American influences from John Coltrane to Bob Dylan are clear in U.K. singer-songwriter Pete Molinari's acoustic bluesy-folk. Scratch the surface of his four albums and you'll find a broad range of sounds in the low-key Brit's music. Molinari grew up in an Egyptian, Maltese and Italian family, whic…
Star Anna released her latest full-length album, Go To Hell, last summer and has been playing gigs all around Washington - and the country, for that matter - showcasing her distinctively beautiful, gravely voice to crowds of all sizes. Often, Star can often be found with her dog Forest by her side …
In sad news, drummer Scott Asheton, a.k.a. "Rock Action" Asheton, of The Stooges passed away over the weekend at the age of 64. Along with his brother, guitarist Ron Asheton, he helped form the influential punk band in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967. In a statement on the band's Facebook page, front…
KEXP's Dusty Henry talks with Madison and Taylor McFerrin about their family's musical legacy spanning generations.
As if today isn't heartbreaking enough with the death of Prince, but the news also reports that Richard Lyons, founding member of Negativland, passed away earlier this week from complications due to a nodular melanoma. He had just turned 57 years old the day before. Lyons, better known to fans as …
There's a lot to unpack here. There's the fact that despite my teenaged fondness for Black Flag, Rollins Band, and Pigface, I completely missed the existence of this project produced by Mr. Rollins, a key member of the first two bands, and Andrew Weiss, a key member of the latter two. There's the u…
With their shifting, phased-out sound, local urban poets and Cloud Nice members Kingdom Crumbs have become of the 206's leading hip hop groups. (In a recent Stranger piece, our own Larry Mizell, Jr. called the group "hands-down full-stop one of the very very best groups our town has.") The Seattle …
DJ Taye -- the alias of Chicago native Dante Sanders -- is a member of the revered Teklife crew, joining the influential collective of juke/footwork artists in 2010 at the age of 16. His head-spinning beats, booming bass, and frantically cut-up samples proudly exemplify Teklife's genre-defining sou…
On this episode, Stas THEE Boss and her Black Constellation family reflect on her artistic journey, her heartbreaks, and the philosophies that made her one of America’s most gifted and slept-on rappers and producers. We also hear reflections on the term “Afrofuturism,” the burden of being the first…
Zola Jesus is releasing her 6th album Okovi in September via Sacred Bones. She previously shared the lead single "Exhumed" and today the correlating video for the song has been released. Directed by Jacqueline Castel, the creepy black and white footage bears a resemblance to The Ring, with a simila…
More sad news from the world of music: producer and manager George Martin passed away peacefully in his London home last night at the age of 90. Martin is often referred to as "The Fifth Beatle," as he was the one who discovered The Beatles, signing the young band to Parlophone Records in 1962, an…
It has the makings of an indie movie plot: Hip musician dad records album with son while his wife undergoes cancer therapy. The real story is a bit more complicated, but that's essentially the backdrop of Tweedy, the latest project of Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy and his son Spencer. The duo recorded…
It’s a rare opportunity to see a band as hyped as Whitney at a venue as intimate as the Sunset Tavern. Or as frontman Julien Ehrlich noted with an off-the-cuff affect he deploys for most his on stage thoughts, “This show’s been sold out a long time.” No surprise there. With the June release of thei…
Sun Liquor and Silversun Pickups - the pairing pretty much writes itself - yet there's so much more to the LA band's relationship to KEXP and history behind their generosity in performing an exclusive show for our donors. Our love for Silversun Pickups goes back to their debut EP, Pikul. KEXP was n…
Opening today’s broadcast live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves was Finnish singer-songwriter Mikko Joensuu. Over the course of the last year and half or so, Mikko has released a series of three records over the course of a year or so, called Amen 1-3 (Svart records) exploring coming into faith,…
Eva Walker is your host for Early on KEXP! Start your early mornings with eclectic and surprising song choices whether it’s to wake you up, get you ready for your big day or, to make your segmented sleep schedule just a bit more enjoyable. Enjoy new KEXP discoveries and the classics every morning, …
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba are set on changing the way we think about world music. Pushing the limits of traditional West African instruments themselves to embrace western styles and a more versatile melodic range, Bassekou Kouyate is proud of the modern innovations he's made with the ngoni, a…
When Beth Orton stepped onstage at the Triple Door on a Thursday night, it was a night of great change for the Norfolk singer. Bathed in a gauzy lighting display seemingly pulled straight from an Animal Collective production, Orton acknowledged that it was a quite significant night for her: "My cou…
