A Child's Adventure appears almost exactly in the middle of Marianne Faithfull's long and varied discography, which itself is a product of her challenging and fascinating life. The late '60s and '70s appear to have been a particularly hard time for Faithfull, but in 1979 she released Broken English…
With the fate of Sonic Youth up in the air, founding guitarist Lee Ranaldo has found steady ground with his group, The Dust. Backed by fellow SY orphan Steve Shelley on drums, along with guitarist Alan Licht and bassist Tim Lüntzel, Ranaldo's tenth album, Last Night on Earth, is his most collaborat…
Ever since Bliss Release, Cloud Control's breezy debut LP hit the KEXP doorstep, we've been waiting for our chance to see them live. That was over two years ago, and the band, already critically acclaimed and beloved at home in Australian, and now with their second LP widely available, only just ma…
Shut eyes, wide mouth, brow furrowed -- lead singer Tim Wilson’s face reads passion. If there was any doubt about his care for the songs he sings with the five-piece band Ivan & Alyosha, just take a moment to look at his visage. The band, one of the most well-coiffed in the business, took the M…
Following up his latest album, Help Is On The Way, scratchy-voiced local songwriter Gerald Collier stopped by the KEXP studios to play some new songs. Accompanied by friend and collaborator, Anna Horvitz, the duo harmonized over an unassuming acoustic guitar, singing narrative songs about women, fo…
Since her 2010 album Have One On Me, we haven't heard all that much from Joanna Newsom, except the fact that she is now engaged to her SNL boyfriend Andy Samberg. So it is welcome news to hear she's made a new video for her cover of Sandy Denny's "The North Star Grassman and the Ravens". The vide…
What a bill! If you were at Crocodile Tuesday night, you sure got your 15 dollars worth. Swedish electro-pop duo Niki & The Dove blew our minds (as usual) with their soundscape of 80s pop glory, but luckily for those that arrived early, both openers played strong sets that were met with much ac…
The expectations are always a little different when you go see a musician who is potentially past his/her prime. John Cale has been playing for over thirty years, and as a seminal member of the Velvet Underground and a striking solo artist since the 70s, there is an incredible amount of material h…
MGMT are releasing the follow-up album to their 2013 self-titled called Litte Dark Age sometime this year, with estimates being at some point in February. Today they've shared the third single from the album, "Hand It Over." The groovy synth-psych song follows previous singles "Little Dark Age" and…
In the haze of the smoke machines and blue lighting at the Crocodile, as a packed in crowd at a sold out show danced relentlessly to the bass-heavy tracks booming from the stage, we collectively celebrate one thing: brilliant songwriting. If there's one commonality between the two acts on the bill …
If you call yourself an Arcade Fire fan and have seen the band at least once in the live setting, there's a good chance that you need absolutely no introduction to Will Butler. When Arcade Fire skyrocketed to the moon amongst the Reflektor hype of 2013, it was clear that the one facet of their musi…
Now that they've played a number of shows on their much-publicized reunion trek, it's fair to judge whether or not the Outkast festival tour is merely a opportunistic cash grab or an enthusiastic celebration of the Atlanta duo's massive legacy (during which they will inevitably get real paid). At f…
It's been five years since Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have toured America, and in the unique and never-predictable story of Nick Cave, five years is a long time. After the release of 2008's Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, Nick has authored the screenplay for a major motion picture, published his second nove…
Some haters will always hate, no matter what gold you throw at them, but Donald Glover sure silenced a multitude of them with last year's out of nowhere sophomore slinger Because the Internet. As Childish Gambino, Glover started a rap career with immediate pushback, with critics claiming that he wa…
We made it out to the Trans Musicales festival grounds last night after we wrapped up filming for the day. The festival grounds are located at the Park Expo, which is a complex of large buildings, a couple of which are the main festival areas, like the food court, for a lack of a better term and I …
Congratulations to Mavis Staples, who just won a Grammy last night for Best American Roots Performance. It's great timing as the legendary blues singer will release Livin' On A High Note, on Friday. This, her fourteenth studio album, features songs written by Justin Vernon, M. Ward, Benjamin Booker…
You only have a few days left to enter KEXP’s 2016 Vive Latino flyaway and seize the opportunity to win a free trip to two for this awesome music festival in Mexico City, April 23 and 24. KEXP asked last year’s winner to share a few of her memories from Vive Latino 2015, and here’s her enthusiastic…
How many indie rock dudes does it take to cover a Sharon Van Etten song? By our count, four, as footage has surfaced of a 2010 concert where Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, Bryce and Aaron Dessner of The National, and Colin Stetson covered her single "Love More." Watch below. The footage comes from a Mu…
For Christmas, PDX-via-NZ group Unknown Mortal Orchestra gave us the gift of song: stream the track "SB-03" below, written by frontman Ruban Nielson and his brother, Kody Nielson (aka Silicon). The twelve-minute-long track was released on December 25th, following the singles "SB-01" and "SB-02," r…
