Songhoy Blues - "Worry" from the 2020 album Optimisme on Fat Possum Records. Malian rock band Songhoy Blues have entranced us with their modern take on traditional West African music since their 2015 debut album Music In Exile . And now, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the band have released their first song ever sung entirely in English. In an interview with KEXP , vocalist Aliou Touré told us: "We need hope. We need to come together. And when we get worried, there's no way to think po...
Sep 02, 2020•3 min•Ep. 3792
TARA - "Oceans," a 2020 self-released single. Even though they've only been together for a few years, Brooklyn quintet TARA have quickly coalesced their different musical backgrounds into the cohesive shoegaze-influenced sound they've displayed on the handful of singles they've released so far, including today's featured track "Oceans." After relocating to New York from California, guitarist/vocalist Saagar Kurani met another west coast transplant, guitarist/vocalist Wesley Deimling. They added ...
Sep 01, 2020•5 min•Ep. 3791
Eep - "Hogar" from the 2020 self-released album Death of a Very Good Machine. With the song "Hogar," 52-year-old musician Rosie Varela launched a lifelong dream. Though she's been writing songs for over twenty years, it wasn't until she wrote this love song for her husband that she reached out to Ross Ingram, who owns Brainville Studios in Sunland Park, New Mexico. “I asked him if he thought it was silly to want to record a shoegaze song at my age,” she admitted to the blog Noise Artists . Inste...
Aug 31, 2020•3 min•Ep. 3790
Cumulus & Little Wins - "Doorway," a 2020 self-released single. Little Wins is the solo project of songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Andrew Vait, also of Seattle duo SISTERS. And Cumulus is the songwriting project of Seattle's own Alexandra Niedzialkowski. Before Vait moved away to California, the two teamed up to create this song. "This song is about no-one and everyone; a collage of all the people in our life we wish we had more time with, or another chance to say all the things we should h...
Aug 28, 2020•3 min•Ep. 3789
Pure X - "Angels of Love" from the 2020 album Pure X on Fire Talk Records. It's been six years, but Austin-based band Pure X have returned with their fourth full-length, their first since 2014's Angel . The new self-titled release was written over the past three years with band members working on their parts remotely from their respective homes before reuniting to record live over six days in the Texas countryside. “[After Angel ], as far as the world was concerned, we were broken up. That was a...
Aug 27, 2020•3 min•Ep. 3788
HÆLOS - "Unknown Melody," a 2020 single on Æ Recordings. London electronic quartet HÆLOS return with a new single, released via their own Æ imprint. “We found ourselves reminiscing about some mid-’00s electro releases and feeling a nostalgia for those early trips,” says band member Dom Goldsmith, who also produced the track. “Writing ‘Unknown Melody’ back in January, it just felt cathartic for us to remember some of the good times when everything felt so unstable. How little we knew. We’re liste...
Aug 26, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3787
Anna Kaneelina - "Lilledes" from the 2019 album Anna Kaneelina on Erik Lindström Music. With the release of her debut album last year, Tallinn-based singer-songwriter Anna Kaneelina swept the 2020 Estonian Music Awards, winning Female Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Alternative/Indie Album of the Year, and the Debut Album of the Year. A self-proclaimed "urban witch", Kaneelina combines ethereal vocals with delicate melodies and vulnerable lyrics. Today's Song of the Day channels the other...
Aug 25, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3786
박혜진 Park Hye Jin - "Beautiful" from the 2020 How Can I EP on Ninja Tune. On her sophomore EP How Can I , DJ/producer/rapper 박혜진 Park Hye Jin continues to expand on the dreamy production style she introduced with her 2018 debut If U Want It while expanding into heavier house sounds, pulsing with energy. Originally from Seoul and now based in L.A., Park has expanded her sonic palette, bubbling beneath her hypnotic vocals, sung in both English and Korean. "I actually believe Korean to be the most b...
Aug 24, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3785
Candace - "Still Phase" from the 2020 self-released album Ideal Corners. Portland dream-pop band Candace have had a long journey to their latest album, titled Ideal Corners . Originally formed in 2009 in Minneapolis under the moniker Is/Is, the trio released an EP and a 7" single until drummer Mara Appel Des Lauriers relocated from the midwest to Portland. Remaining band members Sarah Rose (bass/vocals) and Sarah Nienaber (guitar/vocals) tried to keep Is/Is going without her, but eventually relo...
Aug 21, 2020•3 min•Ep. 3784
Dylan Cartlidge - "Yellow Brick Road," a 2020 single on Glassnote/AWAL. “I’m this kid who’s from a place you’ve probably never heard of, who has a weird background and a weird musical journey. And yet I'm being able to hold my own in my industry.” So says newcomer Dylan Cartlidge , a 23-year-old songwriter who combines rock and rap in a way that's garnered him comparisions to "everyone from Beck to Andre 3000," his press release confirms. On today's featured track, he teamed up with produer Jame...
Aug 20, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3783
Blimes and Gab - "Baptism" from the 2020 album Talk About It on B.A.G. Enterprises. Over the past few years, Seattle's own Gifted Gab and San Francisco-based artist Blimes Brixton have been teasing our ears with a handful of singles (like their 2017 breakthrough track “Come Correct”), but earlier this summer, they finally released their debut full-length album, Talk About It . “In order to talk about it, you got to be about it. Me and Gab have loved to prove time and time again that we’re about ...
Aug 19, 2020•3 min•Ep. 3782
Ana Tijoux - "Pa Que" from the 2020 single Antifa on Victoria Producciones Spa. The phrase "Pa Qué?" roughly translates into "So why?", and it's a question French-Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux has been asking herself since the pandemic has begun. On her forthcoming full-length, titled Antifa Dance , Tijoux vents her frustration with the current political climate during such a difficult time. Today's featured track even borrows a quote from former Chilean Health Minister Jaime Mañalich, who resigned ...
Aug 18, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3781
Postcards - Fossilized - from the 2020 album The Good Soldier on T3 Records. Beirut-based trio Postcards continue to expand on the shoegaze sound they shared on their 2018 debut full-length I'll be here in the morning . With their latest LP, titled The Good Soldier , they explore darker post-punk territories while still keeping it dreamy with Julia Sabra's angelic vocals. In an interview with Joy Zine , she revealed the story behind today's Song of the Day: "The first track we wrote for this alb...
Aug 17, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3780
Nation of Language - "Rush & Fever" from the 2020 self-released album Introduction, Presence. It will come as no surprise that Brooklyn synth-pop band Nation Of Language found inspiration in early new wave — specifically, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s 1980 single “Electricity.” Their debut LP, titled Introduction, Presence , shimmers with synths and vocalist Ian Devaney's post-punk-inflected vocals. In a press release, Devaney explains: "It occurred to me that a moment in time existed ...
Aug 14, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3779
Desire - "Escape" from the 2020 album Escape on Italians Do It Better. It's been nearly a decade-long wait, but Italians Do It Better outfit Desire return with a new album titled Escape . Fronted by Montreal-based vocalist Megan Louise, and featuring production by label impresario Johnny Jewel, Desire continue to craft dreamy disco/synth-pop. As they describe it, "Megan Louise sings tales of love & lust cloaked in an analog sheen. Shrouded in a cinematic haze. Throbbing with violent rhythm. ...
Aug 13, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3778
THE NEVERLY BOYS - "Never Come Down" from the 2020 self-released album Dark Side of Everything. THE NEVERLY BOYS finds Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio teaming up with Swedish singer/songwriter Daniel Ledinsky to explore "the unknown, the magic, the heartbreaks, and the aspirations," as they put it, on their debut album Dark Side of Everything . (The two teamed up previously to co-write songs for Blondie, Pussy Riot, and TV on the Radio.) “I’m not really good at personalizing it. We just tell stori...
Aug 12, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3777
Lomelda - "Wonder" from the 2020 album Hannah on Double Double Whammy. From the swamps of Silsbee, TX emerges singer/songwriter Hannah Read, who records under the name Lomelda , but she re-embraces her birth name for the title of her forthcoming fifth full-length, Hannah , out September 4th via Double Double Whammy. Read recorded the album with her brother Tommy over the span of a year, apparently re-recording it three different times before she was satisfied. Via a press release, Read describes...
Aug 11, 2020•2 min•Ep. 3776
Wye Oak - "AEIOU" from the 2020 No Horizon EP on Merge Records. The duo of Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack — better known to us as Wye Oak — have teamed up with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus for the brand-new five-song EP No Horizon , out now via Merge Records. “There’s this sense of communion of making music with other people in real time and space, and that’s something that had eluded us on multiple levels,” Stack explained via a press release. “We’ve known for a while that we needed to learn how to le...
Aug 10, 2020•5 min•Ep. 3775
BRONSON (new ODESZA & Golden Features Project) - "VAULTS" from the 2020 album BRONSON on Foreign Family Collective/Ninja Tune. Northwest electronic duo Odesza have teamed up with Australian producer Golden Features as BRONSON , releasing a self-titled debut album that they say in a press release, reflects "their respective needs to challenge personal struggles, both internal and external." They add, "Moreover, the trio recognized that their own battles were merely microcosms of the surroundi...
Aug 07, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3774
Mexican Institute of Sound & Gaby Moreno - "Yemayá," a 2020 self-released single. For the track "Yemayá," singer/songwriter Gaby Moreno teamed up with Camilo Lara's Mexican Institute Of Sound project for an ode to the Afro-Carribean goddess who represents fertility, water, and self-love. "She's a powerful woman of color taking all forms," Moreno told the Recording Academy . "It's a universal theme and we wanted to incorporate this mysterious and mystic figure into the song, since it's part o...
Aug 06, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3773
Pillow Queens - "Handsome Wife" from the 2020 self-released album In Waiting. Dublin's Pillow Queens were both "resonant and rapturous" during KEXP's Iceland Airwaves Music Festival broadcast last year, and the Irish quartet continue to bring that power to their highly-anticipated debut album In Waiting , out September 25th. For the first single off the forthcoming full-length, they share an upbeat, grunge-influenced track along with a heartwarming accompanying video. "The video was made in isol...
Aug 05, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3772
Crack Cloud - "Tunnel Vision" from the 2020 album Pain Olympics on Meat Machine Records. Through the fog of Vancovuer's opioid crisis, Crack Cloud emerged. “Crack Cloud was an outlet for me during the early days of my rehab,” vocalist and drummer Zach Choy explained to NME . “A way of addressing things I’d internalised over the years, the anxiety and turmoil I used to deal with in more destructive ways.” Since then, the band has evolved into a full-on arts collective of musicians, film-makers, a...
Aug 04, 2020•5 min•Ep. 3771
Maajo - "Esukey (feat. Ismaila Sané)" from the 2020 album Kuru Kuru on Queen Nanny. Though hailing from Tampere, Finland, Maajo find influence in traditional African music, combining it with modern electronic sounds. They continue to explore this fusion on their second LP Kuru Kuru , released earlier this year on Queen Nanny Records, and on today's Song of the Day, they team up with Senegalese vocalist Ismaila Sané for this infectious groove. Sané began his career in the '70s as a percussionist ...
Aug 03, 2020•5 min•Ep. 3770
Black Ends - "Monday Mourning" from the 2020 self-released Stay Evil EP. With today's Song of the Day, Seattle's Black Ends contend with acceptance against a grunge-y backdrop. Frontperson Nicolle Swims told KEXP when we premiered the track : “‘Monday Mourning’ is a pretty bleak song although it may not sound that way at first listen. it’s basically about the impending demise we all face and the getting ready for death. The character in the song goes through their week suffering and mourning the...
Jul 31, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3769
Braids - "Snow Angel" from the 2020 album Shadow Offering on Secret City Records. Today's Song of the Day was written by Montreal-based band Braids in the wake of the 2016 election, "as our collective conscience took a sharp inhale,” as vocalist Raphaelle Standell-Preston put it in a press release. She elaborates: “It’s a diary entry of sorts – a snapshot of the mind grappling with our era’s endless barrage of content and destruction, continents away and close to home. *This* moment, with our wo...
Jul 30, 2020•9 min•Ep. 3768
Chong the Nomad - "Take Two" (feat. Hollis), a 2020 self-released single. Seattle-based artist Chong the Nomad (real name: Alda Agustiano) returns this summer with the soulful jam "Take Two," a collaboration with Grammy-nominated local artist Hollis Wong-Wear (more on her here ). On a trip to Los Angeles, Agustiano connected with Hollis and Grammy-nominated producer Rogét Chahayed for an inspiring session. "Wrote it during my first big writing trip in LA and I was super sick," she confessed on F...
Jul 29, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3767
Nick Hakim - "QADIR" from the 2020 album WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD on ATO Records. On today's KEXP Song of the Day, New York-based artist Nick Hakim shares a deeply personal tribute to his childhood friend Qadir Imhotep West, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 25. (That's a photo of West that adorns the cover of Hakim's latest album, WILL THIS MAKE ME GOOD .) “He was a little younger than me, but we had a similar path,” Hakim says in a press release. “We both had trouble in school and switched s...
Jul 28, 2020•8 min•Ep. 3766
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - "Honey," a 2020 single on Flightless Records. Earlier this month, Australian psych-rock royalty King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard shared their first new material of 2020 with the single "Honey." “I wrote this song a couple of years ago,” frontman Stu Mackenzie revealed on Twitter . “It’s nice to have it out in the world.” The track premiered alongside a video directed, edited, and photographed by John Angus Stewart, in a socially-distanced manner. "Shot ...
Jul 27, 2020•5 min•Ep. 3765
Eggshells - "Unknown," a 2020 self-released single. Seattle trio Eggshells brings together the talents of the Verdoes siblings (Peter of In Praise of Folly, Can the Boy Tell Time, and Benjamin of Iska Dhaaf, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, In Praise of Folly) and songwriter Sera Han, who brings the perspective of a first-generation immigrant queer woman to their moody trip-hop sound. Today’s Song of the Day is an early look at their third and forthcoming full-length album, Hopeless Romancers , out ...
Jul 24, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3764
The Jayhawks - “This Forgotten Town” from the 2020 album XOXO on Sham/Thirty Tigers. On their 11th LP, the members of long-running Americana band The Jayhawks all share songwriting duties for the first time ever. On today's Song of the Day, in particular, lead singer Gary Louris and drummer Tim O’Reagan share vocals on a track co-written by Louris and bassist Marc Perlman. “Introducing different voices throughout the song added a new dimension to telling the story,” Perlman told Rolling Stone Ma...
Jul 23, 2020•4 min•Ep. 3763
