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…
We knew that The Besnard Lakes would be on our list to see while we were in Montreal since first, they are one of our favorite Montreal-based bands, but also because frontman Jace Lasek is one of the three founders of Breakglass Studios. It was really fun to see The Besnard Lakes in their element a…
Funk music isn't just heard, it's experienced. You can have a great time playing a funk article at home on your stereo, but it takes on a whole new life when it's right in front of your face. Seattle future funk-fusion act High Pulp gets this. With a staggering 10 members in the group, they push an…
A catchy melody doesn't just get stuck in your head – it lives there. You sit with it, sometimes for days or even years, ruminating on it whether you want to or not. Writing just one of these songs can be an accomplishment. Portland songwriter Mo Troper does this 15 times over on his latest album, …
The harsh cold air bites at my hands as I walk toward the Tractor Tavern to see Pedro The Lion play their first Seattle show in 11 years. The harshness of freezing breeze turns my thoughts to Pedro The Lion's "The Longest Winter." "In time memories fade, senses numb," the young David Bazan sings on…
Moon King is the project of Daniel Benjamin originally from Toronto, and now spending most of his time in the Detroit area. When Benjamin released his first tape as Moon King in 2011, he caught the attention of fellow Toronto band Fucked Up’s guitarist Mike Haliechuk who released his first two EPs.…
Uncanny timing! As KEXP broadcasts from the Iceland Airwaves Music Festival, we've got news from headliner, Björk. The Reykjavík-born artist has announced a virtual reality (VR) video for the Vulnicura track "Notget" is on the way. Watch a trailer below. Björk has previously released VR Videos for…
Brooklyn-based artist Mitski shares a video today for the track "A Burning Hill," a stand-out from an already outstanding LP, Puberty 2, out now on Dead Oceans. Director Bradley Gray captures singer/songwriter Mitski Miyawaki around town, wearing a button down shirt as mentioned in the lyrics. Via…
Day 2 of KEXP's visit to the OFF Music Festival in Katowice, Poland was a perfect reflection of what founder Artur Rojek is aiming for: diversity not only in sound but in origin. KEXP's DJ Morgan spent time chatting with musicians from around the globe: up-and-coming Warsaw band Bastard Disco, Toky…
As previously reported, Chris Cornell of the legendary band Soundgarden has passed away. We now have footage of the very last song Soundgarden played before Cornell's death last night in Detroit. "Slaves and Bulldozers" was a deep cut from the album Badmotorfinger and is an interesting choice in l…
Charles Bradley is one of those rare artists who can bring a crowd to tears, and that’s exactly what he did as he played a free public show in the gathering space at KEXP's new home. A longtime James Brown impersonator, Bradley began performing as himself at the age of 62, emerging just in time to …
Peter Michel seems to be living in the breezy midpoint in between lying in bliss and getting lost in the moment, so it's fitting that the Seattle' musician and his comrades in Hibou opened the Bigfoot stage on a day that fell into that same feeling. Most of Hibou's catalog runs at a midtempo pace a…
Sometimes I really wish I could jump in a time machine and visit the Seattle of yesteryear. Not because the traffic was better, and there were fewer condos, and people argued on album covers instead of the Internet, but because I really wish I could witness firsthand the version of this city - and …
Tune in to KEXP on Wednesday, March 23rd, from 6-9PM, for a special edition of The Roadhouse with Greg Vandy, spotlighting John Fahey and his legendary label, Takoma Records. During the show, we'll also featuring a unique in-studio session that bridges generations of guitarists exploring folk, blue…
Despite keeping busy with his Run the Jewels project, Atlanta MC Killer Mike shares a previously unreleased track "Saks Fifth" which you can stream below. Stereogum points out, it's mostly likely an older track as Mike shouts out his old Grind Time Rap Gang crew and his short-lived Grand Hustle la…
Back in 2010, KEXP was broadcasting from the Ace Hotel in New York City during the CMJ Music Festival, and we were lucky to score not one, but two guest DJ sets from The Roots drummer Questlove. Apparently the guy had so much fun the first time, he returned to the decks the following day! As the be…
Matt Johnson's The The is yet another band (or musical project, if you prefer, since it seems to have been Johnson and whatever troupe of brilliant musicians he could round up when it came time to make a record) that I never listened to in their heyday/my youth, and I can't quite figure out why. Ma…
When we asked our old friend Elvis Perkins to play a few songs live in-studio at KEXP, he obeyed, or rather, he aubade. The New York singer-songwriter's third album, I Aubade, is filled with love songs for the morning, or any time, with melodies steeped in '60s soul and rich ambient folk that gentl…
The Jazz Butcher have always seemed like an intimidating band to get into. There's the large catalog (10 LPs and countless singles by the time I was flipping through the bins at independent record stores), the multiple names (The Jazz Butcher, The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, The Jazz Butcher & His…
For as far and wide as East India Youth has traveled over the past couple of years, it's surprising that William Doyle still hasn't really left his bedroom. After wowing listeners with his genre-bending self-produced debut, Total Strife Forever, a pleasantly strife-free auditory adventure, the Lond…
