Live on KEXP

It's always a special night (or day) when the soul journeymen Lee Fields enters KEXP's studios. Fields' energy is as infectious as that of any frontman half his age, to say nothing of the explosive, colorful sounds of his backing band the Expressions. Joining Larry Rose in the KEXP studio, Fields walks in and conquers the room moments after starting his first song with a confidence that only a man...

Their name implies that they have bad posture, but Sloucher are definitely not slackers leaning back in their desks at the back of the classroom. The Seattle outfit's locktight songwriting shows they've been paying attention to their Pacific Northwest indie rock predecessors in this brilliant session on Audioasis with Sean Nelson. Recorded 10/2/2016 - 6 songs: Flower Girl, Constant Questions, Drea...

When Finn Andrews first entered the KEXP studios in 2004, he was barely 20 years of age, but his evocative songwriting was already fully-formed. Returning in 2017, The Veils leader is more refined and potent than ever on the Auckland-via-London group's fifth album Total Depravity. Embracing "the chaos of not knowing what going on", Andrews shines through the dark in his return to the KEX...

"With the challenges in our lives, sometimes you have to go in order to truly blossom." That's the theme behind Industrial Revelation's "No Way Out But In", but it could really apply to the musically adventurous Seattle jazz outfit's entire ethos. Their energetic, unpredictable, and beautiful performances have only sharpened over their decade-plus as a group, which is on full d...

Ragged, scrappy, and gloriously unfiltered, Tucson, Arizona's Foxx Bodies only play one kind of music: loud. Leading with the dual-pronged attack of guitarist Bailey Moses and singer Bella Vanek, the punk quartet conjure a magnetically-jagged riot in this eruptive set with Troy Nelson in the KEXP Studio. Recorded 12/1/16 - 4 songs: The Walk, New Recording 25, Annie, Haunting Support the show:...

Grant Eadie's loping, colorful electronic compositions have been bubbling on tastemaker radars for some time now, but with his self-titled debut LP, the Bellingham-via-Seattle musician has crafted his most kinetic set of songs to date. Accompanied by vocalist Moorea Masa, Eadie joins Cheryl Waters in the KEXP Studio to perform a flowing, aqueous set. Recorded 12/9/2016 - 4 songs: What We&apos...

You may not be able to expect how little time the prolific Californian garage rock luminaries will take between albums or what their lineup will look like, but you can always be sure that you'll end up feeling like frontman John Dwyer looks: frenzied, smiling, and seemingly perpetually covered in sweat. Setting up as a trio for a rip-roaring, career-spanning set in the KEXP Gathering Space, Thee O...

To name your debut LP The Epic takes quite a bit of confidence, but in the case of Kamasi Washington, it's the only title that would make sense. The Californian saxophonist, composer, and bandleader's sweeping style of jazz is nearly overwhelming in its scope and scale, but Washington's virtuoustic performance (and those of his impeccable band) captures its stirring energy with aplomb in this two...

Angel Olsen excels in hitting those long, sustained notes that speak volumes, and her songwriting pairs perfectly with her rich vocals, unwinding slowly to unfurl affecting, personal narratives. Her 2016 album MY WOMAN is full of those stories - accented by plenty of those heart-shattering vocal lines - many of which are on display in this stellar session from the Cutting Room Studios in New York...

Against Me! have always operated with as much self-awareness as they have articulate, external fury, and their latest album, 2016's Shape Shift With Me, continues the more introspective-leaning trend that Laura Jane Grace began on her 2014 opus Transgender Dysphoria Blues. But that hardly means their music is any less blisteringly anthemic, so it's easy to shape shift with Laura Jane Gra...

The Drive-By Truckers have never shied away from writing about social themes, but in the light of recent events, the long running Georgia outfit recorded one of their most striking and overtly political records to date in 2016's American Band. Joining Greg Vandy in the Roadhouse, the band play four incisive and honest tunes from the record and Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley discuss the events...

Since their formation in 1979, Fishbone's kinetic, funky mixture of rock and ska has remained a singular sound, not least because of Angelo Moore and company's blend of social commentary and clever humor that, thirty years on, seems more incisive than ever. Still vibrant,  still relevant, and still stuck in your throat, the Los Angeles group performs four songs from their catalog on the...

Just over twenty years after their initial dissolution, Digable Planets took the stage for their longest reunion to date in 2016 and it's not only remarkable how in step with each other Butterfly, Ladybug Mecca, and Doodlebug are, but also how prescient their astute, complex lyrics and aqueous, groove-laden production would turn out to be twenty years later. Backed by a full band, the Brooklyn tri...

Only a little over a year before the release of their debut full-length, What I Saw On The Way To Myself, Moji Abiola and Frosti Jón Runolfsson had met on an otherwise unnoteworthy night in a Reykjavik whiskey bar. The result of that chance meeting, however, was a powerful, stirring group whose blues-streaked rock music feels far more lived in than the songs' actual age. Performing live from the K...

When Kate Tempest released a song titled "Europe Is Lost" in late 2015, she showed a eerily foreshadowing fury that preceded the seemingly unending discord of 2016. On the track's parent album, 2016's Let Them Eat Chaos, Tempest reaffirms her status as a singular figure that's both thrillingly evocative and frighteningly prescient. Tempest doesn't hold anything back during this performan...

Fufanu's electrifying live performances are what the Reykjavík outfit's sterling reputation is built on. After previously displaying it during a remote broadcast from Iceland Airwaves, the group finally made their long awaited debut in the KEXP studio in Seattle this fall, joining Cheryl Waters to rip through a whirlwind set (featuring songs from their as-yet-unreleased album) and discuss their cr...

Fémina's take on acoustic rock music has plenty of melody, but the San Martin de los Andes, Argentina trio don't ever let their harmonious voices take the backseat to their hip-hop influenced rhythms and almost percussive vocal arrangements. Clara Miglioli and sisters Sofia and Clara Trucco join Darek Mazzone on Wo' Pop to share four songs, the story of the band's beginning, and the state of being...

At the end of the band's previous tour, Okkervil River leader Will Sheff returned to a Bob Dylan lyric that he's always circled back to: "He not busy being born is busy dying". With rebirth in mind, Sheff gathered a new group of musicians and created a new musical mindset that eventually evolved into the Austin, Texas band's eighth album, Away. Joining Troy Nelson in the KEXP studios, Sh...

From trip-hop to R%26B to bossa nova - to name only a few styles incorporated in the Washington D.C. collective's music - Thievery Corporation's diverse rhythms and textures remain a vibrant touchstone to numerous styles of music 20 years after the band's formation In a career-spanning session on Wo' Pop, Rob Garza, Eric Hilton, and co. flow through five songs from their catalog and discuss the ba...

On their third LP, Sunlit Youth, Local Natives created their darkest and densest record to date, but in this pared-down performance in the KEXP Gathering Space, they're anything but that. Agile and direct, the quintet's performance shows that the festival anthems that built their reputation outside of their native Los Angeles work just as well in an intimate setting as they do in an open-air park...

When the legendary dub musician starts this session with a spiritual thesis statement ("Let Scratch arise... let Scratch enemies be scattered"), it's only the first sign that the vibe of the room is about to be elevated. Lee "Scratch" Perry may be 80 years old, but his ability to conjure otherworldly, reverb-drenched atmosphere is still inimitable. Backed by Subatomic Sound Sys...

"When I was a kid, they didn't allow rappers to reach 44 years old." Atmosphere MC Slug may joke about his middle age ("dad rap - it's what I do now!"), but it belies his sense of pride in the Minneapolis group's two decade career. Joining Kevin Cole in the KEXP studio, Slug and his partner in crime Ant discuss the experience of having a two decade hip-hop career and rock four...

Much was made of Nao's jazz backgroud when she was a buzzy artist in 2015, but the London musician's debut full length, this year's For All We Know (named for a jazz standard) displays a singer with significant funk credentials and forward-thinking, electronic-tinged production. In this kinetic session, Nao joins Larry Rose to play four songs and discuss growing up in a music-centric household, th...

When DJ Sharlese asks MASZER frontman STITCX about growing up in Tel Aviv, he immediately, enthusiastically replies "Born and raised!" As the Israeli musician points out, however, there's musical influences from all over the globe that go into the Seattle-based group's roaring, percussive rock. Even if you don't speak Hebrew (which some of these songs are sung in), there's plenty of rich...

The Michigan outfit Heaters took the “space rock” tags that were put on the band after their debut to heart, naming their sophomore outing, Baptistina, after the asteroid that was once presumed to have ended the dinosaur. Doubling down on the heavier, more gauzy elements of their music for their second album, Heaters expand the KEXP studio a swirling, acid-lined universe in session with Cheryl Wat...