They say great art can come from sadness, and that seems to be true for the new album from Grandaddy. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes, "the fifth album (and first in 11 years) from this reunited Modesto, CA-bred band led by Jason Lytle is an impressive return to form featuring consistently stro…
Conceived originally as a duo by singer/guitarist Brian Harding and singer/keyboardist Amalie Bruun (ex-Hymns and ex-Minks respectively), Ex Cops explore the depths of pop through a psych-tinged haze. Influences on their aptly titled 2013 debut, True Hallucinations, range from early 80's NZ jangle …
Mark E. Smith, leader of influential UK post-punk band The Fall, passed away this morning at home at the age of 60. His manager Pam Van Damned states, "A more detailed statement will follow in the next few days. In the meantime, Pam & Mark’s family request privacy at this sad time." The band ca…
The UK electronic dance music scene is just divine this fall. I know, I know, you can pretty much say that year round any year and it would be at least partially true, but this is especially true right now. Just last month, we got a full length masterpiece by up-and-coming Glasgow pioneer Rustie. T…
Musical lore has it that Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the iconic South African mbube group, was founded by Joseph Shabalala after having a series of dreams in which he heard their sounds. It goes unmentioned whether or not Joseph dreamt of 50 years of worldwide success as perhaps the most well-known cu…
KEXP has a special love for Operators in the live setting. Sure, synth-heavy brainchild of Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs, Divine Fits) would fit on KEXP's airwaves regardless, but we have history together. Three days after the band announced it existed, they played on KEXP and later in t…
Finally. This week, that's probably the only thought that comes to mind as M.I.A. sees her fourth LP hit shelves. It's just shy of three years since we first heard a sample of "Bad Girls" on Maya's new year's eve Vicki Leekx mixtape. Now, the song has been an international hit for over a year and a…
A mosh pit of all smiles is a beautiful and wonderful thing. Real mosh pits are great to start with. Not fake circle pits where following the leader dominates any true form of atomic self expression, but a real "I drank a little too much and don't mind being throw around by the couple people who re…
Dan Boeckner may have followed his own advice to “start again”, but even with a new moniker, a new band, and a self-released debut EP released four days after its announcement, there seems to be nothing preventing Boeckner from shining through the darkness, no matter how often he disappears back in…
"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-…
True to style, every year, there are one or two bands that manage to navigate the Sasquatch! Music Festival contracts and squeeze in a Seattle date right before they head east. For 2015, that band was UK electronic showcase Jungle. While they absolutely wowed crowds with their Sasquatch! set on Day…
Oklahoma psychedelic freaks The Flaming Lips have never been ones to abide by the norm. But now, we really know there is zero method to their madness. This week, they released patiently awaited, heavily marketed new LP The Terror, along with a previously unmentioned split EP with Oklahoma band Hors…
In only a few quick years, James Blake's name and reputation have grown exponentially. Back in 2010, he pioneered the "post-dubstep" genre (consisting of pretty much just him back then) with the much-loved CMYK EP. His mixture of jazz, soul, and bassy undertones made for a rich and unique listening…
With great sadness the music world learned today of songwriter Scott Miller's passing. The brilliance of his pop sensibility and songwriting were the hallmarks of his work with his power pop group Game Theory, which despite plenty of adoration from critics and loyal fans remained a cult favorite a…
When you have nearly half a century of film scores to choose from and you don the Neumos stage on a Tuesday night, which one do you play first? These are the types of questions you would ask yourself if you were master Italian composer Fabio Frizzi. Frizzi is the second four-decades-deep horror sou…
From the downstroke of the show opener "Bullet" from their new record Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, Franz Ferdinand had Showbox Sodo off its feet. "Bullet" is an easy highlight off the band's fourth LP, with its furious bass line and scream-along chorus concert ready at impact, and the…
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