“I'm just writing to write and to let that be heard.” Luz Elena Mendoza says she processes events and experiences pretty quickly, and it shows in her songs, full of musical ideas with vibrant energy. The Y La Bamba leader clearly has a lot to say, and in this session with DJ Sharlese on Audio…
KEXP's Resident Runner and host of the Morning Show, John Richards, returns with Volume 3 of our new Runner Powered Podcast series. It's another high energy hour of KEXP faves and new tracks to keep you moving! 1. Akron/Family - River 2. Cloud Control - Dojo Rising 3. Porcelain Raft - Drifti…
The Flaming Lips are offering some pretty amazing material in honor of this month's Record Store Day Back To Black Friday. One album is a complete cover of Stone Roses' debut album that features contributions from Foxygen, Poliça, Spaceface, Peaking Lights, Stardeath, and several others. The other…
DJ Morgan presents the latest installment of the KEXP Music That Matters mixtape-style podcast, featuring new music from Goldfrapp, Washed Out, and Stres, that acts as the perfect soundtrack as we segue from Summer into Fall. 1. Volcano Choir - Byegone 2. Okkervil River - It Was My Season 3. Gold…
Right now, courtesy of Pitchfork, you can stream the entire Divergent soundtrack. It's packed with amazing tracks from Ellie Goulding, M83, Pretty Lights, and A$AP Rocky. Jump to song number 7 to hear Tame Impala and Kendrick Lamar's much-anticipated offering "Backwards." Lamar blasts through Tame…
What a fantastic way to send off the KEXP Live Room at our Dexter/Denny studios! When the members of EL VY arrived to the station in matching polka-dot shirts, we thought they looked pretty cool, but then once they stepped into our studio with its iconic twinkling lights, we realized how special th…
At some point as an art-rock outfit, a band surpasses the need to surpass themselves. The Flaming Lips have just released a pared down and grainy video for the immersive "Turning Violet" from their latest album, The Terror. Primordial vocals emerge from deep in a Turrell-esque white room before lin…
Room Nine were, it seems, a pretty big deal in Seattle in the late '80s; like Diamond Fist Werny, they were another band doing their own thing — with their own lighting designer! — while it probably seemed like everyone around them was churning out noisy, grungy rock. Room Nine broke up not long af…
I feel like it's been a while since we featured some album-cover reviews with a solid dose of healthy disagreement and debate. And it may be a while yet, because honestly, while there was plenty of disagreement at KCMU circa 1990 around the Manchester band Inspiral Carpets' LP Life, it wasn't parti…
You won’t believe the golden light you wake up to crawling out of your tent at Pickathon. The tree-lined hills of the Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley, Oregon make you feel like you are in an other-worldly paradise. Taking a light walk around the Back 40 to enjoy the surroundings, among the sleepy co…
It's nice to pick up a relatively obscure album from the KEXP stacks and discover that it's found a bit of new life in this century. It's not exactly a mysterious discovery along the lines of Light in the Attic's release of L'amour (though I will be looking for a vintage copy of that gem next time …
Portland synth rock group STRFKR have pretty much always put on a great show. But Tuesday night's tour opener in support of new record Miracle Mile was an especially raucous occasion. As Tuesday was release day for the record, the band was a tad light on the Miracle Mile material, but with a back c…
You could feel the weight of the road lifted from their shoulders. After wrapping up their North American tour with a packed, energetic show at The Neptune the night before, indie-rock legends Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks joined us in the KEXP studios with Springtime on their minds. "It's pretty…
2011's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming didn't just turn M83 into a triple-A critical darling and unexpected commercial success, it pushed the band to become one of the biggest and outright best acts on the live circuit. Taking their records' widescreen ambitions and bringing them to life with a huge, bord…
Touring heavy records is hard. In today’s day and age, heavy-handed works of staggering genius are hardly appreciated in the album form, let alone trying to communicate that weight in a crowded room facing a loaded bar. But in these heavy times, there are those who brave the difficulties and make i…
When Beth Orton stepped onstage at the Triple Door on a Thursday night, it was a night of great change for the Norfolk singer. Bathed in a gauzy lighting display seemingly pulled straight from an Animal Collective production, Orton acknowledged that it was a quite significant night for her: "My cou…
One stage over from the Bigfoot stage at Sasquatch! Music Festival, where the perpetually-relaxed Kurt Vile was leading the Violators through a set that "languid" doesn't even begin to describe, the dance tent was bursting with bass and a flood of seizure-inducing strobe lights. Naturally, Vile did…
After four days and eighteen sessions, there was no real way to sum up KEXP's time at SXSW 2013, but Ozomatli's multi-cultural, multi-genre, and multi-lingual set came pretty damn close to summing up the wide variety of artists that stopped by Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop that week. Playing one of fiv…
Jim James picked a pretty lofty title for his first solo LP. But after a dozen listens or so, I can say in confidence that he has every reason to do so. He's led Kentucky psych-rock band My Morning Jacket for almost 15 years, releasing six studio albums and a dozen or so EPs (their 2005 LP Z and 20…
We lost an irreplaceable artist this year when David Bowie passed away on January 10, the Monday after his last LP, Blackstar, was released. Given the gravity of Blackstar and its accompanying play, Lazarus, the weight of his passing only felt heavier, leaving many fans contemplating their own mort…
