F!RES - "The Lonely Sea" from the 2021 self-released album High Tide. Ballard-based band F!RES pay tribute to the late Shawn Smith on today's Song of the Day. The local legend had lent his distinctive vocals to bands like Brad, Satchel, Pigeonhed, and The Twilight Singers, as well as his solo material. And he also appears on the new F!RES full-length High Tide . "H igh Tide really is a love letter to Seattle and to the memory of our friend @shawnsmithsinger," the band wrote on their Instagram ac...
Feb 25, 2022•4 min•Ep. 4174
Cloud Cult - "One Way Out of a Hole," a 2022 single on Earthology Records. After a six-year hiatus, Cloud Cult return with the album Metamorphosis , to be released March 4th via their own Earthology Records. Like all albums from this orchestral-folk-rock group, nature plays a big role in the LP. Founding member/frontman Craig Minowa wrote and recorded the new album in the remote woods of Wisconsin, tracking the album from an old Amish cabin he converted to a recording studio. The sounds from out...
Feb 24, 2022•5 min•Ep. 4173
Yard Act - "The Overload" from the 2022 album The Overload on Zen F.C. This might be the debut album from Leeds band Yard Act , but its members have been kicking around the scene for a while — frontman James Smith in Post War Glamour Girls, and bassist Ryan Needham as a member of Menace Beach. They're hardly the latest post-punk band to come out of the UK, but Smith brings a sarcastic sense of humor and gift for lyrics that sets them ahead of the pack. "‘The Overload’ serves as an overture to th...
Feb 23, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4172
Dehd - "Bad Love" from the 2022 album Blue Skies on Fat Possum. Post-punk trio Dehd return this spring with Blue Skies , their fourth album overall, but their first for Fat Possum Records. Today's featured track finds the Chicago-based band channeling an '80s new wave vibe, calling to mind The Jesus & Mary Chain led by Dale Bozzio of Missing Persons. “‘Bad Love’ is about recovering from love addiction and making a decision to stop choosing and aligning with people who aren’t your energetic m...
Feb 22, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4171
The Head and the Heart - "Virginia (Wind in the Night)" from the 2022 album Every Shade of Blue on Warner. Beloved local band The Head and the Heart return this spring with their fifth full-length, Every Shade of Blue , recorded at Studio Litho here in Seattle, where they made their first two albums back in 2011 and 2013. “It was almost like coming back home,” guitarist/vocalist Jonathan Russell told Consequence of Sound . “We used the same engineer, Shawn Simmons. There was this balance of old ...
Feb 21, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4170
Weep Wave - "Synthetic Dreams," a 2022 self-released single. Over the five years since we first covered Weep Wave , a lot has changed for the Seattle band. They went on to release their debut album, S.A.D. , in 2019, a concept album based on the changing seasons and corresponding moods that take place over the course of a year in the Pacific Northwest, that KEXP’s Martin Douglas had a lot to say about . Since then, a series of lineup changes have occurred but the band, led by Dylan Fuentes, cont...
Feb 18, 2022•6 min•Ep. 4169
Warpaint - "Champion" from the 2022 album Radiate Like This on Heirlooms/Virgin. After six long years, Los Angeles quartet Warpaint are set to release a new album. Due out on May 6th, the heavily anticipated Radiate Like This follows 2016’s Heads Up . Alongside the announcement, the band shared the lead single “Champion,” which is just too good to not be our Song of the Day. “Champion” continues Warpaint’s penchant for brooding anthems, with a slow-burning smooth groove leading the way with ange...
Feb 17, 2022•5 min•Ep. 4168
Widowspeak - "Everything is Simple" from the 2022 album The Jacket on Captured Tracks. Brooklyn-based duo Widowspeak are gearing up to release their sixth studio album, The Jacket , on March 11th via longtime label Captured Tracks. Initially intended to be a concept album based on a fictional band, The Jacket morphed into a more personal and biographical meditation on performance and past lives. The record’s lead single, “Everything is Simple,” is a gentle alt-folk strummer that sees frontwoman ...
Feb 16, 2022•4 min•Ep. 4167
The Devil and Her Chauffeur - "Never Let Me Go," a 2021 self-released single. Seattle-based duo The Devil and Her Chauffeur was a project born out of the pandemic and the necessity of creative projects to stay sane. Jacqueline Kasbohm was in-between recording with her proper band Echodrone and brought in a revolving door of collaborators to flesh out her ideas. Now two years into the band, the string of singles released show a strong affinity for ‘90s indebted shoegaze and atmospheric post-rock....
Feb 15, 2022•4 min•Ep. 4166
Pom Pom Squad - "Popular (feat. Matthew Caws of Nada Surf)," a 2021 single on City Slang. Back in December, Pom Pom Squad turned a joke tweet into reality when they covered Nada Surf ’s “Popular” and remade the classic video shot by shot. “I’m gonna recreate the video for “Popular” by Nada Surf but I’m gonna play every character,” Mia Berrin tweeted in March 2021. Nine months later, that dream was realized. It’s a fitting tribute for a band that’s built their imagery around cheer parody. Their l...
Feb 14, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4165
Greg Cypher & Def Dee - "Right On (feat. 10isee Williams)" from the 2021 album Third Stone on Nine Six Intl. For over a decade Greg Cypher climbed the ranks of Seattle hip hop as one-half of Kung Foo Grip alongside fellow rapper Eff Is H. Never disappointing with their live show, the duo concocted a hip hop, trap rap, and punk cocktail that saw them looking beyond a single genre for influences. Everyone from Pink Floyd to Nirvana had a hand in shaping their sound. Since releasing their celeb...
Feb 11, 2022•5 min•Ep. 4164
A La Una - "On My Way (feat. Kimmortal)," a 2022 single on Palms High Records. A La Una is the just the latest iteration of a long-running collaboration between Lex Junior and Romeo Candido. Formerly known as DATU, the duo has progressed from focusing on contemporizing traditional Filipino music to a vast landscape of various tempos, stories, and textures as A La Una. Our Song of the Day, “On My Way,” represents just one side or facet of the sounds A La Una is making and sees the duo put Vancouv...
Feb 10, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4163
Lucius - "Next To Normal" from the 2022 album Second Nature on Mom + Pop Records. After spending the past few years lending their voices to their friends’ records such as The War on Drugs’ I Don’t Live Here Anymore and Brandi Carlile’s In These Silent Days , Holly Laessig and Jess Wolfe are finally unveiling their latest album as Lucius . Titled Second Nature , the record is due out April 8th and features contributions from Drew Erickson, Rob Moose, and Gabriel Cabezas, plus backing vocals from ...
Feb 09, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4162
Lady Wray - "Melody (feat. Melody Bloom Bacote)" from the 2021 album Piece of Me on Big Crown Records. Nicole Wray’s musical career is a long and winding one, with a series of highs like collaborating with Missy Elliot and then getting signed to her label, a certified gold single with 1998’s “Make It Hot,” and doing background vocals for The Black Keys and Lee Fields. Her lows, on the other hand, were devastating. A series of re-signings to various labels from Goldmind to Roc-A-Fella to Def Jam ...
Feb 08, 2022•4 min•Ep. 4161
JusMoni - "Reckoning," a 2021 self-released single. Here at KEXP, we’ve long been fans of JusMoni aka Moni Tep. Back in 2018, alongside the release of her latest album Sweet to Me , she curated a Midnight in a Perfect World set, the track “Characters” was chosen as Song of the Day , and she played her first KEXP in-studio . Finally, after three years, she’s ready to release something new. Released in November, “Reckoning” appears to be the first taste of an upcoming album titled your body, your ...
Feb 07, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4160
Chastity Belt - "Fear," a 2021 self-released single. Local faves Chastity Belt recently returned with the limited 7” ‘Fake/Fear,’ the quartet’s first release since 2020’s “The Process,” a digital split release with Melbourne trio Loose Tooth. “Fear” was the first of the two to be shared and is an anxiously dreamy slow-burner about going through life with uneasy trepidation. Lead guitarist Lydia Lund penned this one and had this to say about the song: “I wrote the song a few summers ago based aro...
Feb 04, 2022•4 min•Ep. 4159
Boy Harsher - "Give Me a Reason" from the 2022 album The Runner on NUDE CLUB. The Northampton, MA-via-Savannah, GA duo Boy Harsher recently added filmmaker to their resume with the release of their debut feature film The Runner . Obviously, any arthouse horror film wouldn’t be complete without a killer soundtrack and vocalist/lyricist Jae Matthews and producer Augustus Muller have been readying themselves since 2013 by making cold darkwave that makes for a perfect backdrop to horrifying tension....
Feb 03, 2022•4 min•Ep. 4158
Dijon - "Talk Down" from the 2021 album Absolutely on Warner. LA-based artist and former half of the alt R&B duo Abhi//Dijon, Dijon released his debut album Absolutely back in November, perhaps just a smidge too late in the year for listeners to spend the appropriate time cozying up with it for the album to end up on the 2021 year-end lists that it absolutely should have been on. A home-run of a first record, Absolutely is a brilliant blend of smooth R&B and downtempo pop, with flourishe...
Feb 02, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4157
Parris - "Skater's World (feat. Eden Samara)" from the 2021 album Soaked In Indigo Moonlight on Can You Feel The Sun. Parris is a London-born-and-raised producer who has been using his grime, drum 'n' bass, and pop influences to weave diverse soundscapes since his 2017 split single release Burr / Blue . 2021 saw him finally unveil his debut full-length, Soaked in Indigo Moonlight , which intertwines stripped-down, airy compositions, jittery experiments, and club-rooted pop for a dynamic, excitin...
Feb 01, 2022•4 min•Ep. 4156
serpentwithfeet - "Down Nuh River" from the 2021 EP DEACON'S Grove on Secretly Canadian. In March of 2021, Los Angeles-via-Baltimore experimental soul artist serpentwithfeet released his sophomore album DEACON, which ended up on both KEXP’s Larry Rose and Larry Mizell Jr.’s top albums of 2021 . While that one incredible record would’ve been quite sufficient for one year’s release, the artist who’s legally known as Josiah Wise quickly followed that up with a companion EP this past October titled ...
Jan 31, 2022•2 min•Ep. 4155
Friedberg - "Yeah" from the 2021 album YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH on Marathon Artists. Indie pop quartet Friedberg is named after frontwoman Anna F.’s Austrian hometown and is just the latest project from the musician, who had a successful solo career in her native country that included two chart-topping records and four Amadeus Austrian Music Awards, before joining forces with Emily Linden, Laura Williams and Cheryl Pinero as Friedberg. One could say that Anna F.’s prestigious hist...
Jan 28, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4154
Qlowski - "Folk Song" from the 2021 album Quale Futuro? on Maple Death Records. London-by-way-of-Italy art-punk outfit Qlowski is led by Michele Tellarini and Cecilia Corapi. Friends since the age of 16, the duo have dabbled with a number of sounds and influences over the past decade, which is apparent on their debut full-length Quale Futuro? which eccentrically fuses new wave and post-punk with just a flourish of twee for a sound that’s both nostalgic and refreshing. Our Song of the Day, “Folk ...
Jan 27, 2022•4 min•Ep. 4153
Amelie Siba - "hold on to me" from the 2021 self-released EP when is our time. Prague-based singer-songwriter Amelie Siba makes quiet, intimate songs that are simple in instrumentation so as to focus on Siba’s childlike falsetto which belies the maturity of her songwriting. Following 2019’s introductory EP titled It Was Nice to Meet You , Siba’s 2020 debut full-length Dye My Hair arrived when the musician was just 17 years old and went on to earn her the critics’ choice Apollo award for the Czec...
Jan 26, 2022•4 min•Ep. 4152
Meskerem Mees - "Joe" from the 2021 album Julius on Mayway Records. Belgium-based singer-songwriter Meskerem Mees first appeared on the scene in 2020 with her debut single, “Joe.” A sweet and simple guitar ballad, Mees’ soft, clear voice takes center stage and pulls listeners in with her saccharine coos, making it an easy choice for Song of the Day. “Joe” went on to become a massive commercial and critical success in Belgium and its neighboring countries and set Mees up to release her debut albu...
Jan 25, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4151
LADANIVA - "Vay Aman" from the 2020 EP Ladaniva on Planete B. Ladaniva is the musical partnership between Armenian singer Jacqueline Baghdasaryan and French multi-instrumentalist Louis Thomas. Founded by the duo in 2019, they went viral in the early days of the pandemic with the release of the video for our Song of the Day, “Vay Aman.” Set in a sunny locale with faces full of joy, it’s hard not to smile while watching their effervescent playing. Ladaniva’s music takes influences from all around ...
Jan 24, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4150
Jayomi - "Julia" from the 2021 self-released album Midnight Love Note. Local band Jayomi has been wowing underground audiences with their dreamy take on indiepop for a few years now but didn’t release recorded music until 2019’s W et Burrito. The album was the band’s attempt to recreate the sad yet beautiful nature of those late romantic composers through the lens of modern day indie pop music. Since the pandemic, the lineup has slimmed to just frontman Jon Wu and his partner Ruka Bleu. Together...
Jan 21, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4149
Parcels - "Somethinggreater" from the 2021 album Day/Night on Because Music. Australia-born, Berlin-based five-piece Parcels make groovy electropop, blending funk and disco in intoxicating fashion. Their 2018 self-titled debut blew up with a little help from Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, better known as Daft Punk, who produced the album’s lead single “Overnight.” But the assist from one of the world’s most popular disco duos hasn’t led Parcels to rest on their laurels. With t...
Jan 20, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4148
Bully - "Just For Love," a 2021 single on Sub Pop. If you somehow missed SUGAREGG , the third studio album from Nashville’s Bully , when it was released a year and a half ago then it’s definitely time to circle back. Furious and fiery, Alicia Bognanno put her all into the record, which just finally got to be played on live stages this past December. Ahead of that nine-date east coast tour, Bognanno revealed a new single called “Just For Love.” Co-produced by John Congleton during the SUGAREGG se...
Jan 19, 2022•3 min•Ep. 4147
Ibibio Sound Machine - "Electricity," a 2021 single on Merge. Just about three years ago, when the world was in a very different place, KEXP celebrated International Clash Day by venturing across the pond to London for a showcase of upcoming artists that radiate the spirit of the Clash in vibrant, diverse ways. One of the most electrifying performances over those four days came from electro Afro-funk ensemble Ibibio Sound Machine . Fusing the polyrhythms of West African funk, highlife, disco, an...
Jan 18, 2022•5 min•Ep. 4146
Beach House Once - "Twice Melody" from the 2022 album Once Twice Melody on Sub Pop. As longtime fans and champions of Baltimore-based band Beach House , the excitement over the dream pop duo’s partially-released double LP Once Twice Melody is feverish, to say the least. With two of the four chapters already released, it’s clear to see Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally have a masterpiece on their hands with their eighth studio record. Our Song of the Day is the album’s title track and the lead sin...
Jan 17, 2022•5 min•Ep. 4145
