Anyone who got to kick off 2017 with Sleater-Kinney is already very lucky, but it sounds like the show was even better than we could've imagined. For their New Year's Eve concert at San Francisco’s Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium, the ladies paid tribute to artists we've lost this year: David Bowie an…
2016 was an especially brutal year: we lost David Bowie, Prince, Sharon Jones, Leonard Cohen, Lemmy Kilmister, Phife Dawg, and that's just to mention a few. (You can see part one of our list here.) KEXP is celebrating the lives of all these artists on the air, today, Thursday, December 15th from 6:…
2016 was an especially brutal year: we lost David Bowie, Prince, Sharon Jones, Leonard Cohen, Lemmy Kilmister, Phife Dawg, and that's just to mention a few. (In fact, part two of the list can be found here.) KEXP will celebrate the lives of all these artists on the air, tomorrow, Thursday, December…
Closing out a fantastic week of music live from KEX Hostel at Iceland Airwaves Music Festival were London-based power-pop trio Dream Wife. The band is comprised of London-based musicians Alice and Bella, and Icelandic singer Rakel, who are known for their super-fun performances and strange, beautif…
Veteran LA-based artist Moby debuts his new project, Moby & The Void Pacific Choir, and KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes their first LP is "a potent set of noisy, goth-tinged post-punk with loud, distorted synths, rumbling guitars, pounding industrial rhythms, dour vocals, soaring song hooks…
Grammy-nominated singer Mary Lambert has been doing things for herself lately. And, she says, it feels exhilarating. But between performances and business moves – like signing her own distribution deal and releasing her latest EP, Bold, in May – she’s been playing a lot of The Sims computer game, c…
Chaz Bundick, who now goes by Chaz Bear, has announced a new Toro Y Moi album, Boo Boo, and shared a video for its first single, "Girl Like You." Boo Boo will be released July 7th via Carpark. In a lengthy statement about the album, Bear describes falling into a crisis of identity because of his fa…
Minneapolis must have been a magical place in the '80s with bands like Hüsker Dü breaking through the mainstream, and venues like First Avenue and the 7th Street Entry helping hone these rising new stars. A little bit of that magic was in the KEXP studios this day as Hüsker Dü's former frontman, Bo…
Who would have thought a "Big Black Coat" could be so inviting? The album of that name is the first in nearly five years for KEXP favorites Junior Boys, and it comes not just as a return to form but a revisitation of the pop sounds they've cherished for some time - house, techno, soul, disco and R&…
More sad news from the world of music: producer and manager George Martin passed away peacefully in his London home last night at the age of 90. Martin is often referred to as "The Fifth Beatle," as he was the one who discovered The Beatles, signing the young band to Parlophone Records in 1962, an…
Essaie Pas is Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau, a married singer and engineer from Montreal, who have worked as individual artists as well as making three prior Essaie Pas records before this one. Demain marks a special milestone for them as their first for DFA, a label which continues to give h…
Few bands are more iconic in Iceland than GusGus. Starting some 20 years ago, more arts collective than musical act, GusGus broke from their cinematographic origins and through to mainland Europe and the world in the mid 90's with their eclectic electronica assembly of techno, deep house, dance-pop…
It's been a couple of months, so it's time for new music from Ty Segall. On January 22nd, the prolific artist releases his eighth (or tenth, who really knows) solo full-length, Emotional Mugger, via Drag City. Listen to an album stream below. This is actually the record's second iteration: it was …
"Music" and "space" form an undeniable symbiosis. We use each word to describe the other all the time, yet in truth, the one cannot exist in the other. The only sound of the spheres is in our minds. But what great imaginations we have. Over the years, many sonic explorers have reached far into the …
If there's another performer who has received two standing ovations for a single song at the Moore, Jason Isbell should call them and see if they'll go for best two out of three, because chances are that he'll win. The revitalized Southern songwriter is at a career high at the moment, and no other …
I have a confession to make: Not unlike some KCMU DJs circa 1986, I am woefully ignorant of the career and voluminous musical output of Wanda Jackson, also known as the Queen of Rockabilly - or just the Queen of Rock. (Obviously I haven't been reading the KEXP blog enough, or this DJ El Toro review…
The innovative releases continue for Lena Simon’s band, KAIROS. Who doesn’t like it when one masterful band takes the work of another for the sake of reinterpretation and homage? And today, we have two examples of this collaboration: a Cock & Swan remix of the KAIROS track, “Can / Cannot” and a…
Of the experiences that KEXP listeners tell us they value most, the intimate, personal interactions between artists and fans always ranks the highest. In our interviews and in-studio videos, we try to get as close to the heart as possible, but occasionally we are able to dive further into the creat…
It used to be that every year about this time, KEXP would throw the Yule Benefit show, but it's been five years since our last one. This year, music fans were in for a treat as the show returned to Neumos to raise money for the station's new home, being built at the Seattle Center. The lineup inclu…
"Holy shit." That's what DJ Cheryl Waters exclaimed as Scottish hip-hop trio Young Fathers finished their KEXP session. Thanks to Cheryl's booking, KEXP gets hundreds of in-studio sessions a year, but it's rare when our entire staff is unanimously blown away like we were that day. DJ Larry Rose, a …
