Jim Beckmann

Through swaths of dreamy, atmospheric psych-rock, the Tel Aviv band Vaadat Charigim explores the idea of inactivity on its latest album, Sinking As A Stone. That title is a loose translation from Hebrew; more precisely interpreted, it should read something along the lines of The Boredom Sinks In.

On Sprinter, the latest album by Torres, Mackenzie Scott doesn't shy away from big issues. The 24-year-old singer-songwriter, raised in the South but based in Brooklyn, uses her music to explore heavy themes of identity, mortality, religion and alienation.

Sprinter finds Scott embarking on a complex and rewarding musical journey ...

Whether it's their surroundings, the air, the water, the isolation or a communal appreciation of the arts, something has given Icelanders a lock on creating otherworldly sonic landscapes. Sigur Rós and Björk are the most famous of them, but if you've been listening to KEXP's broadcasts ...

"Let's get heavy," Other Lives frontman Jesse Tabish jokes before launching into an explanation of the dichotomies behind the band's new album, Rituals. Conflating old and new styles, while also exploring the balance between humanity's primal nature and an isolating modern world, the Portland-via-Stillwater, Okla., band's densely layered ...

On the heels of her unamplified Pin Drop Tour, Northwest roots-rock singer Brandi Carlile has just released her fifth and and most rocking album. On The Firewatcher's Daughter, Carlile trades sheen for grit by recording deeply emotive songs in single takes. In this live studio performance at KEXP, ...

"Family band" is a term that can evoke either wholesome '70s stereotypes or embittered alt-rock rivalries, but the London siblings in Kitty, Daisy & Lewis seem to come from a time farther removed. Their sound and style recall those carnivalesque clans of Dust Bowl days that sought their ...

Arguably New York's loudest band, A Place To Bury Strangers was ahead of its peers in its unabashed '80s revival back in the early 2000s. Since then, its members have grown as songwriters — not quite softening their intensity, but aptly refining an approach in which post-punk meets industrial ...

With Ibeyi, every song is a blessing — sometimes literally. The Parisian-born twin sisters reach deep into their French-Cuban ancestry on their debut album, which blends Yoruban evocations with contemporary expressions of love and loss.

Ibeyi's music brings those disparate worlds together, but other spirits also inhabit their songs: ...

Nashville's JEFF The Brotherhood just released a new album, Wasted On The Dream, full of big, punchy, high-octane songs that blend hard rock, metal, grunge and punk. Brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall dream big here — but not just of high production values, which seem only to sharpen their ...

Every fan seems to have a story about their love for Elliott Smith. For Seth Avett and Jessica Lea Mayfield, theirs might have started with a dog. The two friends bonded over Smith's songs after Mayfield introduced Avett to her adopted pooch, Elliott. Ongoing conversations about their shared ...

There's a lot of buzz about Viet Cong right now, and for a lot of reasons. But while their pedigree, controversial name and recognizable post-punk influences make for easy talking points, it's their ferocious energy and novel songwriting that seem to resonate so strongly with fans and critics ...

It has the makings of an indie movie plot: While a hip musician dad's wife undergoes cancer therapy, he records an album with his son. The real story is a bit more complicated, but that's essentially the tale of Tweedy, the latest project of Wilco frontman

No other group in Seattle has the reach of THEESatisfaction. Members Cat and Stas perform soulful, psychedelic hip-hop that reaches to the stars while remaining rooted in real life. The duo's new album, EarthEE, maintains a spacey, futuristic vibe that pieces together fragments of jazz, funk, R&B and rap. ...

A "rain plan" is practically unknown in the Pacific Northwest. It rains here too frequently, but rarely fervently, for anyone to need that kind of alternate arrangement. For us, rain plans are active ones — scenarios for doing and being.

Maybe that's why Israel Nash's 2014 album Rain ...

By the time Dark Bird Is Home lands, nearly three years will have flown by since the last release of The Tallest Man on Earth. In that time, while Swedish singer-songwriter Kristian Matsson spread his wings across the world to captivate large audiences with his one-person show, he was ...

It's hard to imagine something Steve Earle hasn't done yet. But until recently, the Texas-raised singer, songwriter, performer, actor, writer and teacher had yet to sing the blues. On his new album Terraplane, Earle pays tribute to those who preceded and inspired him — and, like the subject of ...

Demolition is about to begin at KEXP's old studios, and it's hard to imagine a better band than Bass Drum Of Death to figuratively tear down the walls before we do so literally. The Oxford, Miss., outfit was among the first two acts to perform at the location of KEXP's ...

Chad Ubovich has backed Mikal Cronin on tour and plays with Ty Segall in Fuzz. In the garage-rock band Meatbodies, the Californian lifts riff-heavy songs from sludgy depths into a woozy, psychedelic headspace. "Meatbodies," from the group's self-titled debut, is driven by intertwining guitar lines, thick basslines and pummeling beats.

Alvvays hasn't been around forever, but its members channel a sound that's eternally appealing. The Toronto band's Chad VanGaalen-produced debut is a smart throwback to several generations and iterations of popular music: sun-drenched surf rock, woozy dream pop, jangly twee pop, and so on.

In the studio at KEXP, singer-songwriter ...

There's nothing pretty about Girl Band; in fact, the Dublin group plays some of the most abrasive pop songs you're likely to hear. But it hasn't always been that way: Singer Dara Kiely and guitarist Alan Duggan played together in more conventional indie-rock bands before hitting upon their aggressive sound.