Live on KEXP

Courtney Marie Andrews isn't out of her twenties yet, but she's spent more time on the road than most musicians ever will. Yet the inspiration from her newest album, Honest Life, came from her experience getting off the touring circuit and bartending in a small town, and the results are some of her most affecting songs to date. Courtney joins Greg Vandy in the Roadhouse to discuss the ch...

When My Bubba entered the studio for their third LP, this year's Big Bad Good, they didn't have any songs, but the Swedish-Icelandic duo didn't take that as a reason to not craft a new set of tunes on the spot. Joining DJ Morgan in the KEXP Studio, Guðbjörg Tómasdóttir and My Larsdotter share four songs from Big Bad Good and a short history of the perpetually-traveling group. Record...

Michael Franti will, without hesitation, say that his 20-plus year career was built on one thing: tenacious optimism. And even if you can't see it in the room, Franti's optimism radiates just as brilliantly through the songs of his new album Soul Rocker as anything else in his catalog. Franti, along with his band Spearhead, join Kevin Cole for a semi-acoustic session of songs and emotional stories...

Xenia Rubinos' evocative, electrifying voice is a singular one to say the least, and in her sophomore album, this year's Black Terry Cat, she has a set of songs that have just as broad of a musical spectrum. Painting with a hard-to-categorize set of sounds drawing from R&B to punk, Rubinos' return to KEXP is an engaging and rhythmic gem that vividly captures the musical and social experiences...

One of 2016's breakout artists, Margo Price has been hailed as a champion for traditionalist country, but that tag doesn't do her justice. The songs on the Illinois-via-Nashville songwriter's 2016 album Midwest Farmer's Daughter certainly have echoes of her predecessors, but the songwriting is too affecting and the performances too sharp to try and box Price in with the past. Joining Greg Vandy in...

The music of Explosions in the Sky has always lived up to the expectations set by the band's evocative name, and on their seventh studio album, The Wilderness, the Austin, Texas outfit continues to create singular, cathartic, and often breathtaking instrumental compositions. Joining host Troy Nelson during Bumbershoot 2016, the post-rock titans play five of the most expansive and, in every me...

Brooklyn band Caveman continues to evolve on their third album, updating the harmonic indie-folk of 2011's CoCo Beware and the expansive space-prog of their 2013 self-titled LP for a larger, more atmospheric, '80s-steeped pop-rock sound. While the concept story behind Otero War is vaguely sci-fi, the songs traverse more human terrain lyrically, focusing on existential topics like relatio...

Those Pretty Wrongs frontman Jody Stephens was a key member of the seminal Memphis band Big Star, but while he was behind the drum kit in that outfit, he's front and center on his new project with Luther Russell (The Freewheelers). In this acoustic performance, Stephens and Russell's songwriting takes center stage, riding the line between intimate and expansive with its rich melodiousnes...

If Thao and the Get Down Stay Down and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were related and they had a uniquely uncompromising third sibling it would be vocal-and-guitar-wailing Weaves. The Toronto four-piece isn't afraid to push the envelop in an free form, experimental effort to expand their own style of indie rock. Having been a band for two years and just released their self-titled debut album this summe...

Swedish rockers Peter Bjorn and John have been proselytizing their pro-60s pop prowess since 1999, but the trio really took the indie world by storm back in 2006 with their dance-floor hit “Young Folks.” Ten years later, they're still artfully writing their whistle-catchy songs like the title track to their latest album, Breakin' Point. Live in the KEXP studio, Peter, Bjorn, and John ham...

Monday afternoon may not be the ideal time for a loud, full-force rock show, but it is, however, the perfect setting for a set of winding, country-colored jams, which is what the audience received when Israel Nash and his band took the stage. The Dripping Springs, Texas musician's lush, almost psychedelic desert jams reached a new peak on his latest LP, 2015's Israel Nash's Silver S...

CHVRCHES' synth-powered anthems took the Glaswegian trio from basement Soundcloud phenoms to festival-conquering stars in the span of about 18 months, so it's to their credit that they withstood that rapid rise and channeled that velocity into their catchier, denser, and overall sharper sophomore effort Every Open Eye. More dynamic than ever as an onstage unit, the group join Stevie Zoom...

Montreal-formed band Wolf Parade, now mostly based in Vancouver, make up for 13 years of not performing live on KEXP with an extra-long set in our new studio, covering their entire 2016 EP plus two classics harking back to their very first recording. Co-songwriters Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner, drummer Arlen Thompson and multi-instrumentalist Dante DeCaro have never sounded better than they do in...

If the Rolling Stones had started their career in 2014 Chicago, they might have been called Twin Peaks. The warm, laid-back chemistry exuded by this crew of bluesy rockers is so over-the-top fun to watch that it's almost hard to not want to just shoot the breeze with them all night over drinks instead – almost! Recorded 06/16/2016 - 4 songs: Butterfly, Getting Better, Walk To The One You Love...

During the Norwich songwriter's four-year gap between releases, Beth Orton took the biggest stylistic leap of her career, springing from her most traditional folk album to her most electronic LP, 2016's Kidsticks, with seamless, deft splendor. Orton and her band join Cheryl Waters in this session highlighting two tracks from Kidsticks and two Orton classics. Recorded 06/23/2016 - 4 songs: Moon, Sh...

Channeling sounds both neon and nocturnal, NAVVI's precisely languid take on electronic pop tempers its dark undercurrents with a subtle pop sensibility. The Seattle duo of Brad Boettger and Kristin Henry perform four songs from their debut, 2016's Omni, and explain the genesis of the project on this session on Audioasis with DJ Sharlese. Recorded 07/15/2016 - 4 songs: Polychrome, In Gold, What Re...

Even though there was no explicit goal in mind when Jayhawks frontman Gary Louris started work on the songs that would eventually make up the Minneapolis group's ninth album, Paging Mr. Proust, he ended up with a set of songs that rank among the band's most gorgeous tracks. In their latest KEXP session, Louris and co. join their longtime friend Kevin Cole to showcase four songs in semi-a...

With three album released in the span of 13 months across 2014-15, there was a lot of musical ground for Wand to cover when they made their KEXP debut in July 2016. But across four songs and countless crushing riffs, the Los Angeles outfit ran through the rapidly-expanding "story of Wand”, as Cheryl Waters puts it, in this ferocious, career-spanning set. Recorded 07/20/2016 - 4 songs: Fire on...

For a glorious sixteen minutes, Boss Hog's garage rock fever barely stays on its rails, with Jon Spencer's guitar twisting and turning at every whiplashed step. Touring behind their first music in 16 years (this year's Brood Star EP), Spencer, frontwoman Cristina Martinez, and the rest of the band enter KEXP's studios for a wild, frenetic session that features an impromptu solo from DJ Troy Nelson...

Without even an album under their earth-shaking name, Thunderpussy shred like no other outfit... and outfits they have aplenty. The Seattle four-piece bring their theatrical, sex-fueled, high-octane, bluesy rock show to the KEXP studio for an extended session, complete with "pussyfooting" dancers, live on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole. Recorded 07/22/2016 - 5 songs: Speed Queen, Fev...

A native of Red Bluff, California, Margaret Glaspy moved across the country to Boston, where she cut her teeth with master classes at Berklee (regardless of whether or not she was a student at the time) and local gigs. A few years – and one set of studio sessions redoing her original, iPad-recorded version of the album – after her cross-coastal move, Glaspy's ragged, blues-affected guitar playing...

"It was like being in a car that hit the brakes and suddenly we had all this stuff to say." After spending nearly two years on the road behind their 2013 debut Wildewoman, Lucius had plenty of stories to tell on what would become their 2016 sophomore effort Good Grief, resulting in their most expansive and vivid songs to date. The quintet make their second appearance in the KEXP studios...

It almost goes without saying that anything that Marc Ribot touches turns to gold, and Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog is no exception. Aside from his own prolific solo career, Ribot has worked with captains of industry like Elvis Costello, John Zorn, The Black Keys, plus goes back thirty years and seven records deep with Tom Waits. He's been lauded as one of the best living guitar players and is now try...

A modern journeyman of sorts, 28 year-old songwriter Kevin Morby has spent close to a decade releasing music while moving through different musical outfits and cities. Now based in Los Angeles, Morby and his band return to KEXP to share the traveler's tales on the Kansas City native's third album, Singing Saw, and discuss its creation in Woodstock, NY with Cheryl Waters. Recorded 06/08/2016 - 4 so...

Maria-Elena Juarez, Christopher Garland, and Jordan Adams have been slaying Seattle clubs as Acapulco Lips with their cataclysmic six-string hurricane of a sound for a few years now, but with the release of their self-titled debut this year, they're loaded with even more tunes that highlight their kinetic, explosive sound. In this session, the trio surf through a massive, reverb-soaked wave of gar...