Author Archives: Jon Harthun

Album Review: The Cave Singers - No Witch

By Jon Harthun | Published: February 20, 2011

Through the last handful of years, Seattle band The Cave Singers has been running on a slow but steady boil, increasing intensity with every release. Their latest album, No Witch, takes that boil to a scalding fury. With a recent switch from the notable Matador Records to the well-endowed Jagjaguwar, the Rain City trio hasRead more...

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For the Benefit of Mr. Grow

By Jon Harthun | Published: February 18, 2011

On January 11th, Northwest’s beloved folkster Drew Grow was involved in a car accident leaving him hospitalized with a number of injuries, which in turn, will potentially require a number of months worth of rehabilitation. To make matter’s worse, his tour van was totaled during the incident. Drew Grow & the Pastor’s Wives have gainedRead more...

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KEXP Q+A: Scribes

By Jon Harthun | Published: February 6, 2011

With a recent KEXP in-studio under his belt, and a brand new album droppin’, Henry “Scribes” Kleaveland is a Northwest hip-hop force to be reckoned with. We got to chat with Seattle’s young MC. Here’s what he had to say. Growing up, what were some standout albums that really shaped you as an artist andRead more...

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Live Video: Khaira Arby

By Jon Harthun | Published: February 6, 2011

Beginning at the age of 11, Khaira Arby, cousin to the late great Malian musician Ali Farka Touré, started singing... and singing well! It was then that the Tombouctou-born “Nightingale of the North” rose to popularity quite quickly, performing in 1970 in Mali’s biannual music competition, which features a number of talented traditional and modernRead more...

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Album Review: The Decemberists - The King is Dead

By Jon Harthun | Published: February 2, 2011

Colin Meloy and his Portlandia posse return from the studio (...er, barn) with The King is Dead, an earthy, organic alt-country gem. This stripped-down modern marvel finds The Decemberists with their heads out of the clouds and rock opera tendencies forgotten. It’s a journey from the shanty-town tribulations of yesteryear to the wildest of Wests.Read more...

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Live Video: Small Black

By Jon Harthun | Published: January 23, 2011

Recently, Small Black shoegazed their way into our studios, hammering out a set of popped out electro tunes. The quartet’s larger than life sound gets them the all-too-frequent My Bloody Valentine comparisons, but they’ve harnessed that sound and made it their own. Humbly founded in a Long Island home one winter, the band began asRead more...

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Live Video: Capsula

By Jon Harthun | Published: January 21, 2011

Straight from Spain, Capsula stopped by the KEXP studio and showed us all that America’s not the only country producing praise-worthy garage rock. Clad in red and black, the hard rockin’ trio slashed through an energetic set of tracks off their albums Songs & Circuits (Discos Liliput, 2008) and Rising Mountains (B-Core, 2009). With influencesRead more...

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Album Review: Smith Westerns ‒ Dye It Blonde

By Jon Harthun | Published: January 21, 2011

Marc Bolan, eat your glittery heart out. Smith Western‘s latest efforts, Dye It Blonde, plays razor sharp solos and glitzed out rockers like it was 1971 all over again. This Chicago outfit time warps back to footing bills on Sunset Strip, supporting glam rock kings and queen bitches alike. With jangly crisp chords as cleanRead more...

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Martin Luther King Day: Remembering Hope, Progress & Embracing the American Dream through Music

By Jon Harthun | Published: January 17, 2011

2010 was a year of many things: of economic hardship, of loss, of social progress, and of musical innovation. Going into 2011, and more specifically Martin Luther King day, we must focus not on what we have lost, but how we are embracing the rhetoric of “hope” and “progress” and the “American dream.”

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Live Video: Shane Tutmarc

By Jon Harthun | Published: January 16, 2011

Seattle native turned Nashville rocker Shane Tutmarc summoned his old Emerald City cronies for a set at the KEXP studios. His music has graced the local scene and airwaves for a while now, dating back to his fronting the harmony-rich indie-pop outfit Dolour and then as he changed directions to a twangier act with theRead more...

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