Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland, Keith McIvor, a.k.a. JD Twitch, established himself as an internationally-renowned DJ as one-half of Optimo, also the name of the dynamic duo's legendary club night where he served as a resident DJ alongside JG Wilkes. Known for their adventurous, eclectic, body-movi…
THUMPERS — not only is the name itself indicative of their sound, but the preferred spelling is all in caps. "Every time people actually do it, I feel a bit bad", confessed John Hamson Jr., one of the band's two founders, in a recent interview with KEXP. But Hamson and his cohort Marcus Pepperell m…
Wolf Parade were always going to be a band that would age well. With all of the members having hands in other projects at any given time, it wasn't ever that farfetched of a concept to see them moving away from Wolf Parade, so when it happened in 2011, they did the opposite of what James Murphy did…
"Voodoo in my blood is living" - that's how Young Fathers kick off the third track on Massive Attack's return to the scene after nearly six years away. And after all that time, Young Fathers aren't lying - the voodoo is still strong. Last time we saw them was 2010's fantastic Heligoland, their firs…
Join us for Hood-to-Hood Day 2014. Today, KEXP invades Ballard to celebrate the ninth-annual Hood-to-Hood Day! From noon to 5:00 PM, we'll be broadcasting live from Hillard's Beer Taproom, featuring three bands for free, all-ages performances among the many fermentation tanks in the brewery. Today'…
If, after hearing Juana Molina's surreal yet powerful music, we were to tell you that that the Latin American legend has also voice-acted as Elastagirl for the Argentine dub of The Incredibles, would you believe us? Would you trust us if we told you that she began her career in show business in ord…
If you missed a minute of our exclusive interview with Father John Misty, stream his hour-long intimate chat with DJ Cheryl Waters below. KEXP has had a long-standing relationship with this charismatic singer/songwriter (real name: Josh Tillman) and one-time Seattle resident. From his early days as…
It was a busy weekend for Jamie xx: not only did he bring the beats to the Capitol Hill Block Party, but he also released a mix for Apple Music's Beats 1 featuring tracks from The War on Drugs, The Persuasians, Deadboy, Apparat, The Durutti Column, The Doors, and more. You can listen to it here. J…
Armand Schaubroeck has quite a back story, and as far as I can tell the best way to get the whole thing would be to listen to his debut album, this self-released triple-LP. (You might imagine he funded such a grandiose release with money stolen during the teenaged crime spree detailed on the album …
Car Seat Headrest came dressed for success to their first KEXP in-studio session. Adorned in suits and ties, the young Seattle band got down to business with a fantastic five-song set of lo-fi epic indie rock. Despite his relatively young age, frontman and songwriter Will Toledo (reportedly just 22…
"Bigger, better, faster, stronger" – that's what we said of Voices, this year's release by Phantogram. The Saratoga Springs, NY duo certainly upped the ante with their anticipated second album, making the nearly five years between well worth the wait. As always, Josh Carter's dark dance hooks and S…
Don't expect to take the title of the second solo album by Kevin Morby literally. Still Life was written during a particularly busy time in his life, which included touring with two bands -- Woods (his former band) and The Babies (his project with Vivian Girls' Cassie Ramone) -- and switching coast…
It’s been quite a year for Matthew Hemerlein. The Los Angeles-based musician operating, under the name Lo-Fang, has been piecing together his debut record Blue Film since 2009. First as a mixtape, now as a fully rendered personal work, the collection of songs seen here is awe-inspiring and striking…
Grammy-nominated singer Mary Lambert has been doing things for herself lately. And, she says, it feels exhilarating. But between performances and business moves – like signing her own distribution deal and releasing her latest EP, Bold, in May – she’s been playing a lot of The Sims computer game, c…
"Be quick dear, times are uncertain, one month crawling, next year blurring, decades in the drain, and monograms on the brain. Decide what's working and what's moved on to the last phase - the floodgate alien days. I love those alien days." And so, Andrew VanWynGarden opens the third MGMT record wh…
In the three hours before she sat down with KEXP for an interview at the Sasquatch! Music Festival, Courtney Barnett nailed a mainstage performance, signed a massive stack of records for fans, and posed for some portraits backstage. Despite having an incredibly busy afternoon, however, the Melbourn…
Our long-time musician friend, David Bazan, stopped by the KEXP studios the other day to play synth-ethereal songs off his new album, Blanco, which he so Bazanly described before the session as "basically electronic music with sadness." No surprise there! If you know anything about the man you know…
So, last night, Radiohead mysteriously disappeared from the internet... Their website is blank, and their Facebook fan page is an empty page with no avatar or banner. Over on Twitter, the main Radiohead account now reads "@radiohead hasn't tweeted yet," and frontman Thom Yorke's personal account h…
