KEXP DJ Greta Rose on Australian producer and DJ HAAi

The Black Tones - "The End of Everything," a 2022 single on Sub Pop. Seattle twin sibling duo The Black Tones made a splash in 2019 with their gritty debut full-length Cobain & Cornbread which saw Eva and Cedric Walker utilize blues, soul, and grunge to explore topics both light and heavy. While “Ghetto Spaceship” and “Mama! There’s a Spider in My Room” veered towards the former, songs like “The Key of Black (They Want Us Dead)” swung so dramatically towards the latter that it was clear the Walkers have important things to say. Since then, they’ve been using their art primarily just for that - to voice their concerns about the issues, be it political or personal, of the present moment. The George Floyd protests inspired them to write “My Name’s Not Abraham Lincoln” in the summer of 2020 and, most recently, the culmination of two years of personal anxieties, grief, and anger led to our Song of the Day, “The End of Everything.” Named after the book The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack, the song confronts the fact that, whether it’s the second coming of who or whatever you believe in, this will all end. A variety of gods and religious symbols - Jesus, Buddah, Allah, Confucious - are shouted out in the sludgey ‘90s-indebted scorcher that features vocals from former Talking Heads backing singer and member the 1970s disco group The Ritchie Family, Edna Holt. “This song is not a jab at religion or anything like that,” Eva Walker told American Songwriter in an interview. “This song is saying, it doesn’t matter what you believe in, the second coming of whoever or whatever, this is all going to be over and it feels like humans might be speeding up that process.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

8 Apr 20223min

Quinton Brock - "There For You," a 2022 single on Shadow Panther. With an ambitious goal to “change rock music forever,” Quinton Brock is clearly not shy about his pursuits. The former singer of the bluesy surf rock duo The Get Money Squad has been slowly releasing singles under his government name over the past couple of years that prove he just might do it too. With a penchant for breezy R&B-tinged indie rock that’s typically played by artists of a paler complexion, Brock is on an ever-growing list of black artists reclaiming rock. Highly influenced by Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the lost godmother of rock and roll, who melded spiritual lyrics with electric guitar (shredding long before Elvis gyrated his way to becoming to the “King” of rock n’ roll), Brock similarly fuses genres. Our Song of the Day, “There For You,” utilizes surf rock guitar tones with R&B production for a sunny ditty about love. “This song is so close to me,” explains Brock. “An ode to a past love. The song fades out in the end the same way love sometimes fades away. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.” Watch the video for “There For You,” directed by Allen Jiang, at the link below. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

7 Apr 20222min

Magdalena Bay - "Secrets (Your Fire)" from the 2021 album Mercurial World on Luminelle Recordings. Electro-pop duo Magdalena Bay share their struggles with social media on today's Song of the Day. “‘Secrets’ is about interconnectivity, privacy, and digital anxiety,” band members Mica Tenenbaum and Matthew Lewin shared in a press release. “It’s also about a need to keep sharing, to keep giving up more and more of yourself to faceless strangers in the hopes of making friends or fans.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

6 Apr 20224min

Congotronics International - "Where's The One?," a 2022 single on Crammed Discs. Congotronics International is truly a global affair: this supergroup comprises members of Konono Nº1, Kasai Allstars, Deerhoof, Juana Molina, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, and Skeletons’ Matt Mehlan. Their forthcoming full-length, Where’s The One (due April 29th via Crammed Discs), was crafted over ten years, with files being emailed across four continents, sent from Kinshasa DRC, Buenos Aires, New Mexico, New York, Stockholm and Brooklyn. “There was no rational explanation behind what was going on, it was just direct, immediate experience on both sides. Things you think are impossible just happen,” Vincent Kenis of Crammed Discs said in a press release (Kenis is the co-founder of Kasai Allstars and curator/producer of the Congotronics series). Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

5 Apr 20223min

TV Girl x Jordana - "Jump the Turnstile" from the 2021 album Summer's Over on Summer's Over. Los Angeles-based group TV Girl have a long history with NYC artist Jordana. The pair have toured together, and a collaborative EP seemed like a natural next step. Titled Summer’s Over, the seven-song release combines Jordana's heavenly voice with the west coast trio's sample-heavy style. TV Girl set off for their first headlining European tour later this year, and Jordana releases her debut studio album, Face The Wall, on May 20th via Grand Jury. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

4 Apr 20223min

ODESZA - "The Last Goodbye (feat. Bettye LaVette)," a 2022 single on Foreign Family Collective/Ninja Tune. In Early February, ODESZA returned from a four-year hiatus to drop the cinematic soulful single, “The Last Goodbye.” Featuring reworked vocals from Bettye LaVette’s 1965 soul/R&B track “Let Me Down Easy,” the track is a six-minute spine-tingling epic blending the Grammy-nominated duo’s electronic grooves with LaVette’s heartwrenching vocals to stirring effect. “This song was born out of the concept of trying to bring these lasting, defining musical pieces like the 1965 release of “Let Me Down Easy” by Bettye LaVette into a modern and contemporary electronic setting,” explained Clayton Knight and Harrison Mills of the song. “The idea of bringing two worlds together, that at first seem distant, has always been something we’ve been drawn to. It was an absolute honor to be able to work with Bettye’s voice over the course of writing the track. She’s able to convey emotion with her vocal work unlike any other. To date, this has been one of the more fulfilling songs we’ve had the chance to work on as artists.” The song comes from ODESZA’s forthcoming fourth studio album of the same title, which according to a press release, is said to be their most ambitious and personal album to date and includes contributions from a number of notable artists including Låpsley, Ólafur Arnolds, Julianna Barwick, Izzy Bizu, and Charlie Houston. The video for “The Last Goodbye” artfully highlights the power of the instrumentation (including KEXP’s Eva Walker on bass!) and features archival footage of LaVette performing “Let Me Down Easy.” Watch it at the link below. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1 Apr 20226min

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - "The Way It Shatters" from the 2022 album Endless Rooms on Sub Pop. In early February, Australian rockers Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever announced their third studio album, Endless Rooms, due out May 6 via Ivy League/Sub Pop. Following up 2020’s acclaimed Sideways to New Italy, the record is described by the band as “almost an anti-concept album,” with the title reflecting “our love of creating worlds in our songs. We treat each of them as a bare room to be built up with infinite possibilities.” The first room to be shared by Rolling Blackouts C.F. and today’s Song of the Day is “The Way It Shatters.” Automatically, it’s clear that the extra time the band had during lockdown to work on their new record has paid off because the song is an expansive new step. Adding synth for the first time into their usual jangle-rock, the song is blistering but also has darker lyrical undertones, dealing with the human race and our various places within it. The band had this to say about the song: “It’s about how ending up in your particular situation in life is the result of absolute randomness. If you happen to be born into wealthy Australia or happen to be born into a war zone in Syria. That’s just the way it shatters. So it’s when this good luck is mistaken for a sense of pride in one’s self or their country they become confused and deluded about what’s important. It’s when those on the other side of the luck scale are completely othered and considered not worthy.” The song comes with video by Nick Mckk, who also worked with RBCF on the videos for “Sideways To New Italy,” “Cameo,” “Cars In Space,” and “She’s There.” He had this to say about the video: “The new album has a night time feeling, so we wanted to explore shooting the whole thing from sundown. Fran [Keaney, vocals/guitar] had the idea of revisiting memories, of resetting groundhog day style, but each time we come back the world is a little different. The attraction of light works as a narrative device, coaxing Joe into this house of memories, and back out again.” Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are, at long last, embarking on an international tour this summer, with dates in the US starting in August. Catch them in Seattle on August 18th at Neumos. Watch the video for “The Way It Shatters” at the link below. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

31 Mars 20223min

Body Type - "Buoyancy" from the 2022 album Everything is Dangerous But Nothing's Surprising on Poison City Records. You never know when creative inspiration will strike, and for Australian quartet Body Type, it was over text. “'Buoyancy' started as a playful text message exchange between Annabel and me," bassist/vocalist Georgia Wilkinson Derums said of her bandmate, guitarist/vocalist Annabel Blackman. "In many ways, the song is about grappling with internal inconsistencies and moral ambiguities in an incoherent style. It’s had a few iterations – when I brought it to the group it had more of a slow Big Star spirit. Soph and Annabel made it more angular, more tongue in cheek with the guitar, which further injects the song with distorted meaning. It’s also a personal reminder that when certain things are rendered uncertain those you love are an eternal rudder.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

30 Mars 20223min