We knew an excellent in-studio session was in the cards when Canadian rock legends Sloan stopped by KEXP. On their eleventh studio album, Commonwealth, the Toronto quartet split the deck on an ambitious double album, with each band member taking a side represented by a playing card symbol. The four…
Some frontmen were born to brood across the stage with enigmatic allure, but Merchandise's Carson Cox is not one of them. When the Tampa, Florida, quintet arrived in the KEXP studio in October, Cox's loquacious charm outfitted the session with a series of one-liners, ad-libs, and shoutouts to fello…
It's been four years since Owen Pallett stopped by KEXP for a live in-studio, four long years. Although he's grown a beard, Pallett's new music could be described as clean-shaven, bare in its autobiographical revelations. His latest material even includes his phone number! In between performances o…
Don't think Pond a lesser Tame Impala. Though they drink from the same cosmic pool as their fellow Perthians (and share members, past and current), the Australian five-piece ride a heavier wavelength. Friends Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson and Joseph Ryan formed the band originally to play whatever the …
She'll haunt your dreams and shreds guitar with the best of them, so its no surprise Courtney Barnett chose Freddy Krueger as her alter ego on Halloween. The whole band, in fact, took to the holiday with gusto, dressing up for their in-studio set at KEXP in some inconvenient but very entertaining c…
"There are some people in tinsel costumes around me... uh... that's what's happening." When Helado Negro is asked to describe his "bandmates" in the studio, that's how he does it, smirking with just enough hesitation to leave a sense of intrigue. On his latest album, Double Youth, the artist someti…
Despite the recent years of turmoil that almost resulted in a break-up, the beat goes on for Brooklyn band The Drums. Now stripped down to founding members Jonny Pierce and Jacob Graham, it's been a three-year wait for their latest album, Encyclopedia, out now on Minor Records. As Pierce notes hims…
The otherworldliness of Iceland's landscape is never lost on those who live or travel there. Not just a land of fire and ice, it is also a land of light and dark, starkness and majesty, community and isolation. The only thing that isn't a wonder about Iceland is how artists of all kinds echo its un…
In 2018, KEXP celebrated the 30th anniversary of local record label Sub Pop with a four-month retrospective, "counting up" every catalog number in their vast discography of over 1,200 releases. Dig into the archives of our catalog coverage, featuring in-depth coverage on the history of their releases.
