It's the quintessential story of grunge, or at least how we've come to know the Seattle music scene of the '80s and '90s. It involves friends, music, an isolated region, heroin, grief and rampant commercialism. It's the story of talent lost too soon before its time, and of the musicians who gathere…
Wow, another year of Bumbershoot action already over, and what a ride it was! This year's festival was truly a different beast. With the new overhead having a full year to strategize and plan logistics, it seemed like by day 3, a lot of these were starting to go out the window. Crowd rushing in the…
Musical lore has it that Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the iconic South African mbube group, was founded by Joseph Shabalala after having a series of dreams in which he heard their sounds. It goes unmentioned whether or not Joseph dreamt of 50 years of worldwide success as perhaps the most well-known cu…
First up on day four of KEXP's live stream from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves Music Festival is Icelandic hip hop artist Sturla Atlas. The stage name for singer Sturla Atlason, Sturla Atlas makes 90's-style hip hop and RnB injected with Icelandic humor that manages to be both over-the-top and tota…
There's a posthumous Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings video out today, but I can't get through it without tearing up. The song "Please Come Home For Christmas" was recorded last year for the Daptone Records holiday collection, It’s A Holiday Soul Party!, and takes on an even more aching poignancy …
With the passing of Prince earlier this year, his musical vaults have been excavated and gems are being found within. Today, NPG Records and Warner Bros. Records are teaming up to share Prince 4Ever, a collection of hits, packaged with a 12-page booklet of never-before-seen photos by photographer …
It's been four years since Coexist, but London trio The xx re-emerge with a new song today, and lots of good news. Stream the single "On Hold" below, which features a pretty sweet sample of the 1981 Hall & Oates hit "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)." It's just a taste of their highly-anticipat…
Seattle electronic producer Kayla Waldorf creates immersive, propulsive techno under the Aos moniker. Her debut EP, 90 East, was released on the stellar underground label Blankstairs and formally introduced a blossoming new artist within the electronic community. Also a dedicated and active member …
In a town as small as Reykjavik, densely packed with so much talent and collaboration, the term "supergroup" gets thrown around so much that it starts. That being said, Icelandic electronic band Gangly is a true supergroup. The band is a collaboration between three Icelandic powerhouse musicians: S…
Today, legendary singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen celebrates his 82nd birthday, and we're the ones who get a present. Check out the title track from his upcoming release, You Want It Darker, out October 21st via Sony. A press release explains, "Cohen created this hypnotic groove with the addition o…
For fans of '90s shoegaze, the past few years have been a rush of reunions: Slowdive. Ride. Lush. Swirlies. Okay, hear me out. Unlike their UK contemporaries, the at-the-time Boston-based band followed a more lo-fi path, combining a DIY, punk aesthetic with their swoony, well, "swirly" guitars. In …
Metric frontwoman and Broken Social Scene collaborator Emily Haines is releasing the first Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton album in over a decade on September 15 via Last Gang/eOne. Entitled Choir of the Mind, it follows 2006's Knives Don't Have Your Back, which reached number 28 on the Canadi…
Noga Erez is a Tel Aviv-based singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer creating smart, catchy, colorful global electro-pop packed with vibrant instrumentation and politically-charged lyrics. Her debut album Off The Radar was released earlier this year on City Slang Records, introducing…
Frankie Rose has a new album being released this Friday, August 11 called Cage Tropical. Today she shared the third single from the album, along with a hazy video, "Dyson Sphere." The video was directed by Daniel Patrick Carbone. Rose teamed up with producer Jorge Elbrecht (Tamaryn, Gang Gang Dance…
On the one month anniversary of the death of guitarist Dave Rosser of The Afghan Whigs, the band is paying tribute by releasing a cover of Pleasure Club's "You Want Love," one of Rosser's favorite songs. “Pleasure Club was a legendary New Orleans band and Dave Rosser and I had spoken for years abou…
Raica is the alias of Seattle-based artist Chloe Harris, a lifelong passionate music lover, record store employee, and veteran DJ with 20 years of experience behind the decks. She was involved in the early days of Groovetech, one of Seattle's first online radio stations, right at the turn of the mi…
I feel like it's been a while since we featured some album-cover reviews with a solid dose of healthy disagreement and debate. And it may be a while yet, because honestly, while there was plenty of disagreement at KCMU circa 1990 around the Manchester band Inspiral Carpets' LP Life, it wasn't parti…
Scott Hansen is known as ISO50 for his photography and design work. For his music, he and his band mates are known as Tycho. Closing down Saturday night at Sasquatch! Music Festival, Hansen and crew displayed how the two creative works aren’t mutually exclusive. Sharp images of distant landscapes a…
Everyone's favorite gap-toothed songwriter shares a demo from the Mac DeMarco vaults: check out a four-track version of "Rollin Like A Dummy," which dates back to his 2012 album 2. Via Reddit, he says, "Everybody’s always asking for a recording of this song, so I’m finally getting around to it. It…
Seattle's own Tacocat pay tribute to a '90s feminist icon with "Dana Katherine Scully," a track out today in both video form and on their latest full-length Lost Time. In an interview with Rookie, frontwoman Emily Nokes explains, "I’d been watching a ton of old school X-Files around the time that …
