It's not just because they're young (or high) that brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall consider the "classics" bands like Pixies, Beck, and My Bloody Valentine. JEFF the Brotherhood draw from some fairly obvious influences for their sludgy punk-metal sound, but on their new EP, Dig the Classics, the Orr…
Few bands generate as much excitement among KEXP listeners as alt-J. We followed their stratospheric rise from the beginning and even helped stoke the fire of the early buzz by which they burned brightly. The anticipation of their sophomore album was almost unbearable, though, particularly followin…
It's not like Conor Oberst needs much help sounding great. The Omaha, NE, native has been writing and performing with various projects, most notably with Bright Eyes, since his early teens, and he is a co-founder of not one but two independent labels: Saddle Creek and Team Love. In other words, we …
Last time we caught up with Temples, they were blasting off from the propulsive buzz following the release of their debut, Sun Structures. Months of touring later, the young UK band are veterans of the road, fitting easily into the retro sounds that inspire them like a pair of well worn leather pan…
The lore of Seattle's Motopony begins not in a dense, leafy forest in the rainy Pacific Northwest (a scene which heavily inspires their music), but in a warehouse in Tacoma. Frontman Daniel Blue set the story of the now acclaimed band in motion when, at 27, he picked up his ten year-old guitar. Wit…
The New Pornographers have always had a knack for explosive, shining melodies, but after two relatively experimental, more mellow albums, they've returned to playing to their strengths – multi-part harmonies and agile, punchy performances – on their new album, Brill Bruisers. The Vancouver supergro…
Tycho has seen a marvelous ascent to brilliance in the last couple years. With each album, Scott Hansen seems to find himself in a brighter sense of awareness and emersion in the beautiful, captivating world that the music of Tycho embodies. The band is now two albums deep with a fleshed out live s…
First there was the Rat Pack, then the Brat Pack, and now... the Mac Pack? The uniforms may have changed – from suits to cardigans to oversized t-shirts and backwards-facing baseball caps – but the life-is-to-be-lived attitude of today's scene makers hasn't. Singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco embodies t…
For a band celebrating The Age of Fracture, CYMBALS sure form a cohesive sound. On their debut, the UK foursome may shirk "concepts", but their songs are nevertheless about ideas – about "action and desire", "the city", "working", "love" and so much more – but they're even more about dancing and el…
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.
