In Our Headphones

Avi Loud - "Breezy" from the 2021 Flower Chased the Sunshine EP on Heckworld Radio. A photographer and multi-disciplinary artist, Avi Loud aims to use his work to "spotlight and collaborate with underrepresented artists, aligning with like-minded folks interested in uplifting their communities through music, dance, and shared experience." Born and raised in Seattle, he's currently based in Los Angeles which influenced his second EP, Flower Chased the Sunshine. Via Bandcamp, he states, "Inspired by the upheavals and transitions made during the chaotic year of 2020. I was lucky enough to have the space and time to engage in deep reflection and self-discovery, only to find (again) that everything I need, I already have within." Today's Song of the Day was chosen by DJ Mike Ramos, who says: "Avi Loud is a half-Vietnamese, half-Jewish multidisciplinary Seattle artist whose mixed background and influences shine through in his music. 'Breezy' from his Flower Chased the Sunshine EP blends elements from techno, house, juke, and UK drill beats with melodic synth leads reminiscent of ‘90s West Coast G-Funk. Airy and wavy but still knocking hard through the speakers, 'Breezy' sounds like the LA sun beaming down through the windshield as you speed down the highway with the windows cracked." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Khana Bierbood - "ลูกรัง / Dusty Lane" from the 2019 album คนแปลกหน้าจากดินแดนบูรพา​ /​ Strangers from the Far East on Guruguru Brain.​ It will come as no surprise that คณะ เบียร์บูด/Khana Bierbood (translated as "Strange Brew" in Thai) is signed to Guruguru Brain, the label founded by Go & Tomo of Kikagaku Moyo. Both bands share a psychedelic surf rock sound, one that Khana Bierbood infuses with traditional Thai influences. Even though the band is 13-years-old now (formed in Bangsaen, Chonburi, way back in 2008), they just released their debut full-length last year, Strangers From The Far East.  Today's Song of the Day was chosen by Tia Ho, Social Media & Digital Community Analyst, who describes the track as "the soundtrack of a spaghetti western in a Thai surf town. Thank you, Kikagaku Moyo, for introducing us to Khana Bierbood!” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Empat Lima - "Climbing Clouds," a 2021 self-released single. Australian-based trio Empat Lima were influenced by 1960s girl groups from South East Asia, particularly Surabaya-based 1960s all-female garage rock band Dara Puspita. (They even cover their 1967 single "Au Go Go" on their debut EP Satu BOOM!.) "Although they are amazing musicians, it is the energy and spirit of their sound that captured our attention and continues to inspire us," explained bassist and founding member Sooji Kim in an interview with the Australia‐Indonesia Youth Association. "These women were revolutionary, and it is this energy that we hope to capture in our music."  As a Korean and second-generation Australian, Kim looked to Indonesia to connect with her Asian roots, living in Jogjakarta and attending Indonesia’s Institute for the Arts (ISI). "Korea not being that convenient or close by, I guess I just turned to the nearest neighbours," she admitted to Art Radar Journal. "I went over there to live, to explore my ‘Asian-ness’ really, the sorts of values that were not being expressed here in this Western culture."  The band's connection to Indonesia inspired Kim to launch WANITA: Women’s Art Network Indonesia to Australia, an organization designed to facilitate networks between the female arts communities in Jakarta and Melbourne. "Within the last few years there’s been an escalation of expressions of racism, which seems to be more accepted," Kim said back in 2015. "And it really concerned me and started to feel like a personal issue, something that I felt like I wanted to do something about within the communities that I could express it within…I feel like if we develop more communication and connection with women in our neighbouring countries and we do it at a level where we can implement some sort of change, even though it seems like it’s in a very tiny way, I feel like there’s nothing negative about it  –  it has some potential to make a start." I (Janice Headley, Digital Content Producer -- hiya!) chose this song for this week's Song of the Day podcast after discovering the band on the Typical Girls, Volume 5 compilation (as written about in the March edition of In Our Headphones). Their post-punk-tinged surf-pop is right down my alley, and learning about their efforts to elevate South East Asian art and music just made me love them even more. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wastewomxn - "Natural Ones" from the 2020 self-released album Wastewomxn. A self-described "queer transatlantic Afro-Asia band," Wastewomxn was formed by Adedamola Bajomo (London), Tobi Adebajo (Essex), and Kyoko Takenaka (Los Angeles). On their self-titled debut album, they craft soulful songs, infusing R&B, punk, gospel, and hip-hop. In an interview with Color Bloq, Takenaka explains the cultural collaboration: I think both cultures share this return to ancient knowings and practices of healing especially, and that's where we bond directly a lot. Whether that's different healing modalities or rituals that we are incorporating into our work, or through the expression of movement and art. If we were always centering English, then we wouldn’t have that. To tie it to queerness — this concept of “unbinary alien” —  I think that's something we embrace as diasporic cultures in saying we have been othered in western society [while simultaneously asking,] what does it look like when we actually value those roots and ancient knowings and then connect directly. During this pandemic, I think a lot of people are seeing that american and western is truly not the way and already failing, so people around the world are going back to their roots in different ways saying 'hey what do we already know about survival and interdependence and [what] can we bring that to the table.' Today's Song of the Day was chosen by Wei Wei Xiao, Community Engagement Coordinator. “'Natural Ones’ extraterrestrial energy captures the diasporic feelings of cultural alienation and yearning for rootedness," she shares. “Lyrically, the song interweaves Japanese, English and Yoruba to tell stories about what it means to forget, remember, and reclaim your roots.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lionmilk - "Pastel Memories" from the 2021 album I Hope You Are Well on Leaving Records. As we say at KEXP, "music heals," and with his latest album I Hope You Are Well, Los Angeles-based musician Moki Kawaguchi — who records as Lionmilk — sought to send comfort to his family and friends during the stressful early stage of the pandemic with his home-dubbed cassettes filled with soothing, ambient electronic music. As COVID-19 continued to loom over 2020, he teamed up with Leaving Records to release these meditative tracks to all.  As he told KEXP's Dusty Henry, "Whenever I would feel anxious or depressed – and that was a lot throughout the past few years of my life – I was expressing that through music. It always helped me feel better. That's the power of music, in a way. It helps you get through a lot of the tough times in your life. During those moments, I couldn't express it in making a beat or making all "hype music." I would feel more connected to like my improvisational side. So I guess that's how I represented those emotions by playing solo piano music or making loops and such." Today's Song of the Day was chosen by Isabel Khalili, Podcast Producer & Licensing Administrator, who says, "I love the backstory of this Lionmilk record, and how he used music to soothe his community through trying times. This (aptly named) song transports me to a big green field surrounded by rolling hills and a pastel sky. I hope it takes you somewhere nice too." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

No-No Boy - "The Best God Damn Band in Wyoming" from the 2021 album 1975 on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. On his sophomore album, 1975, musician/historian Julian Saporiti (recording as No-No Boy) aims to share the stories of Asian musicians in American folk music, as part of his Ph.D dissertation at Brown University. As the child of a Vietnamese emigrant, who escaped here after her grandfather was assassinated in the Tet Offensive, Saporiti was finally able to find himself reflected in a predominantly white music genre via his research. “Even though I grew up in Nashville and grew up loving that music and literally in the industry,” he says via a press release, “there was always something that didn’t fit, because I look the way I do.”  Today's Song of the Day, in particular, tells the tale of the George Igawa Orchestra, an all-Japanese jazz band formed by residents of the Heart Mountain War Relocation Center, a Japanese internment camp in Wyoming. Saporiti explains the song: An all Asian American big band who formed in a Wyoming concentration camp during WWII — how could I not be captivated by that story?  I went to a jazz college, studied jazz history, and never learned about ANY musicians who looked like me. It was only after I moved to Wyoming and saw this photograph of the George Igawa Orchestra that I realized, as an Asian American musician, I am part of a rich lineage.  A decade later, I have this pile of songs illuminating a diverse array of Asian American and immigrant stories which sadly, seem more relevant now than ever and it all started with the 'The Best God Damn Band in Wyoming.' This band would hit the road to play school proms and town dances only to go back behind barbed wire after the gig. And Igawa himself should be taught about as a musical pioneer who fused Japanese instruments and music with his big band. To play music at all during a situation like the Japanese American Incarceration was astounding and I'm happy that through this little tune a few more people will know about this band.  Who knows, maybe their story can be a gateway into understanding the complex, diverse and rich history of Asian Americans. The George Igawa Orchestra deserves a novel or a movie, but at least, now, they have a song. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hiperson - "Crashing Into Daylight" from the 2020 album Bildungsroman on Maybe Mars Records. Hiperson formed in 2015 when its members were students at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music in Chengdu, China. Since then, the post-punk quintet have graduated to their most sophisticated release yet, their third album Bildungsroman, which was released last year.  Their latest is a concept album about a woman recovering from the end of a relationship. Lead vocalist Chen Sijiang told online magazine Kiwese, “When we decided to record, we started to see the songs as having something coherent. We had a lot of discussion about the character moving from one emotional state to another, experiencing the details of her life as she changed to a new one — even now we are still trying to picture the shape.” Guitarist Ji Yinan agrees, adding, "The ideas in these songs are not static." Chen concludes, "“We see ourselves as story starters. We want to start the story, and let people write the rest themselves.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Morningwhim - "Talking to Myself," a 2020 single on Miles Apart Records. Japanese indiepop quartet Morningwhim were so inspired by Brooklyn band The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, that not only do they share a similar buoyant, charming style, but they even used the same artist on their album covers, Winston Szeto Chmielinski, who painted The Pains' 2001 album Belong, and now the artwork for today's Song of the Day, "Talking to Myself." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

本日休演 (Honjitsu Kyuen) - "Allergies" from the 2021 album MOOD on Mastard Records. With their fourth full-length MOOD, Kyoto-formed/Tokyo-based band 本日休演 (Honjitsu Kyuen) continue to mix and meld genres, a skill clearly demonstrated on today's Song of the Day which started out as an homage to Prince, adds touches of traditional Japanese folk, and then goes into a rap.  "When I listen to music, I still use [an] iPod, which plays different music seamlessly," frontman Takujyuro Iwade tells Tokion. "It’s normal for me to listen to free jazz after listening to Buddy Holly; that’s how it’s always been, and I guess, this style reflects directly to the music I make."  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 파란노을 (Parannoul) - "아름다운 세상 (Beautiful World)" from the 2021 album To See the Next Part of the Dream on POCLANOS. “I just hope there will be more active losers like me in the world,” South Korea-based shoegaze musician Parannoul says in the description of his sophomore album, To See The Next Part of the Dream. A self-described student writing music in his bedroom, Parannoul utilizes waves of fuzz and sensational melodic hooks to manufacture a fantasy world. To See The Next Part of the Dream is also a means of manifestation. Pulling from Parannoul’s nostalgia for the music of his youth and references to anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion, the album tells the story of a fictional 21-year-old aspiring musician with the mind of a child and no actual ability to play guitar.  Album opener “아름다운 세상 (Beautiful World)” sets the stage, well, beautifully. Waves of raucous guitars blitz against deliriously complex and invigorating math rock drum patterns. Hints of emo abound as well in Parannoul’s riffs and vocals. Translations of his lyrics find the album’s protagonist struggling against self doubt, culminating with, “I wish my young and stupid days to disappear forever/My precious relationships, now they're just in the memories.” It’s an homage to the emotional push and pull of youth – the aspiration to be something greater than you are and feeling like it’s perpetually out of reach. Despite the characters’ shortcomings, Parannoul proves himself to be a more than adept artist, capturing adolescent angst perfectly with spectacular, distorted finesse.  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kylie V - "On My Mind" from the 2021 self-released album Big Blue. Singer/songwriter Kylie Van Slyke — who records as Kylie V — has been active in the Vancouver music scene since the age of 14. Their 2018 debut EP, Lotus Eater, was recorded on their iPhone. Now at age 17, their debut full-length, Big Blue, is a more sophisticated affair. Van Slyke recruited Sound Fountain (aka engineer, producer, musician, and artist Harley Small) to help co-produce the LP, with Small also helping out on instrumentation, along with twins Benito and Cristian Hobson-Dimas of Sleepy Gonzales on drums and bass, respectively. Kylie V tells The Permanent Rain Press that today's Song of the Day is about “trying to find a balance between giving your time and energy to someone else and prioritizing yourself.”  "My songwriting style is constantly evolving, but I try really hard to be as honest with myself as possible in my lyrics because I really admire that in other people's writing," they explained to Cups N Cakes. "I write a lot about my feelings, but I tend to layer sensitive things under metaphors, personal symbolism/associations in my brain, or things that aren't exactly obvious. A lot of people comment on the imagery in my lyrics and that's where a lot of it comes from. Being neurodivergent is also a defining trait for my writing, as it makes me approach my feelings and things that are significant to me differently than I would if I wasn't autistic. I associate things in my brain really strongly which makes for some fun symbolism, as previously mentioned." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flock of Dimes - "Price of Blue" from the 2021 album Head of Roses on Sub Pop. Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner returned to her solo project Flock Of Dimes for an album about heartbreak, titled Head of Roses. In a press release, she explains, "Part of the journey for me has been learning to take responsibility for the parts of things that are mine, even when I’m in a lot of pain through some behavior or action of someone else. If I’m expecting to be forgiven for the things I’ve done and the choices I’ve made and the mistakes that I’ve made, it would be incredibly cowardly and hypocritical to not also do the work that’s required to forgive others the pain they caused me.” On today's Song of the Day, Wasner examines one of the biggest ways a relationship dissolves: lack of communication. “This song is about trying, and failing, to connect," she continues. “It’s about the ways in which, despite our best efforts, we misunderstand each other, and become so attached to stories that we’re unable to see the truth that’s right in front of us. And it’s about the invisible mark that another person can leave on your body, heart and mind long after their absence. It can be difficult to make sense of the memory of your experience when the reality on the surface is always shifting — when the story you’re telling, or the story you’ve been told, unravels, leaving you with a handful of pieces and no idea how they used to fit together.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anjimile - "In Your Eyes" from the 2020 album Giver Taker on Father/Daughter Records. On his debut album, Giver Taker, Boston-based musician Anjimile was inspired by “faith, addiction, and [their] own transition.” Today's Song of the Day examines the unfair perceptions of others, with Anjimile explaining in a press release, “This is another song about grappling with homophobia and ultimately recognizing that I am what I am. It’s a somber song, but the sorrow is for those who would live their lives constricted by such bigotry.” He elaborates in an interview with American Songwriter:  When I was in fourth grade, my homeroom teacher gave us a sort of “family tree/genealogy” assignment. This included learning the meaning (if any) behind our given names, so that day I went home and I asked my parents what “Anjimile” meant. They told me that “Anjimile” means “denied” in Chichewa (the native language of Malawi, where my family is from), and that one of my aunts had cried out “oh, Anjimile” when I was born because she was hoping my parents would have a son. In this context, “Anjimile” means “denied a boy.” There’s a couple of lyrics in this song that go “Does my body divide / was my body denied?”, and they’re quite literal and based around the aforementioned context. The whole song is related to my relationship with my gender, my sexuality, my name, my family. Funny how things connect.  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Miss Grit - "Grow Up To" from the 2021 self-released album Impostor. Under the moniker of "Miss Grit", songwriter Margaret Sohn explores the struggles of “impostor syndrome” on her aptly-titled EP Impostor. Self-produced at Brooklyn’s Virtue and Vice Studios, Impostor reflects on Sohn masking her half-Korean heritage in the predominantly white suburbs of her hometown in Michigan, and the apprehension she felt after the success of her debut EP Talk Talk, and feeling like she was "someone who was impersonating a musician.”  In a press release, she elaborates, "I’ve gone my whole life feeling really uncomfortable defining myself. I realized that a lot of the time, I’m more comfortable with other people defining me and making up their mind about who I’m supposed to be." On today's Song of the Day, she explores her obsession with "what's next," adding, “the lack of content with the present leads to the chaos and collapse of this song.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Japanese Breakfast - "Be Sweet" from the 2021 album Jubilee on Dead Oceans. Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast is one busy lady. Mere months following the release of her memoir Crying in H Mart, she's releasing her third album, Jubilee, on June 4th via Dead Oceans. Today's Song of the Day is the first single, the joyous, upbeat “Be Sweet.” “I wrote ‘Be Sweet’ with Jack Tatum from Wild Nothing a few years ago. I’ve been holding onto it for so long and am so excited to finally put it out there,” she said via a press release. The track was accompanied by a self-directed music video featuring Zauner and Missy of Mannequin Pussy as FBI agents, inspired by the TV show The X-Files.  The song's effervescent feel is reflective of the new LP, a change of pace after previous albums — Soft Sounds from Another Planet and her debut Psychopomp — reflected on the loss of her mother in 2014, from pancreatic cancer. “After spending the last five years writing about grief, I wanted our follow up to be about joy,” Zauner continued. “For me, a third record should feel bombastic and so I wanted to pull out all the stops for this one.”  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Night Beats - "New Day" from the 2021 album Outlaw R&B on Fuzz Club. Danny Lee Blackwell — who records as Night Beats — returns June 4th with his fifth album, Outlaw R&B, an album he says "is music for the borderless, the free, the outcasts and the forgotten." He continues in his press release, "The outlaw is the runner. Those whose minds aren't sold by perfect pitch and clean fingernails. Through this medium you can escape the confines of mental feudalism and bask in the euphoric glow of psychedelic R&B." He describes today's Song of the Day as his "postcard from purgatory," adding, "Upon going into lockdown I holed myself up with Akira Kurosawa movies and canned goods. This is the result of sleepless nights while hearing the world crumble outside my window. I sing of desperation and loss, while grinning in the face of an uncertain future." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wax Tailor - "Just a Candle (feat. Mark Lanegan)" from the 2021 album The Shadow of Their Suns on Lab'Oratoire. French producer Wax Tailor returned this year with his first new album in five years, The Shadow Of Their Suns, a star-studded affair featuring special guests like Del the Funky Homosapien, D Smoke, Gil Scott-Heron, Adeline, and, on today's Song of the Day, Mark Lanegan of The Screaming Trees. In a statement to Under the Radar, Tailor explains:  “I started working on the demo, early 2019 & immediately called it ‘Candle.’ I had this vision of a candle as an allegory of life. The candle that illuminates us, burns out, and one day turns off. I had scenes in mind and I wanted to play on the contrast between a dry and dark rhythm and incandescent arrangements to illustrate this path of life. I added the gimmick of the blown candle that illustrates the unknown. I then invited Mark who injected his print to the song.” “The first time I heard Mark Lanegan I was still in high school, and his friend Kurt Cobain was still alive. 30 years later, it’s hard to get into an exhaustive list of his discography, between the Screaming Trees, his solo albums, his albums with Isobel Campbell, Queen Of The Stone Age, and many others. I’ve been hoping for a long time that one day I’d have a title for him. When I started the demo, I immediately thought it was the right one. I contacted him in the spring of 2019 to propose it and he answered me in the simplest way possible. We met during his last tour in France and we continued to work remotely. I am very proud of this title, this meeting, and what Mark brings to it. In a music industry where bending your back is often a conditioned reflex, Mark is a great humble man who goes through the decades without artifice, with talent and righteousness.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reds, Pinks & Purples - "Don't Ever Pray in the Church on My Street" from the 2021 album Uncommon Weather on Slumberland. With his project The Reds, Pinks and Purples, San Francisco-based singer/songwriter Glenn Donaldson pays tribute to his hometown with his third and latest album, Uncommon Weather. The Inner Richmond district is captured in muted, pastel colors on the album artwork, giving it a nostalgic feel, mournful for the days when it was a reasonable place for musicians and artists to live. Uncommon Weather was self-recorded and mostly self-performed, with Donaldson channeling his hero Dan Treacy of Television Personalities.   Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Morcheeba - "Sounds of Blue" from the 2021 self-released album Blackest Blue. Trip-hop trailblazers Morcheeba return with their tenth album, Blackest Blue, which comes out this Friday. Vocalist Skye Edwards and multi-instrumentalist Ross Godfrey used the lockdown to really take their "time to write songs and really get to hone them." Edwards adds in their press release, "There weren’t so many pressures so we could really take our time getting the songs right." Today's Song of the Day is a dreamy slice of down-tempo soul with Edwards' singing of her free diving experience in Thailand and her “new found confidence and love of the ocean above and below.”  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yard Act - "Dark Days," a 2021 single on Zen F.C. Leeds-based post-punk band Yard Act found inspiration in an animated cave dweller for their latest single "Dark Days." Singer/songwriter James Smith says it's “the last of four singles before we start work on the album, of which none of those songs will be on.” For today's Song of the Day, he shares in a press release: With 'Dark Days.' I wrote the first verse and chorus hook quite fast but then I didn’t know how to finish it. The demo Ryan [Needham, bandmate and formerly of Menace Beach] sent was ace, real sparse. The drums were really driven but the bassline felt like it was suspended mid-air in the verses, like a dub bassline or something. It created the illusion that you have time to stop and look around amidst the ensuing chaos. It’s like in war films when all the noise stops and you just hear the protagonist’s heavy breathing whilst they survey their surroundings in slow motion. Then the chorus hit with this “Captain Caveman” vibe, it reminded me of that stop-motion cartoon from the '90s ‘GOGS’ if anyone remembers that? I liked the juxtaposition of the bleak world with the cartoon bass line. Despite all the advances humanity has made, the threat of devolving feels increasingly possible in the modern world, and on my bad days when I’m spiraling I can’t help but get trapped in my own head envisioning this post-apocalyptic future we’re seemingly headed toward, so fuck knows why I decided to watch Children Of Men when I was feeling like that. If I’d fully remembered what happened in it, I don’t think I would’ve in the middle of a pandemic, but I did, and I actually came away feeling really uplifted by the ending. I saw hope in it, and it helped me finish the story. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're taking a week off from posting podcasts and other online content, but you can always find a live DJ streaming on KEXP.org, the KEXP App, or 90.3 FM in Seattle. New episodes will return to your Song of the Day feed on Monday, April 19th! Until then, visit old episodes or explore our other podcasts, Sound & Vision, Live on KEXP, and The Weekly Mix. And if you haven't had the chance yet, there's still time to take the KEXP Podcast Survey.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EsePax - "Senzu Bean (feat. Dre'Zy)," a 2021 single on El Ambiente. Seattle DJ and hip-hop artist EsePax managed to get Renton-based MC Dre'Zy "out of retirement" (as he says) for the new single "Senzu Bean," named for the mystical beans in the Dragon Ball manga series. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lorine Chia & D*L*P - "Go Far (feat. Bigmouf’ Bo)," a 2021 self-released single. Cameroonian-born, LA-based singer Lorine Chia has had a decade-long career collaborating with rappers like Machine Gun Kelly, Wiz Khalifa, and The Game. On today's Song of the Day, she teams up with producer/composer Devin "D*L*P" Parker, with guest vocals from nglewood, Chicago's Bigmouf’ Bo, a former contestant on Chance the Rapper's Netflix series Rhythm + Flow. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Lasso - "No Illusions (feat. Ill Camille & A. Billi Free)" from the 2021 album 2121 on Mello Music Group. Detroit-based producer Andy Catlin records under the name The Lasso, an apt title as he's able to round up a dozen guest rappers and vocalists for his latest album 2121. (Today's Song of the Day brings in the vocal talents of New Mexico-based vocalist A. Billi Free and Los Angeles-based rapper Ill Camille.) These collaborators received instrumental demos created throughout 2019 and early 2020, and, as The Lasso told Bandcamp, “the finished product wasn’t something I would have ever thought of or composed.” “Some of the harmonies, nobody thought of them [first],” he continued, “because I sent the track out to three people at the same time, and they didn’t hear each other. They sent their work back to me, and I used one of each of their notes.”  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Noname - "Rainforest," a 2021 self-released single. Since the release of her outstanding 2018 debut, Room 25, Chicago rapper Noname (real name: Fatimah Nyeema Warner) has stepped away from music a little, focusing on social justice by reading books on anti-capitalism, sharing resources and links to non-profit organizations on Twitter, and then in 2019, launching the Noname Book Club, a way for her to "highlight progressive work from writers of Color and writers within the LGBTQ community" with books being donated to those who are incarcerated. With her triumphant return to music, she speaks out against mass rainforest destruction, tweeting, "anyone who listened to my new song rainforest should read and share this." The single was produced by The Kount and features additional vocals from Adam Ness; and, it's the lead single from her just-announced album Factory Baby (release date TBA). She also tweeted that there would be no merch to support the song, but encouraged fans to donate to the Noname Book Club Patreon to help them send more books to incarcerated members. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beautiful Chorus - "I Am (feat. India.Arie)," a 2021 self-released single. Beautiful Chorus is a group that truly lives up to its name. The project was launched in 2021 by Alexandra Love, previous vocalist for Solillaquists of Sound and Chakra Khan. With Beautiful Chorus, she aimed to "spread a harmony-infused soundscape of interconnectedness, ease, and joy," a goal they've surely surpassed with their beautiful, introspective pieces. Today's Song of the Day pairs them with the Grammy Award-winning R&B artist India.Arie. On their YouTue page, the state, "this song is about reaching the inner chamber of ourselves, summoning forth all we desire, and deeply realizing that we have all we need and are all we desire to be." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Boom Bap Project - "Hagler Vs. Hearns," a 2021 self-released single. Nightclubber Lang, Destro Destructo, and DJ Tre are the NW hip-hop trio Boom Bap Project, who first hit the scene at the turn of the millennium. The Trox-produced “Hagler Vs Hearns,” their first new music in almost 15 years, is the lead single to their upcoming album Return Flight, featuring beats from Trox, Vitamin D, and Craig Rip. The group call the song "an ode to the greatest fight in boxing history and a nod to the legend Marvelous Marvin Hagler (RIP)." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Juan Wauters - "Presentation (feat. Nick Hakim & Benamin)," a 2021 single on Captured Tracks. On his latest single "Presentation," Juan Wauters, a longtime resident of Jackson Heights, pays tribute to New York City in this collaboration with artists Nick Hakim and Benamin.  "'Presentation' was made one night when Nick, Benamin and I met at Nick's studio in Brooklyn," Wauters stated in a press release. "Nick and I had only met a few times before and Benamin and I met that night. We all hit it off really well and made this song that was built by all of us pitching ideas." He continues: The lyrics are a mash up from a bunch of notes I had scattered on my cell phone. There are many references to other songs, some obvious some not so much. I’d rather not disclose that since that’s the fun for you, the listener. I wanted the video to be an ode to early NYC hip hop in a very cliché way.  It was filmed during the summer of 2020. At that time, there weren’t many people around the city, a lot of transplants had left and there were no tourists, so that painted the city in a very special tone. Nick, Ben and I met at a playground in Maspeth, Queens with Matthew Volz where we shot some casual footage of us to the song. The day after Matthew and I went to the Bronx to meet with a young crew of breakdancers. It was a really hot day. We filmed with them for about an hour. The dancers really brought the house down. It was so cool to see them all vibe to the music. We also filmed at Central Park’s Alice In Wonderland statue to connect some lyric references.  In many ways, unintentionally, the song as much as the video came out to be a big shoutout to NY and things that have come out there. New York has been one of the main powers pushing behind my creation and this is me saluting it again. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cheekface - "Listen to your Heart.” "No." from the 2021 album Emphatically No. on New Professor Music. L.A.-based trio Cheekface bring their signature sense of humor to their sophomore release Emphatically No., out now via New Professor.  Today's Song of the Day challenges the toxic positivity of self-help. "This is obviously a song about the negative messages your brain sends to you when you are suffering with a mental illness," guitarist/vocalist Greg Katz told Flood Magazine. His songwriting partner/bassist/vocalist Amanda Tannen added, "I remember while writing this one I was getting more comfortable with saying 'no' in general. But also feeling judged by so-called 'self-help' fads. You can say 'no' to anything supposedly good for you, or bad, reminding myself that only I can make that decision for myself." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vegyn - "B4 the Computer Crash," a 2021 single on PLZ Make It Ruins. Back in 2019, LA-via-London producer Joe Thornalley (better known as Vegyn) was struggling with depression, an episode that influenced his latest EP, Like a Good Old Friend, out now via Plz Make it Ruins. “A friend let me stay at their house and they happened to have a piano,” he told The Face. ​“I was like ​‘cool, OK, I’m just gonna try and figure this thing out.’ My chords are definitely weird, but to me they’re not weird. I’m really just playing with shapes and trying to lean into the emotive quality of the music.” As the title of the EP would suggest, the new release features several of Thornalley's pals, including Owen Pallett, rapper Jeshi, lap steel guitarist Daniel Aged, London rapper John Glacier, and more. On today's featured track, Vegyn pairs up with multidisciplinary artist and pianist Duval Timothy, who brings his jazzy sensibility to this house-inspired, glitchy, yet somehow still smooth track. Check it out below, via a video by Richard Phillip Smith and Noah Burke. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Figmore - "Rosie," a 2021 single on Fresh Selects. Figmore combines the talents of Renton-raised producer 10.4 Rog (stream his Midnight in a Perfect World mix here) and JUICEB☮X, a rapper, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Westchester, NY. Now based in Los Angeles, the duo combine psych, R&B, and hip-hop on their debut album Jumbo Street (out now via Fresh Selects).  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Branik - "Monster," a 2020 self-released single. Seattle singer/songwriter Branik says she "writes songs that sometimes make my friends cry." Today's Song of the Day will have them sobbing.  In a statement to the Daily Listening, she explains, "When I wrote ‘Monster’ I felt like I had, yet again, lost everything I had been working so hard to make wonderful. It had been a year and a half of being left by the people that promised to love me and have my back. That December, I was sitting in tears on my cousin’s bedroom floor playing my aunt’s guitar... This song was me making sense of what I was feeling. It took me about 15 minutes to write. I was in crisis for a while after. I can feel my heart break a little bit every time I sing it... My hope in releasing this song is to give my listeners the same comfort that music has given me in times of grief and sorrow. There is something consoling about hearing lyrics that reflect exactly what I feel. I have one song that quite literally saved my life more than once. It gives me hope. It reminds me that I am not alone. I want my music to do that for other people... ‘Monster’ was me breaking through my coffin to claw out of my grave.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you have feedback on KEXP's podcasts you'd like to share with us? Things you'd like to hear more of, or things that could be improved? We want to hear from you. The survey closes on April 7, 2021, so don't wait! Take our Podcast Survey today.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

St. Vincent - "Pay Your Way In Pain" from the 2021 album Daddy's Home on Loma Vista Recordings. On her sixth album, Daddy’s Home, St. Vincent (real name: Annie Clark) looks to the past, specifically the ‘70s, to inspire the present.  “There’s something interesting about what the early ‘70s were, and the parallels between then and now – even socially,” Clark told NME. “You had the idealism of the ‘60s come crashing down and the flower child thing had dissipated and made room for a way grittier, more nihilistic, more ‘dirt under the fingernails’ vibe. The economy was crazy, there was a whole [lot] of social unrest and that doesn’t sound too dissimilar from now as we’re watching institutions of power being dismantled and people upset with the status quo. People are trying to navigate what it is to just survive.” Today's Song of the Day captures that theme of endurance. “I feel like we live in a world where we’re often asked to choose between surviving and dignity. Part of it is like blues for 2021. It’s also about how there’s nothing that I’ve done in my life that didn’t involve some sort of struggle. Some of those struggles are really worthy ones to have and something great can come of them.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ora the Molecule - "Creator," a 2021 single on Mute Records. Oslo, Norway-born artist Nora Schjelderup (otherwise known as Ora The Molecule) releases her debut album Human Safari this summer on July 23rd. Today's Song of the Day is the first single from the release, an ebullient anthem for youth, as reflected in the accompanying music video, directed by Tanmay Chowdhary. “The song is all about empowerment in the individual,” Schjelderup says in a press release. “You have to love the creator that is inside of the creature. I know there’s a lot of fear among kids. Greta Thunberg is a great example. She’s such a hero for so many young kids. It’s playing into that a little bit. In the video, my little sister, Tindra, is the adult listening to the news. I am a passive adult. She’s training me and doing all of these things to get us ready for the big day of catastrophe.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anushka Chkheidze - "Move, Move" from the 2021 album Move 20-21 on CES Records. With last year's debut LP Halfie, Anushka Chkheidze landed a nomination for IMPALA’s European Independent Album of The Year Award. Less than a year later, the 23-year-old electronic music artist returns with her second full-length, Move 20 – 21, an album she describes as "a mind journey through space and time without any physical activity." The LP was recorded during lockdown in her hometown of Kharagauli, a village in the Imereti region of western Georgia, and the songs have an inevitable introspection to them. “The album is a reflection of 2020 and 2021 so far, but not because of the situation brought on by COVID-19,” she tells the Calvert Journal. “It has to do with people, home, age. Last year, I realised I need to take better care of others, and of myself.”  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Altin Gün - "Maçka Yollari" from the 2021 album Yol on ATO Records. Amsterdam-based, but globally influenced with Turkish, Indonesian, and Dutch band members, Grammy-nominated band Altin Gün continue to add a psych-touch to traditional Turkish folk songs on their third album, Yol. Today's Song of the Day hails from the Trabzon region near the Black Sea coast, with Altin Gün giving it their usual funk infusion.  Like many recent releases, Yol was created during quarantine. "We couldn’t get together, so we demoed everything from home," vocalist/keyboardist Merve Daşdemir explained to American Songwriter. "We all work on Logic, [so] essentially [this album] sounded a bit electronic. But it wasn’t super intentional. It was more like, pandemic, so we have to do it differently. Which, I really enjoyed. This is the most creative input I put on an Altin Gün album so far, so it’s kind of my personal favorite, in that sense. Because I really like working alone, so this was perfect for me." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Echo of the Low Light - "Afterlife," a 2021 single on Independent. Echo of the Low Light is more than just a band; it's a collective of Pacific Northwest artists taking an experimental approach to song construction. At its core is guitarist/vocalist Kerri Holland and bassist Pam Drago. After years in bands, they wanted to push the boundaries. They explain on their Instagram, "We began to explore more digital elements and effects, blending them with the traditional guitar/bass/drums we’d been used to. This opened things up sonically in ways we couldn’t imagine. Then we thought, ‘what would it be like to create with artists we’ve never worked with before?’ This is when the floodgates flew wide open." Every song features a different line-up of collaborators. On today's Song of the Day, they welcomed guest artists Joy Dunay (The Dirty Slippers, The Way We Were in 1989), Brandon Krebs (All Known Aliases), and John Gibson (Danielli).  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Squid - "Narrator (feat. Martha Skye Murphy)" from the 2021 album Bright Green Field on Warp. After a series of stand-alone singles and an EP, Brighton, England-based band Squid have announced their debut album, Bright Green Field, out May 7th via Warp. Today's Song of the Day features guest vocals from Martha Skye Murphy, to help make "the point that the unreliable narrator is, more often than not, a male who wishes to portray women as submissive characters in their story." The band continue in a press release: "'Narrator' was inspired by the 2019 film A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. The song follows a man who is losing the distinction between memory, dream, and reality, and how you can often mold your memories of people to fit a narrative that benefits your ego. After some discussions with Martha she thought it’d be a good idea that she play the part of the woman wanting to break free from the dominating story the male has set​." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jupiter & Okwess - "You Sold Me a Dream (feat. Ana Tijoux)" from the 2021 album Na Kozonga on Everloving Records. Congolese band Jupiter & Okwess team up with Chilean artist Ana Tijoux for an infectious track with a powerful message, a song Jupiter declared an "anthem of resistance." Against an electronic tribal rhythm, Tijoux states: [Google translated] From Congo to the world From Congo to Latin America and Africa complete Against all racism the music is heard loud, loud, hear it Today's Song of the Day will be released on Jupiter & Okwess' forthcoming full-length, Na Kozonga, out April 23rd. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Team Dreams - "Imaginary Love," a 2021 self-released single. One of the (many) highlights of our 2018 Iceland Airwaves Music Festival broadcast was the appearance of Icelandic supergroup Team Dreams, a project of longtime friends Sin Fang (aka Sindri Már Sigfússon), Sóley, and Örvar Smárason. (We're going to assume they landed on the band name "Team Dreams," even though a couple of years ago they claimed it was just the title of their debut LP, joking they were "too old to come up with a new band name at this point in their careers.") Upon their return, they've announced they'll be releasing a new song every month this year, kicking off the ambitious project with today's Song of the Day. February's track was soon to follow, and we can't wait to see what they launch for March! Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

serpentwithfeet - "Fellowship (feat. Sampha & Lil Silva)" from the 2021 album DEACON on Secretly Canadian. Earlier this year, Los Angeles-via-Baltimore artist serpentwithfeet announced his sophomore album, DEACON, out March 26 via Secretly Canadian. In a press release, he explains that the new LP is "not only imagining but exploring a world wherein Black love is paramount." On today's Song of the Day, he examines the world of friendship, teaming up with guest artists Sampha and Lil Silva, who co-wrote, co-produced, and join serpent on the song’s chorus, chanting “I’m so thankful for my friends/ I’m thankful for the love I share with my friends.” “I dedicate ‘Fellowship’ to anyone who has had a good friend or been a good friend,” serpentwithfeet states simply in a press release. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Corvair - "Sailor Down" from the 2021 album Corvair on Where It’s At Is Where You Are. KEXP is a listener-funded nonprofit, and we need your help to keep creating podcasts like this one. Donate to our Spring Drive today! Portland duo Corvair made the most of quarantine by turning out their self-titled debut while on lockdown. The two had recorded plenty of times with their previous bands — Ruston Mire, Tube Top, Pop Sickle, The Service Providers for Brian Naubert and Eux Autres for Heather Larimer — but this was a whole new experience for the music veterans. “Recording and writing new music without the benefit of testing ideas in front of a live audience was strange,” said Naubert in a press release. “But ultimately, it gave us the freedom to really play with ideas and explore things we hadn’t ever tried before.” The intimacy of the stay-at-home orders also allowed the couple to express themselves more freely. “These are definitely the most exposed and truthful lyrics we have ever written,” Naubert states, “And musically, we just went for it. We didn’t try to talk ourselves out of weird moves, like laying some Mamas and Papas-style harmonies next to a Cars-esque keyboard solo or aggressive guitar work.” “We are so happy that our first singles have had such an excellent response," Larimer adds, “That our particular cocktail of feelings and sounds is connecting with people.”  Read the full post on KEXP.org KEXP is a listener-funded nonprofit, and we need your help to keep creating podcasts like this one. Donate to our Spring Drive today!Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

GHLOW - "Not Fit For This" from the 2021 album Slash and Burn on PNKSLM. KEXP is a listener-funded nonprofit, and we need your help to keep creating podcasts like this one. Donate to our Spring Drive today! When electro-punk project GHLOW named their debut album Slash and Burn, they meant it. The Russian-Swedish duo sought to capture the intensity of their live performances on the new LP. “After the [first] EP, we realised we wanted the album to be harder,” vocalist and bassist Emille de Blanche stated in a press release. “When we play live, it’s a physical experience — in the early days, we blew a lot of sound systems because the loudness was so important to us. There’s an intensity to that — a feeling of just wanting to be this vehicle speeding at 110 kil-ometres per hour — and we think we’ve captured it.” “There’s a rawness and a violence to Slash and Burn, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing,” adds her partner, multi-instrumentalist Nikolay Evdokimov. “It’s about starting again. You might be chopping things down, or setting fire to something, but that’s a reset — something positive comes out of the flames.”  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Antlers - "Solstice" from the 2021 album Green to Gold on ANTI-. KEXP is a listener-funded nonprofit, and we need your help to keep creating podcasts like this one. Donate to our Spring Drive today! Brooklyn duo The Antlers return later this month with their first new album in seven years, titled Green to Gold. Frontman Peter Silberman describes the LP in a press release as "Sunday morning music," adding that today's Song of the Day "is a flashback to the infinite days of peak childhood summer, innocent barefoot hikes, staying outside all afternoon and late into the evening, well past it being too dark to see. But it’s remembered from the vantage of a present day that feels unbearably long rather than joyously endless. It’s an invocation of those simpler times, an attempt to conjure the lightness of youth, before life got so damn complicated.” "I think the shift in tone is the result of getting older," he continues. "It doesn’t make sense for me to try to tap into the same energy that I did ten or fifteen years ago, because I continue to grow as a person, as I’m sure our audience does too. Green To Gold is about this idea of gradual change. People changing over time, struggling to accept change in those they love, and struggling to change themselves. And yet despite all our difficulty with this, nature somehow makes it look easy." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

春ねむり (Haru Nemuri) - "bang," a 2021 single on TO3S. KEXP is a listener-funded nonprofit, and we need your help to keep creating podcasts like this one. Donate to our Spring Drive today! Japanese artist Haru Nemuri (春 ねむり) (real name: Haruna Kimishima) is an alchemist, combining J-Pop with hip-hop, electronica, and noise. She calls today's Song of the Day a "prayer," inspired after the election of Donald Trump four years ago. In a beautifully-written statement on her website, she writes: ...we are divided deeper and deeper because a variety of human beings have used the ways like ones that Donald Trump has done many a time not only during his administration but in his life. We are all different in the point of what we feel and think, and we’re never enable to understand each other. And then, we have the only way to oppose this division getting deeper. It is to engage in dialogue anyway. We should upgrade our thought intermittently by talking each other to make this society by ourselves. In order to do that, we have to imagine others’ sadness, anger and pain existing certainly now, knowing the fact that we can’t understand completely each other. She concludes, "During our life, we might have painful experiences that we wouldn't be able to forget. Though in this world we are losing the subjects to which we should pray because something like the religion, race, gender and blood relation doesn’t decide our identity at all in the present times, I’m now finding hope in ‘prayer’ itself." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bicep - "Sundial" from the 2021 album Isles on Ninja Tune. KEXP is a listener-funded nonprofit, and we need your help to keep creating podcasts like this one. Donate to our Spring Drive today! London-based electronic duo Bicep dig into their Northern Ireland childhoods on their latest LP Isles, and today's Song of the Day takes us from Ireland to India. Belfast-born producers Matt McBriar and Andy Ferguson used a snippet of the song "Jab Andhera Hota Hai" from the 1973 Bollywood film Raja Rani.  “This is probably one of the simplest tracks on the album, it grew from a faulty Jupiter 6 arp recording. Our trigger isn't working properly and the arp skips notes randomly. This was a small segment taken from a recording of Andy just playing the arp live whilst we were just trying to figure out what was going wrong. We actually loved what it had produced and wrote some chords around it, guided by the feeling of this recording.” “In regards to the sampling, Indian music has always fascinated us since the blog days, discovering it was the possible birthplace of Acid house via Charanjit Singh’s Ten Ragas to a disco beat.” “Living in East London, Indian influence and music is everywhere and over the past few years we’ve both become huge fans of Bollywood film scores, particularly the female soprano performances. The haunting melancholic epicness really strikes a chord with both of us. We feel we can relate to how similar it is to the Irish folk we grew up around from the likes of the Clannad.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jessica Manning - "Safe Another Day" from the 2021 self-released You Are Here EP. Raised by a father who loved singing soul, Minneapolis-based R&B artist Jessica Manning grew up with a love for music and would sing Broadway show tunes in the privacy of her childhood bedroom. By the age of 15, she began playing guitar, posting covers (and sometimes an original!) on YouTube.  She's come a long way since then, beginning with the 2013 release of her self-titled EP. On her most recent release, January's EP You Are Here, she teams up with her longtime partner Zach Brose on production and co-writing. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Khingz (Over The World) x Ujjy - "Rainy Morning," a 2021 self-released single. Seattle hip-hop veteran Khingz teams up with Canadian artist Ujjy on this touching track, written during a dark time. Khingz states on his Bandcamp, he "wrote this when I did not know when I would see my son again and the world was heavy on my shoulders."  Khingz broke out as a battle emcee in the early 2000s, named "Best MC Of The Year" in 2009 by the Seattle Weekly readers poll. In 2001, he formed Abyssinian Creole with EARLY host Gabriel Teodros! Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Felicia Douglass - "Continuation," a 2021 self-released single. Felicia Douglass's voice is all around us: not only is she a solo artist, she's also a member of Ava Luna, Gemma, and Dirty Projectors; and she has lent her gorgeous vocals to Lushlife, BAILE, Toro y Moi, Helado Negro, and others. "There was a point a few years ago where I was like, 'Okay, I feel like I'm in too many bands,'" the Brooklyn-based artist jokingly told GARAGE last year.  Thanks to her home studio set-up, Douglass has been able to continue working remotely. ("Casio keyboards are good clutter," she quips.) Today's Song of the Day is one of those at-home creations, released last October.  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.