In Our Headphones

Japanese Breakfast - "Be Sweet" from the 2021 album Jubilee on Dead Oceans. Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast is one busy lady. Mere months following the release of her memoir Crying in H Mart , she's releasing her third album, Jubilee, on June 4th via Dead Oceans. Today's Song of the Day is the first single, the joyous, upbeat “Be Sweet.” “I wrote ‘Be Sweet’ with...

Night Beats - "New Day" from the 2021 album Outlaw R&B on Fuzz Club. Danny Lee Blackwell — who records as Night Beats — returns June 4th with his fifth album, Outlaw R&B , an album he says "is music for the borderless, the free, the outcasts and the forgotten." He continues in his press release, "The outlaw is the runner. Those whose minds aren't sold by perfect pitch and clean...

Wax Tailor - "Just a Candle (feat. Mark Lanegan)" from the 2021 album The Shadow of Their Suns on Lab'Oratoire. French producer Wax Tailor returned this year with his first new album in five years, The Shadow Of Their Suns , a star-studded affair featuring special guests like Del the Funky Homosapien, D Smoke, Gil Scott-Heron, Adeline, and, on today's Song of the Day, Mark Lanegan of The Screaming...

The Reds, Pinks & Purples - "Don't Ever Pray in the Church on My Street" from the 2021 album Uncommon Weather on Slumberland. With his project The Reds, Pinks and Purples , San Francisco-based singer/songwriter Glenn Donaldson pays tribute to his hometown with his third and latest album, Uncommon Weather . The Inner Richmond district is captured in muted, pastel colors on the album artwork, gi...

Morcheeba - "Sounds of Blue" from the 2021 self-released album Blackest Blue. Trip-hop trailblazers Morcheeba return with their tenth album, Blackest Blue , which comes out this Friday. Vocalist Skye Edwards and multi-instrumentalist Ross Godfrey used the lockdown to really take their "time to write songs and really get to hone them." Edwards adds in their press release, "There weren’t so ma...

Yard Act - "Dark Days," a 2021 single on Zen F.C. Leeds-based post-punk band Yard Act found inspiration in an animated cave dweller for their latest single "Dark Days." Singer/songwriter James Smith says it's “the last of four singles before we start work on the album, of which none of those songs will be on.” For today's Song of the Day, he shares in a press release: With 'Dark Days.'...

We're taking a week off from posting podcasts and other online content, but you can always find a live DJ streaming on KEXP.org, the KEXP App, or 90.3 FM in Seattle. New episodes will return to your Song of the Day feed on Monday, April 19th! Until then, visit old episodes or explore our other podcasts, Sound & Vision, Live on KEXP, and The Weekly Mix. And if you haven't had the chance yet, th...

EsePax - "Senzu Bean (feat. Dre'Zy)," a 2021 single on El Ambiente. Seattle DJ and hip-hop artist EsePax managed to get Renton-based MC Dre'Zy "out of retirement" (as he says ) for the new single "Senzu Bean," named for the mystical beans in the Dragon Ball manga series. Read the full post on KEXP.org Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information...

Lorine Chia & D*L*P - "Go Far (feat. Bigmouf’ Bo)," a 2021 self-released single. Cameroonian-born, LA-based singer Lorine Chia has had a decade-long career collaborating with rappers like Machine Gun Kelly, Wiz Khalifa, and The Game. On today's Song of the Day, she teams up with producer/composer Devin " D*L*P " Parker, with guest vocals from nglewood, Chicago's Bigmouf’ Bo , a for...

The Lasso - "No Illusions (feat. Ill Camille & A. Billi Free)" from the 2021 album 2121 on Mello Music Group. Detroit-based producer Andy Catlin records under the name The Lasso , an apt title as he's able to round up a dozen guest rappers and vocalists for his latest album 2121. ( Today's Song of the Day brings in the vocal talents of New Mexico-based vocalist A. Billi Free and Los Angeles-ba...

Noname - "Rainforest," a 2021 self-released single. Since the release of her outstanding 2018 debut, Room 25, Chicago rapper Noname (real name: Fatimah Nyeema Warner) has stepped away from music a little, focusing on social justice by reading books on anti-capitalism, sharing resources and links to non-profit organizations on Twitter, and then in 2019, launching the Noname Book Club, a way for her...

Beautiful Chorus - "I Am (feat. India. Arie)," a 2021 self-released single. Beautiful Chorus is a group that truly lives up to its name. The project was launched in 2021 by Alexandra Love, previous vocalist for Solillaquists of Sound and Chakra Khan. With Beautiful Chorus, she aimed to "spread a harmony-infused soundscape of interconnectedness, ease, and joy," a goal they've surely surpassed with...

Boom Bap Project - "Hagler Vs. Hearns," a 2021 self-released single. Nightclubber Lang, Destro Destructo, and DJ Tre are the NW hip-hop trio Boom Bap Project , who first hit the scene at the turn of the millennium. The Trox-produced “Hagler Vs Hearns,” their first new music in almost 15 years, is the lead single to their upcoming album Return Flight , featuring beats from Trox, Vitamin...

Juan Wauters - "Presentation (feat. Nick Hakim & Benamin)," a 2021 single on Captured Tracks. On his latest single "Presentation," Juan Wauters , a longtime resident of Jackson Heights, pays tribute to New York City in this collaboration with artists Nick Hakim and Benamin .  "'Presentation' was made one night when Nick, Benamin and I met at Nick's studio in Brooklyn," Wauters stated in a...

Cheekface - "Listen to your Heart.” "No." from the 2021 album Emphatically No. on New Professor Music. L.A.-based trio Cheekface bring their signature sense of humor to their sophomore release Emphatically No. , out now via New Professor.  Today's Song of the Day challenges the toxic positivity of self-help. "This is obviously a song about the negative messages your brain sends to you w...

Vegyn - "B4 the Computer Crash," a 2021 single on PLZ Make It Ruins. Back in 2019, LA-via-London producer Joe Thornalley (better known as Vegyn ) was struggling with depression, an episode that influenced his latest EP, Like a Good Old Friend , out now via Plz Make it Ruins. “A friend let me stay at their house and they happened to have a piano,” he told The Face . ​“I was like ​...

Figmore - "Rosie," a 2021 single on Fresh Selects. Figmore combines the talents of Renton-raised producer 10.4 Rog (stream his Midnight in a Perfect World mix here ) and JUICEB☮X , a rapper, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Westchester, NY. Now based in Los Angeles, the duo combine psych, R&B, and hip-hop on their debut album Jumbo Street (out now via Fresh Selects).  Read the ful...

Branik - "Monster," a 2020 self-released single. Seattle singer/songwriter Branik says she "writes songs that sometimes make my friends cry." Today's Song of the Day will have them sobbing.  In a statement to the Daily Listening , she explains, "When I wrote ‘Monster’ I felt like I had, yet again, lost everything I had been working so hard to make wonderful. It had been a year and...

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St. Vincent - "Pay Your Way In Pain" from the 2021 album Daddy's Home on Loma Vista Recordings. On her sixth album,  Daddy’s Home ,  St. Vincent (real name: Annie Clark) looks to the past, specifically the ‘70s, to inspire the present.  “There’s something interesting about what the early ‘70s were, and the parallels between then and now &ndash...

Ora the Molecule - "Creator," a 2021 single on Mute Records. Oslo, Norway-born artist Nora Schjelderup (otherwise known as Ora The Molecule ) releases her debut album Human Safari this summer on July 23rd. Today's Song of the Day is the first single from the release, an ebullient anthem for youth, as reflected in the accompanying music video, directed by Tanmay Chowdhary. “The song is all ab...

Anushka Chkheidze - "Move, Move" from the 2021 album Move 20-21 on CES Records. With last year's debut LP Halfie , Anushka Chkheidze landed a nomination for IMPALA’s European Independent Album of The Year Award. Less than a year later, the 23-year-old electronic music artist returns with her second full-length, Move 20 – 21, an album she describes as "a mind journey through space and t...

Altin Gün - "Maçka Yollari" from the 2021 album Yol on ATO Records. Amsterdam-based, but globally influenced with Turkish, Indonesian, and Dutch band members, Grammy-nominated band Altin Gün continue to add a psych-touch to traditional Turkish folk songs on their third album, Yol . Today's Song of the Day hails from the Trabzon region near the Black Sea coast, with Altin Gün...

Echo of the Low Light - "Afterlife," a 2021 single on Independent. Echo of the Low Light is more than just a band; it's a collective of Pacific Northwest artists taking an experimental approach to song construction. At its core is guitarist/vocalist Kerri Holland and bassist Pam Drago. After years in bands, they wanted to push the boundaries. They explain on their Instagram , "We began to explore...

Squid - "Narrator (feat. Martha Skye Murphy)" from the 2021 album Bright Green Field on Warp. After a series of stand-alone singles and an EP, Brighton, England-based band Squid have announced their debut album, Bright Green Field , out May 7th via Warp. Today's Song of the Day features guest vocals from Martha Skye Murphy , to help make "the point that the unreliable narrator is, more often than...