Filling the KEXP studio with his breezy pop/rock tunes, Nic Hessler flawlessly paints a picture of summer by the shore with a sound that is unmistakably Californian. Originally signed to Captured Records under the name Catwalk, he halted his career when he was unexpectedly diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder in 2012. Though half of the songs were written in his teens, Hessler's debut album, Soft Connections is seamless and iridescent, complete with a head-bobbing pulse that's hard to ignore. Nearly a decade in the making, Soft Connections, now released under his own name, is a triumph, and, as KEXP DJ Cheryl Waters puts it, "love at first sound." Fall in love with Nic Hessler as he performs live in the KEXP studio:
For as cosmic as their jams can be and as free floating as their new album title appears, Built to Spill have never seemed more grounded. On Untethered Moon, their eighth studio album and their first in six years, the veteran indie rockers haven't drifted away from their roots but, thanks to produc…
The fact that Theoretics remixed the Blade Runner theme a few months back automatically backs up drummer Adam Gross' statement, "We're all sort of sci-fi nerds." A five-piece livetronica band from our very own city, Theoretics certainly deliver sound-wise, taking us on a funky space-age aural explo…
