It's hard to feel sad about British band The Clientele's uncertain future and potentially permanent hiatus while Amor de Días glows brightly. With songwriting partner Lupe Núñez-Fernández (also of the duo Pipas), Clientele frontman Alasdair MacLean continues to carry the torch of happy-sad songs of…
Portland's Moon Duo made maybe one of their most surprising moves yet: showing up and playing a set as a trio. Alright, that's not totally true. They did play with a third member on the KEXP Stage at the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, but the band is constantly taking surprising new avenues…
Among other things, Matt Berninger is known for making a live show count. Whether it's embodying the introverted distance of his work with The National in straightjacket contortions or diving into furious anger, throwing wine glasses into the air and crushing them under his feet, in all things, Ber…
Last year's Six Degrees honoree Robyn Hitchcock releases his 21st album this Spring. Check out the first single below, titled "I Want To Tell You About What I Want." In an interview with NPR, Hitchcock explains, "The original title of the song was 'My Vision Of World Empathy.' Either we will event…
We've finally got a release date to announce for the new Run the Jewels! The highly-anticipated RTJ3 hits the internet as a free download on January 13th, with physical copies to follow, same day in North America and January 20th everywhere else. Special guests include Kamasi Washington (who, inci…
KEXP's stellar lineup at Bumbershoot continues with festival heavy-hitter Michael Franti & Spearhead live on the Secret Stage. Franti has his fingers in many pots. He’s a poet, rapper, and singer-songwriter, who has been spreading positivity all over the world since 1994 with his current projec…
Succubass is the alias of Seattle-based DJ Jessica Duran, a member of the local TUF collective who's quickly become well-known for her exceptionally diverse tastes and ability to jump across multiple styles and confidently provide top-notch vibes to a wide range of dancefloor parties. A trusted sel…
Berlin-trio Moderat, featuring the combined forces of the German electronic projects Apparat and Modeselektor, stopped by KEXP's studio to showcase a few of their new bangers from their 2016 release, III. The "bored-with-current electronic-music-back-in-the-day" musicians put out a quick caveat tha…
Unless Kanye West decides to use the phrase on his next album, there will only be one love song with the lyric "fingering oblivion" released in 2015 and it's the title track to Father John Misty's sophomore effort, I Love You, Honeybear. It is probably the only time that phrase will ever be used ro…
Cambridge's WMBR, in addition to being key to the development of my musical tastes in general, is a big part of my fascination with these old records and what a bunch of college DJs thought of them. There was (and I'm sure still is) a lot to love about the station, but Pipeline!, their weekly local…
Maybe its circumstantial that one well-attended set from a guitar-wielding songwriter was followed by another well-attended set from a guitar-wielding songwriter, but the Yeti Stage at Sasquatch was on fire on late Friday afternoon between Hozier and Austin's Shakey Graves. The musician (and former…
Okay, not "exactly" music news, but it's just been announced that none other than Stephen Colbert will take over for David Letterman as the host of CBS' The Late Show in 2015! Letterman announced his retirement earlier this month with a performance from Joseph Arthur, accompanied by R.E.M.'s Mike …
Congratulations to local hip-hop heroes Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, who were nominated last Friday for the 56th Grammy Awards in seven categories, including Best New Artist, Song of the Year and Album of the Year. James Blake also received a nomination for Best New Artist, and Daft Punk racked up f…
Up and coming sister bands Waxahatchee and Swearin’ gave us a lovely night this past Wednesday at Capitol Hill’s Chop Suey. It was a short and sweet set that the audience won’t forget any time soon as they swayed and bobbed to the piercing lyrics and layered instruments - loud in the best possible …
Known to many as the band who introduced the “post-dubstep” era, Mount Kimbie have always defied expectation. After meeting at college in London and bonding over a shared love of electronic music, the UK duo of Dominic Maker and Kai Campos explored the spaces around the popular dance music of 2008 …
Sam O.B. is the latest alias of Brooklyn-based musician Samuel Obey, formerly known as Obey City, also the co-founder of the stellar Astro Nautico label. A constantly evolving musician and in-demand collaborator who's well-known for his versatile talents in the studio, Sam O.B. recently released hi…
The KEXP road crew and I left Seattle last Sunday to head back to France for our second year filming bands at the 39th annual Trans Musicales music festival in Rennes, France. We had such an amazing time last year capturing video from 12 bands, all of which you can check out here. The spirit of Tra…
Join KEXP for Music Heals: Mental Health as we call attention to the public health crisis that is depression and anxiety and how music can help.
We often forget, but even Patti Smith -- an icon who has inspired and influenced a generation -- had her own musical idols in her youth, in this case, Bob Dylan. As you may have heard by now, Smith was invited to perform at the induction ceremony for Dylan's Nobel Peace Prize for Literature, and s…
