RECENT ARTICLES

On December 6th, Moby, the legendary songwriter and music producer, will grace the stage of Seattle’s McCaw Hall for an intimate-yet-sweeping orchestral performance that will showcase his many career hits. The night, which will feature members of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra and Emil de Cou conducting, will most assuredly be memorable, epic, and one-of-a-kind. To preview the event, we wanted to catch up with Moby (aka Richard Melville Hall) and ask him about the performance, which will also be included in an upcoming documentary. The film, which will look unflinchingly at the repercussions of fame and material success, is set for release in 2019. In addition, we asked Moby about his choice to go sober, what opening a vegan restaurant in L.A. has taught him about people, and why he loves collaborating with musicians from the Pacific Northwest.

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Michael Franti is a generous soul. Franti — who is coming to the Moore Theatre on Monday, November 19th to debut his documentary, Stay Human, and play an acoustic set — is thoughtful and talkative when it comes to questions about anxiety and depression, spreading joy and listening to people’s stories. As someone who has battled mental illness, Franti says he’s learning more and more to lean into connecting with people, rather than keeping isolated in his art. Along his world tours, Franti says he tries to inspire the people he meets, advising them to channel the energy of their pain and push forward as the world seems to be crumbling all around us. And to preview Monday’s event, we caught up with Franti and asked him about the new album and movie, what his goals are for the works, and why he doesn’t ever wear shoes.

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Sean Daley is the rapper, Slug. And Slug is one half of the Minneapolis, Minnesota, hip-hop group, Atmosphere, which released its latest LP, Mi Vida Local, on October 5th. With an upcoming national tour slated for the group, which includes a stop in Seattle at the Showbox SoDo on March 2nd, we thought we should catch up with Atmosphere’s frontman and talk about the new album and what tour life is like. For such a prolific duo, which has created underground hits like “God’s Bathroom Floor” and “Trying To Find A Balance,” we wanted to talk to Slug about the idea of a perfected song and how he maintains the energy to write, record, tour and manage his outstanding independent record label, Rhymesayers.

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Los Angeles-based rapper and artist, Charlie Stewart (aka Chali 2na), who is perhaps best known for his role in the beloved hip-hop group, Jurassic 5, is coming to Seattle on November 8th. Playing with Blackalicious at the Nectar Lounge, the deep-voiced emcee, who has worked with everyone from Ozomatli to Nelly Furtado, will bring his charming, insightful and booming rhymes to the crowd in Fremont for a night to remember. But before he graces the famed Emerald City stage, we wanted to catch up with the emcee and ask him how his career started, how he got his name, how he developed his signature baritone and much more.

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When you hear Texas native, Leon Bridges, sing, you observe a galaxy of things. But the star around which all the man’s many attributes circle is most assuredly his innate sweetness. There’s gentleness and kindness embedded into all of his music and it’s because of these that Bridges’ soulful songwriting shines. And, not surprisingly, these same traits come through when you talk on the phone with the singer, who will perform tonight in Seattle at the WaMu Theater. But before the big show, we caught up with Bridges — who’s worked with Emerald City standouts, Macklemore and Odeaza, on recent tracks — to chat with him about his early days as a young musician at open mics, how he developed his other-worldly voice, and what he thinks about love at this stage in his life. His most recent full-length, Good Thing, is out now via Columbia.

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Brooks Nielsen has a golden voice. The lead singer for the California-based “Beach Goth” band The Growlers, who play Seattle two nights this weekend at the Neptune Theater (Sep. 7th and 8th), sings like his vocal chords are made of precious metal-encrusted bouncy balls. The prolific group, which just released a B-sides album called, Casual Acquaintances, worked in the studio with Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, to produce a more condensed sonic vibe. And while The Growlers keep experimenting with their stuff, the band is perhaps best known for their deliciously eerie LP, Chinese Fountain, a pastiche of poetry and musical profundity. Prior to their upcoming Emerald City weekend shows, though, we wanted to catch up with Nielsen to ask him about The Growlers’ early days, how his vocal tone developed, and how he feels when he writes a new song.

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Tacoma-born musician, Jerry Cantrell, is thought by many to be a guitar god. A co-founding member of the wildly popular grunge band, Alice In Chains, Cantrell’s prowess on the electric guitar along with his ability to write and sing devastating vocal harmonies, has carved out a place for him forever in rock ‘n’ roll history.

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KEXP is excited to announce a new host for the Pacific Northwest’s longest-running local music radio show, Audioasis. Beginning September 8th, Eva Walker will become the new host of Audioasis on KEXP, airing 6-9 PM on Saturday evenings. Walker, of Seattle rock ‘n roll band The Black Tones, is a born and raised Seattleite, a music teacher, and a lover of music of all kinds.

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The phone rang a few times and a woman picked up. “Hello?” It was one of his daughters. I could recognize her tone and cadence from the now infamous documentary, Searching For Sugar Man. I didn’t have a chance to ask for her name before she passed the phone along to her father, Sixto Rodriguez, the famed songwriter and star of the film. With a sweet, patient voice, Rodriguez asked how I was doing, to tell him something about myself. In the moments before the call, nerves shook me, but now, I was having a conversation with the writer of the songs “I Wonder” and “Cold Fact.” Throughout the chat, I also got to ask him about how he learned to write music, what it was like playing those first big shows in South Africa, and what he thinks about first when he wakes up in the morning.

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With a new album, Digital Garbage, slated for release this September, the iconic Seattle rock band, Mudhoney, has achieved something many groups don’t: a career spanning four decades and 10 records in the books. With the throaty, charged singing of frontman, Mark Thomas McLaughlin (aka Mark Arm), Mudhoney has been a major part of the “grunge” pastiche in the Emerald City, helping to inspire the massive groups that followed. As the Sub Pop 30th anniversary approaches, we wanted to speak with Arm (a longtime Sub Pop veteran) to talk about the origins of his band, how his singing developed and what he learned from Green River, the early band he played in prior to forming Mudhoney.

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Jack Endino is a living musical legend. From the Soundhouse Studios where he works today, Endino offers his expert attention and lends his historic ears to songs from both up-and-coming bands and Grammy-winning ones. Often wearing a neat black cap over a nest of long hair, Endino also regularly graces the stage of many local venues, playing guitar for bands still close to his heart. Known perhaps most famously for his work recording Nirvana’s debut album, Bleach, Endino was integral in the early Sub Pop days, recording a seemingly never-ending list of songs for the burgeoning label – including ones from Soundgarden and Mudhoney. As the SPF30 celebration approaches, we wanted to catch up with the thoughtful engineer to ask him how he honed his craft and what he remembers from those early years.

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