Twenty years ago, music had one of its most creatively abundant years of music. 1994 saw strong debut releases in every genre, from Oasis to Outkast. Grunge was at the height of its power with excellent local releases from Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Nirvana released their MTV Unpl…
Now in its fifth year, the Treefort Music Fest brings its biggest line-up yet to Boise, Idaho. Over the next five days, over 400 bands will take the stage across multiple venues in downtown Boise, including Built to Spill, Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Youth Lagoon, Thundercat, Thee Oh…
Known to many as the band who introduced the “post-dubstep” era, Mount Kimbie have always defied expectation. After meeting at college in London and bonding over a shared love of electronic music, the UK duo of Dominic Maker and Kai Campos explored the spaces around the popular dance music of 2008 …
Every year, EMP's Sound Off! competition showcases emerging stars in the all-ages music scene. Previous winners have included The Lonely Forest, Dyme Def, Sol, Kithkin, Brothers from Another, Manatee Commune, Fauna Shade, Schoolyard Heroes, Tomten, and Brite Futures, just to name a few. Last week, …
We often forget, but even Patti Smith -- an icon who has inspired and influenced a generation -- had her own musical idols in her youth, in this case, Bob Dylan. As you may have heard by now, Smith was invited to perform at the induction ceremony for Dylan's Nobel Peace Prize for Literature, and s…
Had they come around some 25 years ago, Nashville's Wild Cub would surely have been "pretty in pink." Formed only a year ago by singer/songwriter Keegan DeWitt and multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Bullock, the Nashville group sounds less like their Music City contemporaries and more like they belong on…
“The idea behind Youth had a lot to do with me suddenly getting married. Ever since I can remember... the thing that I was compelled by, was the bond that two people can share, how strange and elusive and compelling that is,” Wild Cub frontman Keegan DeWitt told Paste Magazine last August. Wild Cub…
We opened this year’s broadcast live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves Music Festival with a newer Icelandic band, Between Mountains. Hailing from the Westfjords, the promising new duo were this year’s winner of Músíktilraunir, a youth-focused battle of the bands (similar to Seattle’s Sound Off!)…
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…
Chelsea Wolfe is releasing a new album called Hiss Spun on September 22 via Sargent House. In collaboration with Converge's Kurt Ballou and Queens Of The Stone Age's Troy Van Leeuwen, she's delving deeper into metal influences on the new album. She's previously shared "16 Psyche" and "Vex" and toda…
In Boise, there's a club you want to belong to. They meet in the thawing Spring days of March, huddled in nightclubs, living rooms, pop-up venues, outdoor stages, and anywhere downtown where there are great bands to be heard. It's a club that loves music and the all of the arts, celebrates the Paci…
Kurt Cobain’s influence went beyond just the music he created with Nirvana. He also put the masses on to some of his own favorite artists. One particular document from his journals has been instructive to many fans – his top 50 albums.
Each week, The Cobain 50 podcast digs into albums from this fa…
What's old is new in Seattle. It has been that way for a while, since before even the grizzled-beyond-their-youth folkies made country rock a "thing" in Ballard during the last half-decade. But now, in hepper neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, organ is the new banjo as Western psychedelia of the late…
When Lorenzo Cherubini began his career in the late 80's, the stage name Jovanotti (derived from giovanotto, meaning "young man") refered to his youth, but now, decades later, the name that increasingly became synonymous with commercial success in his native Italy is being renewed through his rebir…
Join KEXP on Monday, September 16th as we celebrate the music of Mexico to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month and commemorate Mexican Independence Day.