Kexp Song Of The Day

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 an

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 omny.fm/listener for privacy information.

Day Soul Exquisite - clair des antilles a 2023 single on La fem records. While the pandemic was obviously a long and fraught-filled time, the bands formed and sowing their seeds during the first two most difficult years are now blossoming. Seattle-based sextet Day Soul Exquisite are one of those bands. Fronted by singer Francesca Eluhu, the group makes Latin American and French Caribbean-fused neo-soul that fits into a variety of arenas, all of which make you want to shimmy. While they've only released a string of singles since their 2021 formation, they've been mesmerizing audiences on stages and at festivals like Capitol Hill Block Party, Folklife, Barboza, The Sunset Tavern, So Dreamy Festival and more.like  Our Song of the Day is the early 2023 single, “clair des antilles,” which starts with a French spoken-word introduction and bursts into a dynamic jazzy production that’s a wistful ode to the French Caribbean. Eluhu describes the meaning behind the song as this: “My family is from Guadeloupe and I wrote

Witch Prophet - Memory from the 2023 album Gateway Experience from Heart Lake Records. Toronto-based neo-soul artist Ayo Leilani aka Witch Prophet recently unveiled her third studio album, Gateway Experience, which delved into her personal experience with focal aware seizures, sometimes known as Déjà vu or Déjà reve. They’re out-of-body experiences that include lucid dreaming and memory loss. “If I came out with an album like this five years ago, it would probably be a little too witchy,” says the former Polaris-shortlisted artist. “Now it’s a lot less scary to talk about.” Our Song of the Day, “Memory,” deals directly with the memory loss aspect of her unique condition. “I’m at a loss for words /Can’t remember the last time /I’ve been here /Yeah my memory keeps fading fast /Trying to hold on to the bit I have,” croons Leilani over a downtempo R&B beat. She receives backup from another shining Canadian artist, Begonia, who was nominated for a JUNO Award for Adult Alternative Album Of The Year for her crit

SoulChef & Uptown Swuite - "Wheels Fall Off" from the 2023 album LUA on SoulSwuite Music New Zealand-based artist SoulChef teams up again with west coast MC Uptown Swuite for today's Song of the Day. (We spotlighted the duo last year with another of their singles.)  The latest in their "SoulSwuite" series is titled LUA, or "two" as translated from Samoan. The duo have long used their music to celebrate their shared heritage. As Uptown Swuite told HipHopDX, "We really just wanted to capture the Samoan experience all around via our eyes — whether it be a Samoan living in California, New Zealand. or even the motherland Samoa/American Samoa.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omny.fm/listener for privacy information.

dragonchild - "Sera" from the 2023 album dragonchild on FPE Records. dragonchild is the new project from saxophonist DA Mekonnen, who previously led the Boston-based 11-piece Ethiopian music collective Debo Band. As a solo artist, he says he plans to take his exploration of Ethiopian music and explode it "into vivid, three-dimensional space." On today's Song of the Day, he collaborates with Addis Ababa-based electronic artist Ethiopian Records (real name: Endeguena Mulu); he also samples the track "Seqota" by Yezinna Negash, a fellow Addis Ababa-based vocalist.  As he sums up in a press statement, “The record feels and breathes to me like the Ethiopian music I’ve been trying to figure out my whole life.”  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omny.fm/listener for privacy information.

Speakers Corner Quartet - "Can We Do This? (feat. Sampha)" a 2023 single on OTIH Records KEXP loves a literal name ("The Morning Show on KEXP," anyone?), and jazz collective Speakers Corner Quartet have just that. The group formed in 2006 as the in-house band at South London landmark Speakers' Corner, a place that hosted open-mic nights where these four musicians would play for hours, improvising hip-hop beats for guest MCs to rap over. “There’s never been a rush as we’re just happy being in a room together," percussionist Kwake Bass told Qobuz. "Playing instruments is just an extension of that and I think that’s what the community is all about, it’s just another part of the conversation.” Now, as a recording collective, they continue to bring that live experience to their albums with an impressive list of guests. They've worked with Novelist, Joey Bada$$, Kae Tempest, Mica Levi, and on today's Song of the Day, fellow South London artist Sampha.  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.ke

La Fonda - New Mexico from the 2023 self-released album We Are Infinite. Seattle-based quintet La Fonda recently released their sophomore full-length We Are Infinite, a dream pop-indebted elegy to navigating life in a corporation-led city and the financial and mental health struggles that brings and finding the specks of hope within. Led by Filipino-American sisters Valeria and Veronica Topacio, the two have been grinding to make La Fonda into the band it is now since 2016. Playing every venue while tinkering with their sound has massively paid off, as the new record sees the band at their best. Our Song of the Day is the early single “New Mexico,” an anthemic ode to life on the road and the complicated feelings and relationships formed in the unique scenario of touring. Quick goodbyes to people who felt like family for a moment, scenic vistas that are constantly being replaced, and the feeling of constantly chasing something in the distance but not knowing exactly what it is. The immense beauty and simultane

Miya Folick - So Clear from the 2023 album Roach on Nettwerk. Los Angeles-based musician Miya Folick released her sophomore full-length ROACH in late May, an album that unpacks “trying to get to the core of what life really is,” according to Folick. Following her 2018 debut Premonitions and 2022’s 2007 EP, the album is full of rich, shimmery production with help from Gabe Wax (War on Drugs, Fleet Foxes), Mike Malchicoff (King Princess, Bo Burnham) and Max Hershenow (MS MR), heightening her quarter-life crisis to cinematic levels. Our Song of the Day, “So Clear,” is the moment Folick finally sees a way through the wreckage of prior mistakes. “I was desperate like you read in the paper,” she coos. “Screaming in oblivion /I was alone in a lonesome place /'Til I finally said I'm done.” Coupled with sun-drenched production from Hershenow, it’s a classic movie-montage moment with our main character breaking through. Folick says this about the song: “‘So Clear’ is about pulling yourself out of the wreckage you’ve ma

Hallelujah Lilly - "Bunny Rainbow Revolution," a 2023 self-released single DJ Kevin Cole picks another mystery track for this week's Song of the Day: while I can't seem to discern if Hallelujah Lilly is based in Reykjavik, Iceland or Nashville, Tennessee (or Canada?), Kevin was kind enough to share how he discovered her music: I was doing a DJ set at Lucky Records in Reykjavik last year on the Sunday of Iceland Airwaves.  She came on and performed a solo acoustic set after me, and I was taken aback by her songwriting, grounded uplifting optimism, and spirit.  I might not have heard her if it wasn't for this fortunate booking alignment. After her performance, I asked if she had music out and she said she was working on an album and would send it to me.  This is the first song I've received. There's a haunting, lo-fi sparseness to "Bunny Rainbow Revolution" urging you to "set yourself free."  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy info

Ooh La La - "Life's Too Fast To Feel" a 2023 self-released single. There's not a lot of information out there yet about brand-new Los Angeles-based duo Ooh La La, but sharp-eyed KEXP listeners might recognize the name Kii Arens from the liner notes of past Live at KEXP compilation albums! The long-time artist/director/graphic designer has previously created album covers for us. Now, relocated from his hometown of Minneapolis to Los Angeles, he and partner Jessy Greene (who has played violin for P!nk, Foo Fighters, and others) have launched this new musical project. The band reports on Facebook that today's Song of the Day will be released this summer as a double single via Killer Kern Records. Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CIEL - "Somebody" a 2023 single on Jazz Life With today's Song of the Day, Brighton-based trio Ciel share a sneak peek at their upcoming EP Make It Better, which will be released July 7th via Jazz Life.  “’Somebody’ is a song that came together for most part on the spot in the studio," frontwoman Michelle Hindriks explained in a press release. "It’s about starting to feel a deep urge to socialise, connect with others, party and be more outwards again after a period of needing solitude. Spring time is always a time when this naturally happens to me – getting out of my kind of winter hibernation and feeling that urge to be around people.” The track definitely has a '90s-influenced fuzzed-out jubilance that will have you pogo'ing any leftover winter doldrums right off.  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Telehealth - Taliesin Grid a 2023 single on Very Famous. Telehealth is the Seattle-based project of Alexander Attitude (Deep Sea Diver, Brian John Appleby) and Kendra Cox (Lemolo) that make Devo-esque synthscapes targeting capitalism and the absurdities of our modern world. Their debut album Content Oscillator was released in March and specifically delves into Alexander Attitude's transition from musician to architect and back to musician, after discovering his disillusionment with their utopian visions and the aesthetics of sustainability which consequently became a tool for developers to sit comfortably within a political domain that is essentially capitalist and centrist. Our Song of the Day “Taliesin Grid” specifically hones in on this idea. “Straight line, black suit /Just when you see it, start to move /Not made, great men /Stuck in repetition,” Attitude declares in monotone over arpeggiated synths. He continues on, “A name that still survives /Dank Lloyd Wright /Architects they come, yeah /Architects t

Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer from the 2023 album DREAMER on Ninja Tune. In late April, Nabihah Iqbal dropped her long-awaited sophomore record Dreamer via Ninja Tune. Five years after the release of her debut, Weighing of the Heart, and six since Iqbal’s last EP under her former moniker Throwing Shade, the record is a resplendent re-introduction to the London-born artist, curator, broadcaster and lecturer. Blending elements of early ‘80s electronica, shoegaze, and trance with ruminative lyricism, it’s a record that hits the heart as much as it does the body. The story behind the record starts in agony, as many great records do, with Iqbal’s studio being burglarized in early 2020 and all her work lost, including what was supposed to be her sophomore record. Piling onto the trauma, her grandfather suffered a brain hemorrage leading Iqbal to fly to Pakistan shortly before the pandemic hit and stranding her there as the world shut down. But as all creatives know, what doesn’t kill you, gives you better material for yo

mui zyu - "Demon 01" from the 2023 album Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century on Father/Daughter Records With her solo project mui zyu, London-based musician Eva Liu (also of Dama Scout) sought to capture the sounds she heard growing up at her family's Chinese restaurant. As she explains to Talkhouse:  My debut record, Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century, is about self-exploration and identity, at times told through a lens inspired by fantasy video-games and Chinese folklore. In the process of pulling together the themes for this collection of songs, I reflected on my own childhood and began to uncover sounds from my memory... Since we worked on this record, I feel even more tuned in to sounds around me all the time. For the most part, this has been a wonderful shift in my consciousness. Abrasive sounds that used to cause me stress are now intriguing — I’ll think about how they are made, what is causing the friction, how the air is moving, and I might even try to find rhythms in the chaos. I have welcomed this new

Sessa - "Vento a Favor" a 2023 single on Mexican Summer São Paulo-based musician Sessa returns with his first new single since last year's enchanting LP Estrela Acesa. The track is co-produced by Brazilian artist Biel Basile and American musician Mikey Coltun, who also plays bass in Mdou Moctar.  "'Vento a Favor' started as a track meant to be on Estrela Acesa," he tells Stereogum. "It was recorded, mixed, and mastered in the same sessions as the whole LP but somewhere along the way, when putting the pieces together, I started to feel that its energy was different from the story I was trying to tell with the record. The track was a bit too sure of its force and movement forward, outwards, while Estrela Acesa’s gesture was something more of an inward look, a whisper to the soul. But you know, nothing wrong with that, breathing goes both in and out." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

deary - "Fairground (Saint Etienne Remix)" a 2023 single on Sonic Cathedral. London-based dreampop duo deary couldn't have chosen a better group than long-running UK trio Saint Etienne and composer Augustin Bousfield to remix their debut single, "Fairground." (The mix is formally titled the "Saint Etienne Meet Augustin Bousfield At The Top Of Town Mix.") “It was fun putting the guitars down for once, playing around with different synths instead,” says Ben, co-founder of deary. “I got into [Saint Etienne's 1991 debut LP] Foxbase Alpha in a big way while studying at Goldsmiths via the Dusty Springfield sample on ‘Nothing Can Stop Us.' I love that record; the drum samples and the pop sensibilities were a real inspiration for both ‘Fairground’ and deary as a whole. We absolutely love their reworking of ‘Fairground,’ it’s really trippy and such a joy to have them work on our stuff. A thousand thank yous to them and Augustin.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudi

Corvair - Right Hook from the 2023 self-released album Bound to Be. Portland duo Corvair describe themselves as “Scorpio weirdo power duo serving up lush guitar pop w/ sharp incisors,” which this fellow Scorpio can certainly appreciate. Made up of Brian Naubert (Ruston Mire, Tube Top, Pop Sickle, The Service Providers) and Heather Larimer (Eux Autres), the romantic, as well as musical, duo are veterans of the Portland music scene. They released their debut self-titled album in 2021 and are following it up with their sophomore full-length Bound to Be on June 23rd. The lead single off the record is “Right Hook,” explores a dark night in a relationship where the protagonist is ready to fight. “On this record, I pushed myself to be more exposed and unfiltered,” explains Larimer of the song. “I can unfortunately be an ugly fighter and I wondered what would happen lyrically if I just owned up to it. The things I do that I am ashamed of and the toll it takes on everyone involved.” “The musical spine of this song was

Feeble Little Horse - Tin Man from the 2023 album Girl with Fish on Saddle Creek. Pittsburgh quartet Feeble Little Horse formed three years ago during the pandemic lull but have exploded since dropping their 2021 debut full-length Hayday. They’re on the verge of releasing its follow-up, Girl With Fish, via Saddle Creek, a perfect home for their slowcore brand of noise pop. Out June 9th, we’ve so far gotten three tastes of Girl With Fish, “Steamroller,” “Pocket,” and our Song of the Day “Tin Man.” Starting with a mathy guitar line directly inspired by Slint’s incredible “Breadcrumb Trail,” a rush of feedback roars in as frontwoman Lydia Slocum delivers her trademark deadpan vocals about a vapid, emotionless manipulator. “Took him apart and I found nobody/But when I dent you, I end up bruised.” “The song is about people who use sadness to control your actions because they know you will sympathize,” Slocum says of the song. “Oftentimes when these people are investigated there really is not much inside them, they

ĠENN - "A Reprise (That Girl)" a 2023 single on Liminal Collective On today's Song of the Day, Anglo-Maltese quartet ĠENN team up with guest vocalist John Newton (of fellow four-letters-all-caps duo JOHN) for this stylistically sinister slice of post-punk.  On their Bandcamp page, vocalist Leona Farrugia speaks to the track's themes: “Naturally I’ve always felt like there’s a pressure to compare myself, be that through the lens of present technologies or within the creative industry. It’s something that can be very debilitating, especially to young people in a patriarchal society.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.