The Triple Door was the place to be last night if you're a fan of Decibel Festival and need something to tide you over until September. The venue featured two identical back to back shows of Erased Tapes artists Nils Frahm and Douglas Dare. The two pianists made for an impressive showcase of everyt…
“Boy, the come down here was easy, like the arrival of a new day.” That’s how Adam Granduciel chooses to open the new album from The War on Drugs after a minute and a half of dreamscape Americana. As the listener, you could say the same thing. The Philadelphia band have always found a way to worm i…
Good morning! How about a little funky Afropop, all the way from Iceland, to start your morning? That's how we began our broadcast from Iceland Airwaves last month, with the 13 member Samúel Jón Samúelsson Big Band blasting you awake at 6AM. Now you have the luxury to enjoy the SJS Big Band wheneve…
It’s time again for Friday on My Mind. Our weekly blog post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News. While doing some internet surfing this week, I learned that tomorrow marks 25 years since A-ha hit #1 on the top 40 char…
Resident Advisor is among the best online magazines for electronic music fans out there since 2001, and their showcase at Decibel Festival was nothing to be messed with. Not only did they pull from local talent, but they are responsible for bringing Actress to Decibel, a feat which was met with a m…
We like to believe Sam Beam is one of our own. Though he hails about as far away as you can get, from South Carolina and later Florida, the first three Iron & Wine albums were released on Seattle's celebrated label Sub Pop. And of course, KEXP was one of the first radio stations to get behind …
Yep, it's that time again! The time when Thom Yorke and Nigel Godrich drop another album and blow any lingering competition out of the water. Together with Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, as well as Ultraísta (and plenty more) drummer Joey Waronker and percussionist Mauro Refosco, we get Atoms …
For New Order fans, it has been a long, bitter wait for Lost Sirens. In the almost eight years since the release of Waiting for the Siren's Call, much animosity has plagued the band's ability (or desire) to release any new material or tour together. And really, these are no trivial bickerings - for…
Seattle songwriter Raven Matthews goes by many names, from his birth name to RVN and now Raven Hollywood. With each new moniker, you can feel his progression as an artist. On his latest EP, IRL, the Raven Hollywood name aptly embodies the grand and murky folk noir visions. Following up last year's …
"Trouble is my name" is how Dee Dee Penny chooses to end the new Dum Dum Girls record Too True. There's a great reason - the girls are a quietly devastating storm. Their refusal to give way to the all too familiar tropes of the business means that Penny and her band members will never become click-…
Well, it is the album that beat out Nevermind in Spin Magazine's Best Albums of 1991 list: Ben Gibbard has announced he'll be covering Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque in its entirety. "Bandwagonesque is my favorite record by my favorite band of all time," he said, via a press release. "It came al…
Stephin Merritt likes to keep it clever with his long-running project The Magnetic Fields. From 1999's 3-CD set 69 Love Songs, to his recent A-Z tour (performing a song starting with each letter of the alphabet), and now a five CD set titled 50 Song Memoir scheduled for a March 3rd release on None…
While a room full of journalists listened to 22, A Million, the highly-anticipated third Bon Iver album, in the Oxbow Hotel on a Friday night in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Justin Vernon did what anyone else would do before a big interview: he smoked a cigarette. He knew he was maybe twenty minutes away…
That David Byrne is unstoppable. The influential icon was just in town, launching a run of his musical Here Lies Love at the Seattle Repertory Theater (watch an exclusive KEXP interview about it here). And now, upon his return home, he's announced a "music-related variety show" to held for one nig…
