KEXP is a nonprofit arts organization serving music lovers through in-person, broadcast and online programming.
KEXP is proud to announce Live on KEXP in Bilbao, our first-ever recording sessions from Spain.
We've got new releases from a few music veterans this week. British rock legends The Rolling Stones return with their first album in 11 years. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it, "a shockingly potent set of Chicago blues. The band sounds raw and vital, and Mick Jagger tears into the set list of…
For many years, the mantle of "most consistently stellar artist" seemed to be squarely on the shoulders of Spoon, but there's an argument for it to be moved over, if it hasn't already shifted, to Laura Marling. Six very good-to-great albums that each built on its predecessor will do that, though. I…
Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of Wilco's surprise release of Star Wars (voted #15 in KEXP's Top Albums of 2015 countdown), and to celebrate, the band have done another surprise release. Check out the single "Locator" below, which you can download for free in exchange for an email address…
On April 15, Sturgill Simpson will release a new album called A Sailor's Guide to Earth, his follow up to 2014's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. Today he's shared the album's first single, "Brace For Impact (Live a Little)." In a press release, Simpson described his motivation for the album: …
The name Erik Lindgren was not familiar to me at first glance (nor, for that matter, was the name of the currently-more-famous celebrity poker player Erick Lindgren), but it turns out I have heard his work before - and even covered it on this blog. Lindgren has lived all over and been affiliated wi…
Today, we conclude our weekly series of Polish bands KEXP recorded while at the OFF Festival in Katowice with a bang. Wrocław trio Ukryte Zalety Systemu, whose name translates to "Hidden Benefits System", clearly reference bands like Gang of Four as they decry the erosion of individualism in the fa…
Some artists write songs about themselves, pulling facts from their lives in hopes of finding some mutual truths that can connect with their audience. Others create more from their imagination, searching for the universal within the abstract. Still even more operate in a sort of grey area between t…
The Mynabirds took over a year to record Lovers Know, and while that’s far from unheard of for a band of their stature and import, it’s a figurative lifetime compared to the mere weeks the Omaha pop masters had spent on their previous two albums. Of course, all those additional hours make sense giv…
The phrase "music is a universal language" is sometimes overused, but is perfectly fitting when it comes to Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate. New York native Driscoll and Guinea-born Kouyate met at a music festival in Marseilles, France and instantly clicked. Despite the enormous language barrier -…
Christopher Owens makes for one of the most interesting characters on the indie scene. His band former band, Girls, garnered mass critical acclaim in the late aughts, with a bright, unique rock sound and Owens' brilliant albeit dark assessment of the modern context of youth and progression in the c…
We couldn't describe Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires' recent Sub Pop debut any better than label co-founder Jonathan Poneman himself, who claims in his own press release for the album, "Dereconstructed is a careening, road raging, all night party of a record", adding that even frontman Bains' "…
Star Anna released her latest full-length album, Go To Hell, last summer and has been playing gigs all around Washington - and the country, for that matter - showcasing her distinctively beautiful, gravely voice to crowds of all sizes. Often, Star can often be found with her dog Forest by her side …
British band Cheatahs sped over to the Cutting Room Studios in NYC, all the way from London, to play a raw live set just for KEXP. Well, not exactly. Last month, the UK group, consisting of Dean Reid, James Wignall, Marc Raue, and Nathan Hewitt, made a quick 7-city jaunt in the U.S. to introduce th…
"Lovely" and "infectious" — mash those words together and it sounds something like Lucius. Watch and hear the band perform, and those words seem even more apt. Led by co-vocalists Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe, the NYC-based five-piece blends gorgeous harmonies and lively percussion in girl group in…
If composers like Mozart and Tchaikovsky were born today, would we recognize their work? Would they create the same kind of heady and emotive symphonies and concertos as they did in the past? Or would the history of rock and electronica bend them in a new direction? Maybe only time will tell if we'…
“I don’t care what you think,” sings the red-dressed Portland native Sallie Ford. The lyric is definitely in line with the spirit of her newest album, which has as much to do with the idea of freedom, of not being captured in any genre box, as it does with the huge punching sound of Sallie Ford and…
By now most have heard about Superchunk titling their new album I Hate Music, that it is the “dark twin” of their 2010 release, Majesty Shredding. But the only reason to care about an album name is if you like the band that’s naming it. And who doesn’t like Superchunk?? The lively rock group that r…
