Bon Dimanche! It’s written in graffiti on several buildings all over Rennes. Happy Sunday! Sunday is the day of rest for the French people and even our crew got to take a small break on the final day of filming during the Trans Musicales festival. Normally, we’re up by 6am, breakfast at 7, out the …
The kids may be off to school but former teen group Arctic Monkeys is all grown up. Now on their fifth full-length, out this week, the British-born, LA-based band have left behind any brattiness for what our Music Director, Don Yates, calls "a slower, thicker and more atmospheric rock sound, while …
Thank goodness, there is still time to vote for Lil BUB's debut album in KEXP's Top 90.3 Albums of 2015 Countdown. (Voting ends this Friday, December 11th, by the way.) Yes, the internet celebri-cat releases her first full-length, which Andrew WK describes as "the sonic equivalent to holding Lil BU…
It's not so bright Underneath the Rainbow — at least not the way Black Lips tell it — but their seventh LP still has its share of sonic gold. The Atlanta garage-punks continue to sharpen their songwriting with a bluesier take on their sound while losing none of their attitude or swagger. During a r…
Wasn't I just talking about my childhood love of The Charlatans UK? Indeed I was. So it seemed like a fine time to take a moment to check out the debut album from these lovable Mancunians - who, it must be said, are still going strong, having released their 11th studio album in 2010 and rumored to …
John Richards presents a mix of music that, to quote the man himself, "feels like riding next to Ricardo Montalbán in his 1975 Chrysler Cordoba... I have no idea what that means, but these songs are excellent." 1. Morgan Delt - Some Sunsick Day2. Delorean - Epic3. Bellows - Orange Juice4…
It's been four and a half years since I've talked about Sheffield's Hula, and there's still not much about them out there on the old world wide internet - except, perhaps, this charming little amateur doc from not long before the release of their double LP 1000 Hours.
You would think by this time in the run of this series I would have covered every "seminal" band worth getting your '80s-college-radio-DJ hackles up about. And yet, here we are in 2017 and this is the first time we've discussed The Velvet Underground. Of course this makes a lot of sense, since all …
Okay, sure, this show was almost, like, a month ago, but I'm still reeling from seeing former Stereolab frontwoman Laetitia Sadier perform at the Vera Project. The influential artist spotlighted tracks from last year's Drag City solo full-length Something Shines, as well as her most recent single "…
I often have very little to go on with the more obscure releases I cover on this blog series, but there's almost no info out there on Constrictor Records and their 10 Years after the Goldrush compilation - at least in English (and my high school German is not enough to help me out on wikipedia.de).…
Life was a little different at KEXP back in 1987. The station was still called KCMU and it could only be heard if you were within roughly 15 miles of the University of Washington campus. The playlist was already pretty eclectic (as those of you who tuned into my Top 90.3 of 1987 special last autumn…
DJ Kevin Cole drops a vibey, life-affirming new music mix taking you from outer spaces to the chamber of plastic thrills. Includes new tracks from Holy Fuck, Deerhoof, Jessy Lanza, and Delorean. 1. Outer Spaces - Words 2. Amber Arcades - Turning Light 3. Holy Fuck - Neon Dad 4. Delorean - Limbo …
The last time Ty Segall was in KEXP's studio, he ripped off a baby mask and squealed into the mic before he'd even played a single song. About a year later, he's definitely more coherent in his interview - he doesn't ask Cheryl Waters to be his mommy this time around - but he&a…
When the legendary dub musician starts this session with a spiritual thesis statement ("Let Scratch arise... let Scratch enemies be scattered"), it's only the first sign that the vibe of the room is about to be elevated. Lee "Scratch" Perry may be 80 years old, but his ability …
Seattle band Pickwick has always been a band that embraces change. In their earliest incarnations, they were an ambient-folk group before falling in love with the hypnotic grooves of R&B that would be the foundation for their 2013 full-length debut, Can't Talk Medicine. Even still, the band con…
Warpaint bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg shares her debut solo album under the moniker jennylee. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes the release "brings a bit more of a rhythmic emphasis to her regular band’s brooding, goth-tinged dream-pop, while still sharing a dark sound with atmospheric guitars and …
It's scary how many great albums are coming out on this Halloween week! Highlights include the fourth album from Scottish band The Twilight Sad. KEXP Music Director Don Yates says the band, "brings back the loud, shoegazerish guitars that were mostly absent from their last release (2012’s No One Ca…
One of the joys of returning to Iceland year after year is watching young bands grow up. All teenagers when they began in 2004, and some were even still when we first discovered them back in 2009, Mammút have honed their emotionally expressive and dynamic sound over the past years into an award win…
With a healthy dose of cool Britannia, Oxford’s Swervedriver take the KEXP audience on a melodic joyride through a collection of new spins from their long awaited comeback release, I Wasn't Born To Lose You. Enhancing their legacy seventeen years after their last LP, Sweredriver are still the multi…
One snare hit. That's all the notice the audience received that the curtain around the stage was opening and Jack White was beginning the second of his two nights at the Paramount Theatre with "Fell in Love With A Girl". Just under two minutes later, he was playing the unmistakable riff to another …
