Middle kids, in general, struggle for attention. Middle Kids (the band), on the other hand, have had little trouble getting noticed during their short career. The Sydney trio released their first single, the Ryan Adams-esque “Edge of Town," before they had even played a show. Shortly thereafter, po…
More sad news from the world of music: producer and manager George Martin passed away peacefully in his London home last night at the age of 90. Martin is often referred to as "The Fifth Beatle," as he was the one who discovered The Beatles, signing the young band to Parlophone Records in 1962, an…
Could there be a better symbol of KEXP's rebirthing in our new home than the "Baby Big Man" that is Ty Segall? Donning a creepy torn-up baby mask and wielding an adult-sized umbilical chord, the KEXP listener- and DJ-favorite artist christened the new KEXP live room with our first ever live broadca…
If you haven't already heard of the riff heavy, eternally energetic, best stage banter you might ever hear (seriously) Dude York, then we're not sure where you've been. Not only have they been on our own Audioasis recently, but they have been dropping bomb after bomb of incredible EP's since their …
She may be young (she just turned 22 in March), but New York's Frankie Cosmos (real name: Greta Kline) literally has too many albums to count, in that, I tried, and I got tired of counting. With album titles like the landlord LOVES restaurants! (2011) and Collaborative Farting (2011), and song titl…
This week, Sacred Bones invites a second filmmaker into their musical midst. Much like his label predecessor David Lynch, John Carpenter has influenced numerous generations across every genre with both his films and his music. Afrika Bambaataa sampled the Assault on Precinct 13 soundtrack on "Bamba…
Our friends at Merge Records are celebrating their 25th Anniversary all year long -- not only with our recent SXSW showcase, a buncha great reissues, and a 25K run, but with Merge 25, a four-day music festival taking place July 23rd through 26th in the label's hometown of Carrboro, NC. They've jus…
Drum machines, laptops and keyboards don't generally lend themselves to physical expression in music. In many cases, the minute adjustments that can change an entire track are invisible to audiences during electronic performances. The Seattle group Kingdom Crumbs, on the other hand, is captivating …
Every so often (OK, fairly regularly) I pull out a record with a name that seems vaguely familiar only to realize that I am way out of my depth. Peter Hammill has a long, storied, and critically acclaimed career that is pretty much the reason they invented things like Wikipedia and Allmusic.com. I …
Cambridge's WMBR, in addition to being key to the development of my musical tastes in general, is a big part of my fascination with these old records and what a bunch of college DJs thought of them. There was (and I'm sure still is) a lot to love about the station, but Pipeline!, their weekly local…
National Volunteer Week is an opportunity to celebrate the impact of volunteer service. .
We often forget, but even Patti Smith -- an icon who has inspired and influenced a generation -- had her own musical idols in her youth, in this case, Bob Dylan. As you may have heard by now, Smith was invited to perform at the induction ceremony for Dylan's Nobel Peace Prize for Literature, and s…
Every year, it seems like the number of music festival in the great Pacific Northwest grows. While it's easy to get cynical about the overlap and general spectator approach to the music, there are diamonds in the rough. Of these, Pickathon, located on the beautiful Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley, O…
By the end of Greg Dulli's second set of the night at The Triple Door, there were an atypically low number of dead bodies that had sung about by the Cincinnati songwriter. But while the fictional body count remained low, there were a few overeager audience members that might have pushed up the numb…
Electronic music’s second massive wave of popularity is in full swing. For the first time since disco, Top 40 music is far more influenced by modern dance trends than traditional R&B or rock elements. By and large, the highest paid DJs do better than the highest paid rappers. After being critic…
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…
Each week, The Cobain 50 podcast digs into albums Kurt Cobain listed in his journal as his "Top 50" and how they may have influenced him and Nirvana.
The MusicfestNW / Project Pabst teamup makes plenty of sense on paper - one had a great location on the Portland Waterfront last year, and one had a truly unique, interesting lineup - and at the end of day one of the newly-combined fests, it turns out it works in practice too. Despite being sold ou…
Julian Casablancas kicked off his Showbox set Thursday night with an eleven minute experimental track about the corruption of the music industry and the doom of creativity called "Human Sadness". It is truly a new era for one of our generation's best songwriters, personally coming full circle with …
