A full bill of local punk rocked Chop Suey Thursday night in a debaucherous whirlwind of moshing bodies. Presented by Sonic Reducer, KEXP's Saturday night punk and hardcore show, the evening was sure to exhibit all the gems Brian Foss brings to any event: great music, great people, and great attitu…
Staten Island's The Budos Band tore through a tight set of instrumental funk and soul tinged with a heavy, ominous dose of retro stoner metal. Their set on the Sasquatch main stage drew heavily on their latest album Burnt Offering. This fourth release is a marked departure for the eight-piece band,…
Fisherman's Village Music Festival — you had us at The Helio Sequence, hook, line, and sinker. The Helio Sequence always deliver an amazing show, and this one promises to be extra special, as it's days before the Portland duo release a new record and hit the road for a national tour. New music abou…
Closing out his career as Fruit Bats, Eric D. Johnson has come full circle. Sixteen years ago, he started the folksy project as a personal outlet, but, as these things happen, the singer-songwriter solo effort eventually grew into a full band, first, with support of his tourmates, Califone (one of …
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…
Thao Nguyen is a voice of the people. While her music leans a bit more toward peppy indie pop than hippy folk rock, Thao's songs on her fourth LP, We The Common, are about the individual experiences and personal interactions we all have. As she says about the new Thao & The Get Down Stay Down a…
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 …
