Fresh off the release of his debut album Boy, Melbourne's Harvey Sutherland shares a groovy guest DJ mix for Midnight In A Perfect World that taps into his distinctive "neurotic funk" sound.
Few bands worked Sasquatch's main stage better than Chicano Batman. The L.A. four-piece played a lively set on Sunday afternoon, infusing latin rock with elements of psychedelia, funk, and soul in an hour-long performance.
Los Angeles' Adrian Younge is a self-taught musician and highly sought-after analogue soul/funk/R&B/hip-hop producer. Bursting onto the music scene with his soundtrack to the 2009 blaxploitation parody/homage flick Black Dynamite, Younge has emerged as a distinctive artist and recording enginee…
L.A. artist Miguel shares his fourth full-length, an album KEXP Music Director Don Yates declares "a potent set of psych-tinged R&B and funk featuring a hazy, groove-driven sound with echoing psych-rock guitars, spacey keyboards, and blunted beats accompanying his soulful vocals and lyrics of t…
First band on air for the 2013 Iceland Airwaves broadcast, live from KEX Hostel, is the 14-man Samúel Jón Samúelsson Big Band. First formed in early 2000 for a short series of performances in their native Iceland, the band was reformed in 2007 and released their first studio album Fynkur. In addit…
“In order to be big, we need a lot of players.” Jungle Fire guitarist bassist Joseph Reina lays it out pretty clear: to be able to create muscular afro funk workouts, the Los Angeles outfit need at least ten musicians. But even with a guitarist missing, the nonet sound bold and kinetic when they j…
Fresh off releasing their new album Panic Blooms, Pittsburgh-based outfit Black Moth Super Rainbow unveil a dreamy DJ mix of fuzzy ambient pieces, blown-out instrumental hip-hop, dreamy psych-pop, gauzy slow-motion analog-funk, and more for Midnight in a Perfect World.
With Independence Day right around the corner, it's great to see so many new releases out this week on independent labels! Highlights include the debut album from former Late Of The Pier frontman Sam Dust (aka LA Priest). KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes it as "a fine set of eccentric, psych…
We just returned from our second day of filming live sessions from the Trans Musicales festival in Rennes, France, and our host at the Magic Hall Hotel is playing a killer French funk LP from an artist named Michel Jonasz. And here I thought we’d be discovering only new bands, but now I have a new …
There's some pretty great releases for a holiday weekend, like the third LP from Dev Hynes — a.k.a. Blood Orange. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls the album "another masterful set of expansive, moody R&B blended with funk, synth-pop and other styles, combining a diverse sound and a variety o…
Get ready to wrap yourself in Big Black Coat, the fifth album (and first in five years) from Canadian duo Junior Boys. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls the release, "a more forceful, rhythm-driven take on their spacious electro-pop, masterfully blending house, techno and disco grooves with R&…
Heads Up on the dance floor! LA band Warpaint sound the drums on their rhythmically driven third LP by infusing their typically broody post-punk with more hypnotic dub and funk grooves. The battle-ready four-piece charged the KEXP live room to perform their first single, "New Song", and three other…
SassyBlack is the solo music project of Catherine Harris-White, a multi-faceted Seattle artist and core member of local hip-hop duo THEESatisfaction. Her exclusive mix for Midnight In A Perfect World displays her love of cosmic and groovy R&B/funk vibes, mixing together both old-school favorite…
Much was made of Nao's jazz backgroud when she was a buzzy artist in 2015, but the London musician's debut full length, this year's For All We Know (named for a jazz standard) displays a singer with significant funk credentials and forward-thinking, electronic-tinged production. In this kinetic se…
On her fifth full-length, Dallas-bred, New York-based artist St. Vincent (aka Annie Clark) "successfully combines bigger production with some of her most personal songs to date," notes KEXP Music Director Don Yates. "The album's diverse sound ranges from frenetic New Wave and slinky funk-pop to lus…
KEXP premiered an album stream of the latest from Portland band Radiation City last week, and it's now in stores. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes their latest, "features a more synth-driven sound for their eclectic dream-pop, combining bright synths and glittering guitars with funk-inflected rh…
Holiday weekends are never the most robust for new releases, but some exciting albums did make the schedule this week. KEXP's Music Director Don Yates points out the third release from Sinkane, a project of Sudanese-born, Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist/vocalist (and former Yeasayer/Caribou/Of…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Afterno…
L.A. artist Ariel Pink returns this week with an album "dedicated to '60s-era LA cult songwriter Bobby Jameson, a promising artist whose career fizzled out early in a haze of management and label troubles, drug abuse and depression." KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes the release is "a bit of a th…
Afternoon Show host Kevin Cole compiles an outstanding collection of the best new music, traversing moods from ethereal ambient folk and cosmic global funk, to scorching rock. 1. Marissa Nadler - Drive 2. Arborea - Daughters Of Man 3. Death Vessel - Mercury Dime 4. James Vincent McMorrow - Gold 5…
