In Our Headphones

Mourn - "Call You Back," a 2020 single on Captured Tracks. Barcelona-based trio Mourn returned this Spring with their first new music since last year's full-length Sorpresa Familia . Today's Song of the Day was appropriately, but unintentionally, released in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. “Parts of the song talk about the anxiety of phone calls and the emotions around them,” C...

Petite Noir & Kingdom - "Alive" from the 2020 single CoeurWorld on Roya Records. South African artist Petite Noir [real name: Yannick Ilunga] has teamed up with Los Angeles-based producer Kingdom for the new double A-side single CoeurWorld .  In a press release, Ilunga declared, “I have been a huge fan of Kingdom since the early Fade to Mind days and I was very excited for this coll...

Gabriel Teodros - "If They Come for Me in the Morning... (feat. Aisha Fukushima)" from the 2020 self-released album What We Leave Behind. Seattle artist (and KEXP DJ) Gabriel Teodros celebrates the 20th anniversary of his first solo show at Rainier Valley Cultural Center with this new collection of previously unreleased tracks, "with a few new songs recorded specifically for this project," he adds...

The Beths - "I'm Not Getting Excited" from the 2020 album Jump Rope Gazers on Carpark Records. New Zealand pop band The Beths return this month with their sophomore album Jump Rope Gazers , out July 10th via Carpark Records. But frontwoman Elizabeth Stokes is keeping her cool about it. In a press release, she states: “People always ask ‘are you excited!?’ and it’s a fair qu...

Fontaines D.C. - "A Hero's Death" from the 2020 album A Hero's Death on Partisan Records. Don't ask Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten about the meaning behind today's KEXP Song of the Day. "I'm not sure myself," he confesses to the BBC . "I purposefully keep the things I write open to interpretation, even to myself." But the track also serves as the title of the Irish post-punk band's forthcom...

Gordi - "Sandwiches" from the 2020 album Our Two Skins on Jagjaguwar. On her latest LP Our Two Skins , Australian folktronica artist Gordi (real name: Sophie Payten) mourns the passing of her beloved grandmother, Alisa, whose spirit fills the gorgeous new album. It was even recorded in her hometown. "Her whole life was in Canowindra, and that's why I wanted to make the record there," Payten explai...

Phoebe Bridgers - "Kyoto" from the 2020 album Punisher on Dead Oceans. Singer/songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has always brought a vulnerability and candidness to her lyrics, but especially on her highly-anticipated sophomore album Punisher , where she tackles themes of loneliness, disappointment, and feeling like an outsider. And on today's featured track, in particular, Bridgers works through her com...

Deep Sea Diver - "Stop Pretending," a 2020 self-released single. Seattle's Deep Sea Diver has managed to adapt creatively to the stay-at-home orders. As we reported via our Sound & Vision series in April (listen here ), band members Jessica Dobson and Peter Mansen have been doling out "stems" — a drum beat or guitar riff to play with and create a song out of — and then featuring th...

Liv.e - “SirLadyMakemFall “ from the 2020 Bout These Pipedreams / Lessons from My Mistakes.. but I Lost Your Number EP on In Real Life Music / AWAL. Following a tour with Earl Sweatshirt and appearances on both his and Pink Siifu’s recent albums, Dallas-bred, Los Angeles-based artist Liv.e (pronounced "liv") somehow found time for a forthcoming full-length, titled Couldn't Wait T...

Sibille Attar - “Hurt Me,” a 2020 single on PNKSLM Recordings. Swedish singer/songwriter Sibille Attar shares a first listen of her forthcoming full-length out this fall via PNKSLM Recordings, a follow-up to her 2013 debut album Sleepyhead . Formerly a member of bands like The Tourettes and Speedmarket Avenue, Sleepyhead was the Scandinavian songstress's first solo effort, and her firs...

Jake Blount - “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” covered by Jake Blount from the 2020 album Spider Tales on Free Dirt Records. The song "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" has been covered hundreds of times before — the track is often associated with blues musician Lead Belly, but the Nirvana version from their 1993 MTV Unplugged performance is perhaps the best known rendition. And...

SPECSWIZARD - “Floyd,” a 2020 self-released single. Michael Hall is a long-time fixture of Seattle's hip-hop scene, recording under the names Specs One and Specs Wizard . (Seattle's bi-weekly alt-paper The Stranger dubbed him "the Holy Ghost of Northwest Hiphop.") He began rapping and making beats while growing up in the High Point neighborhood of West Seattle in 1979, began releasing...

Danny Denial - "I'm Not Your Type (feat. DoNormaal)" from the 2020 album fuck danny denial on Cruisin' Records. On his third solo album, "goth-punk auteur" Danny Denial teams up with The Black Tones’ Eva Walker, Rat Queen, Razor Clam, and, on today's Song of the Day, DoNormaal. When KEXP premiered this track late last year, Denial told our writer Martin Douglas:  "I approached this solo...

Baronhawk Poitier - "Temperado Tornado" from the 2020 Temperado Tornado EP on Honey Soundsystem. Baronhawk Poitier is a busy man: not only is he a long-running DJ/producer, but he's also a professional dancer and co-founder of the NeedlExchange crew and club night in his hometown of Washington, D.C. When Honey Soundsystem Records asked Baronhawk Poitier to make them an EP "he would want to dance t...

Princess Nokia - "Gemini" from the 2020 self-released album Everything Is Beautiful. Earlier this year, New York-born Puerto Rican MC Princess Nokia (real name: Destiny Nicole Frasqueri) released not one, but two albums: the perfectly-titled Everything Sucks and Everything is Beautiful . In a press release, Everything Sucks is described as “a brash, ruthless and insistent collection,”...

Zebra Katz - IN IN IN - from the 2020 album LESS IS MOOR on ZFK Records. Following a worldwide tour with Gorillaz in support of their 2017 album Humanz , Jamaican-American artist Zebra Katz returns in a big way with his long-awaited debut solo album Less Is Moor . In an interview with PAPER , Katz talks about KEXP's featured track: "This single is very much a re-introduction to the music sphere. '...

Shamir - "On My Own," a 2020 self-released single. I don't mind to live all on my own and I never did... I don't care to feel like I belong But you always did…  Following the release of his sixth full-length album Cataclysm , Shamir returns with the appropriately-titled stand-alone single "On My Own," where the Philadelphia-based artist asserts his independence against a '90s-influence...

Shabazz Palaces - "Chocolate Souffle" from the 2020 album The Don of Diamond Dreams on Sub Pop. With each new Shabazz Palaces release, it feels like we’re given a glimpse into a distant future, or maybe a far off galaxy, or possibly a parallel universe similar but maybe just a bit better than our own. Whichever theory you subscribe to, it goes without saying that the Seattle group’s mu...

Bee Bee Sea - "Daily Jobs," a 2020 single on Wild Honey Records. Italian garage punk act Bee Bee Sea abide by a succinct mantra: “When there's no good shit around, you better form a band.” That spirit exudes through the ramshackle, PA system shaking riffs the band has been churning out since releasing their self-titled debut in 2015. Their latest single, “Daily Jobs,” shrie...

Tropea - "Technicolor" from the 2020 self-released Might Delete Later EP. Tropea describes their music as "pajama music for pajama people," a fitting description for their dreamy '80s-inspired synth-pop sound. Formed in Milan, Italy in 2017, the band self-produced their forthcoming EP, Might Delete Later , while on lockdown during the COVID-19 crisis.  "This song is loud and fun to play. In o...

Joensuu 1685 - "Light in the Heart of Our Town" from the 2020 album ÖB on Gems Records. Formed in 2007 in Helsinki, Finland, Joensuu 1685 — a project of brothers Markus and Mikko Joensuu and non-related bassist Risto Joensuu — have been dormant for over a decade, but a 2018 reunion performance at the Flow Festival ignited the spark for them to complete an unfinished album. Today's...

Orion Sun - "Ne Me Quitte Pas (Don't Leave Me)" from the 2020 album Hold Space For Me on Mom + Pop Records. Philadelphia’s Orion Sun – aka songwriter Tiffany Majette – made her official full-length debut earlier this year with Hold Space For Me, but she’s been honing her craft for years with multi-instrumentalist expertise. Bringing in sounds of R&B, soul, and pop toget...

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Chicano Batman - "I know It" from the 2020 album Invisible People on ATO. On their fourth LP Invisible People , Los Angeles-based band Chicano Batman return with their unique fusion of funk, psych-pop, R&B, and more, fine-tuned by GRAMMY-award winning engineer Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, The War on Drugs) and producer Leon Michels (Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Lee Fields & The Expr...

Hollis - "Heavy Hands" from the 2020 half-life EP on Hollis. Throughout the month of May, KEXP has been celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month . We’re putting an extra spotlight this week on API artists with this week’s Song of the Day picks, capping off with Hollis’ “Heavy Hands.” The Seattle local, whom you might recognize from her other project The Flavr...