Going into Jagwar Ma’s Saturday night set at the Yeti Stage at Sasquatch, fans had plenty of reasons to be excited about the Australian trio’s hour-long set. The group has opened for Tame Impala and the xx, two other bands who have made being an introvert sound very cool again, and they've released…
When Vancouver-based band Black Mountain stepped in the studio, we got a contact high. Not necessarily from their clothing, but definitely from their heavy, sludgy, psychedelic sound. Vocalists Stephen McBean and Amber Webber trade verses over a Black Sabbath-inspired wave of droning guitar and key…
Detroit's Zach Saginaw, a.k.a. Shigeto, has been crafting immaculate and unique music over the past half-decade, most notably and consistently for revered American electronic music label Ghostly International. With a heavy jazz background, a strong love for hip-hop, and prodigious skills as an elec…
"Your hippocampus does it alright" That astute observation from Built to Spill's Doug Martsch on his cerebral ode to memory function is a heck of an understatement when it comes to Twin Cities band Hippo Campus. The young four-piece is quickly becoming the pride of the St. Paul scene with their bre…
All week long on the KEXP Blog (here and here), we've been celebrating the release of Israel Nash's latest, Israel Nash’s Silver Season. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it "another impressive set of psych-tinged folk-rock reminiscent of Neil Young, featuring a warm, ‘70s-steeped sound with expr…
The weather was still shades of gray on Sunday, but overall promised to cooperate a bit more than the deluge of Saturday. The second day of Bumbershoot kicked off with the big, warm country rock sounds of Israel Nash. Nash plays very much in the tradition of Neil Young, and marries swelling rock wi…
Coming off a great Neumos set the night before, Tanlines arrived at the KEXP studio early the next morning to deliver a flawless live performance as a four piece. The addition of a live drummer and second guitarist to the Brooklyn duo's always refreshing version of pop filled out their live sound w…
Spaced out indie psych at its finest, Dreamsalon’s Soft Stab is another piercing offering from the misty shores of the Pacific Northwest. Consisting of members Min Yee, Craig Chambers and Matthew Ford, the Seattle band crafts original and honest songs stewed in complex chord progressions, melodic b…
San Francisco has been doing the shoegaze revival right for a while now. There's something about the way bay area indie rock meshes with the sounds of My Bloody Valentine and Ride to give the classic, noisy 80s textures a brisk, airy sensibility, and the denseness of the classics is made new throug…
Spring is springing with excellent new releases, including the highly-anticipated debut (of sorts!) from Melbourne, Australia artist Courtney Barnett. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls the release, "a masterful set that improves upon her promising early releases with even sharper songwriting and …
If you caught the most recent episode of HBO's Girls, you may have heard the previously unreleased track from St. Vincent. If not, stream the song below. The track is said to be a demo left over from last year's self-titled fourth studio album. Girls music supervisor Manish Raval told Billboard: “…
Icelandic icons Sigur Rós have announced they'll be reissuing their 1999 sophomore release Ágætis byrjun this summer as a deluxe limited edition box set. The band state via their website, "the deluxe boxset edition will feature previously unheard studio recordings and rare live versions from this …
Reading's Slowdive were one of the bands that defined the shoegaze sound of the early '90s, although their career suffered somewhat in that their first album, Just for a Day, was released just as the British press was tiring of the scene and ready for some backlash. Today, they're remembered as a k…
I guess this year I'm making up for the previous lack of XTC posts in this series. The Dukes of Stratosphear were XTC in all but name, working under a different moniker to crank out a couple albums of pop genius that heavily mined some of their favorite sounds of the '60s, from Barrett-era Pink Flo…
Sisters Kara and Johanna Söderberg embody the phrase "beyond their years". As Swedish duo First Aid Kit, they've managed to capture generations' worth of American country and folk while still in their teens, and on their reverential 2012 hit "Emmylou" sounded as if they could already hold their own…
Our third Iceland Airwaves performance at Kex Hostel was Uni Stefson, who shortened his name Unnsteinn Manuel Stefánsson for his first solo outing earlier this year. This solo project is a marked departure from his past eight years fronting electro pop band Retro Stefson. His new album, Enginn Græt…
If the recent rainy weather is getting you down, take a musical vacation with Beach Day. Formed in 2011 in an uncannily-named place called Hollywood, Florida, it would be impossible for the bright sunshine of their locale not to radiate into their retro-tinged songs. A shared love of surf-rock brou…
The lore of Seattle's Motopony begins not in a dense, leafy forest in the rainy Pacific Northwest (a scene which heavily inspires their music), but in a warehouse in Tacoma. Frontman Daniel Blue set the story of the now acclaimed band in motion when, at 27, he picked up his ten year-old guitar. Wit…
Punk shows are always more visceral when you’re hurting. You’re feeling a mix of emotions, and despite how cheesy it sounds (no pun intended), sometimes the best way to let them out is to thrash around in a mosh pit and sing your heart out. Saturday night, during The Coathangers’ headlining set at …
As major labels continue to exist behind the times, artists and labels with little capital and lesser reputations are producing some of the most innovative, interesting, and inspiring music. Whether it’s creating a new niche in digital technology or looking to once obsolete formats, Agitated Atmosp…
