It's hard to pick just a few highlights this week, as there's tons of great new albums in shops now. Seattle-based project Hibou (led by Peter Michel) releases their debut self-titled full-length on beloved local label Barsuk Records. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls the long-awaited album, "an …
He's never lived so far away, yet he's never sounded so much like himself. After a move to London, former Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore reclaimed his place as a ranking don of noise-rock while reassembling his band with some true ringers, namely former SY bandmate Steve Shelley on drums and D…
Steve Fisk, not unlike Jack Endino, is a figure in the Seattle rock universe who has had an enormous influence on the sounds coming out of this city, despite not being a household name to those who don't often peruse album credits. As a producer and engineer he's worked with everyone from Screaming…
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…
Whatever your personal opinion of her may be, there is one fact that is truly undeniable: Lana Del Rey is in a league of her own. If you don't believe me, read her fantastically revealing cover piece with Fader. If you don't feel like it, listen to her albums, watch her videos, read other interview…
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 …
When last we checked in with the music of Edward Ka-Spel - probably best known for his work with the Legendary Pink Dots - word was he might be touring with said Dots imminently. Well, the tour has come and gone, and it included a stop at our own Chop Suey. Ed helpfully kept a tour diary, with thi…
West coast rapper Tyler, The Creator shares his fourth LP, which boasts the FCC-unfriendly title Scum Fuck Flower Boy. (A representative for TTC says the "official title" is just Flower Boy.) The album features guest appearances by Frank Ocean, ASAP Rocky, Anna of the North, Lil Wayne, Jaden Smith,…
Broken Social Scene are releasing their highly anticipated new album Hug of Thunder this Friday, July 7th but, luckily for us, NPR is streaming it ahead of time. Seven years after last release, Forgiveness Rock Record, the album sees all 15 original members featured on the album, including Feist, M…
Montreal DJ/producer Jacques Greene has emerged as an integral and innovative artist within the underground electronic music scene since the release of his pivotal debut single, "(Baby I Don't Know) What You Want", in late 2010, displaying a cutting-edge style that uniquely infused R&B, progres…
April ended strong with new releases from some of our favorite artists. It's been five years since the last album from Feist, and the Canadian songstress returns with what KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls "a powerful set of dark, intimate folk-rock. Recorded mostly live, the album features a sta…
The Vera Stage's sound has been notably quiet (especially compared to the sometimes deafening main stage) all weekend, but that didn't bother Girlpool, the drumless duo of Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad. In fact, if anything, it probably galvanized the Los Angeles duo. Their music is emotionally a…
KEXP's VIP Donors enjoyed a special show at The Triple Door when Lord Huron rode into town recently, on tour with their second album, the thematic Strange Trails. From the spirited "Fool for Love" to the more spiritual "The Night We Met," the band delivered a tight show, evoking the West through la…
The final act to be affected by the mid-afternoon Bigfoot set delay at Sasquatch, Mogwai were fortuitous enough to be the only set to perform in full darkness. Although the Glaswegian quintet don't move much onstage – save for Stuart Braithwaite's possessed, wide-eyed wiggle – their dark lighting …
K-vicker? No, K-vaker! Today's release of Sigur Rós' 2013 album, Kveikur, may seem like a speedy turn-around on the heels of their 2012 LP, Valtari, but the ground-shaking sound on the new LP is what the Icelandic band has been building toward over the past few years. While the relatively placid Va…
Fans of The Joy Formidable are used to seeing guitarist and vocalist Ritzy Bryan thrashing about wild-eyed on stage, practically destroying her guitar, her amps and the audience's ears. She and bassist/vocalist Rhydian Dafydd and percussionist Matthew James Thomas always seem to keep it together, …
Telekinesis is the name of Seattle's own Michael Benjamin Lerner and his soft-spoken, incredibly charming indie-rock solo act. Since his 2009 self-released debut EP, Lerner has garnered a reputation for himself blending 80's pop sensibilities with mellowed-out vocal stylings, a tried and true dynam…
Finally! With all of these great new releases, 2013 is coming on with a roar. Well, maybe not The Big Roar this time, but rather Wolf's Law, the new and much anticipated second album from The Joy Formidable. Fans wondering how the Welsh trio could possibly follow up their hard hitting debut after s…
It's not every day a musical legend walks through your door. At age 70, with some 50 years in the music industry as a performer, composer, and producer, John Cale has made an indelible stamp on the history of music alone and alongside fellow legends like Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, The Sto…
Vancouver, BC artist Dan Bejar -- better known as Destroyer -- returns with his 11th album, which KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes as "a powerful set of dark,'80s-steeped New Wave/post-punk with prominent percussive synths, gleaming guitars and occasional strings and horns accompanying his d…
