I have a personal mission statement in mind for Jazz Theater. That is, to really celebrate the fact that Jazz Is Alive and Thriving. Now! In recent years, jazz has been cast in an unfortunate historical context -- as something that already happened, and is now over. Or, individual "experts" are too…
7/14 update: The GoFundMe has since been removed. Soulful singer/songwriter Shawn Smith has come across bad times. The vocalist for Pigeonhed, Brad, and Satchel, to name a few, is currently "homeless" (i.e. he has temporary housing, but friends aren't sure how long that will last). A longtime frie…
Lou Reed, one of the most influential artists of our time, has sadly passed away today at the age of 71. Cause of death has not yet been reported, however Reed underwent a liver transplant earlier this year.
It's called Music City, USA for a reason -- Nashville has been long been a destination for Country and Americana artists, including some from Seattle. Sound and Vision reporter Lisa Craze spoke with former Seattleites Aaron English, Kate Tucker, Bradford Loomis and Willow Scribner about why they mo…
Icelandic artist Ásgeir has announced his third full-length Bury the Moon and has shared, via KEXP, the lead single "Youth" alongside UK/EU/US tour dates
It's been an incredibly rough week, but music always has the power to heal. This morning was the 12th anniversary of the “Mom Show,” a beautiful four-hour program of remembrance and reflection hosted by DJ John Richards on The Morning Show on KEXP. The show began as a memorial for his own mother af…
For the past 15 years, Dungen has been creating a unique blend of expansive psychedelic jazz prog rock that has made them an important and influential band not only in their native Sweden but around the world. With their latest album, Allas Sak, frontman Gustav Ejstes took a more concerted effort t…
Ty Segall has released a new song "My Lady's On Fire." The prolific garage-rocker has been performing the song live for a while but has never released a studio version until now. The song follows a string of singles, including "Meaning," "Alta," and a cover of the theme song for Adult Swim show Squ…
Seattle hip-hop artist Draze has been influenced by both the Seattle music scene and his Zimbabwean roots. He was kind enough to share his thoughts on Afrofuturism and some of his musical influences, and the power music has to change communities and each other.
The Queen of Soul has passed away at the age of 76.
Longtime Northwest musician Karl Blau has left for Philadelphia, where he has started a new band and released an EP with members of The War on Drugs. KEXP’s Janice Headley talks with Karl about this new project, Opal Eskar.
Joe Jackson has never been an easy artist to pin down. His first album's lean, edgy, punk-leaning pop sound has aged incredibly well and influenced a thousand bands (without Look Sharp!, I maintain, there is no Spoon), but over the 35-plus years since then he has constantly played with different fo…
Chaz Bundick has made some pretty grand music under his Toro y Moi monicker. His bedroom electronica evolved through 2010 and 2011 to incorporate more R&B textures and hip-hop cool, but in the last six months he's upped his game. From a songwriting standpoint, Bundick has dialed in to pop/R&am…
While the angular, avant-garde sound of L.A. group No Age hardly conjures up ideas of "flower power," DJ Cheryl Waters couldn't help but notice that she's only ever seen guitarist Randy Randall in tie-dyed shirts. Apparently, Randall's had a long history with this particular shirt, just as KEXP has…
The influential frontman for The Cars has passed away at age 75.
Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, Jack White's keyboardist and member of the Mars Volta, has passed away. Ownes was currently touring with Jack White in Mexico. The following statement was posted on Third Man Record's website: [Pitchfork]
Bowie. What more can I say? I certainly don't have anything to add to the conversation that hasn't been shared much more eloquently a thousand times already. (Including, I'm sure, a thousand or more versions of the preceding sentence.) A huge loss has occurred, but it's been inspiring to see the ou…
Seattle has increasingly become a more bike-friendly town. For the past few years, KEXP has proudly hosted an Energizer Station during "Bike to Work Day." And now, this weekend, August 23rd and 24th, the Gigantic Bicycle Festival continues to combine bikes and beats at Centennial Fields Park in Sno…
Seattle band The Teaching has the distinction of being the only group featured on an instrumental track from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ album, The Heist, a 5-minute song called “BomBom”, full with dramatic rises and falls that has the listener feeling like he’s in a musical storm at sea.
Hamilton Leithauser is a veteran of the KEXP studios by this point in his career, but his rough and tumble brand of doo wop-damaged rock has never sounded as rich as it has on his 2016 collaborative album with Rostam, I Had a Dream That You Were Mine. The New York City songwriter is in fine form a…
