Earlier this year, everyone's favorite bald vegan returned with a new project, Moby & the Pacific Void Orchestra. A track from their debut LP These Systems Are Failing was already a KEXP Song of the Day pick (listen here), and today, we've got a video for the track "Break. Doubt." Watch below.…
Congratulations to Bob Dylan, winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature! Also a critically acclaimed memoirist, Dylan was awarded the prize "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition", and he's the first American to win the prize in over 20 years! The 75-…
We may never know what 1984 KCMU DJs thought of Joe Jackson's Body and Soul, the follow up to Night and Day (on which we have plenty of input from the contemporaneous DJs). It's pretty likely that many of those who loved his early stuff remained less than pleased with his doubling-down on the highl…
Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke has announced a new solo album called Fatherland to be released in October. Back in May, he shared a new solo song "Yemaya" and now he has shared the single "Streets Been Talkin" which he describes as “a bittersweet ode to romance and the passing of time.” Okereke's…
Last year, legendary singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen passed away at the age of 82. Today, his son Adam shares a posthumous video for the track "Traveling Light" using previously unseen footage of his father. The video was co-directed with Sammy Slabbinck, who also worked on Cohen's final album You…
When Vancouver-based band Black Mountain stepped in the studio, we got a contact high. Not necessarily from their clothing, but definitely from their heavy, sludgy, psychedelic sound. Vocalists Stephen McBean and Amber Webber trade verses over a Black Sabbath-inspired wave of droning guitar and key…
The crushing news of Prince's untimely death has rocked the music industry. Artists all over the world have been paying tribute to the icon. On Broadway, Jennifer Hudson and The Color Purple cast ended their show with a powerful cover of "Purple Rain," and the cast of Hamilton had an impromptu dan…
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…
Well, now I'm depressed. I just did some math, and it turns out that in 1990, when John Doe took a break after having released six albums as a member of the legendary punk rock band X (see here for #6) and released his first solo album - as practically an elder statesman of punk rock - he was 3 yea…
The weather was still shades of gray on Sunday, but overall promised to cooperate a bit more than the deluge of Saturday. The second day of Bumbershoot kicked off with the big, warm country rock sounds of Israel Nash. Nash plays very much in the tradition of Neil Young, and marries swelling rock wi…
Coming off a great Neumos set the night before, Tanlines arrived at the KEXP studio early the next morning to deliver a flawless live performance as a four piece. The addition of a live drummer and second guitarist to the Brooklyn duo's always refreshing version of pop filled out their live sound w…
After a tumultuous four years (in which frontman Zach Condon went through an ugly divorce and was later hospitalized), it's great to see Beirut being silly and having a good time again. Check out the playful video for "No No No" (directed by Brother Willis) below. Will skunks and baguettes be used…
I know, I know, didn't I just post an R.E.M. album a month or so ago? I guess I kinda did. But I have my reasons! First of all, Fables of the Reconstruction was released 30 years ago next week (and checked into KCMU 30 years ago tomorrow, as you can tell by the sticker on the bottom). Happy birthda…
The Hood-to-Hood artist with the shortest commute today was West Seattle's own Michael Lerner, aka Telekinesis. For his stripped-down set from the Junction, Lerner stepped on stage with a guitar and an old-school four track machine, and charmed his neighbors with a short n' sweet set. The set kicke…
If you caught the most recent episode of HBO's Girls, you may have heard the previously unreleased track from St. Vincent. If not, stream the song below. The track is said to be a demo left over from last year's self-titled fourth studio album. Girls music supervisor Manish Raval told Billboard: “…
We woke up Kex Hostel this morning with a surprise dorm room performance by DJ flugvél & geimskip, who rolled in all her equipment on a cart equipped with a speaker, lit incense, turned on some DJ lights, and greeted the sleepy travelers with charming electronic backed songs about evil cats, ma…
This first day of live broadcasting from Iceland Airwaves ended with a bang. Kex Hostel was packed to the gills with eager fans of quintessential Icelandic singer songwriter Mugison (full name Örn Elías Guðmundsson). Raised in the small village of Isafjordur and now living in another tiny village, …
