Last Friday saw the release of not one, but two albums from local duo Shabazz Palaces. KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls Quazarz: Born On A Gangster Star "an impressive set of adventurous hip hop combining an ominous, shape-shifting sound with often heavily processed and reverbed vocals and dysto…
Holiday weekends are never the most robust for new releases, but some exciting albums did make the schedule this week. KEXP's Music Director Don Yates points out the third release from Sinkane, a project of Sudanese-born, Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist/vocalist (and former Yeasayer/Caribou/Of…
At the end of the band's previous tour, Okkervil River leader Will Sheff returned to a Bob Dylan lyric that he's always circled back to: "He not busy being born is busy dying". With rebirth in mind, Sheff gathered a new group of musicians and created a new musical mindset that eventually…
It's been a long wait, but last week Montreal-born, Woodstock, NY-based artist Thomas Arsenault (aka Mas Ysa) released his debut full-length. (Watch his 2014 KEXP session here.) KEXP Music Director Don Yates calls the album, "a potent set of moody electro-pop with bright synths, propulsive rhythms,…
"Hey, baby, it's the 4th of July!" Digging a little deeper into the lyrics for this X song about fading love - promoted via the giant sticker on this copy of See How We Are - perhaps it's not the most appropriate tune to be cranking in honor of our nation's birthday, but that sort of incongruity di…
Mozambique-born artist Samito moved to Montreal over a decade ago with the intention of pursuing a career in music in the vibrant Montreal scene. He recently released his first full-length self-titled album last May, a very groovy set of African/Tropicalia/Electronic flavored songs with lyrics in P…
With a healthy dose of cool Britannia, Oxford’s Swervedriver take the KEXP audience on a melodic joyride through a collection of new spins from their long awaited comeback release, I Wasn't Born To Lose You. Enhancing their legacy seventeen years after their last LP, Sweredriver are still the multi…
Indicators of Autumn: cooler weather, it's getting darker outside earlier, and the new releases list is getting more robust! Just look at this week's list. We get the long-awaited new album from Interpol. KEXP's Music Director Don Yates notes, the "New York-born band’s fifth album (and first withou…
When it comes to Mike Krol, it's not three strikes and you're out. For the LA based, Milwaukee born songwriter, the third time's a charm, or rather, a Turkey. His third LP, and recent Merge Records release, avoids incarceration with a liberating blast of hook-filled garage rock, smart self-reflecti…
Local duo Shabazz Palaces have announced a new album on the way, Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star out July 14th via Sub Pop. Check out the first single "Shine a Light (feat. Thaddillac)" below, via a lyric video directed by Cristina T. Bercovitz and Jonathan Snipes of clipping. In addition to Thad…
The phrase "music is a universal language" is sometimes overused, but is perfectly fitting when it comes to Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate. New York native Driscoll and Guinea-born Kouyate met at a music festival in Marseilles, France and instantly clicked. Despite the enormous language barrier -…
Though her first band, brother-sister duo The Fiery Furnaces, caught a lot of well-deserved internet buzz, Eleanor Friedberger has truly found her voice alone. Over two albums - Last Summer, 2011's acclaimed solo debut, and the recent Personal Record, sure to be a favorite on critics' year-end list…
The kids may be off to school but former teen group Arctic Monkeys is all grown up. Now on their fifth full-length, out this week, the British-born, LA-based band have left behind any brattiness for what our Music Director, Don Yates, calls "a slower, thicker and more atmospheric rock sound, while …
