It may be Halloween, but this week's batch of new releases is pretty heavy on the Christmas theme, with collections out from She & Him, Jennifer Nettles, Kacey Musgraves, and Neil Diamond. I'm sure there will be more to come. For non-holiday albums, KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes the lates…
Spearheaded by recent NYC transplant and longtime Seattle DJ, musician, and writer Andrew Matson alongside Seattle DJ, musician, and designer HansmJustin, FR FR is a low-expectation, low-maintenance monthly rap party currently going down first Saturdays at Speckled + Drake on Capitol Hill. Known f…
Ever since moving to Seattle from Lansing, Michigan, in 1989, Shomari Shanks (a.k.a. DJ Sho Nuph (f.k.a. Sho Nuff) has been immersed within the local music community, first connecting with seminal 1990s local hip-hop crew Tribal Music before diving into the electronic music scene in the early 2000…
With Oh My Virgin Ears!, KEXP's (young) intern Gabe Pollak takes a first listen at iconic albums in music history. With revered UK group Radiohead playing a sold out show next door at Key Arena tonight, we had him spend some time with the band's third LP -- often called "one of the greatest albums …
If you're looking for a last-minute Valentine's Day gift for a music lover, look no further than this week's new releases. Brooklyn-based Sudanese multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Sinkane (aka Ahmed Gallab, former Yeasayer/Caribou/Of Montreal sideman) releases his fourth LP. KEXP Music Director Don Y…
Whatever "chillwave" as a genre tag was, it's dead. However, its two biggest names, Toro Y Moi and Washed Out, have both (maybe coincedentally) evolved into something a little less ephemeral: electronic-savvy, funk machines. As he's gained more prominence, Ernest Greene's initially bedroom-sized pr…
Second on today's broadcast live from KEX Hostel at Iceland Airwaves music festival was the incomparable Digable Planets. Formed in Brooklyn in 1992, the poet-rappers, comprised of Ishmael "Butterfly" Butler, Mary Ann "Ladybug Mecca" Vieira and Craig "Doodlebug" Irving, continue to push the limits …
Staten Island's The Budos Band tore through a tight set of instrumental funk and soul tinged with a heavy, ominous dose of retro stoner metal. Their set on the Sasquatch main stage drew heavily on their latest album Burnt Offering. This fourth release is a marked departure for the eight-piece band,…
Last month, Charles Bradley and the Menahan Street Band stopped by our studio to deliver a special joint session for KEXP listeners. The Menahan Street Band -- featuring members from the NYC Daptone Records soul and funk world including the Budos Band, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, and Antibalas…
Watching these videos you might be thinking: political outrage hasn't seen this much ferocity in music since Rage Against the Machine disbanded a dozen years ago. The fact is, Raymond "Boots" Riley and his band The Coup have been making socially outspoken jams for just as long and have turned out e…
KEXP's stellar lineup at Bumbershoot continues with festival heavy-hitter Michael Franti & Spearhead live on the Secret Stage. Franti has his fingers in many pots. He’s a poet, rapper, and singer-songwriter, who has been spreading positivity all over the world since 1994 with his current projec…
When every member of a band comes from other (and sometimes more commercially successful) bands, it's usually a sign that the members are either doing it as a lark or following a true passion. In the case of Portland, OR's Black Prairie, the five bandmates seem truly to be loving what they do. Comp…
Even though Little Dragon were billed before the festival-standard massive DJ on the Bigfoot Stage on Friday night, they might have secretly been the night's best dance party. The common thread between each of the songs in the Swedish band's set was their innate danceability. Moving from elastic fu…
A superstar in his native Italy, rapper Jovanotti, otherwise known as Lorenzo Cherubini, is making strides in the U.S. with a recent move to New York and a new retrospective, Jovanotti’s Italia 1988-2012, released by ATO Records. You definitely don't need to be fluent in Italian to appreciate his h…
When Lorenzo Cherubini began his career in the late 80's, the stage name Jovanotti (derived from giovanotto, meaning "young man") refered to his youth, but now, decades later, the name that increasingly became synonymous with commercial success in his native Italy is being renewed through his rebir…
Born Otis Calvin III, OCnotes is an artist, musician, DJ, author, motivational speaker, and vibrant figure active within Seattle's music scene since the turn of the decade. A chameleonic artist who records as a solo entity, as one-half of Metal Chocolates, and through his countless collaborations, …
Erik Blood has been a vital figure within Seattle's music community, emerging as a solo artist in 2009 to explore the cosmic intersections of shoegaze, dream-pop, and electro-pop, while frequently displaying his nuanced production talents with local co-conspirators such as Shabazz Palaces, Moondogg…
The name of their 2009 release (2008 in Colombia), “Blow Up”, was prescient. While the music of Bomba Estéreo is stylistically explosive, their popularity at the time of its release was just beginning to grow. We watched them ascend as their in-studio performance from late 2009 quickly became one o…
