You read that right. We're just as surprised to learn of his passing as you are. Chris Cornell, who was found dead in his Detroit hotel room late last night, has been a Seattle institution for decades, having formed Soundgarden in 1984 and predating in popularity nearly all of the so-called "grunge…
When Molly Sides takes the stage fronting her band Thunderpussy, it'd be easy to mistake her for a cybernetically enhanced superhuman. How else could anyone prowl the stage and howl so ferociously? Amazingly, Sides is human like the rest of us. However, in director/writer Robert McGinley's new film…
I feel like it's been a while since we featured some album-cover reviews with a solid dose of healthy disagreement and debate. And it may be a while yet, because honestly, while there was plenty of disagreement at KCMU circa 1990 around the Manchester band Inspiral Carpets' LP Life, it wasn't parti…
Unbelievably, It's been almost exactly 8 years since I last shared an album by Hüsker Dü in this parts, and at the time I was surprised I hadn't already gotten around to it. That actually means that the amount of time between these two Hüsker Dü posts is longer than the band itself existed, and twi…
Scott Hansen is known as ISO50 for his photography and design work. For his music, he and his band mates are known as Tycho. Closing down Saturday night at Sasquatch! Music Festival, Hansen and crew displayed how the two creative works aren’t mutually exclusive. Sharp images of distant landscapes a…
Everyone's favorite gap-toothed songwriter shares a demo from the Mac DeMarco vaults: check out a four-track version of "Rollin Like A Dummy," which dates back to his 2012 album 2. Via Reddit, he says, "Everybody’s always asking for a recording of this song, so I’m finally getting around to it. It…
Sometimes, even when you're an ever-so-independently-minded DJ at a fancy college radio station in the '80s, you just want some AC/DC. I like to think that whoever brought this little gem - the band's first live album, and the sixth album they released between 1975 and 1978 - into the station grinn…
Seattle's own Tacocat pay tribute to a '90s feminist icon with "Dana Katherine Scully," a track out today in both video form and on their latest full-length Lost Time. In an interview with Rookie, frontwoman Emily Nokes explains, "I’d been watching a ton of old school X-Files around the time that …
The news that shoegaze legends Lush are touring again is exciting enough, and it's just gotten better as we have new music to share from the UK trio! Check out the video for "Out of Control," a single from their forthcoming EP The Blind Spot, out April 22nd on the band's own Edamame label. It'll b…
Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night to discuss her new memoir, Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl. Watch their chat below. In an extra backstage clip, Brownstein also talked about her "love" of traditional English folk ballads, like the song "The …
It's a song we've recently featured as a podcast and one that's gorgeously captured on their new LP, but to hear Israel Nash perform "LA Lately" live is like visiting the galaxy rather than viewing it from afar. This summer, KEXP caught up to the Dripping Springs, Texas-based singer-songwriter at P…
Plum Creek Sound at Dripping Springs in Texas Hill Country - it sounds like the setting of a story too idyllic to be true. And it almost is. There, in a Quonset hut studio on his own 15-acre ranch about 20 miles outside of Austin, Israel Nash has recorded a work of heart-swelling beauty. The lushly…
Anticipation is high for the forthcoming full-length from dream-pop duo Beach House. Today, you can enjoy two more tracks from their upcoming album, Depression Cherry, out August 28th on Sub Pop. Stream the singles "PPP," "Beyond Love," and the previously-released "Sparks" via a player on their we…
You know, it's bad enough when there's a band that I'm vaguely familiar with, that I know I should really check out, but have never quite gotten around to (we see a lot of those in this column). But when there's a band that I totally think "yeah, I know that band! I like them," only to realize that…
I have no idea what this album from 1959 was doing being added to the KCMU library in 1990, but I'm sure glad it was - and it seems like I would have been in good company at the time. Tom Lehrer is (and let me just jump in for a second to say how happy it makes me to type that "is," having establis…
It was hard not to anticipate what Lord Huron would bring to the live setting. So much of their music is based around place and themes that a live show always seemed like the perfect medium for the group to express their vision to the fullest. The LA group makes music that transports the listener t…
My Dad Is Dead is one of those band names that might just sound like a one-liner or an attempt to grab your attention, but in the case of Mark Edwards's solo recording project, legend has it that the music on this debut LP was in fact created in direct response to the loss of his father. With so mu…
Like all good things from the '90s, The Juliana Hatfield Three are back! It's been 22 years since the release of their breakthrough album Become What You Are, but on February 17th, 2015 they'll return with Whatever, My Love via American Laundromat. Today, they share the first single "If I Could," …
Bamboo is known for its uncanny ability to spring up from the ground, growing tall against all odds while covering everything in its path. With each sprout though, the stalks' compositions change, and an altogether different group of shoots emerge. Like the plants themselves, The Bamboos, a resilie…
San Francisco's Mikey Maramag has a gift for painting landscapes. As Blackbird Blackbird, Maramag has made our heads spin with dense texturing and ear-worm hooks that take you far away to a place untainted by the imperfections of daily life. Always alternating between driving pop accessibility and …
