP live room, it's rare she'd be knocked speechless after a first song. But clearly London Grammar has learned from the best. Through the moody atmospherics of guitarist Dan Rothman and keyboardist Dot Major and the …
Well, that was a sure way to wake up the neighborhood! Kicking off KEXP's 2013 CMJ broadcast was New York's own Bear Ceuse, a band whose pounding drums, searing guitars, and loud, belted vocals definitely woke up the group of caffeinated New Yorkers who gathered at Judson Memorial Church for their …
It’s great to see that excellent, keenly questioning, perennially rebellious, truly inspiring, and high quality reading/viewing/listening materials keep being published and produced in this extremely DIY economy. Forged in the fires of pre-economic collapse in 2007, Oakland, CA-based PM Press is a …
It's hard to believe that That's It!, the new album by Preservation Hall Jazz Band, is their first record of all new material, not just because they've had a prolific 50 year history already, but also because the songs fit so seamlessly into the rest of the New Orleans traditionalists' catalog. Ban…
On any given weekend in Seattle, there are a million amazing shows to see - from jazz sets at coffee shops and orchestras at theaters, to a grunge shows in DIY spaces and major touring acts at any of our larger venues. Maybe this weekend you want to try something new; maybe you heard one song by th…
As Kaoru Ishibashi himself admits, a year ago no one knew who he was. Now, with his musical project Kishi Bashi, he's selling out shows with his intricate and ecstatic performances. Inspired by as much by free jazz as bluegrass, hip-hop, and classical music, Kishi Bashi's baroque indie pop easily d…
Dee Dee, songwriter and main force behind the Dum Dum Girls, stopped by the KEXP studio to chat with Stevie Zoom and perform alone with just her heavy-tremolo-ed guitar. Her Girls-less performance is a throwback to the early 2008 to 2010 years, which saw Dee Dee's first CDR release on her own label…
KEXP seems to get gayer every year, and this year's Big Gay Podcast, featuring twenty tracks spanning more than 40 years, is no exception. With everything from vintage queer country to an electronic interpretation of a black metal classic, El Toro's 2014 roundup of songs by, for, and about the LGB…
