photo by Kyle Johnson
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection continues our [...]
photo by Fabrizio Sciami
photo by Rustee Pace
“Damn, I love hearing these old guys show the new bands how it’s done!” — overheard at SP20
That was a sentiment frequently shared by those who witnessed the many seminal Sub Pop bands that reformed in celebration of SP20, the two-day festival at Marymoor Park. [...]
“Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.” — Billie Holiday
Manhattan 1944. A smoky jazz band simmers. The lights come up on a regal, almost-too-calm woman in white. She seems as if she’s sat on that stool forever. The music swells past [...]
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection continues our coverage of some [...]
reviewed by Chris Estey
It’s been a big year for banging your head on the punk rock — on DVD. Long-time fans will be hitting the stores to score the release of Julien Temple’s majestic Joe Strummer bio-pic The Future Is Unwritten and of more-than-local-interest is the astonishing [...]
All photos by Jason Bergman for JellyNYC
This past Sunday, while Chicago and KEXP DJs were busy at the Pitchfork Music Festival, New Yorkers were basking at McCarren Park Pool for a blazing installment of the JellyNYC Pool Parties with Liars, Fuck Buttons, and Team Robespierre.
review by Mike Turner
photos by Jeremy Farmer
Hi folks, I’m going to keep this short since you all might be sick to death of hearing from us out here in Chicago by now. I don’t want to run the risk of over exposure after six days of extensive [...]
photo by Dan Monick
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection continues [...]
photo by Ron Henry
The typical counterpoint to the moans and groans that Seattleites have about the long, rainy winter is that the summers are beautiful and life changing. I can’t argue with that, but really, the cherry on top of the beautiful days are all the music concerts [...]
photo courtesy Darrin Noble
No, not the sleepy town in Southern California — the band from Los Angeles. Earlimart, one of the KEXP family favorites, will begin their whirlwind tour of Seattle today. They’ll start with a live performance from the KEXP Studios at Noon, followed by a FREE In-Store show at Sonic Boom [...]
It’s another great week for releases: Black Kids finally let loose their debut full-length, while Paul Weller, Dr. Dog, CSS, and ¡Forward, Russia! all return with new LPs of their own. The CD version of Nine Inch Nails‘ The Slip arrives as a limited digipak with a [...]
photo by Heather Culp
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection continues [...]
photo by Hilary Harris
Wade into the waters of this weeks talk show’s with caution… You’ve been warned. Alanis Morrisette, George Michael and Randy Bachman are on the loose. KEXP will be looking forward to Black Kids, Grizzly Bear, Jamie Lidell, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Galactic, The [...]
photo by Brett Muzzey
photo by Hilary Harris
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection [...]
Normally, I’m happiest when surrounded by thousands of old records. But there are exceptions.
This weekend, I attended a record swap. I’d forgotten how antsy they make me. Shopping at a swap is different from digging in the crates at a store, even the most esoteric, collector-oriented brick and mortar. There [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
Labelmates Les Savy Fav and Dodos (French Kiss) played consecutive sets on the two main stages today. Tim Harrington was up to his usual antics, while Meric Long a more stationary approach, but delivered a no less affecting performance. Portland songwriter M. Ward just finished a [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
KEXP just broadcast a live set from Apples in Stereo from the festival. You can go back and listen on our 14-day Streaming Archive. Check out a few photos from the set:
[...]
Mahjongg start the day (that’s not the kind of smoke you think it is!)
and the crowds are digging it!
Times New Viking
filling in the mud pits
[...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
The skies were a bit ominous in the early morning, but by early afternoon they cleared up for the rest of the day. The resulting mud and humidity didn’t stop the crowds though! Here are a few more photos from the day, and look for [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
Dizzee Rascal, Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, Tim Harrington (Les Savy Fav) giving haircuts!
lots of vendors
and more vendors
waiting in the grass
the booth
pins!
signing autographs for a listener in South Africa
talking with Pitchfork founder Ryan Schrieber
[...]
We’ve arrived and begun broadcasting from the Pitchfork Music Festival. The rain is falling off and on, but those of us from Seattle feel right at home… despite the 200% humidity! Check back at the KEXP Blog for regular updates, and listen to KEXP this weekend [...]
Now that we’re all plenty recovered from last weekend’s Sub Pop buffet and two great performances on this show from Born Anchors and Past Lives, we can adequately look forward to this week’s show, promising great sets from Battle Hymns and Mt. St. Helen’s Vietnam Band. Remember, [...]
Just a few of the many people who helped during KEXP’s broadcast from Engine Studios
photo by Jeremy Farmer (front left)
Thanks to Engine Studios for their hosting KEXP’s broadcast from Chicago this week — they couldn’t have been more generous and hospitable — and [...]
photo by Jeremy Farmer
Wow! Day 3 of the KEXP broadcast from Engine Studios in Chicago brought another amazing array of live performances from three solid Chicago bands and one pair of Kiwis: The M’s, David Vandervelde, Occidental Brothers Dance Band International, and The Ruby [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
review and interview by Sheryl Witlen
The final in-studio band of the week has journeyed the farthest to join in on the Engine Studios action we have been enjoying these past few days. Ryan McPhun and Amee Robinson, otherwise known as The Ruby [...]
This is an interesting weekend. It is between two festivals — last weekend’s Sub Pop 20 extravaganza (I didn’t even go but I followed it so closely online that I felt exhausted) and next Capitol Hill Block Party next. Still, there is no shortage of interesting things to do [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
review by L. Manheim
interview by Jim Beckmann
If you are looking for classic Central and West African dance music or just a raucous good time Chicago’s Occidental Brothers Dance Band International fits the bill. The band specializes in soukous (a style akin to [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
review and interview by Sheryl Witlen
Once in a while a singer enters a room and is so fiercely talented in his lyrical ability and charismatic, at ease and with such a field force of surrounding energy that you can literally hear the shock [...]
Has it been a year already since the last Pitchfork festival? The all-star purveyor of fine independent music recommendations, Pitchforkmedia, has teamed up with KEXP this weekend for their 3rd Annual Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago’s beautiful Union Park this weekend, July 17-19. Multiple stages, tons of new and [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
review by Sheryl Witlen
interview by Jim Beckmann
When you understand how much a band embraces the music community they were inspired by it makes you appreciate them even more. The M’s sprouted from the cracks in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village, recording in [...]
photo by Jeremy Farmer
Day 2 of the KEXP broadcast from Engine Studios in Chicago brought another round of terrific and varied performances with elements of electronica, Americana, and indie-rock from Pretty Good Dance Moves, The Watson Twins, and Bottomless Pit, but when we learned [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
review by Sheryl Witlen
Bottomless Pit are a band with deep roots and love within the fair city of Chicago. Two former members of the band Silkworm, (who had played together from 1987-2005) have picked up the pieces and started to heal through their [...]
OK, I’ll admit it: This record jumped out at me because of the amazing/ridiculous outfits on the cover. Then I pulled it out and read the comments on the front (and the fascinating biographical info on the back, which I’m sorry isn’t included here), and realized something of which [...]
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Every Friday, the Song of the Day podcast spotlights local [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
review and interview by Sheryl Witlen
Black Swans. That was the band name Chandra and Leigh Watson chose for themselves before changing their minds and simply calling their outfit, The Watson Twins. Striking at six feet tall with black shoulder length hair these identical [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
review by Sheryl Witlen
There is something to be said about spirit.  James Lewis Carter Ford, aka T Model Ford is a southern gentleman who has enough tales and more salt than most of the young musicians currently on the scene and he is 86 [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
review and interview by Sheryl Witlen
It is easy to see why Chicago loves Pretty Good Dance Moves. The threesome recently won a place among the Top 10 on FameCast, an online artist discovery site that tallies votes from it’s viewers, allowing them [...]
photo by Jeremy Farmer
Yesterday at Engine Studios, we hosted four incredibly talented bands — Mahjongg, Sleep Out, Au, and The Chamber Strings — each very different from each other. The most unique group of all had to be Mahjongg, whose assault of electronic and organic beats was [...]
Death. It hangs out patiently, or not so, beside us. I’ve come close to it three times. When I was 6, I got scarlet fever and chicken pox at the same time. My fever was so high that my mom (who was a nurse) and dad rushed [...]
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Afternoon Show host Kevin Cole, [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
review by Sheryl Witlen
The Chamber Strings have been through it all — or shall we say vocalist, songwriter, guitarist, producer Kevin Junior has been through it all. Divorce, depression, addiction, and, nearly, death. Most writers draw upon one of these experiences and filter it through [...]
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photos by Jeremy Farmer
Au is what you encounter when you step into the mind of Luke Wyland. An art student of Massachusetts College of Art he headed out for Portland, Oregon in 2005 and the rest is history. Wyland has soaked up the ambiance, mystique [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
Having just released their sophomore album, Not Even Dust over a week ago, the members of Chicago’s Sleep Out give credit to an unusual muse: Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery, a park-like site that was designated a city landmark in 1971 and the inspiration for what [...]
photos by Jeremy Farmer
Mahjongg, a quintet of experimental musicians from Chicago — composed of members include founding member Hunter Husar (computer, etc.), Jeff Carrillo (vocals, guitar, bass) and Josh Johannpeter (drums) and new members Michael DeGraff (computer, bass, vocals) and Daniel Quinlivin (keyboards, percussion, vocals) [...]
KEXP is broadcasting for the rest of the week from Chicago during the Morning and Midday shows. Currently, we’re at Engine Studios with live bands like The Watson Twins, T-Model Ford, David Vandervelde, and a whole bunch more. Today, you can hear Mahjongg, Sleep Out, Chamber Strings, and Au. [...]
photo by Amanda Allen
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Afternoon [...]
The first full-length in 5 years by Wire is one of the more exciting releases this week. While Largehearted Boy’s list of new releases lineup isn’t nearly as full as last week week’s, you ought to pick up the latest from The Hold Steady, Sunset (their [...]
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Afternoon Show host [...]
photo by Kyle Johnson
by Jason Kinnard
Have we recovered yet? Wow! Redmond’s Marymoor Park was the perfect backdrop for an amazing weekend of Sub Pop music. Despite near record-breaking temperatures both days, we’ve never seen more exposed pasty white hipster flesh than we did at SP20. Along with the scorched earth and copious sunscreen, there were [...]
As we move perilously closer each day to the immanent KEXP live broadcast invasion of Chicago this month I am reminded more often just what a vital music town and indeed music community Chicago is right now. I can’t think of another city of this scale (and [...]
by Jamie H (read Part 1)
This past Saturday night at the Bagdad Theatre in Portland was a date and location that most of the 50 girls in the Rock Camp Studio session of Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls (RNRC4G) will have imprinted in their memories [...]
Oh sure, it might not look like I’ve made much progress in the last two months. But keep in mind, each canvas has over 48,500 stitches. Sheesh.
Not only is DJ El Toro reproducing a series of classic LP covers, full-scale, in 18 gauge needlepoint, but he [...]
photo by Matthew Luem
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen [...]
Rusty Willoughby, Audioasis Benefit Show @ High Dive 7/5
photo by Jim Bennett
Last week was another thriller at the High Dive with great performances from Aqueduct, Rusty Willoughby and others, all in support of Seattle’s Summer Search. Check out more photos from the night [...]
photo by Hilary Harris
On air this week, you’ve been hearing the DJ’s feature bands from Sub Pop, especially from those performing during this weekend’s 20th Anniversary Festival at Marymoor Park from noon to 10pm on July 12 and 13th. On the KEXP Blog, we’ve also been featuring [...]
Happy birthday, Sub Pop! Congratulations on 20 wonderful years of going out of business. There’s of course tons of stuff going on with Sub Pop’s 20-year anniversary festival at Marymoor Park and all the other events surrounding it (including that “secret” show at Neumo’s on Monday with Olf-way Arade-pay that [...]
On air this week, you’ll hear the DJ’s featuring bands on the Sub Pop label and especially those performing during this weekend’s 20th Anniversary Festival at Marymoor Park from noon to 10pm on July 12th and 13th. On the KEXP Blog, we’ll be featuring one or two bands each day [...]
photo by Dan Muller
Sub Pop will host their 20th Anniversary Music Festival this weekend in beautiful Marymoor Park, the “Crown Jewel” of the King County Parks system. That’s good to know considering that’s where we plan on spending most of our weekend. The otherwise tranquil setting will be [...]
by Jamie H
Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls is a Portland-based summer camp, started in 2001, with the expressed mission to help build self-esteem in girls through music creation and performance. In other words, about 80 girls between the ages of 8 and 18 have one [...]
The Watson Twins, Bumbershoot Music Lounge 9/4/07
photo by Allie Pasquier
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you [...]
On air this week, you’ll hear the DJ’s featuring bands on the Sub Pop label and especially those performing during this weekend’s 20th Anniversary Festival at Marymoor Park from noon to 10pm on July 12th and 13th. On the KEXP Blog, we’ll be featuring one or two bands each [...]
I’m writing about this album because I had a DJ nightmare. No matter what job I’ve had in the past, there are always these corresponding dreams: a waitress who can’t find the ketchup, a student who didn’t know the test was today, a singer who doesn’t know the words to [...]
This month on Behind the Curtain, Ken Frye talks to Aubrey Bean, Assistant Director of Development:
KF: Why do we have pledge drives?
AB: Pledge drives are essential for keeping the mission going. Over half of the budget is supported by individual contributions. That’s a huge and significant [...]
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. This week we are featuring songs from bands [...]
review by Chris Estey
On air this week, you’ll hear the DJ’s featuring bands on the Sub Pop label and especially those performing during this weekend’s 20th Anniversary Festival at Marymoor Park from noon to 10pm on July 12th and 13th. On the KEXP Blog, we’ll be [...]
The wealth of new releases this week more than makes up for last week’s dearth. Check out the latest from Beck, Ratatat, Saul Williams, and Albert Hammond, Jr.. Looking for something new? Check out the debut LPs from Sunny Day Sets Fire, Paramount Styles (former Girls vs. [...]
by Corbett Cummins
We at Where the Funny Matters are excited to say that the KEXP Music That Matters Podcast has made a Comedy Edition! In it, DJ Troy Nelson and I, your humble WTFM blogger Corbett Cummins, host an hour long set of stand-up comedy that will rock you [...]
The second week of JellyNYC’s Pool Parties was another success. Former Ronette and vocal icon Ronnie Spector headlined the free show at McCarren Park Pool on Sunday and was joined by The Rabbit Factory Soul Revue, a collection of legendary southern soul performers featuring Herbert Wiley & the [...]
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. This week we are featuring songs from bands [...]
On air this week, you’ll hear the DJ’s featuring bands on the Sub Pop label and especially those performing during this weekend’s 20th Anniversary Festival at Marymoor Park from noon to 10pm on July 12th and 13th. On the KEXP Blog, we’ll be featuring one or [...]
You may or may not remember the great comedy boom of the 1980’s. Ah yes, think back — stand-up comedy had gained momentum in the 1970’s and by the 80’s, hundreds of comedy clubs were open around the country offering a platform to big names to [...]
By DJ El Toro
Sometimes a synthesizer is just a synthesizer. Which in itself is no small accomplishment. As a child in the ’70s, weaned on Wendy Carlos and “Popcorn” by Hot Butter (we had a very progressive music teacher at Kent Gardens Elementary), I was taught that a [...]
review by Sheryl Witlen
photos by Nicole Steinberg
In New York, it never will go out of style to host secret invite-only shows. People love getting invited to them, bands love playing them, and for the lucky few super fans who get to sneak in, they [...]
The M’s live in Chicago 2006
photo by Allie Bishop
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. [...]
On last week’s program, in anticipation of the upcoming Sub Pop 20th anniversary, Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman, along with Abe Beeson, brought you two classic bands from the label’s early days, Swallow and Love Battery. Read up on those equally classic sessions and [...]
How often do we get a 3-day weekend that begins on a Friday? Not just any holiday weekend, but the 4th of July as well. And it is the last Independence Day before January 20, 2009, and that is worth celebrating in and of itself, right?
Fortunately, there are also [...]
photo by Christopher Nelson
view more photos
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Every Friday [...]
in-Mates of State
photo by Hilary Harris
On the way back from their appearance at the Sasquatch! Music Festival, Mates of State stopped by the KEXP studio for a more intimate session with DJ Michele Myers. The espoused team of Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel [...]
Some regular readers of Review Revue might wonder about the disproportionate number of Sub Pop records I have featured over the months. There’s no big conspiracy or secret backdoor payola involved, it’s just that a) I’ve been a fan of Sub Pop at least since [...]
review by Sheryl Witlen
photos by Pat Parault
Each month, FRICTION NYC, a New York City-based music and culture site, curates a showcase highlighting NYC’s indie music scene, visiting acts, and DJs. On June 29, FRICTION presented Brooklyn’s Crystal Stilts who headlined the show, [...]
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Morning Show host [...]
Jose Gonzales at Engine Studios 2007
photo by Susana Mesa
KEXP is once again taking the magic to Chicago July 16 - 20 and braving the infamous heat of the Second City. Did you know that busses and trains in Chicago have air conditioning? You can commute to [...]
photo by Courtney Chavanell
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen [...]
Slowest… release week…. ever.
Pick up Earlimart for sure, or save your money for the 5-disc Leonard Cohen box set or the 6-disc Sugarcubes singles set. Check out the other boatload of reissues on Largehearted Boy’s list. Otherwise, it’s slim pickings:
The Chap - Fun and Interesting
[...]
by Damian Bradley
Thanks to a friend at Belvedere Vodka (sponsors of Rza aka Bobby Digital’s Digi Snacks tour) I was able to check out Rza, Stone Mecca and The Saturday Knights at the Showbox Sodo this Tuesday. The music was stellar (BIG props to Stone Mecca for [...]
photo by Jen Turner
Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s featured selection, chosen [...]
This past Saturday, Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman joined Abe Beeson to host a special edition of Audioasis in celebration of the label’s 20th Anniversary. Not only has Sub Pop been a hugely influential force in the Seattle music scene during all of those years, but Poneman [...]
