KEXP is excited to present an intimate session with boot-stompin’ Southern spouses Shovels & Rope in the KEXP Gathering Space at 3 PM. The duo will present tracks from their latest LP, Little Seeds, out now on New West Records.
Before the Fallon performance, FKA Twigs was a pervasive mystery – a voice and an image spun together in perfect unity to create something entirely other worldly that you felt both drawn to and intimidated by. Maybe it was fear, or maybe it was just mystery, but either way, FKA Twigs was impossible…
Watching these videos you might be thinking: political outrage hasn't seen this much ferocity in music since Rage Against the Machine disbanded a dozen years ago. The fact is, Raymond "Boots" Riley and his band The Coup have been making socially outspoken jams for just as long and have turned out e…
It doesn't quite feel like it in Seattle — we've been alternating from jackets to tank tops, boots to sandals, all in the same day — but the Summer Solstice is this Saturday, June 21st! Due to the tilt of earth's semi-axis on this day, it will be the longest period of daylight, perfect for going ou…
While everyone else in Seattle was decked out in rain boots and all-weather jackets, the dapper Los Angeles quartet Chicano Batman returned to the KEXP studio dressed to the nines, bringing a bit of psychedelic sunshine to one of the wettest Seattle winters in recent memory. The band's ebulli…
Surprise! UK artist FKA twigs has released an EP today via Young Turks titled M3LL155X. According to a press release, the EP was made with collaborators Boots, tic and Cy An, and along with the videos below, are "an aggressive statement conceptualising the process of feeling pregnant with pain, bi…
Freshly signed to Sub Pop, Rose Windows have wasted no time making gentle waves with their "hard-hitting hippie" style of psychedelic Sabbath-influenced rock. "Wartime Lovers" is a tambourine tangled track with harmonies that swirl and captivated to boot - singer Rabia's deep and melodic voice soot…
Just about the last thing we'd ever ask for in Seattle is "more rain" - unless of course that's the name of the latest album by M. Ward. On his eight studio LP, the Portland based musician doesn't let the Pacific Northwest's soggy gloom get him down, and dares the clouds away with his initially doo…
For as good natured a duo as you're like to find, Cary Ann Heart and Michael Trent can get darker and more dangerous than you can imagine. As Shovels & Rope, they play gritty boot-stompin' roots-rock that spans between rousing sing-alongs, heartwarming ballads and harrowing tales of vengeance. …
Given the number of groups to perform at the Bumbershoot music festival and to pass through the KEXP halls, you’d think we’d seen everything. Well, it still comes as a surprise to see a band featuring a belly dancer balancing a jug on her bejeweled brunette head while doing the splits. And that is …
Both Mac DeMarco and Run the Jewels filmed sessions for the Black Cab Sessions video series — sadly, not together, but it's still pretty darn great. Watch our gap-toothed friend perform a solo acoustic version of "The Way You'd Love Her" off his forthcoming Another One, and see El-P and Killer Mik…
Born out of the humid Athens, Georgia, southlands, the music of Futurebirds washes over the ears like a welcomed rain. Utilizing pedal steel and a myriad of other instruments on their studio albums - the most recent of which is Baba Yaga, a tight, catchy collection - the band writes songs like acti…
Brooklyn-based (formerly San Francisco) shoegaze band Weekend came into the picture at the turn of the decade with Sports, a strong introductory statement that could have seen the band go in plenty of different directions in the future. But in the form of Jinx, their sophomore step mixes dense text…
The weather was still shades of gray on Sunday, but overall promised to cooperate a bit more than the deluge of Saturday. The second day of Bumbershoot kicked off with the big, warm country rock sounds of Israel Nash. Nash plays very much in the tradition of Neil Young, and marries swelling rock wi…
From pin dropping to firewatching, Brandi Carlile has lately shown a lot of range. On the heels of her unamplified Pin Drop Tour, the Northwest roots rock troubadour has released her fifth and and most rocking LP. The Firewatcher's Daughter is the first since the birth of her own daughter, but this…
Her newest album is called Have You In My Wilderness but Julia Holter doesn't typically play outdoors. "I'm not used to being outside in the sun, but I'm glad we're all here," the Los Angeles composer said after "Silhouette". This year's Sasquatch lineup is mostly a high energy affair, but Holter's…
"Are you digging our laid-back vibe?" Band of Horses band leader Ben Bridwell asked the audience during their recent concert at Seattle's Moore Theatre. Following their recently released live recording, Acoustic at the Ryman, Bridwell and co. chose to perform very loose, rootsy interpretations from…
Imagine a pair of bell-bottoms. A suede vest. A wide collar, strutting leather boots. Similarly, imagine sequins and elongated lashes. Pearls and sly eyes. If you can imagine this, you can begin to sense the spirits that inspired the newest record from Seattle soul and funk group, The True Loves. T…
