Jason McCue - When He Drinks

Terror/Cactus - "Guanaco" from the 2020 self-released album Confluencia. Local producer Martín Selasco was born in Buenos Aires and raised in Miami, and he brings these influences to Seattle via his electro-cumbia project Terror/Cactus. His latest LP Confluencia is an auditory journey through the spectacular landscapes of South America, combining mesmerizing rhythms and psychedelic guitars. In an interview with Ballard Vox, Selasco talked about how his Latin American roots permeate his music: "Music has always been a way for me to connect to my cultural heritage. My parents moved to Miami from Argentina when I was just a baby, but with most of our family still in Argentina we’d go back and spend at least a month there every summer. This created a sense of nostalgia in me and that of belonging to something that was far away [...]" Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

25 Sep 20203min

Yanna - "Marcaperu," a 2020 self-released single. "My friends take care of me / Not the police" On her debut single "Marcaperu," Afro-Peruvian artist Yanna (real name: Brenda Carpio) uses her voice to denounce the injustices she sees around her: racism, discrimination, and violence. Raised in the San Martín de Porres district of Lima, Peru, Yanna moved to France to study International Business Administration and instead, fell in love with hip hop. "When I came back, it was a shock," she told El Comercio. "Having left and identified as a black and empowered woman from that Afro side was reduced to the fact that people on the street were quite violent and they looked at me, but not in a positive way, they made fun of my hair and my features.” She continued, "I felt that being abroad I was treated better than being in my own country. I know people who have gone through this misogynistic, sexist, and abusive violence. I wanted to highlight and put these issues on the table." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

24 Sep 20203min

Los Blenders - "Perdidos En Pantitlan" from the 2020 album Mazunte 2016 on Devil in the Woods. KEXP has been enamoured with Mexico City's Los Blenders since their 2015 debut album Chavos Bien. (Check out their infectious garage-punk in this 2016 KEXP session.) On their forthcoming full-length Mazunte 2016, out September 25th via Devil in the Woods, the rambunctious quartet bring a new maturity to their surf sound, particularly on today's Song of the Day, inspired by recent events in their hometown. In a press release, they elaborate: "Lost in Pantitlán" is a true story. It happened to a friend of the band. It's a story about how absurd it is to deal with the police in Mexico and this inspired the song. It created a cry of protest in a way. Musically it is the most complex song that the band has released." Frontman Alejandro Archundia continues, "Musically it's a mix between the sound of rock in your language mixed with the most aggressive surf guitars we've ever pulled and a sticky chorus, trademark of Los Blenders." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

23 Sep 20202min

Ghetto Kumbé - "Vamo a Dale Duro" from the 2020 album Ghetto Kumbé on ZZK Records. Ghetto Kumbé take inspiration from their hometown of Bogotá, capital city of Colombia and just a quick flight from the Caribbean coast, infusing Afro-Colombian rhythms with modernized interpretations of dancehall, rumba, and traditional chants and call-and-response vocals. “I think what makes us different is that we’re going further back to the rhythmic roots, back to where the rhythm that exists in Colombia came from, mostly from the Atlantic coast," reflects co-founding band member Edgardo Garcés (aka E Guajiro) to Sound and Colours. "In the process of trying to find the similarities between different rhythms, we really took stock of the fact that so much of it comes from Africa and decided that we’d move more towards the African elements, adding them to the Afro-Colombia part. All this means it [our music] has a different sound.” Today's Song of the Day roughly translates to "Let's Go Hard," and it's a call to action to fight against the capitalist system and "dirty politicians." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

22 Sep 20203min

Marilina Bertoldi - "Fumar de Dia" from the 2018 album Prender un Fuego on Pelo Music S.A. Argentinan artist Marilina Bertoldi got her start as the frontwoman for the hard rockin' group Connor Questa, but since going solo in 2012, she's been exploring a range of sounds, landing the Best Rock Album of the Year award at the 2016 Latin Grammy Awards for her album Sexo Con Modelos. On her most recent release, 2018's Prender Un Fuego, she took inspiration from "Sheryl Crow, INXS, the soloist Cerati...," she told Pagina 12. "I make music for myself, one day I understood it and I don't feel bad saying it," she continued. "I don't make music for the public because in fact it is difficult for me to define 'my public'. I do what I enjoy and put it there, available." On today's Song of the Day, which translates to "Smoking During the Day," Bertoldi channels the transformation of her home into a change of attitude, as captured in the accompanying music video where she's cleaning out her fridge, changing outfits, dancing across the room. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

21 Sep 20202min

Lo Tom - "Start Payin'," from the 2020 self-released album LP2. Back in 2017, David Bazan and TW Walsh of Pedro the Lion teamed up with Trey Many and Jason Martin of Starflyer 59 to create Lo Tom, whose self-titled debut combined all the things we love about each of their respective bands: melodic, ‘90s-influenced rock, heavy with guitar riffs. As the band said themselves, "We had fun making the first album, so we decided to do it again." The sophomore release was funded by fans via Kickstarter, and while they say today's Song of the Day is "coincidentally named," the lyric "might be time to find out what I owe and start paying" seems pretty appropriate here. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

18 Sep 20203min

Kelly Lee Owens - "On" from the 2020 album Inner Song on Smalltown Supersound. On her sophomore album, Inner Song, Welsh artist Kelly Lee Owens explores what she calls “the hardest three years of my life,” allowing her grief and sadness to express itself through her lush production work and her thoughtful lyrics. As reported in a recent episode of the Song Exploder podcast, today's Song of the Day was inspired by the loss of the Prodigy’s Keith Flint, who passed away last year at the age of 49. (The working title was “Spirit of Keith.”) Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

17 Sep 20205min

Æ MAK - "i dance in the kitchen (feat. Seba Safe)," a 2020 self-released single. Irish artist Æ Mak (real name: Aoife McCann) has always brought an infectious energy to her work. (Who can forget her dynamic performance at KEXP's 2019 Iceland Airwaves broadcast?) And now she brings that vivacity to the culinary with her new single "i dance in the kitchen," a sneak peek at her forthcoming EP titled how to: make a kitsch pop song to show the world, which will be out September 18th. Written, recorded and produced during the coronavirus lockdown, the new EP was inspired by HOW TO, a zine by McCann's friend Eleanor Jameson, who "reached out to various Irish artists from different backgrounds, asking them to create a tutorial on a topic of their choosing." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

15 Sep 20202min