Howe Gelb is a goddamn institution. Over the past three decades he has released 25 albums with the mercurial outfit Giant Sand (originally known as Giant Sandworm, most lately known as Giant Giant Sand), and almost as many albums under his own name (#20, Dust Bowl, is available right now). His care…
It's been hard for us to forget the beautiful and intimate session we had with Ólafur Arnalds during our Iceland Airwaves broadcast last year at KEX Hostel. This year, when we saw that the young Icelandic composer and songwriter would be performing at SXSW, we wanted to get him live on air again, n…
With a career spanning over three decades Billy Bragg has acquired both a massive catalog and fanbase. His engaging stage presence and brilliant songwriting have cemented him as one of the most successful folk rock singers in the world. In fact, this past January he was honored for lifetime achieve…
Recently, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn declared February to be Seattle Women Who Rock Month. The announcement was spurred by a new play and history project created by Gretta Harley (Maxi Badd, Danger Dens), Sarah Rudinoff, and Elizabeth Kenny called These Streets, a fictionalized story heavily inspire…
Christopher Owens took us all by surprise last year when he randomly announced that he was leaving his own band, Girls. Girls started back in 2007 with Owens and Chet JR White, but they really got off the ground and running in the last couple years with 2009's very popular Album and 2011's pitch pe…
Bobbing for hits. Though Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard was making light of the his band's songwriting process during his interview with KEXP's Stevie Zoom, the fact is, with all the songs he's written over nearly the past decade, he'd accumulated enough songs he's grown fond of but never…
From a patio overlooking the foothills of the Cascade Mountains near Leavenworth, WA, Seattle musician, Josh Rawlings, prepares himself for a month-long writing session with famed Seattle music producer, Ryan Lewis. Rawlings, who has toured with the golden-voiced Allen Stone and is one-fourth of th…
All week long we've been reflecting back on previous iterations of the Little Big Show concert series — hosted by KEXP, Starbucks, and STG Presents — in anticipation of this Saturday's Little Big Show #20 with Pickwick and Porter Ray. (Look back at Shows 1-5, 6-11, 12-15.) Now we're in the home str…
Every once in a while, I post an album from a band that's been so minimally documented on the Internet that I feel I'm adding significantly to the body of public knowledge about them with one little blog post. This is dangerous because usually I know next to nothing about these bands. Take Ism, for…
It's been announced via Facebook that guitarist Dave Rosser has been diagnosed with inoperable colon cancer. Rosser has been a long-time member of all Greg Dulli's bands (The Afghan Whigs, The Twilight Singers, and Gutter Twins). The Afghan Whigs have scheduled benefit shows for December 10th in N…
The last time Foals were in town, frontman Yannis Philipakkis jumped off the Neptune Theatre's balcony into the crowd. It was, quite frankly, as thrilling as it was dangerous. On the band's return trip to Seattle three years later, he (wisely) did not jump from the Paramount Theatre's balcony. Pers…
To say that fans of Nick Cave have mixed feelings this week is an understatement. Tomorrow, the sixteenth studio album by the much-revered Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds will be released, accompanied by a feature-length film of performance and conversation, shot in both black-and-white and colour, a…
As the sun set on KEXP's 2016 Hood to Hood broadcast from the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, the party headed a few miles away to the Skylark Cafe where DJ Troy Nelson was hosting an evening of local music. It's a good thing the show was All Ages, because we had the winners of this year's youth-o…
If everything else in the world seems to be going crazy at the moment, take solace knowing that The Joy Formidable still shamelessly tour with a gong. The Welsh trio's stage presence has always been one that's far larger than whatever venue they're playing in – inside or outside – and the gong that…
For his latest film, A Bigger Splash, director Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love) reached out to guitar-dynamo St. Vincent (a.k.a. Annie Clark) to cover The Rolling Stones 1980 single "Emotional Rescue." Listen below. Clark said in an e-newsletter, "I saw an 11 AM showing of I Am Love at the sunshine cin…
Having played a benefit at the Tractor Tavern for KEXP's New Home campaign earlier this year, Noah Gundersen returns to KEXP play his beautifully melancholy songs for us in-studio and live streamed the entire performance online. The 26-year-old singer/songwriter, originally from Olympia, Washington…
The fact that Theoretics remixed the Blade Runner theme a few months back automatically backs up drummer Adam Gross' statement, "We're all sort of sci-fi nerds." A five-piece livetronica band from our very own city, Theoretics certainly deliver sound-wise, taking us on a funky space-age aural explo…
Last night, Father John Misty delivered yet another powerful performance on Conan, belting and gyrating his way through the title track of his latest I Love You, Honeybear, out now via Sub Pop. Watch his passionate performance below, and keep track of all these late night musical highlights with K…
