Kexp Song Of The Day

WITCH - "Waile" a 2022 single on Desert Daze/Partisan. It's been almost 40 years since WITCH (which stands for "We Intend To Cause Havoc") caused some havoc. The Zambia-based band were early adopters of the "Zamrock" sound, a combination of traditional African music with psychedelic rock, releasing seven albums back in the '70s and '80s. After Zambia-born hip-hop artist Sampa The Great featured them on her latest LP As Above, So Below, WITCH decided to reconvene, releasing the single "Waile." "'Waile' was one of the songs that I brought to the WITCH when I joined in 1978," explained keyboardist Patrick Mwondela via a press release. "While it was played live often back in the day, it was never recorded until the new formation of the band picked it up 43 years later during a rehearsal on an island in Kenya, where the band embraced it and made it their own. A few months after that, they gave it a new lease of life by recording it in Lusaka’s legendary DB Studios. Sang in my native language Luvale, the subject ma

Cuffed Up - 10 for 10 a 2022 single on Corduroy Recordings. Los Angeles-based trio Cuffed Up return with a punk-pop pep-rally anthem for anyone struggling with imposter syndrome. "It's deeply rooted in confidence," vocalist and guitarist Ralph Torrefranca told Atwood Magazine. "The dialogue in the song follows a creative, trying to understand the negative thoughts that plagues their mind every time they feel the imposter syndrome. The chorus is the heavy-handed conclusion that they arrive to every time but the bridge is the 'big aha! moment' where the character finally realizes that they are amazing at what they do and are in fact, 10/10." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Winter - sunday from the 2022 album What Kind of Blue Are You? on Bar/None. Songwriter Samira Winter (who records as Winter) returns with her sophomore full-length, What Kind of Blue Are You?, described as an "emotional excavation of [her] purest self." The new album features guest appearances from artists like Hatchie and Sasami. "“I feel like I’ve come full circle, making an album that my 22-year-old self who just started Winter would love," she says in a press release. "It’s my inner shadow girl, revealing herself in all her brokenness, despair, and beauty.” Winter describes today's Song of the Day as "a fever dream meditation on social media toxicity," a topic she says is "always on my mind and generates a lot of fear and anxiety for me. It’s a critique on social media’s effect on mental health and contorted beauty standards for women." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lydia Ramsey - “I Will Wait For You” from the 2022 self-released album Like A Dream. Lydia Ramsey is an Indianola, WA-born, Seattle-based Americana artist that’s been channeling the vintage folk sounds of Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt since 2016. Her wistful melodies and enchanting vocals and often simple in presentation: just a guitar or banjo, perhaps some twinkling piano, and showstealingly lovely coos. Her latest record Like A Dream was released in September and hones in on the collective thoughts, anxieties, and loneliness felt during the pandemic. Our Song of the Day “I Will Wait For You” is especially relatable looking back on those lockdown days but also for many still, as she speaks to a friend - or perhaps to herself - in the depths of despair, encouraging them to keep moving forward. “Running through your head /What if this lasts forever,” Ramsey quavers. “It’s bitter end in these days without being close together.” Resiliently, she presses on, hoping, waiting, and praying for the day in which

Rival Consoles - “World Turns” from the 2022 album Now Is on Erased Tapes. Ryan Lee West has been making electronic music under the name Rival Consoles since 2007, experimenting with a diverse range of styles and influences primarily with analog equipment. His latest release Now Is was made during the pandemic and sees the English producer in a contemplative mood, painting an atmospheric kaleidoscope of occasionally glitchy sounds. He had this to say about the record: “There are some pieces that are influenced quite strongly by the isolation and anxiety of these times. There are also pieces which are more optimistic and vibrant, which I think is a consistent attitude of my records, as I want art to express many aspects of life.” Our Song of the Day, “World Turns,” thrums with spacey energy, slowly unfolding and retracting. Not quite a dancefloor jam, the song mimics the spinning orb we live on and the twinkling stars that sit amongst it, making the song a perfect late-night headphones listen. Check out Rival

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - “When the Lights Go” from the 2022 album When the Lights Go on Nice Age. Over the past decade, Orlando Higginbottom has been thriving under the name Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. The British producer scored a Grammy nomination for his collaboration with Bonobo, and has released several singles and EPs since his 2012 debut LP Trouble. Ten years later, he shares his sophomore full-length, When The Lights Go, which he says is "about love and the end of the world."  “I think that the record starts and all the ideas are quite direct, and then it gets murkier and murkier as it goes on,” he told Rolling Stone UK. But as we move further away from the lockdown, the apocalypse isn't quite as front of mind. “It’s kind of nice to get this material off my chest. The next record I’m working on is much more hopeful. I’ve come out and I’m very far over the other side now.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for pri

United Freedom Collective - “MERCY (feat. FACESOUL)” from the 2022 Am Ta EP on Dama Dama. At the core of the United Freedom Collective are three musicians: Mathieu Seynaeve, WaiFung Tsang, and Robbie Redway. The trio convened in a remote barn in Cornwall, in South West England, to create music inspired by Zen Taoism, Buddhism, Jungian analysis, meditation, yoga, and more. “It’s supposed to be something more than us” they explain in a press statement, “it’s music with intention, music for healing”. This open and experimental approach can be heard on their debut EP Am Ta. The intentional band name of "United Freedom Collective" leaves the door open for frequent collaborators, and on today's Song of the Day, we hear from Somali-born, U.K.-based singer/songwriter FACESOUL, who the band describe as "a dear brother who spent some time with us in Cornwall earlier this year to cook up some magic with his unbelievable voice."  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.c

Bill Callahan - “Coyotes” from the 2022 album YTI⅃AƎЯ on Drag City. Singer/songwriter Bill Callahan is shaking up reality — literally, with the backwards title of his latest LP, YTILAER, out now via his long-time label Drag City.  “It felt like it was necessary to rouse people — rouse their love, their kindness, their anger, rouse anything in them. Get their senses working again,” he shared in a press release. On today's Song of the Day, that reality takes us to his backyard, where the titular animal made its presence known. “We lived for awhile in a house in the hills,” he explained. “Coyote hills. The coyotes would start their song at dawn. Dawn and dusk were their main appearance times. Our dog would sleep outside sometimes in the morning and our boy was still bite-size. The coyotes would come take notes, edging closer each day. Mornings on the kingsize outdoor daybed. Like a righteous floating tide the coyotes would drift into our world. Predator and prey, blurred. Past and present, blurred. The young, th

Grynch Paper Route (feat. Sir Mix‐A‐Lot) from the 2022 self-released album Born in '86. Nearly fifteen years after dropping his debut full-length, My Second Wind, Grynch is back with his first solo record since 2014 titled Born in ‘86. While it may be a solo record, that doesn’t mean the Seattle-born-and-bred rapper isn’t still open to sharing the mic. The deeply collaborative artist invited artists like Boom Bap Project, Blake Lewis, Prometheus Brown, and Daz Dillinger to help add color to the nostalgia-hued record. But there’s no collaboration more deeply Seattle than our Song of the Day. “Paper Route” sees none other than the big-booty-loving Sir Mix a Lot join Grynch for a song that recognizes the resilience it takes to continue on the winding and fickle journey of being a longstanding musician. “I could never do a thing that I aint about,” Grynch spits on the chorus, “Suckers out here running miles /Chasing clout /But when it’s all said and done and they faded out /I’m gonna still be getting mine on my p

4348 Kevin Cole Thursday 10/27/22 Bosq Song for Ehi (feat. The Ibibio Horns and Kaleta) a 2022 single on Canopy Limited. Bosq is the musical pseudonym for Benjamin Woods, who has been utilizing Afro-Latin music in fusion with Funk, Disco, Reggae, House and Hip Hop to dazzling effect for a decade now. The Boston-bred, Colombia-based musician has released 4 full albums, heaps of EP's of original music, and countless collaborative singles and remixes with artists like Fania Records, Orchestre Poly Rhythmo de Cotonou, Poolside, Nickodemus, and many more. He recently teamed up with the horn section of Ibibio Sound Machine as well as vocalist Kaleta for a fiery new single released via Portugal-based label Canopy Records, whose specialty is “Sub-Saharan synth swagger, re-calibrated and re- celebrated.” Titled “Song for Ehi,” the track is a combination of classic Edo-funk, Afro-disco and reggae disco with a groovy meandering bassline, soaring horns arrangements, and timbale breakdowns. While it may be cold outside, t

You Said Strange - "So Sorry" from the 2021 album Thousand Shadows Vol.1 on Le Cèpe Records / Modulor. For their debut album, Salvation Prayer, the French band You Said Strange recorded in Portland with Dandy Warhols guitarist Peter G Holmström. For they're latest LP, titled Thousand Shadows Vol​.​1, they hunkered down at home, building their own studio in Évreux, equipped with a vintage analog console and microphones gathered during previous tours.  The band told Psychedelic Baby Magazine that the change enabled them to "become autonomous with our gear, build a cocoon and stretch our creation on a bigger space of time. Taking time to refine our sound and our compositions." As a result, the group's sophomore full-length is a thoughtful, intimate affair, produced by Daniel James Goodwin (This Is The Kit, Kevin Morby, Wand). Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Love'n'joy - "Psy Summer" from the 2022 self-released album Half Home. Kyiv-based band Love’n’Joy completed their latest album Half Home just three days before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Vocalist/guitarist Anton Pushkar explained to Psychdelic Baby Magazine, "The idea of ​​the album title was mainly connected with the loss of Crimea, the place where me and Sergey (Zlobin, drummer) were born and raised and where our relatives live under russian occupation. After the events of February 24, when we had to leave our native Kyiv, this feeling multiplied.” While touring in support of the new LP, the band established the Musicians Defend Ukraine fund, a way for them to support "Ukrainian artists who defend their cities and work as volunteers."  “Different parts of the world [are] trying to support somehow,” Pushkar told Kerrang. “[You] can sell your records, collect money, organise a show – there’s lots of options available. And for [promoters] you can also just have a Ukrainian band pl

Elsy Wameyo - "River Nile" from the 2022 Nilotic EP on Music in Exile. Over the past few years, Nairobi-born, Adelaide-based artist Elsy Wameyo has made a name for herself in hip-hop, garnering both the Young Kenyan of the Year award in 2018, and the People's Choice Best Hip Hop Award at the annual South Australian Music Awards in 2019. Her debut EP, titled Nilotic, is a tribute to her indigenous roots to the people of the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. In a press release, she explains that today's Song of the Day is an exploration of her newfound strength. “‘River Nile’ was a revelation, a turning point that led me to understand who I truly am. I had been so weak, fighting a battle that was never mine. This song came about after I learnt how to strategically use the power within. I journeyed with this song to find a place of rest. I reached a level where I no longer had to work. Instead, I used the forces around me to gain altitude. The moment I found it, it was game over for everyone else.” Read t

Enumclaw - "Jimmy Neutron" from the 2022 album Save the Baby on Luminelle Recordings. It can often be tough to trace exactly where and when a band “broke” but for Enumclaw, it’s pretty straightforward. KEXP’s own Martin Douglas first wrote about the Tacoma band on KEXP’s website and, shortly after, major publications like Pitchfork, Stereogum, Gorilla vs. Bear, and The Fader followed suit. So, for all intents and purposes, we claim them as ours. Last week, the quartet - made up of Aramis Johnson, Nathan Cornell, Eli Edwards, and Ladaniel Gipson - released their debut full-length Save the Baby. Produced by Gabe Wax, who’s also manned the boards for Soccer Mommy, Palehound, and Ian Sweet, the highly anticipated record continues their streak of ‘90s-inspired indie rock. Our Song of the Day, “Jimmy Neutron,” is a dreamy rocker about the desire for love and the pitfalls of making it a reality. "This song is about getting so close to love that you can almost taste it," says Johnson of the track. "All the highs of b

Cheekface - "I Feel So Weird!" from the 2022 album Too Much To Ask on New Professor. In times like we’ve been living through the past handful of years, humor has become more and more tantamount to survival. Cheekface understands that and displays it with aplomb. The Los Angeles-based band made up of Greg Katz, Amanda Tannen, Mark “Echo” Edwards channels Lou Reed, Jonathan Richman, and Stephan Malkmus with their speak-singing but has plenty of wisdom behind their absurdist, critical, and, dare I say, cheeky lyricism. Our Song of the Day “I Feel So Weird!,” off the band’s recently released third record Too Much To Ask, is an excellent example of Cheekface’s ability to make you spit-take with laughter at the same time as saying to yourself, “I feel that.” Over a mellow, bass-heavy rhythm Katz spews goofy statements like, “The difference between me and a dog is I am taller /Think about it, just think about it” before getting into a pretty great allegory for the feelings that anxiety often riddles upon a body, whi

PVA - "Untethered" from the 2022 album BLUSH on Ninja Tune. South London trio PVA have gained a reputation for their live sets, with their dark, industrial-tinged dance music and frontwoman Ella Harris' deadpan vocals. (Early in their career, the band came up with the term “country-friend techno” to describe their sound.) With their debut LP BLUSH, the group channels the raw energy of their shows, while displaying an increased confidence in the studio. “We wanted to surprise people and do something more than just get across how we sound at a gig,” percussionist Louis Satchell conveyed in a press release. “It’s quite an anxious record sometimes that is relating to mental health issues but also an everyday anxiety of making the album. It’s been a rocky ride but we always pick ourselves up.”  Harris says today's Song of the Day is about "being in a straight relationship that is restrictive and closed off. It’s basically an expression of this really frustrated anger at masculinity and a resentment at being unable

Benedek - "Emotional (feat. Devin Morrison)" from the 2022 Zebrano EP on Apron Records. Los Angeles-based producer/musician Benedek (real name: Nicholas Benedek) began playing guitar at the age of nine, and first started composing beats using his Nintendo Game Boy Camera software. With admiration for artists like Herbie Hancock and Jeff Beck, he's developed a unique style drawing from funk, hip-hop, soul, house, as well as science fiction and '90s video games.  On today's Song of the Day, Benedek teams up with the soulful singer Devin Morrison for this '80s-inspired jam. (Do I detect a Bell Biv DeVoe inspiration?) Bandcamp calls the track a "slow burning ode to the West Coast," and with Morrison's laid-back vocals and that smooth R&B groove, it's the perfect song to make you forget it's autumn now.  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

STR4TA - "Turn Me Around" from the 2022 album STR4TASFEAR on Brownswood. Just before the world shut down in 2020, renowned DJ/record label owner Gilles Peterson joined acid jazz legend Jean-Paul Maunick (better known as "Bluey") for an improvised jam session in Bluey's parents’ garden shed in London. The result became STR4TA, and last year's debut LP, Aspects, draws influence from the '70s/'80s Brit-Funk sound they both grew up with.  Their sophomore full-length, STR4TASFEAR, will be released on November 10th via Peterson's own Brownswood Recordings, and is described by Peterson in a press release as "a continuation from our first project, celebrating the ground breaking Brit-Funk era of the late 70s/ early 80s while continuing the story with the rise of the drum machine; paying homage to the Acid Jazz and Electro Soul that followed and the evolution that inspired club culture and new Jazz of recent times." He continues, "For me it's a record of parallels, not only in music but a lot of the issues we are expe

Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Taabu, Shad - Red Sky at Night - Remix a 2022 single on Distorted Muse. Snotty Nose Rez Kids are a Polaris and Juno Award-nominated indigenous hip hop duo that are beacons amongst their community for addressing the generational trauma affecting indigenous people with wit, humor, and bars for days. Their most recent album Life After dropped in 2021 but recently they unveiled a remix of standout track “Red Sky at Night” featuring veteran emcee Shad and producer Taabu. While the original was a vibey late-night track that showed off the duo’s dexterous verbal ability and is absolutely incredible on its own, the remix is a fiery hard-hitting journey meant to melt faces. Shad’s gracious opening verse sets the tone before Yung Trybez and Young D speak their truth, “Rez Kids on that red carpet /Tell the homies that this feature is free /Get best bargain like red target, all love.” Turns out, Shad was actually supposed to be on the original version of the track but submitted his verse too late. “

Bobby Sanchez - Trans 101 (Scarim) from the 2022 Prophecy EP on Harawiq Records. Bobby Sanchez carries a plethora of identities on their shoulders - poet, musician, painter, model, activist. The American-Peruvian Indigenous artist is vocal about speaking on the topics close to their heart such as Indigenous displacement, gentrification, environmentalism, and gender identity. Their most recent EP Prophecy covers all of these in just four short yet vibey tracks. Based solely on the number of Tik Toks that have used “Trans 101 (Scarim)” over the past few months, our Song of the Day has clearly hit home for a lot of trans people. Over a jazzy piano sample, Sanchez effortlessly flows about the beauty and danger of being trans. In one of the more triumphant verses, Sanchez coos, “Trans bodies are like temples I could see you worshipping /Trans bodies sentimental more beneath the surfaces /Trans bodies love each other and the love is permanent /Trans bodies will prevail and you cannot circumvent.” Watch the video fo