It's hard to feel sad about British band The Clientele's uncertain future and potentially permanent hiatus while Amor de Días glows brightly. With songwriting partner Lupe Núñez-Fernández (also of the duo Pipas), Clientele frontman Alasdair MacLean continues to carry the torch of happy-sad songs of…
Over the last eight years, alt-country band The Maldives have become one of the Northwest's most celebrated and liked bands. Their live shows are joyful occasions that bring the crowd together, as all good concerts do, with swagger, soul, and hearts-on-sleeves abandon. The Ballard-based band stop…
From last week's Spud War, we continue our tuberous theme with Tater Totz, which you might think would be even more contentious than Devo's synth-heavy fifth album, but which seems to have been more well received at KCMU. What is the deal with Tater Totz? I think just attempting to explain this pro…
Portland's Moon Duo made maybe one of their most surprising moves yet: showing up and playing a set as a trio. Alright, that's not totally true. They did play with a third member on the KEXP Stage at the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, but the band is constantly taking surprising new avenues…
Punk trio Dude York has made a name for themselves in Seattle for being a guarantee for at least a half hour of overflowing joy. As "America's Band," they cannot tell a lie and totally followed through on the promise on Day One of the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival. Even when they had techni…
Second on today's broadcast live from KEX Hostel at Iceland Airwaves music festival was the incomparable Digable Planets. Formed in Brooklyn in 1992, the poet-rappers, comprised of Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler, Mary Ann "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving, continue to push the limits …
Tomorrow, reunited shoegaze legends Ride will release Weather Diaries, their first album in 21 years. And today, they’ve shared a new video for their single “All I Want.” Director Jade Mortimer relied on simplicity and detailed camera work for the video, which is mostly centered around a man slow-m…
Ty Segall is like the American Horror Story of rock 'n' roll. The now-LA based maniacal, musical polymath constantly reinvents while rotating a cast of characters around a shifting approach to one theme: to rock the living shit out of you. Though his latest album - and what we can assume to be just…
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription . This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the M…
Seattle, you never cease to amaze us with your passion for music, and we love you for it! Despite rare high temperatures in the mid-90s, over a thousand of you came out last Friday for the latest edition of Concerts at the Mural. And, a little heat was so worth it with the great bill we had. Local …
Due to the windy weather and the consequential shuffling of band’s set times and locations, Sasquatch! Music Festival's El Chupacabra tent housed several acts that certainly didn’t fit the sound the EDM-themed stage is known for. Ibeyi was seemingly one of those bands, but the group had been schedu…
The Cure celebrate their fortieth anniversary this year. Let that soak in for a second. Then consider that the English quintet are playing three-plus hour sets with multiple encores night after night. Needless to say, Robert Smith and the current Cure lineup are doing right their legacy night after…
Shamir began his set in relatively mellow fashion, dragging from a cigarette as he and his backing band began the song “Vegas.” The calm at Sasquatch! Music Festival was brief, as by their second song, the El Chupacabra tent became a full blown dance party. Shamir bares himself completely in his mu…
Following their soulful set at last weekend's Capitol Hill Block Party, the Northwest's own Unknown Mortal Orchestra share a very theatrical video for "Ur Life One Night," off their latest release, Multi-Love. The clip was directed by Manoj Leonel Jahson, who told Rolling Stone, "I am deeply inspi…
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…
Raising money is fun! As we think of new ways to connect KEXP supporters with their favorite artists during our KEXP's New Home campaign, no idea is off the table - not even bowling with Shakey Graves. As it turns out, the young Texas troubadour and his band are big-time bowlers, so much so that th…
"Wait, they're here?" That's how most people reacted when they heard Ex Hex were playing, mishearing their name for that of the nocturnal London trio. But that confusion soon turned to either pleasant surprise or completely expected enjoyment as Mary Timony spent an hour unleashing riff after riff …
Staten Island's The Budos Band tore through a tight set of instrumental funk and soul tinged with a heavy, ominous dose of retro stoner metal. Their set on the Sasquatch main stage drew heavily on their latest album Burnt Offering. This fourth release is a marked departure for the eight-piece band,…
As soon as word came out earlier this year that George Lewis Jr. had signed with Warner Brothers, there was one thing that was clear: Twin Shadow was getting bigger. Not just in the commercial sense - rather, all of the massive 80s indulgences explored on past records were now going to have the cei…
The more or less random selection of Tucson band Naked Prey's third album from the shelves at KEXP was something of a blessing for me - and hopefully for you - as it led me to the web site and Bandcamp page of Frontier Records, a label whose tastes seem to have been wide open and ranging as their n…
