KEXP celebrates Mixtape Week, August 26-30.
Next month we celebrate the 20th birthday of High/Low, the timeless full-length debut from New York indie rock stalwarts Nada Surf. The band celebrated the milestone in great fashion, reissuing the record on beautiful orange vinyl through Vinyl Me Please and giving it a fantastic packaging makeover…
"I brought tissues." That's what the girl next to me told her friends as she reached into her bag and started dishing out Kleenex. At any other show, the action might have been silly, but not tonight. Tonight, Volcano Choir, the spectacular collaboration between Bon Iver and Collections of Colonies…
With great sadness the music world learned today of songwriter Scott Miller's passing. The brilliance of his pop sensibility and songwriting were the hallmarks of his work with his power pop group Game Theory, which despite plenty of adoration from critics and loyal fans remained a cult favorite a…
The soundtrack for the 1996 film Trainspotting was so revered, they even released a second volume. The same might end up being true for the sequel T2 Trainspotting, in theaters February 10th. Director Danny Boyle has yet again curated a fantastic mix, including artists you might expect like Ziggy …
Fly Moon Royalty lit up the KEXP stage this afternoon with their glorious, funky jams. Originating as a twosome in Seattle in 2011, with the powerful voice of Adra Boo and the rapid rhymes of Mike Illvester, they've now grown into a full band, synchronized backup singers and all. Always a crowd fav…
KEXP has been incredibly fortunate to return to Iceland these past six years, not only to discover new artists to share with our listeners, but also to witness the astounding growth of bands like Vök. When we first heard them in 2013, Vök had recently formed, starting as a duo and winning Músíktilr…
On a rainy Wednesday evening, Annie Clark brought wonder and beauty to Seattle and to the Moore Theater with her St. Vincent return to our fair city. Both of the last times we've had the chance to see clark, it was alongside David Byrne, playing some original material, but mostly cuts from their co…
Nearly 25 years after influential Seattle grunge band Mudhoney released their debut album on Sub Pop Records, the group rounded out their hometown tour during a busy year-- releasing their 9th album, playing on top of the Space Needle and at Sub Pop's Silver Jubilee along with a slew of internation…
The name of their 2009 release (2008 in Colombia), “Blow Up”, was prescient. While the music of Bomba Estéreo is stylistically explosive, their popularity at the time of its release was just beginning to grow. We watched them ascend as their in-studio performance from late 2009 quickly became one o…
New York indie rock gods Yeah Yeah Yeahs make their long awaited return this year with a bludgeoning of contradictions. The trio - made up of singer Karen O, guitarist Nick Zinner, and drummer Brian Chase - has made the books in recent history with indie rock anthems like "Zero", "Phenomena", and "…
What can I say about Slint that I didn't already say in my 2008 Spiderland post? I kept it short back then, but I pretty much covered the bases: they were an excellent band that has been very influential over the years and they were phenomenal live, even almost twenty years after anyone thought the…
British rockers Django Django have shared the video for their single "Reflections." Instead of the band, the video features CGI sculptures playing their respective instruments. Thanks to iTunes Radio, their upcoming album, Born Under Saturn (out May 5), is available to stream now. [Pitchfork]
Timbrrr! Winter Music Festival is a place where people meet new bands, appreciate those they knew already and came to see, and drink hot toddies! We here at KEXP thought it would be fitting to ask some of the musicians gracing the Leavenworth, WA, stage some wintry-themed questions because, of cour…
As we look back on 25 years of Nirvana's Nevermind, we have to acknowledge how even their music videos became influential. Former MTV Programming employee Amy Finnerty has said the clip for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in particular "changed the entire look of MTV." From anarchist cheerleaders to a sp…
To call Erik Blood’s set at the KEXP stage during Bumbershoot "performance art" might be to accidentally imply a lack of pop music value. This would not be true. And yet, to call it anything else would feel like a disservice to the meticulously planned and beautifully executed art direction of the …
Today, Bandcamp is donating all of its proceeds from music sales to the Transgender Law Center and Car Seat Headrest is one of the artists using that as an opportunity to share new music via the platform. Check out the track "War Is Coming (If You Want It) [March Mix]" which will receive an officia…
To state the obvious, The Fabulous Downey Brothers know how to put on a hell of a show. The sextet's costume changes, frenetic dual vocals, prop comedy (industrial shrub material; see below), and themes of extraterrestrial body modification killed at the Vera Project-curated Buttnick Building space…
