It’s been almost two months since Washington State lifted it’s COVID mask mandate. Hospitalizations are down to the low we saw last summer before the Delta variant peak. Bands are starting to tour again but not without risk. We caught up with three musicians who shared their stories of touring afte…
It's a bummer that the new Phantogram album, Three, got pushed back from September 16th to a October 7th release, but the band share a new song to make up for it. Stream the single "Same Old Blues" below. [Under the Radar]
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 Mid…
Here's another one: How is this the first time I've covered a Ramones album in this almost decade-long series of blog posts? I mean, the Ramones! Come on! Is there a more influential band with a deeper catalog more filled with albums that college radio DJs are likely to have intensely critical and …
This past weekend, Macefield Music Festival presented a stellar lineup, with performances by more than 20 Seattle bands over the course of the 3-day celebration. A diverse set of music fans strolled the Ballard neighborhood to see shows from some of the biggest players in Seattle's indie music scen…
Lots of great local releases this week, including the sophomore full-length from Seattle supergroup Childbirth, featuring members of Chastity Belt, TacocaT and Pony Time. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it, "a strong set of snarky garage-punk with primal, grungy guitar lines and pounding rhythm…
On Sunday, August 23, KEXP proudly presents Raw Power KEXP, an all-star tribute to proto-punks Iggy and the Stooges. This week we’re asking the members of the Raw Power band - Mike McCready, Duff McKagan, Mark Arm, and Barrett Martin - why they love The Stooges.
If you're anything like me (and who isn't?), the first Icelandic band you ever heard of was The Sugarcubes. If you were a college radio DJ in the early '80s, though, you might have gotten wind of Þeyr (pronounced "Theyr," more or less) before the rest of the U.S. got wind to the crazy stuff going d…
Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, Jack White's keyboardist and member of the Mars Volta, has passed away. Ownes was currently touring with Jack White in Mexico. The following statement was posted on Third Man Record's website: [Pitchfork]
Highlights for this sleepy summer week include the debut from Toronto-based band Alvvays (pronounced "always," if you were wonderin'). KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes the release as "a promising set of hazy, surf-inflected dream-pop. Produced by Chad VanGaalen, the album features a reverb-d…
Last year, alt-rock veterans Buffalo Tom released a 25th Anniversary Edition of their breakout album Let Me Come Over. And now in 2018, the long-running band are releasing their first new album in six years, Quiet and Peace, due March 2nd via Scrawny/Schoolkids Records.
The Mountain Goats will transport listeners to olden days with their sci-fi/fantasy-inspired album In League With Dragons, out April 26th via Merge Records. Hear the first single "Younger" and watch the band perform LIVE from Wizards of the Coast.
To name her newest record, Halo, Argentina's Juana Molina sorted through her lyrics word by word before deciding “halo” was the correct way to describe this collection of rhythmic, kinetic electronic music. Joining Darek Mazzone on Wo' Pop, Molina and her band return to KEXP to perform …
“In order to be big, we need a lot of players.” Jungle Fire guitarist bassist Joseph Reina lays it out pretty clear: to be able to create muscular afro funk workouts, the Los Angeles outfit need at least ten musicians. But even with a guitarist missing, the nonet sound bold and kinetic when they j…
During her latest session in the KEXP Live Room, Laura Marling speaks of her music in film metaphors when describing her new record, Semper Femina, to Cheryl Waters. The London songwriter's sixth LP has all the touches of a classic film, filed in with rich scenery (a tight, expansive band) an…
During the Norwich songwriter's four-year gap between releases, Beth Orton took the biggest stylistic leap of her career, springing from her most traditional folk album to her most electronic LP, 2016's Kidsticks, with seamless, deft splendor. Orton and her band join Cheryl Waters in this session …
Across the last three years, Project Pabst has quietly become one of the more reliably interesting festivals in the Pacific Northwest, which is no small feat considering its large-scale competition to the north of its site in Portland, Oregon. It's essentially the Room on Fire of Northwestern music…
It's real. After teasing fans on and off for the better part of 22 or so years, guitarist/vocalist Kevin Shields has delivered the third full-length My Bloody Valentine album, m b v. (Take a deep breath.) Since its release on Saturday night (which resulted in the cancellation of the evening plans o…
Today is our last day in Rennes filming bands during Trans Musicales. We woke up early and headed back to the Rennes Museum of Fine Arts and started setting up for our last two bands of the week.Trans Musicales. We woke up early and headed back to the Rennes Museum of Fine Arts and started setting …
