Gord Downie, founder and frontman for influential Canadian band The Tragically Hip, has passed away at the age of 53. Downie had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer last year, but he didn't let it hold him back, going on to tour that summer in support of the band's 14th studio album Man Machi…
KEXP's Resident Runner and host of the Morning Show, John Richards, presents Volume 2 of our new Runner Powered Podcast series. Hit your second wind with two hours (31 tracks!) of high energy KEXP favorites. 1. Animal Collective - What Would I Want? Sky 2. Small Black (Feat. Aaron Rockers) - Free…
KEXP celebrates Mixtape Week, August 26-30.
“Joint isn't a curse, right?” El-P always asks the important questions, both on his records and in his sessions. This was only moments before he, Killer Mike, and Trackstar the DJ rock the KEXP Live Room with an incendiary (and, impressively, profanity free) session. A quartet of Run The Jewe…
"It was like being in a car that hit the brakes and suddenly we had all this stuff to say." After spending nearly two years on the road behind their 2013 debut Wildewoman, Lucius had plenty of stories to tell on what would become their 2016 sophomore effort Good Grief, resulting in their…
Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchinson's move from his native Scotland to Los Angeles forced both the songwriter and his bandmates to rethink their work process, but their email-driven writing process led the Glasgow quintet to refine their penchant for anthemic choruses and evocative lyrics …
Late November might seem like a crazy time to visit Helsinki, Finland, but not if you’re going for Slush 2016, a high-energy gathering of global tech heads focused on entrepreneurship and new developments and ideas in technology. This was the first year they had a full day of music programming, br…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on The Aft…
Has it really been thirteen years? It was May 1, 2014 that KEXP's punk rock show Sonic Reducer hit the airwaves. Since then, DJs Mr. West, Brian Foss, and Jenn have brought you three hours of the best in local, national, international punk and hardcore from 9:00 PM to midnight every Saturday night.
While all you hipsters were at the Capitol Hill Block Party this weekend, I was across town at a completely. different. event. You had man buns, tattoos, ripped jeans. I had mini-vans, lawn chairs, and sensible khaki cargo shorts. To be fair, we both had to endure screaming crazies with drinks spil…
The Dead have come back to life with Day of the Dead. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes, "This mammoth 59 song, 5 and a ½ hour long tribute to the Grateful Dead was put together and produced by The National's Bryce and Aaron Dessner as a benefit for the Red Hot organization and their fight agains…
It goes without saying that David Bowie was an inspiration to generations: his influence can be heard in every genre from grunge to new wave to classical. Bowie transcended every style over the past 50 years, and there will truly be no one else like him in music history. As KEXP pays tribute to Dav…
With a festival as genre specific as Decibel, it might be easy to assume that once you’ve seen a few shows, you’ve seen them all. But it stands as a testament to both the influence of electronic music and the diversity of Decibel’s showcases that from night to night the variety can feel endless. No…
Surprise! UK artist FKA twigs has released an EP today via Young Turks titled M3LL155X. According to a press release, the EP was made with collaborators Boots, tic and Cy An, and along with the videos below, are "an aggressive statement conceptualising the process of feeling pregnant with pain, bi…
Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche has shared his cover of Sia's "Chandelier."His mellow, melancholy approach adds a depth and stark contrast to the original. Lerche said he chose this song because he “was curious what might happen if a male singer sang those words of desperation and self-a…
It was a raucous, rollickin' way to close out the 2014 Concerts at the Mural series! Last Friday, August 22nd, hundreds of Seattleites gathered beneath the Space Needle for an evening of music curated by our specialty show DJs, Don Slack of Swingin' Doors and Greg Vandy of The Roadhouse on KEXP.
Just recently, the USA celebrated our independence by blowin' up fireworks, and now it's France's turn! It was on this day in 1789 that 80,000 disgruntled citizens stormed the Bastille, a Parisian prison, thus inciting the French Revolution. As a salute to our fellow defenders of human rights, KEXP…
What other band is even nearly as iconic to KEXP DJs and listeners as Pixies? Their early independent spirit sent a beacon for other artists to follow and their eventual rise from arty cult rockers to alternative music mainstays proved that unique and uncompromising artists could make a huge and la…
