Dave Okumu & The 7 Generations - Blood Ah Go Run (feat. Wesley Joseph & ESKA)

Grian Chatten - "Fairlies" from the 2023 album Chaos for the Fly from Partisan Records This Friday, Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten will release his debut solo album, titled Chaos for the Fly, via Partisan. He says he knew from the start that he wanted to tackle these tracks on his own. “I just thought: I want to do this myself. I know where we as a band are going next and that’s not where I want to go with this. I’ve got a couple of exaggerated aspects of my soul that I wanted to express,” he stated in a press release. “The rest of the band are all creative and songwriters in their own right, too. I didn’t want to go to them and be like, ‘No, every single thing has to be like this.’ I didn’t want to compromise with these songs in that way.” He adds that today's Song of the Day was written "in intense heat," explaining, "Partly in Jerez, Spain, partly in LA a couple of days before a Fontaines D.C. tour kicked off. It was a quick write, and I believe I celebrated each line with a beer." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

28 Juni 20234min

Margo Cilker - "Lowland Trail" from the 2023 album Valley of Heart's Delight from Fluff & Gravy For today's Song of the Day, Goldendale, WA-based singer/songwriter Margo Cilker shares an early listen of her sophomore LP Valley Of Heart’s Delight, slated for a September 15th release via Fluff & Gravy Records. The album was produced by long-time KEXP fave Sera Cahoone, and recorded with guest musicians from The Decemberists, Band Of Horses, and Beirut. She says of the new album: I wrote these songs surrounded by the wild landscapes of the Northwest, but I was leaning toward the place I’d come from. I felt cut off from my family and the valley that held them. I spent hours thinking about my sense of belonging. I’d traveled through many places and then, when the travel stopped, I ruminated on where I had ended up. Where were you when the music stopped? I was in Enterprise, OR. And there in Enterprise, my mind drifted back to the Valley of Heart’s Delight. I wrote about family — about death and rebirth, and the arcs of love and art through a family line. There are songs that hint at missteps and redemption. There are songs about trees: in orchard rows, family trees, redwoods. And water: agricultural runoff, wild rivers, dammed rivers, baptismal flows. And there’s a [cover] song about a fish, cause it’s a damn good song and I wanted to record it. Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

27 Juni 20232min

Sea Lemon - "Cellar," a 2023 single from Luminelle Records. "Sometimes I imitate / Things that make me afraid" So sings Seattle-based singer/songwriter Natalie Lew — who records as Sea Lemon — in today's dreamy, yet eerie Song of the Day. “‘Cellar’ was inspired by my love of really classic horror and thriller films, like Blow Out and Misery, and how loving scary movies can sometimes feel like something is wrong with you," Lew shares in a press statement. "That idea of the ‘cellar’ in the song is based on the traditional horror trope where the protagonist can’t help but discover what’s lurking in the basement, and that what they find there often represents something really dark and horrifying. In the lyrics, I say ‘the cellar is where I belong’ which is me grappling with this idea that sometimes really terrifying imagery interests me the most.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

26 Juni 20234min

Spoon Benders - Dichotomatic, from the 2023 self-released album How Things Repeat. Spoon Benders are a face-melting band from Portland who are making the pilgrimage that any young band bursting with the kind of energy that their hometown just can’t keep up with - to LA. Since the release of their 2020 debut album Dura Mater, they’ve been blowing minds with their psychedelic spin on hardcore and garage punk and that momentum has continued with the recent release of their sophomore full-length How Things Repeat. Our Song of the Day, “Dichotomatic,” is the slow-burning lead single and opening track off the album. Led by a swirling drum beat from AJ Herald and Velvet’s sludgey bass line, Buffy Pastor adds fiery guitar licks and frontwoman Katy Black growls lines like “I hold hands with the business plan for the guillotine man,” as a final brush stroke to their ominous painting. Watch the Karlee Boon-video for “Dichotomatic" and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

23 Juni 20233min

Vagabon – Can I Talk My Shit?, a 2023 single on Nonesuch Records. Lætitia Tamko recently announced her third full-length as Vagabon, titled Sorry I Haven’t Called. The record sees the Cameroonian-American artist reinvent herself for her most exuberant and bold record yet. While her prior albums, 2017’s Infinite Worlds and her 2019 self-titled saw Vagabon pointed inwards for introspective indie rock, Sorry I Haven’t Called looks outwards, channeling dance music and effervescent pop. This new chapter is on full display with the album’s lead single “Can I Talk My Shit?” Released just in time to become a summer anthem mainstay, the bouncy track is full of sunshine with playful lyricism. “Can I talk my shit?” Tamko asks before admitting, “I got way too high for this.” “I didn't feel like being introspective,” says Tamko of Sorry I Haven’t Called. “I just wanted to have fun. This record feels like what I've been working towards. When I think of this album, I think of playfulness. It's completely euphoric. It's because things were dark that this record is so full of life and energy. It’s a reaction to what I was experiencing at the time, not a document of it.” Vagabon is going on tour this fall, with a date in Seattle on December 8th at Madame Lou’s *Watch the Zac Dov Wiesel-directed video for “Can I Talk My Shit?" and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

22 Juni 20233min

This week's Songs of the Day were selected by Kennady Quille as part of KEXP's Pride celebration. Tune in on Saturday, June 24th for a special day of programming from noon to 6 PM, and then join us LIVE from Pride on Capitol Hill at the Wildrose on Sunday from noon to 4 PM Pacific with Riz Rollins and friends; continuing our on-air celebration till 6 PM. More information here. On today's Song of the Day, Seattle power trio Black Ends return with "My Own Dead," the band's first release since 2020's stellar Stay Evil EP. A staple of the "gunk-pop" purveyors' live set, the single was recorded by legendary producer Jack Endino. And the results are typically tremendous: Singer/guitarist Nicolle Swims adds a little twang to their distinctive guitar playing, while the rhythm section of bassist Ben Swanson and drummer Billie Jessica Paine adds the sort of heft to the Machiavellian tone of Swims's lyrics that would feel perfectly in place on a compilation like Sub Pop 100.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

21 Juni 20232min

Palehound - "The Clutch" from the 2023 album Eye On The Bat from Polyvinyl. El Kempner — the singer/songwriter behind Palehound — found inspiration for today's Song of the Day right after the band's last tour ended. The track will appear on their forthcoming full-length, Eye On The Bat, out July 14th via Polyvinyl Record Co. It'll be Palehound's first new LP since 2019’s Black Friday.  “‘The Clutch’ is the very first song I wrote for this album, back in 2020 right when lockdown started,” Kempner says via a press release. “I had been on a tour that was sliced in half by the onset of the pandemic and we had to apocalypse road trip back to New York across the country from Oregon, where our next show had been scheduled for. While that was happening, I was also having a triggering romantic experience with somebody I didn’t know too well, and by the time I got home my whole body seemed to be spinning in turmoil. Writing and producing this song grounded me and helped me process a new future and self that I hadn’t anticipated.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

20 Juni 20233min

Nonbinary Girlfriend - "BIG AND KIND" from the 2023 self-released album BIG AND KIND On today's Song of the Day, Portland pop-punk band Nonbinary Girlfriend champions the philosophy that being "kind is not the same as being small" and "sometimes, many times, kindness requires you to be big and tall." It's a spirit of compassion that carries through their debut full-length, also titled BIG AND KIND, that came out back in February. Vocalist Anaïs Genevieve shares vulnerable lyrics around gender and sexuality, inviting the listener to feel less alone.   Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

19 Juni 20234min