There are some people that say there is art in restraint. Those are the types of people Sleigh Bells eat for breakfast. Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss are back for round three this week with Bitter Rivals, and they are going even harder and even heavier. And it’s a good thing too – now more than ev…
On their dreamy fifth album, Scottish band Camera Obscura adds a local flavor by recording with Portland based producer (and former Seattleite) Tucker Martine. Our Music Director, Don Yates, calls Desire Lines "a beautifully crafted set of bittersweet, soul-tinged indie-pop, featuring a warm, lush …
Next on the broadcast live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves music festival is Icelandic psych outfit Par-Ðar. Their name serving as a description for the band's sound, "PAR" is an acronym for Psychedelic Ambient Rock, and "Ðar" is the band’s made-up word for a state of enlightenment or being. Th…
Placing equal legitimacy upon all styles of Jamaican musical expression, Positive Vibrations joins the dots between Ska, Rocksteady, Roots Reggae, Dub, and Dancehall. Kid Hops educates as he entertains - riding rhythms across artists, labels, and decades, he demystifies the connections between prod…
Astral Plane, a journey through a kaleidoscopic world of psychedelic sounds, every Wednesday from 7-10 PM Pacific. Hosted by DJ Jewel, the program explores consciousness-expanding tunes spawning from the counterculture of the 1960’s all the way through today, and dives deep into the jazz, global, a…
Audioasis host DJ Sharlese dishes up the first in a two-part 2014 Pacific Northwest Round Up! Featuring sounds that came out of the region this year like Vox Mod, Fruit Juice, Low Hums and more!1. Cabana - Wet Brick2. Helms Alee - Pinniped3. Kithkin - Altered Beast4. Low Hums - It's in the Air5. L…
Paris Combo's most recent album, this year's Tako Tsubo, is named for the Japanese-named condition of what's commonly known as “broken heart syndrome”, but it's hardly morose. If anything, the colorful, flowing sounds of this session imply that there's anything but sadness…
At the end of the band's previous tour, Okkervil River leader Will Sheff returned to a Bob Dylan lyric that he's always circled back to: "He not busy being born is busy dying". With rebirth in mind, Sheff gathered a new group of musicians and created a new musical mindset that eventually…
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…
Last Friday gave us a new LP from veteran hip-hop band A Tribe Called Quest, their first in 18 years, and their last, with the passing of founding member Phife Dawg due to complications with diabetes. KEXP Music Director Don Yates says, "It's a strong return to form of often-politically charged hip…
On the final day of Bumbershoot, Lisa Prank started off the musical festivities at KEXP’s Gathering Space. In her colorful crown, sunflower dress, and Doc Martens, It’s easy to picture Robin Edwards, the sole member of the band, as a teenager holed up in her room taping songs on a My First Sony. Ed…
Leading up until the Upstream Music Fest + Summit, a Northwest regionally focused festival with over 300 acts, KEXP will be featuring a new local artist from the lineup with an interview and suggested tracks for where to start. Today’s post features Seattle jazz and neo soul songwriter Falon Sierra…
As we celebrated on Friday with an exclusive interview, the new Father John Misty album is out now. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it, "his finest to date, combining an orchestral folk-pop sound with self-aware, often-cutting and sometimes hilarious lyrics aimed at narcissism, hypocrisy, insta…
If you've wondered what might happen if you combined the sound and spirit of Bikini Kill or Pavement with the politics (as in none) and slacker mentality of Best Coast or Mac DeMarco then wonder no more, because Vancouver B.C.'s The Courtneys have made this a reality. They make fuzzy slacker rock w…
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…
When in Rome, amiright? Last week, TV on the Radio played the legendary First Avenue in Minneapolis, MN, so of course, they kicked out a cover of Prince's 1984 hit "Purple Rain." Watch fan shot video of the performance below, with Kyp Malone and Tunde Adebimpe trading off lead vocals. [Consequence…
As major labels continue to exist behind the times, artists and labels with little capital and lesser reputations are producing some of the most innovative, interesting, and inspiring music. Whether it’s creating a new niche in digital technology or looking to once obsolete formats, Agitated Atmosp…
As major labels continue to exist behind the times, artists and labels with little capital and lesser reputations are producing some of the most innovative, interesting, and inspiring music. Whether it’s creating a new niche in digital technology or looking to once obsolete formats, Agitated Atmosp…
If you're hoping to spend St. Patrick's Day doing some record shopping, you are indeed in luck, as there are some great new releases at the end of the rainbow this week. Highlights include the latest from Modest Mouse. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes, "the latest album (and first in eight years…
Next month, New York City's Museum of Modern Art will open an interactive exhibit celebrating Icelandic songstress Björk. The retrospective, which runs until June, will "chronicle her career through sound, film, visuals, instruments, objects, costumes, and performance." Below, she's shared a brief…
