Whether you're feeling moody or in a mood to dance, you'll find what you need among this week's new releases. Topping the list of must-buys in record stores today comes from U.K. trio Daughter, who were a standout during our CMJ broadcast last year with their highly emotive and engaging performanc…
BSH. BSH. BSH. BSH. The sound of four defiant cymbal crashes spreads out across Pike Street. It's Seattle band COSMOS’ turn at the main stage. Melding hip hop, jazz, and funk in a high-energy set, the Seattle band proves yet again why they won last year’s Sound Off! contest, an annual battle of the…
Welcome to 'Pacific Notions' with DJ Alex. Every Sunday morning from 6-9 a.m PT, 'Pacific Notions' will showcase the best in neo-classical and ambient music, with explorations into downtempo, new age, post-rock, and other atmospheric styles.
While traditional classical music has long found a home…
The Seattle International Film Festival has had a succulent series of movies based on sounds for a while, sponsored by KEXP and called Face The Music. Whether they be documentaries or fictional narratives or band concerts or somewhere in between, up to a dozen independent and/or international films…
Chaz Bundick has made some pretty grand music under his Toro y Moi monicker. His bedroom electronica evolved through 2010 and 2011 to incorporate more R&B textures and hip-hop cool, but in the last six months he's upped his game. From a songwriting standpoint, Bundick has dialed in to pop/R&am…
It's Friday night at the Showbox and there's a singer on stage waltzing through "My Favorite Things" from The Sound Of Music and at the end of her final stanza, the band behind her crash in and a Danny Brown verse recited by Spank Rock (perhaps one of the only rappers who could conceivably match Br…
Australia's golden child of the past couple years, Courtney Barnett, has released a brand new old song, a track she used to perform often at open mics when she was just starting out. Titled "How To Boil An Egg," it has finally been recorded and released for our listening pleasure. The single is bei…
Miami-based garage rockers Jacuzzi Boys have launched a new label Mag Mag, and who better to be on their first release but the Grandfather of Punk himself, Iggy Pop. Check out the single "Asshole Blues" below, officially out April 21st as the first in a series of flexi-discs. In an interview with …
It sounds like NPR may have bitten off more than they could chew. When they opened up the NPR Music's Tiny Desk competition recently, they were searching for some of the best unsigned, undiscovered talent in the country. But when they found themselves awash with roughly 6,000 submissions, many of t…
I would've loved to see the faces on the suburban stay-at-home parents when UK post-punk band Savages took the stage on Ellen yesterday afternoon. "I love finding new, interesting, unique music, and I love this next band," Ellen said in her introduction. Watch them perform the track "Adore" below.…
This past week, L.A. rapper Kendrick Lamar unleashed his latest, untitled unmastered, seemingly out of nowhere. The album consists of eight previously unreleased outtakes from his To Pimp A Butterfly recording sessions, which KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes "holds together remarkably well, comb…
Kastle is the alias of Los Angeles-based DJ/producer Barrett Richards, a constantly evolving and forward-thinking artist that also runs the hotly-tipped Symbols record label. Initially emerging onto the scene with a fresh club sound that fused house, R&B, bass, and pop in a seamless fashion, hi…
Brooklyn-based popsters The Pains of Being Pure at Heart announce a new EP today, Hell, out November 13th via their own cleverly-named label, Painbow. Today, they share a track from that, a cover of the 1993 single "Laid" from Manchester band James, which you've surely heard on The Morning Show on…
Longtime KEXP faves Low return with their 11th album, Ones and Sixes, on September 11th via Sub Pop. The latest from the pride of Duluth, MN was co-produced by the band themselves along with engineer BJ Burton at Justin Vernon’s April Base Studios in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Stream the full-length b…
Joe Jackson has never been an easy artist to pin down. His first album's lean, edgy, punk-leaning pop sound has aged incredibly well and influenced a thousand bands (without Look Sharp!, I maintain, there is no Spoon), but over the 35-plus years since then he has constantly played with different fo…
This week, soulster Matthew E. White unleashes his sophomore full-length Fresh Blood, which KEXP Music Director Don Yates describes as "a well-crafted set of soul-inflected pop, featuring a warm, full-bodied though intimate sound, impeccably arranged with lush strings, soulful horns, piano, soft vo…
