In the seven years since Michael Angelakos shared the gooey valentine EP that was Chunk of Change, a lot has changed. Three albums later and the cute story backed by intriguing music has turned Passion Pit into the household name. Angelakos went from his bedroom to the frontman of a project that is…
Two and a half years have passed since Purity Ring dropped their debut LP Shrines on 4AD. Every time I hear that, I'm totally baffled. How has it only been two and a half years? It feels like Purity Ring have been a household indie pop name for an eternity. After a handful of one off singles over t…
For the small Barboza crowd that showed up to the Seattle debut of Mas Ysa, along with Lawrence Rothman, Wednesday night was a splendid display of left field musical prodigy. For those that didn’t, the joke’s on you – you most certainly won’t get a chance to see either of these two at such a small …
When we saw Pixies return to the scene last summer, everything moved in a bit of a blur. With the departure of Kim Deal came the immediate release of "Bagboy", the first new Pixies offering since the Kim-led "Bam Thwok" single of 2004 (which was the only original release from Pixies since they brok…
Black Constellation member JusMoni reads an original piece, “Mac Dre was one of God for us” over Erik Blood’s song “The Exchange” featuring Palaceer Lazaro (Ishmael Butler) and Tendai Maraire.
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Beach House, the Baltimore duo of Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally, are really into surprises right now. When pre-orders for Depression Cherry went up in the summer, the band's website featured hidden singles, buried in a song recommendation generator based on the user's selection of favorite past …
KEXP celebrates Indigenous Peoples' Day, commemorating the importance of Indigenous history, culture, and connection to the lands.
Jimmy and the Mustangs might be lovely people without a bone of misogyny in their bodies (they did, according to their "I swear a member of the band didn't write this" Wikipedia page, make their live debut opening up for the Go-Go's), but there are a few things about their debut album, Hey Little G…
For many, 2016's sole light was music. As is always the case in times of cultural unrest, musical artists responded to widespread feelings of alienation, anger, and fear by producing vital, overflowing works in which a listener can find comfort, escape or understanding. However, as a result of this…
Barely a year away from the release of her sixth album Short Movie, UK singer/songwriter Laura Marling has announced a new album, Semper Femina, due out March 10th on her own label, More Alarming Records (via Kobalt Music Recordings). Via a press release, she elaborates: "I started out writing Sem…
I have covered Soul Asylum in this space a couple of times before, but it's been almost exactly four years since the last time. I have had four years to dig back into the earlier, and I presume cooler, albums by this long-running Minneapolis alt-rock mainstay (They still exist! They put out a new a…
Last year, Sasquatch! Music Festival quite arguably had one of the best festival lineups in all of North America. Not counting the headliners, featuring leading voices in hip-hop, punk, and rock, the lineup was rich from bottom to top, covering a wide breadth of genres with a precisely-timed, (most…
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…
On April 15, Sturgill Simpson will release a new album called A Sailor's Guide to Earth, his follow up to 2014's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. Today he's shared the album's first single, "Brace For Impact (Live a Little)." In a press release, Simpson described his motivation for the album: …
I don't know how much needs to be said about Hasil "Haze" Adkins that wouldn't be better communicated by merely listening to any of the approximately one million songs he recorded to various fidelities of tape over his fifty-ish year career. The first song I ever heard by Mr. Adkins (thanks to a ca…
Opening the third day of KEXP’s broadcast live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves Music Festival was Icelandic singer-songwriter and KEXP favorite Sóley. Previously a member of Seabear and Sin Fang, the soft-voiced multi-instrumentalist has had a very successful solo career. She released her debut…
The gaudy, sterile synths, the contrapuntal guitar and bass, the party ready drums, and especially the high-ranging, free-wielding, devil-may-care vocals - if you were there in 2005 when Clap Your Hands Say Yeah rose to indie-stardom with their self-titled, self-released debut, you remember it all.…
For the third Friday evening in our free Concerts at the Mural series, on Donor Appreciation Night, clear sunny skies and sweet tunes beckoned fans to fill the Seattle Center lawn. KEXP truly is a community effort, and Friday night showed what the community is all about. Justin Chan won a chance to…
Over the weekend, Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic and Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan took the stage at The Neptune Theatre to discuss McKagan's new book, How To Be A Man (and other illusions). After their spirited discussion, none other than Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready introduced the two to perform a cover o…
Courtney Barnett brings us the dark, somber video for the track "Kim's Caravan" off her latest Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. She says the song was inspired by her concerns for the Great Barrier Reef, and describes the tune as "an apocalyptic tale of our world painted black w…
