Paul Janeway's vocal range is some kind of miracle. For the young Alabama-based soul stirrer and his band, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, the sounds of Memphis and Muscle Shoals go marrow deep. On Half The City, their unbelievable mature debut, Janeway channels '60s R&B greats like Otis Reddi…
Twenty three years ago yesterday, Pearl Jam performed their very first show under the name Mookie Blaylock at the late Seattle club Off Ramp. This week, they are celebrating their anniversary, as well as their latest and tenth studio release, Lightning Bolt, with an appearance on Late Night With Ji…
Seattle band Ivan & Alyosha, in the lineage of local powerhouses the Head and the Heart and the Fleet Foxes, are masters of the bright, jangly guitars, tight, soaring harmonies and steady kick-drum rhythms. But there is something distinct about them, too – the band has more joy to it than maybe…
It's that time of year again - when Pike and Pine become overrun with confusing fences, music ripples between buildings of people hanging out their windows, and festival goers run rampant down the shut down streets. The 2013 edition kicked off with the usual sort of festival confusions, that starte…
Toro y Moi kicked off his world tour with a performance at Sasquatch to the increasingly tired but never lacking in excitement crowd (see exhausted dancing). His set was between the PNW's Odesza in the morning and Disclosure's in the afternoon - a line-up of three amazing and impossible to not danc…
It's been three years since the last record from The Drums, and a lot has changed for frontman Jonny Pierce. In that time, Jonny moved across the country twice, split up with his husband, and found himself without a bandmate as founding member Jacob Graham left the band to pursue other interests. J…
The city of Los Angeles has always been a backdrop for west coast punk band Bleached: there's a fun-in-the-sun melodic sound paired with a gritty Sunset Strip side. But on their latest album, Welcome the Worms, they escaped to Joshua Tree to find inspiration. "It's funny, because when we would go t…
We've got new music to share from Seattle's own Car Seat Headrest (aka Will Toledo): check out the single "Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales" from their upcoming release Teens of Denial, out May 20th on Matador. It's the first CSH album recorded in a studio with a full-band, and Toledo lucked out to get…
Our first live act of the day at Kex Hostel from Iceland Airwaves is fresh off a plane from Amsterdam. But you'll surely recognize them as Seattle's own garage surf outfit La Luz. We've been spinning this all female quartet's 2013 Hardly Art/Sub Pop album It's Alive and done several in studio sessi…
After years of extensive touring, Seattle band Ivan & Alyosha released a new album called All the Times We Had. The group celebrated its release by hanging with DJ Cheryl Waters earlier this year and playing a live set at the KEXP studios. “I want to be the man who understands his woman and you…
Just on the horizon, lurks Mount St. Helens, sitting 100 miles south of Seattle and 50 miles northeast of Portland. It was on May 18th, 1980, at 8:32 AM PT that it resulted in the most destructive volcanic event in the history of the United States. Will Mt. St. Helens erupt again? Scientists say ye…
Portland synth pop legends STRFKR are no strangers to KEXP, but they came through the studio once again after returning stateside from a quick jaunt over to Japan and played a quick set that included cuts spanning their whole career. Their sound has often been difficult to define: at times straight…
Our second live Iceland Airwaves show of the day at Kex Hostel was friend of the station and amiable funny man Júníus Meyvant. This lanky ginger haired songster is a bit of an enigma, with no album and scant online presence. Unnar Gísli Sigurmundsson, his given name, began performing music a bit la…
You won't find a more kicked-back band than Nada Surf. Their relaxed demeanor, easy banter and effortless performances make you think they're the kind of guys you just want to hang out with. During their recent acoustic session, live on KEXP from the Bumbershoot Music Lounge, it was like the entire…
Brooklyn-based band Antibalas, which is Spanish for "bulletproof", released their fifth studio album last August. This release really launched them on a sizable worldwide tour and lucky for us they happened to make a stop in Seattle. Founded in the late 90s, Antibalas has never strayed from their s…
James Blake announced the release of his highly-anticipated new album today. Overgrown, the follow-up to his critically-acclaimed self-titled debut, is due out April 8 on Republic, and Blake will be kicking off a North American tour with an appearance at Coachella the following week. Blake's new si…
All throughout her conversation with Stevie Zoom, Mary Timony kept mentioning how Ex Hex "just came together". You'd be forgiven for thinking a band so fierce and tight could never be assembled so serendipitously, but when you've got a trio of D.C. punk lifers in the same room, there's no other pos…
It's that time of year again: MoPOP’s Sound Off! has been pitting local bands against each other for 16 years now. The all-ages "battle of the bands" have introduced us to acts like The Lonely Forest, Naked Giants, Manatee Commune, and more. The 2017 competition kicks off tonight, Friday, February …
Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings are recent legends and have become one of KEXP's core artists. The band, and the Daptones label that it represents, were the main force behind the soul funk revival of the last fifteen years, the stylistic rebirth that bands ranging from The Alabama Shakes to The Bu…
