In Our Headphones

Kelly Finnigan - "Santa's Watching You" from the 2020 album A Joyful Sound on Colemine Records. This week, we are featuring Christmas-themed songs selected by Brian Foss, one of the hosts of KEXPs punk show Sonic Reducer, lover of off-brand holiday tunes, and owner of pants. Brian has been doing a punk rock Christmas special every year since 2004 and has been a Christmas Day on-air DJ since 2012. No standards are played, only original X-Mess songs, most with a humorous bent. Hear him this holiday season from 12-7 PM PT on Friday, December 25th, and get even more seasonal songs on his 17th annual Punk Rock Christmas show on Sonic Reducer, available in KEXP's two-week Streaming Archive (scroll down to the December 20th show). Brian says: Formally from the bay area band Monophonics, Kelly Finnigan's new holiday album is a solid soulful release. His reworking of the The Sacred Four track is a keeper. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michael M - "Humans Are Not Worth Saving (Merry Christmas)" from the 2020 self-released album A Digital Christmas Gift For You. This week, we are featuring Christmas-themed songs selected by Brian Foss, one of the hosts of KEXPs punk show Sonic Reducer, lover of off-brand holiday tunes, and owner of pants. Brian has been doing a punk rock Christmas special every year since 2004 and has been a Christmas Day on-air DJ since 2012. No standards are played, only original X-Mess songs, most with a humorous bent. Hear him this holiday season from 12-7 PM PT on Friday, December 25th, and get even more seasonal songs on his 17th annual Punk Rock Christmas show on Sonic Reducer, available in KEXP's two-week Streaming Archive (scroll down to the December 20th show). Brian says: I don't know much about Michael M (except he's from Glasgow) but I find his humor dark and endearing. The song we are sharing today is super catchy and I find myself singing it way too much. If the world is going to burn will you laugh with me at least? He has a whole youtube channel committed to making snarky Christmas videos. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Draze - "The Main Thing," a 2020 self-released single. Earlier this year, attorney, CNN political commentator, and activist Angela Rye launched a new series for TIDAL titled The Main Thing, where Rye sits down with "high-profile celebrities, entertainers, history makers, athletes, organizers, and more" for candid, intimate conversations. And noneother than Seattle's own Draze has composed the show's opening theme song.  Draze was just nominated for "Best Hip-Hop Artist" by the African Achievement Awards; winners will be announced this Saturday, December 19th at 6 PM PST.   Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mystic - "We Are The People (All Around The World)," a 2020 single on Beautifull Soundworks. Bay Area-based hip-hop artist Mystic (real name: Mandolyn Wind Ludlum) is a veteran of the scene, from participating in rap battles in the early '90s to touring with Digital Underground in the late '90s. She was nominated for a Grammy and a BET Award for "Best Female Hip-Hop Artist" in the early 2000s, and her work has appeared on TV soundtracks and commercials.  She's also an activist, serving as the Bay Area Coordinator for the Hip Hop Caucus, a non-profit organization that aims to promote political activism for young U.S. voters using hip-hop music and culture. Her latest single, and today's Song of the Day, she continues to use her music to speak out against injustice. As she said on her Facebook page, "I really made this song for all of us around the world fighting for justice and reimagining new futures — those of us who believe shifting paradigms is possible." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Astu - "Source of Her (feat. Salami Rose Joe Louis)" from the 2020 album ALTARS on Boyish Records. On her debut full-length ALTARS, Eritrean-American artist ASTU combines soul and synth-pop to craft her confident and thought-provoking grooves.  Astu now resides in Oakland, but arrived there from Oklahoma where she attended seminary college, married a minister, and then became a minister herself. She had been singing gospel music since she was a pre-schooler, but hadn't pursued non-secular music until her 2017 debut EP Patterns. With ALTARS, she opens up even more, writing on Facebook: "this album is filled with me..every part of me..the parts i’ve been too afraid to see most of my life. and i want to give it to you."  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ivy Sole - "BITTERSWEET" from the 2020 album SOUTHPAW on Les Fleurs Records. Ivy Sole wasn't even sure she wanted to release a new album this year, but thankfully, she did, with her brand new release SOUTHPAW. "Me and my manager have been hesitant to release any music to distract or make light of what is happening, and this is prior to George Floyd and how that has changed the COVID era," she admitted to DJBooth.net. "To be honest, I was gonna drop an album this year and decided to hold off on that to sit with what is happening right now. I don’t want to 'lend' my voice to the movement. By virtue of being an abolitionist and endeavoring to be a radical thinker, anything that I would release was going to add to that conversation. With 'Bittersweet,' I wanted to release something that spoke directly to it rather than shying away from it." She adds, "I started writing it just on some, 'Damn, I miss the feeling of summer.' This summer feels bittersweet to me. I can’t touch and be touched the way I’m usually experiencing summer. Summer is such a sensory period — it’s hot, you sweat, you’re in the park, on rooftops. I was on some nostalgic shit with the first verse, and then the George Floyd uprising happened, and I was like… At this point, everything is changing, so I don’t want the change to be piecemeal at all. I don’t want the minimum. That’s what the powers that be tend to expect us to accept. I’m in a headspace where I finally have a taste of what it could be like to be free, so I just refuse to settle in any way, shape, or form. All of us deserve that. More and more people are starting to realize they don’t have to accept what they’ve been given." Proceeds from the track are being donated to Black womxn experiencing housing instability or facing eviction in the NY/NJ/PA area. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ego Ella May - "Girls Don't Always Sing About Boys" from the 2020 album Honey For Wounds on UpperRoom Records. On her debut album Honey For Wounds, South London-based artist Ego Ella May provides sweet relief from troubling times with her jazzy neo-soul sound. On today's Song of the Day, she asks listeners, "What if I wanna talk about suffering?" “I will, of course, continue to write about love,” May said in an interview with Bandcamp. “But I’m also conscious of other things that happen in life, and I like to address them in song form. There are so many different themes on the album that it felt like a diary, even. ‘Girls Don’t Always Sing About Boys’ came about because I was sick of hearing songs about relationships on the radio. I wanted to talk about other things, and at the time I wasn’t thinking about love. Grenfell [the 2017 West London Tower fire that killed 72 people and injured just as many] had just happened, and my mind was awake. I was reading about sustainability and pollution, and training to be a counsellor — I just had lots to think about. I wanted to challenge myself to put it all into song form.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Byland - "Mine" from the 2020 self-released album Gray. For her latest LP Gray, Albuquerque-based artist Alie Renee Byland (who records under the name Byland) immersed herself in the Seattle music scene, collaborating with producer and multi-instrumentalist Nathan Yaccino (known for his work with Soundgarden, Noah Gundersen, Brandi Carlile). For today's featured track, she invited local musicians Abby Gundersen and Meagan Grandall (aka Lemolo) into the Ballard recording studio.  In a press release, she tells us: “Mine” is about realizing that my energy is finite and that I have permission to say “no”. I grew up idealizing the notion of giving without limit. When I felt drained, I thought there was something wrong with me. Last Summer, I was feeling especially emotionally and relationally exhausted. I wrote this song while I had an overwhelming amount of calls, emails and texts to respond to. I intentionally wanted “Mine”’s rhythm and offset melody to feel abrupt at times, to express the sense of being pulled in polarizing directions. I was nervous to bring another track to my producer, Nathan Yaccino, given that we were well into the recording process already. But after sharing a simple phone demo, we promptly sat down together and fleshed out the piano tracks, vocals and overall vision for this song. Abby Gunderson’s cinematic strings and the haunting harmonies of Meagan Grandall helped fortify and exemplify the internal expanse this song symbolizes. A liberating anthem, “Mine” is perhaps the most emblematic of the record’s ode to prioritizing mental health, by giving a voice to subconscious thoughts, and creating space within, a space that’s mine.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Weather Station - "Tried To Tell You" from the 2020 album Ignorance on Fat Possum. The Weather Station (a project of Toronto-based artist Tamara Linderman) returns early next year with her fifth full-length, titled Ignorance, out February 5, 2021 via Fat Possum; today, we get a sneak peek at the new release with today's Song of the Day, "Tried To Tell You." In a press release, Linderman tells us the track is about “reaching out to someone; a specific person, or maybe every person, who is tamping down their wildest and most passionate self in service of some self (and world?) destructive order​.” The accompanying video was directed by Lindeman herself, and was set near the house where she grew up. She adds: The video portrays a person who is beset by miracles and visions of beauty, which emanate from inside of and all around him, but rather than reacting with awe or joy, he reacts with annoyance, indifference, and mistrust​. ​We are taught not to see the natural world that we still live in, preferring instead to dwell on the artificial, which is so often a poor substitute for the vibrant real. Flowers really do rise up from mud, and many of us are full of treasures and beauty, but we often discount these things or throw them away.​  Read the full post on KEXP.org  Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

GDRN - "Vorið" from the 2020 album GDRN on Les Freres Stefson. When GDRN (real name: Guðrún Ýr Eyfjörð Jóhannesdóttir) played KEXP Iceland Airwaves broadcast last year, she had just swept the Iceland Music Awards with her debut Hvað Ef, scoring best female artist, best pop song, best pop album, and music video of the year. With her follow-up full-length, released earlier this year, Jóhannesdóttir experiments with a new approach. As she told KEXP's Dusty Henry last year: The next album is a bit more... It has more live instruments in it and more of me singing with more power. Just the lyrical ideas – they're all in Icelandic, I'm sorry for your English speaking listeners – but they are just fully formed ideas, I would say. They have this uptempo feel and a little bit more jazz, live instruments and everything. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Molchat Doma - "Discoteque" from the 2020 album Monument on Sacred Bones. Belarusian trio Molchat Doma (a phrase that translates to “Houses Are Silent”) formed in 2017, crafting darkwave synth-pop from their hometown of Minsk. Their just-released third full-length Monument was written and recorded in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic, but with today's featured track "Discotheque", they invite the listener to imagine the now-forbidden dance floor. In a press release, they describe the song as “a light dance composition, which was created in order to make the listener move to the beat of the music. A kind of answer to 'Just Can’t Get Enough' by Depeche Mode…Ideal for both mood elevation and unbridled fun.” The accompanying music video, directed by Alexey Terehoff, was filmed at the Memorial Museum-Studio of Z. Azgur, and while the clip finds the band performing to statues of Lenin and Stalin, Terehoff aimed to focus on the aesthetic. “This is the city that embalmed and revived all the idols from the era of the Soviet dictatorship,” he declared. “There are no politics in the video, only the STYLE, a mixture of pure, concentrated neo-totalitarian aesthetics and acidic post-punk.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Young Jesus - "Faith" from the 2020 album Welcome to Conceptual Beach on Saddle Creek. Earlier this year, Los Angeles-based quartet Young Jesus released their fifth full-length Welcome to Conceptual Beach; turns out, it's a sandy shore frontman John Rossiter has visited for years, originally as a physical zine in 2016. He told Uproxx.com:  It became a kind of diary, where I could become a character — as it turns out, is really helpful for sorting out your own health and psychology and soul, to be able to separate yourself out a little bit into different figures. It would really help me sort through my feelings, anger, guilt, sadness, shame, unworthiness, creativity, joy. At that point in time, I was living really deeply in my own mind, and that’s a really isolating place to be. So it helped me dive into the heart of that. This record, I hope, is my life opening up a little bit, and leaving my mind, joining a community, and being more in my body. As an album, Welcome to Conceptual Beach finds the band expanding on their emo roots, adding jazzy elements to their post-rock sound, while Rossiter explores a new vulnerability. He confides to music blog Grandma Sophia's Cookies:  This is the first record where I’m not just saying how good I want to be, or what I want the world to be, or if only people did this it would be great, or look at all these people who are fucking up, or look at how much I’ve fucked up, but it’s more this is what’s happening and there’s so much work to be done. But there’s also so much that’s being done, and a lot of it is beautiful. A lot of what’s within me and what’s within my friends and loved ones is beautiful. It’s the first time — I’m emotional right now — that I believe it. I don’t know if I really believed it before. I didn’t really listen to our music and its lyrics, and especially their delivery, until a year ago. When I listened, I was like, Oh my god, I’m screaming the whole time, I’m so angry. This is the first album where I’m emerging from that and being like, Okay, I could do better myself. I want to hear these lessons that are on the album and keep living them. I hope some people get some of that from it. I hope they see how much I love other people.  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SassyBlack - "Therapy" from the 2020 self-released EP Stuck. Throughout her career, Seattle's own SassyBlack has tackled the topic of mental health, from her 2019 song “Depression” and the accompanying short film released early in 2020. On her latest EP Stuck, and today's featured track, in particular, she continues the conversation around self care, encouraging listeners to reach out when they're feeling "nothing at all," repeating the lyric "lay it on me" in a soothing rhythm.  In conjunction with KEXP’s Music Heals: Mental Health, we’re asking Song of the Day artists to spotlight a different organization, and in a perfect complement to today's Song of the Day, SassyBlack chose the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective, a "collective of advocates, yoga teachers, artists, therapists, lawyers, religious leaders, teachers, psychologists and activists committed to the emotional/mental health and healing of Black communities."  Learn more about the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective here. Donations are accepted here.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nailah Hunter - "Black Valhalla," a 2020 self-released single. With "Black Valhalla", Los Angeles-based composer/harpist Nailah Hunter imagines a place where Black people "are safe and exalted." In this interview with KEXP's Dusty Henry, Hunter explains: I mean, again, Valhalla being the place where the Nordic gods live and the people... Actually just kidding, they don't live there, but it's a place where warriors go. I have always loved that idea. And I love Vikings and all of that stuff. But I realized how Black people are left out of that narrative. So obviously, the name of the song had to be 'Black Valhalla.' But I think the idea initially was like to speak to the fallen, the slain black people. But then at the same time, not wanting to martyr them in that way where it's like, 'Oh, they're fallen soldiers.' It's like, no, that was someone's son that's now dead. That was someone's daughter who's now dead. So I'm not trying to glorify it in that way, but just thinking of an official place where their sacrifice, what happened to them is actually recognized for what it is. And just a 'safe and glorious hall' – we all deserve that, Black people deserve that. We've been through a lot. So that's where that was coming from. And yeah, just this idea that it's not quite safe here on this plane for black people. Maybe somewhere else is safe. It's a global thing, but maybe it's different on another plane. In conjunction with KEXP’s Music Heals: Mental Health, we’re asking Song of the Day artists to spotlight a different organization. Hunter chose the Loveland Foundation, an organization that provides therapy for young Black girls and women. (Proceeds from today's featured track are being donated to the Foundation.) In her KEXP interview, she explains: I was just searching for the right organization and that came up and I was like, "Yes, this is exactly it." Because black girls need to talk about what's going on. It is so difficult to be a black woman in this world. And you need to be able to talk about that with someone else. And I just know for me, like when I found my African-American therapist, I was literally changed. I had been to therapists before who were white and it just didn't work because they didn't understand... they couldn't understand certain aspects. So I'm just thankful for any organization that is connecting black girls to therapists. So that's why I chose them. Learn more about the Loveland Foundation here. Donations are accepted here.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kassa Overall - “Darkness In My Mind” from I THINK I’M GOOD on Brownswood Recordings. Originally hailing from Seattle and now based out of New York, Kassa Overall has used his inimitable blend of jazz, hip-hop, and experimental leanings to explore heady and existential topics. With his latest record, I THINK I’M GOOD, he’s at his most personal and revealing. On the record he explores his own experiences with mental illness, having experienced manic episodes and subsequent hospitalizations in his youth.  “Mental instability or hyper-sensitivity was something that felt too taboo to talk about," Kassa Overall says in the record’s Bandcamp description. "I want to show the world that mentally sensitive people are the innovators of our society, and hopefully set a new standard that includes a healthy way of life and embracing our unique perspective on reality.” He addresses these themes directly on the LP’s standout track, “”Darkness In My Mind.” Joined by jazz pianist Sullivan Fortner, the two create an atmosphere that veers into the gothic with elegant-yet-nightmarish piano keys cascading against Overall’s mournful, vocoder-effected vocals. The song veers drastically between moments of beauty and bliss to skittering, hectic rhythms and electronic fever dreams. The musical tension is an apt complement to Overall’s musings over his troubles, recreating that troubling and inescapable dream that can come in our most difficult mental moments.  In conjunction with KEXP’s upcoming Music Heals: Mental Health, we’re asking Song of the Day artists to spotlight a different organization. Overall has chosen the Jazz Foundation of America’s Musicians Emergency Fund. The foundations outlined goal is to create a program that protects artists and “turns despair into hope.” They do this by ensuring blues, jazz, and roots artists are given the housing assistance they need, the care they need to stay healthy, and financially security to keep their basic needs met.  Learn more about the Jazz Foundation of America here. Donations are accepted here. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Orion Sun - “mama’s baby,” a 2020 self-released single. Philadelphia-based songwriter Orion Sun’s latest single, “mama’s baby,” was written after experiencing police brutality during a protest earlier this year in late May. Thrown into the ground multiple times and her arm twisted, she left with not just physical injuries but emotional pain from the trauma she lived.  As she details in the description on her Bandcamp page, it took her some time to recover and process what happened to her. Some healing finally came as she turned to music. Less than a week after the event, she recorded and released “mama’s baby” with proceeds going to Breonna Taylor’s GoFundMe page. She explains the writing process below:  “i've been in pain physically and emotionally but upon completing this song a wave of peace came over me. it was the first time my anxiety subsided in a long while and i thought if this did that for me then it might for other people. i want to share this song with you today in hopes that you can find some peace during this time. even when people can look at the world burning and feel nothing because the fire hasn't touched their skin, there are people feeling deeply and fighting in their own important way for the change that is inevitable. keep your head up and breathe and know that evil will never prevail long enough to be forever.” The hum of turntable needle wavers above Sun’s plaintive keyboard and the steady roll of her voice. Echoes and reverb come in and out of the mix, but Sun stays constant and hardly ever raises her voice or deviates from the soothing melody. “I’ve seen it all, it don’t affect me,” she repeats on the song before ending with, “I mean we all pass on, at least respect me.” While there is a mournful sorrow ruminating in the track, that sense of peace resonates throughout like a slow exhale.  In conjunction with KEXP’s upcoming Music Heals: Mental Health, we’re asking Song of the Day artists to spotlight a different organization. Sun has chosen the Loveland Foundation. Loveland Foundation supports healing and mental health services for communities of color, with a particular focus on Black women and girls, including giving financial assistance for therapy, offering fellowships, residency programs, and more.  Learn more about Loveland Foundation here. Donations are accepted here. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sampa The Great - “Time’s Up (Remix) feat. Junglepussy,” a 2020 single on Ninja Tune. While music can be healing, oftentimes the industry is quite the opposite. As Sampa The Great (aka Sampa Tembo) addresses on “Time’s Up,” it can be even more perilous for Black artists working against systemic racism within the industry.  “‘Time’s Up’ is a track that was made to reflect a conversation between two young Black artists about the Australian music industry,” Tembo said in a statement upon the song’s release in 2019. “With the current atmosphere it’s an important time to address systemic racism within the music industry, especially as it slowly rebuilds. She continues, “Allyship should never be performative and as we continue past blackout day, all music orgs/labels should be put to task in bringing forward their initiatives for real change within their industry.” A year after the song’s release, Tembo is continuing to open up the conversation and giving the song new life with a remix competition, encouraging Black women and non-binary artists to hop on the track and share their own experiences. She set things off with this remix featuring New York rapper Junglepussy, who calls out bluntly that there are people “making money off our pain, it must be the protocol.” It’s the ideal complement to Tembo’s original verse, speaking her truth on how female rappers are often grouped together and rising above expectations and outdated norms.  In conjunction with KEXP’s upcoming Music Heals: Mental Health, we’re asking Song of the Day artists to spotlight a different organization. Tembo has chosen Pola Psychology. Tembo and Pola Psychology have partnered together with the goal of ensuring African youth have access to safe, appropriate, and responsive mental health care.  “At a time when it is needed the most, this is not just about raising the much needed funds, but also about letting my friends and the wider African and black community know that this service exists,” Tembo says on the organizations website. Their current goal is to raise $20,000 to pay for a year of therapy for 16 African youth. Learn more about Pola Psychology here. Donations are accepted here. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stas THEE Boss - “Rotary Style” from the 2020 EP Sang Stasia! on LucidHaus. Sang Stasia!, one of two outstanding EPs from the former Seattle resident and host of KEXP’s Street Sounds, was crafted from beats made for other singers but for some reason never recorded. The Black Constellation representative weaves her trademark multisyllabic rhymes over a cosmic sample looped to psychedelic effect, calling out corporate shills for churning out weak music for profit. The way Stas builds her rhyming sounds over the loopy harmonies of the beat is truly hypnotic. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seth Bogart - “Men on the Verge of Nothing” from Men on the Verge of Nothing on Wacky Wacko Records. Inspired in equal measure by Pedro Almodóvar and Poly Styrene, the artist formerly known as Hunx spins the former’s classic 1988 dark comedy (titled Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) into a treatise on the uselessness of male privilege. The album’s title track zeroes in on this concept through the vehicle of lighthearted new wave while Bogart takes Mr. Know-It-Alls to task as they fail upwards.  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

STR4TA - "Aspects (Demus Dub)," a 2020 single on Brownswood Recordings. While 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic have kept us from dancing out our sorrows, artists and producers around the globe are still holing up in their studios to give us sensational, future dance floor hits. Case in point, the new Brit-Funk project STR4TA. The project’s debut single ‘Aspects’ was recorded in a London shed just before lockdown went into effect before getting a release this fall. The infectious grooves get even more dazzling with the b-side dub mix by producer Demus. Funk and psychedelia instrumentation collide with raw, dance rhythms for a perfect impromptu at-home dance party to tide us over until we can all return to the clubs. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nubya Garcia - "The Message Continues" from the 2020 album SOURCE on Concord. British jazz wunderkind Nubya Garcia made an awe-inspiring debut this year with her LP, ‘SOURCE.’ Her jazz bona fides and prowess are in full view with “The Message Continues,” a stirring instrumental that sees Garcia’s saxophone taking center stage amongst a wondrous fray of sensational drumming and hypnotic keys and bass lines. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Blue Hawaii - "Not My Boss!" from the 2020 EP Under 1 House on Arbutus Records. With one member in Berlin and one in Montreal, Blue Hawaii fuses together a globe-spanning dance party with each new record. “Not My Boss” from their latest release, ‘Under 1 House,’ finds the duo bringing together sultry synth pads with classic house rhythms and battlecry: “You’re not my boss, I’m my own damn woman.” It’s the fuel to dance off frustration and find strength on the dancefloor. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Antonioni - "Malcomer," a 2020 self-released single. Seattle’s Antonioni are on their way up! With a couple EPs under their belt, the indie band recently signed with Lauren Records and are on the verge of releasing their debut album. The latest single to be shared is “Malcomer,” a dark and dreamy odyssey that burns and builds with shimmering textures and showcases frontperson Sarah Pasillas’ haunting voice that brings to mind the unique, quavering tones of Adrianne Lenker and Frances Quinlan. Pasillas had this to say about “Malcomer”: "This song is about the journey of finding validation in the self, in what you love and do, in the face of everything you feel is against you. It’s kind of a peek into how I feel when I think about men in music and men in general: it feels they have automatic permission and authority to be and express. This song is supposed to be a celebration of finding and knowing the self, finding and knowing vulnerability and moving forward with it, even more sure of yourself than before.” The song was shared alongside a video of the band hanging out and playing music. Read the full post and watch the video on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Julia Jacklin - "to Perth, before the border closes," a 2020 single on Sub Pop. For some artists, the idea of being on the road and the constant change is a high unlike any other. Which would make the current situation with Covid-19 a difficult one, to say the least. Julia Jacklin is one of those artists and she expresses the idea of chasing the high of change via locale on last month’s “to Perth, before the border closes,” a 7” release for Sub Pop Singles Club, Vol. 5 alongside the song “CRY.” “I’ve moved around a lot the last 5 years,” explains Jacklin. “Chasing things, love, work, something new, whatever and there’s always this fear that I’m leaving good things behind just to go somewhere else and be lonely. Whispering ‘everything changes’ to myself helps get me to sleep at night. I started writing this song in Melbourne and finished it in Perth. It was like a little song bridge between the two cities to make the change easier.” The song comes with a self-directed video of interesting signs, trinkets, and relics found on a recent road trip that epitomize these “unprecedented times” from an abandoned Dr. Phil book, a news report about Trump testing positive for COVID-19, and a sign reading “We’re all in this together.” Read the full post and watch the video on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MorMor - "Don't Cry," a 2020 single on Don't Guess Inc. For the past couple of years, Toronto’s MorMor (musician Seth Nyquist) has been crafting spellbindingly evocative music that has the power to cut your heart in two. Following up 2018’s Heaven’s Only Wishful EP and last year’s Some Place Else EP comes the single “Don’t Cry.” Pulsating with a feverish darkness, the raw lyrics capture the anxiety of lockdown during which the song was made. “I’m tired of the days/ They came and went/ We were left alone/ Finding it hard to breathe,” warbles Nyquist, who had this to say about the song:  “I had started to write again in December with a few songs underway, but in March the world as we knew it came to a halt. Though I tried to continue writing it didn’t feel right. I was told I was being hard on myself, but I have always used music as a way of making sense of things. Suddenly there were just too many things to make sense of: A Global pandemic, the sudden lockdown, shortly followed by the protests. "Voices were raised around the world because people have had enough. Mourning has become so painful that people are demanding changes. I felt I had to reflect that. Tears have fallen and we can no longer pretend that we’re not all in this together." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nilüfer Yanya - “Crash” from the 2020 Feeling Lucky? EP on ATO Records. After a momentous 2019 with her excellent, critically acclaimed debut ‘Miss Universe,’ Nilüfer Yanya is coming back for more. The English songwriter recently announced the ‘Feeling Lucky?’ EP, due out Dec. 11 through ATO Records. The first offering from the record comes with the anthemic single “Crash.” Co-written by Nick Hakim, “Crash” showcases layers of Yanya enigmatic vocals swirling above some of her most fuzzed-out instrumental arrangements yet. Seemingly pulling influence from noise rock, Yanya still maintains the pop-leanings that made ‘Miss Universe’ such a rousing success. Even while the distortion of the instrumentation seems to shake the room, Yanya sounds steady and unphased, even as she threatens to “crash” if prompted with one more question. We can all only aspire to stay so cool and nonchalant as Yanya does while the world around us crumbles. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Loma - “Half Silences” from the 2020 album Don’t Shy Away on Sub Pop. Loma never anticipated going this far. The project began as an impromptu collaboration with songwriter Emily Cross, recording engineer Dan Duszynski, and Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg, converging to record their 2018 self-titled debut. After releasing the record and touring, each member intended to go back to their own projects. However, it only took a few months away from each other before they realized they wanted to keep Loma going. The trio holed up in Duszynski’s Texas home studio to record their sophomore effort, ‘Don’t Shy Away,’ which was recently released on Sub Pop. “Don’t Shy Away” vindicates the bands decision to keep moving forward. The brooding, slow dirge finds the band at their best. Cross’ voice wields a stark intensity, looming over the restrained but tense instrumentation. It’s a marvel of studio wizardry, with static and eerie distortion and synth drones crashing over the steady pulse of drums and bass. It’s Loma at their best, pushing each other into bold, luminous new sonic territories. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Weep Wave - "Bury the Bones," a 2020 self-released single. If you've been missing the casual acquaintanceship of neighborhood pups during the quarantine, you are not alone. Local psych-rock trio Weep Wave feel your pain.  “I started missing it being socially acceptable to approach strangers with dogs," frontman Dylan Fuentes admitted to Melted Magazine. "I do not have a dog of my own so I have to solely rely on the generous free pets of strangers and their adorable dogs,” said Dylan Fuentes. “I figured I wasn’t alone and this inspired the lyrics to the song. I also felt bad for all the dogs out there who haven't seen their doggy pals in a while and have no idea why.”  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beabadoobee - "Sorry" from the 2020 album Fake It Flowers on Dirty Hit. Last month, British-based singer/songwriter Beabadoobee (real name: Bea Kristi) released her full-length debut Fake It Flowers, and it fulfilled all the anticipation that began brewing with her earlier EPs. "Fake It Flowers is pretty much my whole life in one album," she told i-D Magazine. "People are gonna know a lot, and it’s fun because I finally feel like this is really genuine -- the music and the way it sounds is something I’ve always wanted to make." On Twitter, Beabadoobee revealed that today's KEXP Song of the Day is one of her faves off the new album, and a song the means a lot to her. In a press release, she shares: ’Sorry’ is an apology, confessing my mistakes in a friendship and watching someone who I love breakdown and fade away as a person. It’s the idea of dismissing something because it felt too close home and a personal reminder to never take for granted what that person could have had. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Churchhill Garden - "birds," a 2020 self-released single.  Under the stay-at-home order, many bands have taken to the internet in order to create and record new music, e-mailing each other files and rehearsing via Zoom calls. But for shoegaze duo The Churchhill Garden, collaborating across the ocean has long been their modus operandi. Vocalist Krissy Vanderwoude explained the process to Fade Away Radiate in 2018: “With [bandmate] Andy [Jossi] being in Switzerland and me in the US (Indiana), he writes the song structure and then sends it to me via dropbox. I write and record the vocals (usually scratch tracks at first, to see if he likes the direction), and send them back to him. We are both very honest with each other, so if there is something that we do not like, or think would sound better another way, we are sure to offer up that feedback. There is never any hard feelings or wounded pride, as we both value constructive criticism and want the tracks to be perfect in the end. Once we agree on a direction, I record the vocals raw and then send him the vocal tracks back, via dropbox. He then begins the mixing process (which he is also genius enough to know how to do himself), and then we send out the track for mastering to Andrew Rose once it is done! Thankfully, it’s actually very easy to write together, because of these advances in modern technology!” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TV Priest - "This Island" from the 2021 album Uppers on Sub Pop. With today's Song of the Day, London-based post-punk quartet TV Priest share an early look at their forthcoming full-length Uppers, out February 5th via Sub Pop. In a press statement, frontman Charlie Drinkwater calls the track "an unrequited love letter, and a howl of frustration; a mea culpa and a call to arms." He adds: "'This Island' is about incoherence and inarticulate responses, both personal and political, in a time and place you don’t fully understand anymore... We wrote this to an increasingly nationalistic and isolationist drum beat playing out at home and abroad, and frankly we are scared and appalled. As artists we aren’t offering up solutions for living, but maybe we can extend a hand and let someone know that you aren’t alone in feeling under prepared in your responses yet powerful in your convictions. That small boats can still make big waves. That we have a world to win." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ghost of Vroom - "Rona Pollona" from the 2020 Ghost of Vroom 2 EP on Mod y Vi Records. Back in the '90s, NYC-based band Soul Coughing combined improvisational jazz with samples and the stream-of-consciousness poetry of frontman Mike Doughty. Decades later, Doughty returns with Ghost of Vroom (the band name a nod to SC's debut 1994 album Ruby Vroom), a project with bassist and longtime collaborator Andrew “Scrap” Livingston.  "This is the Soul Coughing stuff that was never made," Doughty explained to Stereogum. "It’s a very specific return to ’94, ’95 Soul Coughing. I’m getting deep, but the way the band sounded at the end of the Ruby Vroom tour, but before we went in with David Kahne to make 'Super Bon Bon' and 'Lazybones,' all those songs." On today's Song of the Day, Ghost of Vroom take a lighthearted look at the current pandemic. "If you dig enough, there’s darkness in there, but it’s essentially jokes about coronavirus," Doughty confirms. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

J'Von - "cnn" from the 2020 album THUNDERBOY on PLZCOMEAGAIN. Seattle's own J'Von returned last month with his latest LP of lo-fi hip-hop titled Thunderboy. True to his history of multidisciplinary approach, J'Von wrote, arranged, produced, recorded, and mixed the album himself (with one track co-produced by grady), as well as created all the art, characters, and animations.  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dave B - "Worthy," a 2020 self-released single. With his single "Worthy," Renton, WA-based rapper Dave B wanted to remind the Black community that they are worthy of love and respect.  "A lot of people post their black squares and do what they do and they get to throw it to the side they don't have to live it," he said to King 5 News. "We have to wake up every day and start to do this. I got to walk outside every day and I'm still worried about what might happen if I do the wrong thing or say the wrong thing." Proceeds from the track are being donated to Acts On Stage, WA Black Trans Task Force, and the Black Trans Travel Fund.  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Quetzal - "Justice Never Dies," a 2020 self-released single. As we rebuild the world around us As others still fight and die We keep doing all we can “We don’t just survive We wanna thrive!” Since forming in the early '90s, East L.A.-based band Quetzal have long used their musical platform to speak out about social justice and education. Frontwoman Martha Gonzalez is an associate professor at Scripps College and just released the book Chican@ Artivistas: Music, Community and Transborder Tactics in East Los Angeles. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tiffany Wilson - "America (feat. Lady Tasz & Vitamin D)," a 2020 single on Loosegroove Records. You know a song is good when it brings a record label out of a twenty year hiatus, which is just what happened with Tiffany Wilson and Loosegroove Records, a label founded by Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam) and Regan Hagar (Malfunkshun, Brad). Based in Seattle, Wilson is also a former member of local gospel group SOUL. On her latest single (a first-listen to her forthcoming full length coming in 2021), Wilson recruits the powerful voices of Lady Tasz and Vitamin D to convey a somber message. She writes on her YouTube page: “This song is a question. Is this how they keep America great? With violence and hatred? What role do you play in interrupting and addressing that? I’m thinking about the stigma placed on black people as ‘Dangerous killers and blah blah blah.’ All of the mass shootings and big bombs…those weren’t us. Instead, we’re deemed a threat. The hatred has become so much more prevalent. We’ve gone back in the past. I want to make people aware.  It speaks from the perspective of a young or old white killer and how ‘hard’ their life is having been given everything. It keeps everyone subdued and afraid to fight back. Is this America’s secret weapon?” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sa-Roc - "The Black Renaissance (feat. Black Thought)" from the 2020 album The Sharecropper's Daughter on Rhymesayers. The first time Sa-Roc met Black Thought of The Roots, he was pulling her up on stage at the 2014 A3C Hip Hop Festival in front of tens of thousands of people.  “We had a mutual friend who’s close to him and had been sharing music or whatever," the Atlanta-based MC remembered to HipHopDX. "He was anticipating meeting us there and Thought, being the Hip Hop icon who went through the fire and came up doing cyphers and freestyles, he completely believed in making sure an MC is up to par with going through that cold trial-by-fire thing. The impromptu performance set the stage for the collaboration on today's Song of the Day. She told ABC Australia: "I knew as soon as I started writing this album, I wanted Black Thought to feature and when [producer] Sol Messiah showed me this track, I was like, 'This is the one.' I have such high regard for Black Thought as an MC and how he elevates lyricism to an extent that's really not seen within the mainstream industry. So, we got on the track, we recorded in the studio, and just went crazy: back and forth bar for bar. So, this is lyricism at its finest." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rell Be Free - "Paythefeee" from the 2020 self-released album P.T.F.D. Rell Be Free (real name: Jerrell Davis) is a self-described "musician, underground educator, and multifaceted entrepreneur" from the South End of Seattle. A rapper since the age of 12, Davis utilizes his skills to speak out for social justice. He's the Restorative Justice Director and co-founder of the youth organization WA-BLOC (Washington Building Leaders of Change), serves as a Corner Greeter Coordinator for Rainier Beach, and was named one of Seattle’s Most Influential People by Seattle Magazine in 2018. "I’m very comfortable with who I am and so I’m not trying to perpetuate a false image," Davis told the South Seattle Emerald. "When you front, you’ve got to keep it up and I’m not prepared to keep up a façade. I’d rather keep up who I really am. No matter how popular my music gets, I’ve got to remember that it’s really not about me. Honestly, I use music as art, but I really see music as a tool toward revolution – a way to change the material conditions of our people." Watch Rell Be Free perform today's Song of the Day from an event held by Decriminalize Seattle.  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Harleighblu & Bluestaeb - "Queeen Dem (feat. Janne Robinson)" from the 2019 self-released album She. British R&B vocalist Harleighblu teams up with German producer Bluestaeb on the collaborative album She. On today's Song of the Day, the duo find inspiration in the poetry of Janne Robinson. Harleighblu told Highsnobiety in an email: I wrote the track Queeen Dem (pronounced like ManDem), after being inspired by a poem called 'This is for the women that don’t give a fuck' by Janne Robinson. The poem reads ‘this is for the women who drink too much whisky, stay up too late and have sex like they mean it — it really spoke to me. I tried to capture the strength of the poem, with a nod to Janne and then elaborate with my own take on completely owning your own womanhood. Within writing the first few lines, I entitled the piece 'Queeen Dem.' Queeen gets 3 E’s to accentuate the fact you are a queen. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fugazi - "Burning Too" from the 1989 album 13 Songs on Dischord Records. We have a responsibility / To use our abilities to keep this place alive / Right here right now / Do it. Now. Do it. Since forming in 1986, DC punk band Fugazi have become synonymous with DIY ethics and progressive political perspectives. “I was born in 1962 and I was here in Washington right through the civil rights stuff, the anti-war stuff, gay rights," frontman Ian MacKaye said in a rare interview with Loud & Quiet. “My parents and I went to a church that was radical liberation – very, very left, it had a woman saying mass in 1972, gay marriage in 1974, the Black Panthers spoke there, rock bands played there – it was radical. I was raised in that environment so I thought that’s how society would be. Then the ’70s came along and you had this period of people partying and disco music and such obsolescence, it was such a bummer and I felt so disconnected from it. I was like, ‘where’s the counter-culture?’ It seemed so real to me as a child but as a teenager it was gone.” MacKaye was able to revitalize a conscientious way of life through music. And while the now-legendary group are reticent when it comes to the meaning behind their lyrics, frontman Ian Mackaye's call to action in today's featured Song of the Day is undeniable. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stella Donnelly - "Beware of the Dogs" from the 2019 album Beware of the Dogs on Secretly Canadian. Following the breakout success of her debut EP Thrush Metal, Australian artist Stella Donnelly knew she wanted to use her first full-length, Beware of the Dogs, to address larger issues in the world. "My generation had this 'enough is enough' kind of feeling and a lot of the women I was working with were finding their ways of expressing that," she told Under the Radar last year. "Whether it was my friends who were artists, or in punk bands, or were poets, it just felt like I was part of a community that was speaking out at that moment." With the title track of the album, Donnelly sums it up, telling DIY Magazine:  This song is about the historic and continuing racism that flows through the Australian media and government. As a white Australian I am extremely privileged to have the platform that I do and whilst I occupy this space that in my opinion is far too often occupied by white people, I am going to use it to speak up. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Noname - "Song 33," a 2020 self-released single. With her first single of 2020, Chicago artist Noname works with producer Madlib to craft a track referencing the murder of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter activist Oluwatoyin Salau, and to, well, call out fellow rapper J. Cole, whose own single “Snow on Tha Bluff” seemed to criticize her social media presence.  "i've been thinking a lot about it and i am not proud of myself for responding with song 33," she tweeted. "i tried to use it as a moment to draw attention back to the issues i care about but i didn't have to respond. my ego got the best of me. i apologize for any further distraction this caused."   She added, "madlib killed that beat and i see there’s a lot of people that resonate with the words so i’m leaving it up but i’ll be donating my portion of the songs earnings to various mutual aid funds. black radical unity." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sango - "Eu Vou Passando (feat. Jé Santiago)" from the 2020 album Da Rocinha 4 on Soulection Records. Former Seattleite, current Michigander, Kai "Sango" Wright continues his Da Rocinha series, described as his "love letter to Rio De Janeiro Funk Carioca.”  “I’ve always been a person of culture through connecting dots and bridging gaps,” Sango says via a press release. “With the Da Rocinha series, it is about highlighting the history of Funk Carioca and paying homage to the creation of the funk sound. With this fourth installment, I wanted to reach out to the community of Rocinha, local areas in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil to give and receive support while I push this North American & South American sound.” On today's featured track, he teams up with São Paulo-based artist Jé Santiago, known for soulful trap-influenced hip hop. It's “from the people, for the people,” he concludes. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Working Men's Club - A.A.A.A. from the 2020 album Working Men's Club on Heavenly Recordings. Yorkshire band Working Mens Club was formed by a bunch of Working Teens last year. Eighteen-year-old frontman Sydney Minsky-Sargeant explains in a press release, "We grew up in northern towns trying to get in to pubs in social clubs because that's all we had. The name is an ode to that. Our surroundings and their differences has influenced us a lot on these tracks." Their self-titled debut album was produced by Ross Orton (The Fall, Arctic Monkeys). Minsky-Sargeant elaborates, “There’s not much going on, not much stuff to do as a teenager. It’s quite isolated. And it can get quite depressing being in a town where in the winter it gets light at nine in the morning and dark at four.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jessica Winter - "Sad Music" from the 2020 Sad Music EP on Roya Records. Brixton-based artist Jessica Winter stuns with her debut EP Sad Music, a perfect blend of introspective lyrics and infectious synth beats. “Music helps me realise that you are not alone that every one of us is capable of the best and worst feelings and actions in this world," Winter said via a press release. "This song was born out of a particularly bad day and how music was a saviour at that time.” Winter captures that feeling in the accompanying music video; she says: “This video was made over a year ago. Nan Moore (the director) and I started it with zero budget so we sweet talked our way into Specsavers and took a National Express down to Portsmouth beach to film the initial scenes... a year went past and we hustled, we toured together and eventually convinced someone to give us the cash to finish it off. The only reason we got into Spescavers was because I was there so often with a health condition called blepharitis, you treat it by using artificial tears. I think that reflects how as an artist, a woman putting out pop music, you always feel like there’s an element of being performative. 'Sad Music' is performative, it’s getting through heartbreak with a song and a dance.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dark Tropics - "Moroccan Sun," a 2020 single on Quiet Arch. Self-described "pop-noir" duo Dark Tropics return with their second single "Moroccan Sun," just in time to stretch out summer just a little bit longer. While the musicians, Rio and Gerard, reside in Belfast, Ireland, they first met in Morocco, and bring a sultry, sunny Mediterranean feel to today's featured track. In a press release, Rio shares: “’Moroccan Sun’ was written somewhat as a narrative for my first travelling experience fully on my own. It’s letting go of what you believed to be your comfort, your light in life and understanding that you will always have some constants, but by the same measure things will change and mould around you, and embracing this brings a new sense of happiness. Taking the step to leave the old behind, move forward into the new and embracing a new chapter.” “I did take a lot of inspiration from my travel diary, especially my night sleeping under the stars in the Sahara and the 12hr drive back to the city the next day where I spent a lot of time thinking about the life I was coming back to and what I really wanted.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adia Victoria - "South Gotta Change," a 2020 single on Atlantic Records. 'Cause I love you, I won't leave you Won't let you slip away Come what may We're gonna find a way Nashville-based artist Adia Victoria takes an introspective look at her city on her latest single, "South Gotta Change." The song, executive produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett, is not only a love letter to her town, but a plea for change. On Twitter, she declared, "this isn’t a song about hope, this is a howl for change." She continues in a press statement: In 2020 I have watched as the world became irreversibly altered. The upheaval COVID-19 caused has allowed for a sacred pause in our daily life. During this lapse we lost Congressman John Lewis. In the days following his death I pondered the work he accomplished and the work left to us who remain. "South Gotta Change" is a prayer, an affirmation, and a battle cry all at once. It is a promise to engage in the kind of ‘good trouble’ John Lewis understood necessary to form a more perfect union. No other place embodies the American experiment with the precision of the South. It is home to both unspeakable horror and unshakable faith. It is up to us, those who are blessed enough to be Southern, to take up the mantle Brother Lewis left us. As the old saying goes, “As the South goes, so goes the nation.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Of Mexican Descent - "All Turn Native" from the 2006 self-released album Exitos Y Mas Exitos (Edicion De Lujo). Of Mexican Descent is a collaboration between Los Angeles-based artists, rapper 2Mex (real name: Alejandro Ocana) and Xololanxinxo (real name: Daniel Rodriguez). They began the project in 1991, and quickly became an elemental part of the rising Los Angeles underground hip hop movement. Their debut EP Exitos y Mas Exitos was originally released in 1998, and was recently re-released digitally via 2Mex's Bandcamp page. KEXP's DJ Gabriel Teodros says: "Of Mexican Descent is the duo of 2Mex and Xololanxinxo, two legendary underground Los Angeles MC's who cut their teeth performing at the famed Good Life Cafe, as documented in Ava DuVernay's 2008 film This Is The Life. As I was just coming into making music myself in the late '90s, OMD's work found its way to my Walkman via dubbed cassettes that friends were passing around, as we were all big fans of the styles coming out of the Good Life and Project Blowed. This was in a time when independent hip-hop had to physically travel to reach you; the internet wasn't used to distribute music the way it is now. 2Mex and Xololanxinxo both had such a courageous vulnerability in their approach, they kept love at the center of everything they did, and they represented an Indigenous perspective in hip-hop I hadn't yet heard at that point. The impact their music had on me then is something you can still see and feel in everything I do today. It only felt right to help shine a light on my OGs. "2Mex and Xololanxinxo are both very active today, Xololanxinxo has brand new music with The Psychic Temple you can listen to here and you can check the latest solo work from 2Mex here. "There's rumors of a new Visionaries album coming soon, too!" Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dioganhdih - "Native New Yorker," a 2019 self-released single. A self-described "queer, non-binary, indigenous rapper, activist, and diversity consultant", Dioganhdih uses their music to celebrate the Haudenosaunee culture. On their latest single, they explain, "this single release details the life of a water protector living in a constant state of emergency and being propelled into action while living in occupation at Oceti Sakowin, Standing Rock in 2016." The track was recorded in Los Angeles with Ziibiwan, an Anishinaabe electronic artist, on beat and post production. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ill-ēsha - "Como la Chicha (feat. Fabian Arias & Dakota Camacho)" from the 2020 self-released album Songs from the Sweat Shed. Last year, veteran DJ/producer Ill-ēsha helped create the Tribal Gathering Festival Recording Studio in the middle of the jungle in Panama, using the new space to record indigenous tribes and artists from all over the world. On her new double EP, Songs from the Sweat Shed, she incorporates samples from these sessions into her infectious electronic beats, with 100% of proceeds to "help continue funding to get tribes from all over the world to Tribal Gathering." On today's Song of the Day, Ill-ēsha features Fabian Arias and Dakota Camacho. Camacho, in particular, was born and raised in Coast Salish Territory, resides in South Seattle, and is of Matao/CHamoru ancestry. A "multi-disciplinary artist/researcher", Camacho also co-founded I Moving Lab, "an inter-national, inter-cultural, inter-tribal, and inter-disciplinary arts collective that creates community and self-funded arts initiatives to engage and bring together rural & urban communities, Universities, Museums, & performing arts institutions." You can see the wide range of projects Camacho leads here. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.