You Said Strange - Brain

RINSE - "Tell Me Tell Me Tell Me," a 2020 self-released single. Last month, Brisbane artist Joe Agius, member and co-writer of Hatchie, debuted his first material under the name RINSE. Titled “Tell Me Tell Me Tell Me,” the song is an infectious throwback mashup of post-punk, shoegaze, and new wave and was mixed by Jorge Elbrecht (Ariel Pink, Japanese Breakfast, Wild Nothing, Sky Ferreira) and mastered by Heba Kadry (Bjork, Slowdive, Beach House, Deerhunter). Agius has this to say about the song: “‘Tell Me Tell Me Tell Me' was recorded late last year at Airlock Studios in Brisbane and sonically sits in the middle of a lot of the music I've been getting ready in RINSE so felt like the right place to begin in. The song talks about a time in my life when I was wrapped up in a lifestyle that wasn't doing great things for my mental health and I lived in a place that only really encouraged that behavior. While I still have many things to figure out, I realized leaving this period of my life that a lot of what I was doing to make myself feel better was really making myself feel a lot worse.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

8 Huhti 20204min

Andy Shauf - "Try Again" from the 2020 album The Neon Skyline on ANTI- Records. With his latest album, The Neon Skyline, Andy Shauf has crafted his most realized and engrossing work yet. You needn’t look much further than single “Try Again.” Shauf’s songwriting style is all finesse and detail. “Try Again” finds a narrator, presumably Shauf, trying to salvage a relationship that just won’t stick. And while the heartache of the scenario writes itself, it’s Shauf’s scene setting with drunken gaffes and awkward exchanges that ground his breezy reflection, culminating in the gut punch of a line “I make a silent toast to the things that I do and don’t miss.” With the light light of strumming acoustic guitars and Shauf’s charming croon, it’s a story you can’t help but be invested in despite it’s inevitably tragic ending. Real the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

7 Huhti 20203min

Other Lives - “Lost Day” from the 2020 album For Their Love on ATO Records. In January, Oklahoma-bred indie folk outfit Other Lives announced their first album in nearly five years, following 2015’s Rituals. Titled For Their Love, the new record sees them continue their streak of transcendent indie folk that started in 2006 when they released Flight of the Flynns under the name Kunek. Our Song of the Day is the record’s lead single “Lost Day,” a lush jangly rambler filled with cinematic strings and heavenly choral vocals. Read the full post at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

6 Huhti 20202min

Tres Leches - “Nieve,” a 2020 self-released single. The latest track from Seattle's Tres Leches is a beautiful example of community, featuring guest appearances from fellow Northwest artists Terror/Cactus, Rachael's Children, and Medejín. The band describe the song as an attempt to "stay alive once more through music." They point to a quote from poet Audre Lorde: “Implicit in survival is joy, mobility and effectiveness… if we do what we need to be doing then we will leave something that continues beyond ourselves." While the band recently had to cancel their spring tour due to the coronavirus, they're using this period of self-quarantine to work on new music. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

3 Huhti 20204min

Lucinda Williams - “Man Without a Soul” from the 2020 album Good Souls Better Angels on Highway 20/Thirty Tigers. "All the money in the world / Will never fill that hole / You're a man bought and sold / You're a man without a soul" Over the past 40 years, Lucinda Williams has built a name for herself with her vivid storytelling, which has earned her four Grammy Awards throughout her career. But her forthcoming full-length, Good Souls Better Angels, will "forgo the personal and narrative-based songcraft that has become synonymous with her name and instead speaks to some of the injustices permeating our society." Today's Song of the Day perfectly illustrates this shift. And while she never directly names who the subject of the song is, it's not hard to guess who she's referring to. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

2 Huhti 20205min

Archers of Loaf - “Raleigh Days,” a 2020 single on Merge Records. It's been over 20 years, but indie rock kings Archers of Loaf have returned with the single "Raleigh Days," their first new music since 1998's LP White Trash Heroes. Originally formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1991, the band exploded on to the scene with their debut album Icky Mettle and the hit single "Web in Front", which landed them a highly-coveted appearance on MTV's Beavis & Butthead. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1 Huhti 20202min

Steve Earle & The Dukes - “Devil Put the Coal in the Ground” from the 2020 album Ghosts of West Virginia on New West Records. In 2010, the Upper Big Branch coal mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia exploded, killing twenty-nine of the thirty-one miners present at the time. It's been called one of the worst mining disasters in American history. And it inspired the latest album from veteran singer/songwriter Steve Earle, titled Ghosts of West Virginia. The project originated with the off-Broadway play Coal Country, written by playwrights Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, who approached Earle to compose the score. While the play had to cancel its run in New York City due the coronavirus, Earle will release the songs as his 20th studio album on May 22nd via New West Records. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

31 Maalis 20202min

Throwing Muses - “Dark Blue” from the 2020 album Sun Racket on Fire Records. Alt-rock icons Throwing Muses return with their first new album in seven years, the fiery tenth full-length Sun Racket, out September 4 via Fire Records. The group originally formed in the early '80s, with it's current line-up of Kristin Hersh, drummer David Narcizo, and bassist Bernard Georges holding steady since the '90s. Recording the new album brought everybody back together from their respective coasts. “Sun Racket has always been geographical," Narcizo confirms in a press release. "...a transplanted southerner in New England crash landing in California. A West Coast sound at New England scale, dragged back down to the south where the elements got more aggressive but now with deeper roots.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

30 Maalis 20203min