KEXP Live Performances Podcast

The compositions of the Iraqi oud composer and performer Rahim AlHaj do not have lyrics, but the tension, force, and vitality of his songs speak volumes about the power of music in the face of terrible strife. Backed by a string quartet and bassist on Wo'

Embodying the sounds and spirit of New Orleans' French Quarter for more than four decades, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band is nothing short of an institution of American jazz music. Still touring extensively, the energy of the New Orleans-style jazz compo

Louder, Faster, Better, and More Romantic, Cataldo leader Eric Anderson took a few cues from the bliss of his long-term relationship on his new album Keepers, and the LP's rich, buoyant tone both embodies the satisfaction Anderson has in his own life whil

“This is my work. This is what I do.” Mitski Miyazaki lays her manifesto out early on in her return trip to the KEXP Live Room with a full band to follow up the solo session she performed shortly after the release of 2016's masterful Puberty 2. A year on

The Kyiv folk quartet DakhaBrakha created their latest album Шлях (English: The Road) as a tribute to their Motherland, and in this vital session, it's easy to hear the multitude of voices both figurative and literal that make up a stirring snapshot of a

It's impossible to say the name of the Melbourne sextet King Gizzard & Lizard Wizard without conjuring images of fantastical garage fury and on each of their records, the prolific group have only further honed their scuzzy, slashing rock with tones both s

The long-running group Tinariwen hail from Mail, but there's nothing lost in translation with the collective's spiraling, sprawling guitar visions that glide across headphones with as much richness as the languid works of Kurt Vile or Alain Johannes (who

When Sera Cahoone moved to Seattle, forcing herself to play open mic nights at the (now-defunct venue) OK Hotel was only the beginning of a career that would lead her to literally play on top of the Space Needle. In her far-closer-to-the-ground return to

Although they've been constant staples in Seattle venues, it had been more than four years since Dude York's last KEXP session, but with the release of their sophomore LP Sincerely, the self-styled “America's Band” have triumphantly returned with a new se

Kate Tempest's performance of the first half of her 2016 opus Let Them Eat Chaos at KEXP's broadcast from Iceland Airwaves 2016 was a highlight of both the festival and the whole year, so it's no surprise that her return trip to KEXP's Seattle studio is y

With his previous record, Timothy Showalter sought to look inward. On his latest LP as Strand of Oaks, Hard Love, Showalter is looking outward with his most expansive and expressive songs to date. Opening with the crushing, lengthy, and affecting “Taking

From his beginning with a pen and paper in 2009 to the release of his 2017 full-length debut Watercolor, Porter Ray has been one of the increasingly prominent, hardest-working talents in Seattle for some time. His art has never been more fully realized th

There's a low-key nuance to Haley Heynderickx's silvery guitar-based songs, but their brilliance radiates through stronger at a quieter level. That's to say nothing of the Portland-based artist's positivity-seeking outlook (“We saw a bald eagle and five r

Tommy Stinson put Bash & Pop on hold for just over two decades before reviving it last year, but the Minneapolis group's raucous, delightfully unhinged energy remains intact because, as the onetime Replacement says, “I'm not pretending to be anything othe

After taking time to do projects that allowed him to, in his own words, “take some time off from being Jens Lekman,” the Swedish musician has returned to his day job of being himself with his latest LP, the cleverly-titled Life Will See You Now. Returnin