Had they come around some 25 years ago, Nashville's Wild Cub would surely have been "pretty in pink." Formed only a year ago by singer/songwriter Keegan DeWitt and multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Bullock, the Nashville group sounds less like their Music City contemporaries and more like they belong on…
Deep Sea Diver have been kicking around in one form or another since 2007, but last year, the Jessica Dobson-led group spent a fair amount of time outside of the studio, taking the kinetic pop songs from their album History Speaks on the road while Dobson wasn't playing with another guitar-centric …
Another Icelandic band whose debut we are eagerly looking forward to is Mr. Silla, a "supergroup" of sorts, led by Sigurlaug Gísladóttir (a.k.a. Silla) of of múm, and members of Sin Fang, amiina, Seabear, Tilbury and other great bands. We caught them in their studio a year ago, when they had just a…
It's not every day a musical legend walks through your door. At age 70, with some 50 years in the music industry as a performer, composer, and producer, John Cale has made an indelible stamp on the history of music alone and alongside fellow legends like Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, The Sto…
While it's hard to begrudge Alt-J their winning the Mercury Prize, many of us at KEXP were also rooting for another young U.K. group, Django Django. These London-based Scots have also created a stunning art-pop debut, though on their self-titled release, Django Django tend to favor warmer, more Ame…
Closing out this year’s video stream live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves music festival were legendary Icelandic rock band HAM. It was with a few gigs opening for the Sugarcubes in 1988 that HAM’s popularity bloomed, especially in Nordic countries (this part of the world does love their heavy …
Inspiration can come anytime; Montreal experimental trio Big Brave can attest to that. Guitarist/vocalist Robin Wattie and guitarist Mathieu Bernard Ball began playing together in 2012 when they were roommates, Robin told us after their set. She played acoustic guitar and was working on writing son…
Adam Granduciel has never been one to let success and fame get to his head. “It’s Friday night!” he exclaimed to the Neptune crowd at the The War on Drugs' sold out performance that night,.“Does anyone have any big plans for the weekend?” The innate irony of the question is lost on no one but Gradu…
Ballard and seafood are practically synonymous. Before the neighborhood became synonymous with hip bars and a thriving music scene, it was all about fish. Personally, I come from a lineage of family who left their homes and sought out Ballard. My grandfather worked out on a tugboat and his father b…
It was a show most of us have been waiting 25 years for. It took the anniversary of their 1990 debut, Nowhere, to get Ride back together, and thankfully the boys made it very worth the wait.
For Brandi Carlile, homecomings are sweet, and last Friday's concert at The Paramount was filled with intimate harmonies and an energetic stage presence as Brandi and the band sang of love, family, and connection. A multi-generational crowd packed into the historic theater as the musicians returned…
Led by Toronto veteran Katie Stelmanis, Austra's emotionally expressive brand of dance-driven pop has taken the band from the Canadian art-rock scene onto an international stage. Emotionally commanding but never diva-esque, Stelmanis' classically-trained voice is a Corin Tucker-like siren that she …
On the eve of his live performance from the 2018 Capitol Hill Block Party lineup announcement party in the KEXP Gathering Space, Seattle rapper Sol talks about his new video, how he's changed over the last few years, and the state of the Seattle hip-hop scene.
