Ain't no lie: Los Angeles trio Liars wove a captivating web over us with their dark, atmospheric in-studio session. Entwined in a colorful skein of yarn, inspired by the cover for their latest release Mess, the long-running electro-punk band strung listeners along with their dark dance pop. The col…
Some bands are really hard to pin down, especially when they sound like they're from another world. Take The Besnard Lakes. The Montreal band's influences are so diverse that listing a few neglects a much wider range. KEXP's Music Director, Don Yates, nearly hits it by describing their latest relea…
Having worked with artists like Q-Tip, Kanye West and J. Dilla, it’s safe to say that Texan jazz pianist and producer Robert Glasper is well connected. His quartet, the Robert Glasper Experiment, includes three talented and multi-influenced musicians; bassist Derrick Hodge, Casey Benjamin on vocode…
On his latest album, Gotham Fortress, AJ Suede is filled with negative energy. It looms in the boom of his voice, in the foreboding rumbles of Wolftone's spacious beats (as well as cuts from SpaceGhostPurp and Brakebill). He cements the atmosphere of the record early on with the stand out track, we…
Highlights this week include the latest from Swedish singer/songwriter Jens Lekman. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls Lekman's fourth LP, "a smartly crafted set of buoyant orchestral dance-pop inflected with disco, calypso, samba and other styles, combining bouncy dance beats and a variety of ins…
The War On Drugs are following up 2014's critically acclaimed album Lost In The Dream this fall with A Deeper Understanding and today we have another single off the record, "Strangest Thing." The epic atmospheric song comes with a 8mm visual directed by Shawn Brackbill. A Deeper Understanding will …
This week, French band Phoenix rises with their sixth album to date, KEXP Music Director Don Yates loves Ti Amo enough to call it "another sharply crafted set of buoyant pop-rock with a warm, streamlined sound featuring fizzy synths, glistening guitars, bouncy beats and sunny pop hooks". Brooklyn b…
It's a good week for comebacks. UK band Slowdive return with their first new album in 22 years. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls it "a strong return-to-form of shoegazerish dream-pop with swirling, reverbed guitars, ethereal vocals, hazy harmonies and blissed-out melodies." It's been 17 years si…
LA-via-San Francisco band Thee Oh Sees return with their 11th album, a release KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls, "a more jam-oriented take on the band's adventurous blend of raw garage-rock, trippy psych-rock and motorik prog." Veteran Minneapolis duo Atmosphere release "a potent set of emotive …
It's another jam-packed week of new releases! Highlights include the latest from London-based artist Adam Bainbridge (aka Kindness). KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes the relase "finds him toning down the disco influences of his promising debut album in favor of an often-gorgeous set of ‘80s R&am…
2014 is off to a great start for new music! Highlights include the long-awaited sophomore release from LA band Warpaint. KEXP Music Director, Don Yates, declares it a "more subtle and minimalist take on the band’s brooding dream-pop, featuring a dark, atmospheric sound with swirling guitars and key…
Most regular gig-goers will agree that the best place to see a band play is in a club. Rock clubs present an intimate setting, and since the audience and the band are essentially right on top of each other, each side can feed off the other's energy. When Queens of the Stone Age took the stage on a …
Israeli shoegaze - it's no idle navel-gazing. Even amid intense political struggle and ongoing war, daily life has a way of proceeding in its usual vagaries, making mundane moments as likely as impassioned ones. Boredom, in fact, is a much part of Israeli life as it is anywhere else and is maybe of…
For good reason, Foals have earned a reputation for some wild and frenetic peformances, mixing high energy math rock with modern take on 90's Britpop. It's not really a show if frontman Yannis Philippakis isn't surfing the crowd or climbing the walls. Yet Foals have never been one-dimension and thr…
2017 is off and running with some long-awaited LPs out now, like the latest from The xx. KEXP Music Director Don Yates says, "This London trio's excellent third album brings a brighter, more varied and pop-inflected sound to their spectral electro-pop courtesy of band member/producer Jamie xx, thou…
"Voodoo in my blood is living" - that's how Young Fathers kick off the third track on Massive Attack's return to the scene after nearly six years away. And after all that time, Young Fathers aren't lying - the voodoo is still strong. Last time we saw them was 2010's fantastic Heligoland, their firs…
There's one aspect to booking Man or Astro-Man? for an in-studio session that the band didn't reveal until they were on air. "We steal one thing from you guys, and if you figure out what it is, we'll give it back." Well, we don't think they took anything when they stopped by KEXP's studio in March,…
Like goths on a beach, the dark sounds of Daughter may seem out of place on sunny summer day, but few bands make "moody" music that's not downright depressing as well as this UK trio. Their atmospheric debut LP, If You Leave, arrives just in time for the warmer weather, and you may find yourself, w…
British DJ/producer Simon Green, a.k.a. Bonobo, has been known to tear up the dance floor during his regularly sold-out shows, but when he dropped by KEXP for an in-studio with Cheryl Waters recently, the vibe was breezy and chill. Accompanied by a full band, Green featured songs from his atmospher…
April ended strong with new releases from some of our favorite artists. It's been five years since the last album from Feist, and the Canadian songstress returns with what KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls "a powerful set of dark, intimate folk-rock. Recorded mostly live, the album features a sta…
