It's been half a year since the last Little Big Show, which feels like a lifetime considering the streak the series has held in the last couple years. As it always has, the Little Big Show brings together Starbucks, STG, and KEXP to benefit a local youth arts organization through tickets sales. It'…
Filigree & Shadow was the second album released by the loose 4AD collective This Mortal Coil. As with the third album, which I covered here eight years ago, label head Ivo Watts-Russel teamed up with some current 4AD artists (including members of Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and The Wolfgang …
En uno de los diarios personales de Kurt Cobain se encuentra una lista de sus 50 álbumes favoritos. Cada mes, El Cancionero de Kurt explora un puñado de estos álbumes, agrupados bajo distintas temáticas, mientras pone el foco en la relación de Kurt con el rock y la cu…
Summer is nearly over but, on the upside, that means Seattle's biggest music and arts festival is back. Running Friday through Sunday, rather than Saturday through Labor Day Monday, for the first time in its history, Bumbershoot otherwise hasn't changed much else in their formula: a mixture of musi…
At a particularly triumphant moment in his Paramount debut, John Carpenter looks out at the crowd and smiles. "All my career I've made horror movies", he laughs, while the crowd, obviously, shouts and cheers and screams in acknowledgement. "I love horror movies", he smiles, "and horror movies will …
KEXP has a special love for Operators in the live setting. Sure, synth-heavy brainchild of Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits) would fit on KEXP's airwaves regardless, but we have history together. Three days after the band announced it existed, they played on KEXP and later in t…
Where do you draw the line between the man Ariel Rosenberg and Ariel Pink, the rock icon and sex god character he's brewed up to give to all of us over the last 15 years? That's not a rhetorical question - honestly, I couldn't tell you. I don't think there's a good answer. But then again, with a re…
Touring heavy records is hard. In today’s day and age, heavy-handed works of staggering genius are hardly appreciated in the album form, let alone trying to communicate that weight in a crowded room facing a loaded bar. But in these heavy times, there are those who brave the difficulties and make i…
Okkervil River's 2005 masterpiece, Black Sheep Boy, is one of those records that grabs you wherever you're at. If you haven't gotten the divine pleasure of experiencing it yet, I promise you, it will grab you at some point soon. There's just something about the coming-of-age brilliance of its narra…
Since he broke his band up in the most grandiose way possible, James Murphy has stayed incredibly busy - maybe busier than he was when he was in LCD Soundsystem. It seems like every couple months, there's word of a new project from James, though not necessarily musical in nature. Sure, James has co…