In Our Headphones

Film School - "Superperfection" from the 2021 album We Weren’t Here on Sonic Ritual. Long-running west coast shoegaze group Film School return this fall with the full-length We Weren’t Here , a nod to pandemic-related conditions in which they recorded the album. Band members — bassist Justin LaBo, guitarist Nyles Lannon, frontman Greg Bertens, and keyboardist Jason Ruck — w...

Jarv Dee & Bad Colours - "Black Skin (feat. Stas THEE Boss)," a 2021 self-released single.   Read the full post on KEXP.org Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Skyzoo - "Bed-Stuy Is Burning" from the 2021 album All the Brilliant Things on Mello. New York has long been embedded in the work of rapper Skyzoo . Born Gregory Skyler Taylor in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, he cites his hometown as an influence, telling The Living Room , "There’s certain values and morals that come with the neighborhood and era that I grew up in. Those are im...

K.ZIA - "Sanctuary," a 2021 single on Groove Attack. Brussels-born, Berlin-based artist K.ZIA unveils a "place beyond the physical" in today's KEXP Song of the Day. Born to a Martinican father and a Belgo-Congolese mother, she weaves the influence of her upbringing into this soulful single.  “I am building a realm for the unheard," she explained in a press release. "For the ones that ne...

George Riley - "say yes (feat. Joe Armon-Jones)" from the 2021 self-released album interest rates, a tape. She may only be 23-years-old, but West London-based artist George Riley draws on her lifetime of influences on her latest release, interest rates, a tape . Her Jewish mother and Jamaican father would play R&B icons like Stevie Wonder, Aretha, and Sade in the house, and her dad was briefly...

Khrysis - "The Disrespect (feat. Rapsody & Sa-Roc)" from the 2021 album The Hour of Khrysis on Jamla. It's no surprise it took Khrysis 12 years to return with his fifth full-length, The Hour of Khrysis . The Durham, NC producer/rapper/engineer also serves on Jamla Records' in-house production team, The Soul Council; crafted beats for the Netflix dramedy The Forty-Year-Old Version ; and has wor...

Mia Day - "Rosie," a 2021 self-released single. A self-described "groovy, fairy, cowgirl witch," Seattle singer/songwriter Mia Day recorded today's featured track in a barn outside of Seattle, with some of her closest friends. "It's a reverse perspective song that is a deeper exploration into my mental health," she explains via her Soundcloud . "I wrote it as an assignment for one of my college so...

The Suburbs - "Summertime" from the 2021 album Poet’s Party on Suburbs Music. The Suburbs have been crafting their unique brand of pop-punk joy since 1977. They've been credited as one of the godfathers of the "Minneapolis Sound,” a scene including bands like The Suicide Commandos, The Replacements, and Hüsker Dü.  While vocalist Chan Poling and drummer Hugo Klaers are t...

The Vega Bodegas - "All My Fish Are Dead," a 2021 self-released single. Cardiff post-punk band The Vega Bodegas is led by Jimmy Watkins, formerly of Future Of The Left and Strange News From Another Star. They've been laying low since the 2018 release of their debut full-length, A Complete History of Witchcraft , but have re-emerged to share the single "All My Fish Are Dead." Watkins described to B...

Polar Noir - "If Everybody Listened," a 2021 single on Polarness. June 8th marked World Oceans Day, a day designated to "inform the public of the impact of human actions on the ocean." German radio show host Sandra Gern seized the moment to unveil her recording project Polar Noir , sharing her love of water on her debut single.  "I‘ve learned that the music you make is never really comp...

Chicano Batman - "Pastel Sunrise," a 2021 single on ATO. Psych/funk/soul band Chicano Batman return with a new single, featuring the powerful track "Dark Star" on the A-Side, and today's Song of the Day on the B-Side. It's the L.A. four-piece's first new music since their 2020 album Invisible People. Like last year's release, the new single finds them pairing up with Grammy-nominated producer John...

Hallows - "All That Is True Dies" from the 2021 album All That Is True on Cold Transmission Music. Formed in Minneapolis in 2018, and now based in Seattle, darkwave duo HALLOWS incorporate post-punk influences into their atmospheric synthpop on their latest album, All That Is True . Founding members Vanee D. and Dom R. wrote the songs during what they call "times of unrest in Seattle (and the worl...

Yves Tumor - "Jackie," a 2021 single on Warp. Enigmatic, experimental artist Yves Tumor returns with their new single "Jackie," a fierce glam-rock stomp with squalling guitars and an '80s dance beat. It's their first new solo work since their 2020 album Heaven To A Tortured Mind .  The track is accompanied by a psychedelic video clip created by Los Angeles-based visual artists Rick Farin and...

Ric Wilson - "Fight Like Ida B & Marsha P," a 2020 single on Free Disco / EMPIRE. On his latest single, released days before Juneteenth 2020, Chicago rapper Ric Wilson pays tribute to civil rights leader Ida B. Wells and LGBTQ+ activist Marsha P. Johnson.  He wrote on Twitter [sic]: “when I think about next level courage to ball your fist up & look Patriarchy, racist,sexism, hom...

Pixel Grip - "Pursuit," a 2021 single on Feeltrip Records. Chicago darkwave trio Pixel Grip return with their sophomore full-length ARENA , a soundtrack for the misfits out there. “Being in an audience of freaks, queers, fetish people, all in the same room sweating together,” is how vocalist Rita Lukea puts it, “and we all knew our purpose, and we were manic and arrogant.”&...

Emma-Jean Thackray - "Say Something," a 2021 single on Movementt. An active artist and producer in South London’s nu-jazz scene, multi-instrumentalist Emma-Jean Thackray has just shared her latest LP Yellow on July 2nd via her own Movementt imprint. “It’s a record about togetherness, the oneness of all things in the universe, showing love and kindness, human connection," she...

Ya Tseen - "Knives (feat. Portugal. The Man)" from the 2021 album Indian Yard on Sub Pop. Originally from Sheet’ka (Sitka, Alaska), artist Nicholas Galanin brings the influence of his Tlingit and Unangax̂ heritage to his spacey dance pop. Under the name Ya Tseen (which simultaneously translates to “be alive” and references his Tlingit name Yeil Ya Tseen), he uses his music to adv...

The Joy Formidable - "Into the Blue" from the 2021 album Into The Blue on Enci Records. Welsh band The Joy Formidable return with their first new music in three years. Today's Song of the Day is the title track from their forthcoming fifth album, Into The Blue , out August 20th. While the song was written in their hometown of Wales, it was completed in their new adopted home of Utah, which is also...

Glüme - "The Internet" from the 2021 album The Internet on Italians Do It Better. When Glüme first heard the Chromatics come up on Spotify Shuffle, she knew that frontman Johnny Jewel was her sonic soulmate. It was destiny that she'd be signed to Jewel's record label Italians Do It Better for her debut album The Internet .  An artist/musician/actor and trained tap dancer, Glüme...

Lightning Bug - "The Right Thing Is Hard To Do" from the 2021 album A Color of the Sky on Fat Possum Records. On today's Song of the Day, Audrey Kang — lead vocalist for shoegaze sensations Lightning Bug — shares her personal battle with self-worth against a delicate wash of guitars.  "Here I wanted to connect how the struggles and flaws within the individual are mirrored in the g...

Mochipet - "Godzilla League of Legends" from the 2021 self-released album Godzilla Resurgence. David Wang has long had an obsession with dinosaurs, from wearing a purple costume of the prehistoric creatures in his musical alias of Mochipet , to the recent release of his EP Godzilla Resurgence, named for the mythical kaiju who has starred in films since the 1950s.  “I saw my first Godzil...

Hollis - "Grace Lee," a 2021 self-released single.   Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Essam - "Free Palestine," a 2021 self-released single. South Seattle-based rapper/poet and community organizer Essam wrote his first rap at the age of eight. “I wrote a personal narrative essay – it was the first time it wasn’t research – and I realized that writing is for me,” he told the University of Washington at Bothell .  He's since released two albums: 201...

Little Simz - "Woman (feat. Cleo Sol)," a 2021 single on AGE 101 MUSIC / AWAL. U.K. rapper Little Simz returns with her fourth full-length this fall, the relatably-titled Sometimes I Might Be Introvert , out September 3rd. In a press release, today's Song of the Day has been called “a soulful love letter to women around the world.” “I love it when I see women doing their thing an...

Mara TK - "Grew Up Inna Chaos (feat. 2MY)" from the 2021 album Bad Meditation on Extra Soul Perception. Scottish-Māori artist Mara TK has lent his velvety vocals to neo-soul trio Electric Wire Hustle for years, and with his deeply personal debut solo album, Bad Medication , he takes center stage. The album brings him back to his home of Aotearoa (or "long white cloud," the Māori name for New Zeala...