Jason McCue - When He Drinks

A Place to Bury Strangers - "End of the Night" from the 2021 Hologram EP on Dedstrange. Long-running Brooklyn-based psych-rock band A Place To Bury Strangers return this summer with the new EP, Hologram, and a new line-up. Frontman and founding member Oliver Ackermann is now joined by John Fedowitz on bass and Sandra Fedowitz of Ceremony East Coast on drums. Ackermann and his new bassist are childhood friends who formerly played in the shoegaze band Skywave. Today's Song of the Day was the first result of their reconnection. Ackerman shared in a press statement: “End Of The Night” is the first written in collaboration with either of the new band members. John sent me the drum track and challenged me to write a song over it. It sort of came about as a strange stream of consciousness and unknowingly became about the end of the former band and the beginning of the new one. Each layer of the song stripping away the dead skin from the old and regrowing layer and layer of distortion of the new band. It’s great to be working again with John Fedowitz. I feel like our songwriting styles shot off in different directions from our earlier band Skywave only to come back to the table with different experiences to create something special again. Hologram will be out July 16th via Dedstrange. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

26 Mai 20215min

Sofia Kourtesis - "Dear George," a 2020 self-released single. Today's Song of the Day was chosen in honor of It's Still Going on Day, recognizing the one year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, playing songs of hope, justice, and change, songs that affirm Black humanity, classic songs of protest as well as those that came out in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, amid the protests of last summer. One of the songs that came out of this grief was this single from Peruvian-born, Berlin-based producer Sofia Kourtesis. As she writes on her Bandcamp page, in a letter to Floyd's family, "From deep in my heart, I can't imagine the grief you are feeling. I tried my best to express my feelings by writing you this song. Today, l keep you in my heart through melody. I will keep protesting, I will keep talking about you. All profits from this release will be donated to 70+ bail funds aiding the Black Lives Matter protests." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

25 Mai 20214min

Bachelor - "Stay in the Car" from the 2021 album Doomin' Sun on Polyvinyl. Bachelor — the new project from friends Jay Som (Melina Duterte) and Palehound (Ellen Kempner) — will release their debut album this Friday, titled Doomin’ Sun. The LP was recorded in Topanga, California, over two weeks in January 2020, before the lockdown. Today's Song of the Day dates back to 2019, with Kempner explaining in a press release: “I wrote the lyrics to ‘Stay in the Car’ back in December of 2019 when I was in Florida for my partner’s top surgery. I had run out one afternoon, post-op, while he was healing to grab lunch for us and as I was gathering my stuff in the parking lot, a big car pulled up and this absolutely beautiful woman got out. She was dressed all in red, dripping with jewelry and had the most wild fiery mane I’d ever seen. She was yelling at the man behind the wheel asking him what he wanted from the store and I wished I was that man. I wanted to be a part of her life, her best friend, her driver, whatever she wanted me to be. I was completely mesmerized.” The song is accompanied by a colorful video, directed and edited by Haoyan of America. Duterte adds: “We wanted this song to be a visceral listening experience, inspired by the Pixies and the Breeders. For the music video, we worked on a two-day shoot with Haoyan of America in Poughkeepsie in extremely cold weather. We all collaborated on the idea that our friendship should be portrayed in a fun and stylish way. Haoyan captured that energy in his own unique and creative lens through his collection of ’80s/’90s/’00s props and toys, CGI, and anything car-themed.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

24 Mai 20212min

Khari Wendell McClelland - "Feels Real Good," a 2021 self-released single. In a way, singer/songwriter Khari Wendell McClelland shares the writing credit for today's Song of the Day with his Facebook followers. The Vancouver-based artist asked them to share the ways they've been finding joy during the otherwise bleak pandemic, and then took their answers and created this beautiful track. "It was probably the most response I ever received for any single post on Facebook," he told The Georgia Straight last month. "They said, 'I go to the forest.' 'I eat meals with friends.' 'I sing in a choir.' 'I just hang out with my kids.' I took all of those answers and made a song, and I think it's incredibly moving. A goal for me as a person, but also as an artist, is to connect with the community and to feel like I'm really responding to what people are feeling and thinking and needing, and this song really does that in a powerful way." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

21 Mai 20214min

Grady & Kiddus - "The Sun (feat. Blake Anthony)" from the 2021 album Don't Think About Me Dying on Empty Planet. London-based producer and vocalist Kiddus was struggling with the death of a close friend when another friend, Seattle hip-hop producer Grady, stepped in with support. Together, they completed the new EP Don't Think About Me Dying. As Kiddus writes on Facebook: Last year I lost a close friend and writing songs seemed like a good, healthy way to process the grief, so I started pretty much immediately. After a week I had written pages and pages like a journal in this one note on my phone. None of it rhymed and a lot of it didn’t make sense, I didn’t know what I was trying to say. A week later to the day, Grady sent a pack of demos, but I still couldn’t write anything good. So I went back to that note in my phone to try and salvage a song from it. For whatever reason, with Grady’s production everything started making more sense, I moved shit around and rephrased things, and I turned the note into 3 songs about grieving. TBH I reckon Mason would think they’re shit, but I made them for me. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

20 Mai 20212min

MALIA - "Deep Blue" from the 2021 self-released album Unpolished. Originally from Seattle, Malia Cunningham moved to California to study political science and sociology. “I just went through the motions. I never did anything with music throughout those years,” she told Buzzbands L.A. “I was so unhappy and realized that everything about my life had to change. That’s when I sat down and had the first, honest conversation I’d had with myself in years. I asked myself, ‘What makes you truly happy, fears aside?’ And I knew the answer was and always had been music.” From there, she learned how to play guitar and put her soulful voice to work as MALIA. Her debut full-length was appropriately titled Late Bloomer, and a subsequent tour with Syd from the Internet introduced her to a wider audience. Her latest LP, Unpolished, is anything but. In a press statement, she states the album is "about embracing the sides of ourselves that may need some work or TLC, and in doing so, finding great inner peace." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

19 Mai 20213min

Jesse Markin - "Exodus (feat. Akua Naru)," a 2021 single on VILD. Born in Liberia and raised in the 100% white Finnish town of Viljakkala, singer/songwriter Jesse Markin turned to music to find himself. His 2019 debut album, Folk, landed him the "Newcomer of the Year" and the "Critics’ Choice" awards at the Emma Gala (the Finnish equivalent of The Grammys). (And, last fall, he participated in Finland's own version of the TV show Dancing with the Stars, where he placed seventh!) His follow-up full-length, NOIR, will be out June 11th; he's shared a few singles from the release already, including today's Song of the Day, which finds Markin teaming up with American rapper Akua Naru. "Before, I was scared to even reach out to certain artists to see if we can work together," he told American Songwriter. "Now though, the internet has made me feel like we’re on the same level, in a sense. I can reach out to anyone.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

18 Mai 20214min

IAMNOBODI - "Let It Roll Interlude (feat. Phonte & BeMyFiasco)," a 2021 self-released single. West Coast producer IAMNOBODI is hardly a nobody. Born in Düsseldorf, Germany as Dede Ademabua to a father who's a blues and jazz singer and a mother who is described as a music connoisseur, he's been making music almost all his life, starting out as an MC at the age of 13. Now a Grammy-nominated producer, he released a new EP last week titled The Interludes. Today's Song of the Day can be found on that release. The track brings in Phonte, a fellow Grammy-nominated rapper/singer/songwriter/producer who is also a member of the North Carolina group Little Brother and one-half of the duo The Foreign Exchange, and Bianca "BeMyFiasco" Rodriguez, a previous collaborator with Phonte whose mellifluous voice also appears backing jazz pianist Robert Glasper. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

17 Mai 20212min