Hailing from Brooklyn, NY, but represented by Seattle's own Sub Pop Records, Obits came by the KEXP studios for a live — part tribal, part rock — set to celebrate the release of their new album, Bed & Bugs. Lead singer Rick Froberg mixed his Jack White-style singing voice with a penchant for sc…
A few years ago, "chill wave" seemed all anyone could talk about, and Washed Out was among the first on the scene with the ubiquitous single "Feel It All Around". But while the fad died out, the Georgia-based bedroom composer Ernest Greene developed the his free-floating sound into a full live proj…
When Sweden's Shout Out Louds came onstage for their 6:50 p.m. show at Sasquatch Music Festival this year, the weather started to shift from sunny skies to cloudy weather, but where most bands would thrive in a warm-natured festival environment, Shout Out Louds' melancholy pop benefitted from the o…
If you saw them on the street, it's very possible that you'd mistake Black Rebel Motorcycle Club for, well, members of an actual motorcycle gang. Bassist Robert Levon Been and guitarist Peter Hayes have been playing together since high school (drummer Leah Shapiro has been with them since 2007), an…
Trends come and go quickly in music. Something can be hot one day and out the next, while some things take hold and never let go. The latter can be sincerely said of The Zombies enduring jazz-infused psychedelia, especially their handful of American hits and acclaimed album Odessey and Oracle. Al…
Montreal's Suuns make a particular kind of low-drone heavy but never "drone music" - they walk the fine line between being experimental and being simply loud rock music. There's never really been the kind of rock n roll vibes you get from other bands walking that line, but instead an industrial syn…
Brooklyn-based band Antibalas, which is Spanish for "bulletproof", released their fifth studio album last August. This release really launched them on a sizable worldwide tour and lucky for us they happened to make a stop in Seattle. Founded in the late 90s, Antibalas has never strayed from their s…
Next on the broadcast live from Kex Hostel at Iceland Airwaves was the genre-bending psych-pop/blues/avant-garde band Fai Baba. Based in Zurich, Fai Baba is the solo project of Fabian Sigmund, accompanied by a varied lineup of musicians over the years. Fai Baba began about 10 years ago, after Fabia…
The Decemberists have announced a new album to be released this March entitled I'll Be Your Girl. The album is said to be a departure from their signature indie folk and takes on a synth pop, glam sound courtesy of super-producer John Congleton, who the band is working with for the first time. In a…
DJ Alex continues his insatiable quest to unveil the freshest new sounds with this genre-hopping + globe-trotting 21-track mix packed with recent favorites. 1. Yppah - Bushmills 2. Ohmega Watts - Cosmo Knotts (feat. Stefan Otto) 3. Turtlez - Dream of Heaven 4. Wave Racer - Streamers 5. Maya Vik -…
Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by Kevin Cole, co-host of Drive Time on KEXP, is "Yemayá" by Mexican Institute of Sound & Gaby Moreno, a 2020 self-released single.
Today's Song of the Day, as chosen by John Richards, host of the Morning Show on KEXP, is "Sounds of Blue" by Morcheeba, from the 2021 self-released album Blackest Blue.
Kathleen Hanna of the Olympia feminist punk riot grrrl band, Bikini Kill, talks with KEXP’s Martin Douglas about her career, activism and why she wanted to write her new memoir, Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk.
