Kexp Song Of The Day

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

Byron Nicholai - "Tengauryugtua (I Want To Fly)" from the 2022 album Ayagnera (The Beginning) on Tuallu Entertainment. Back in 2014, a young Byron Nicholai went viral when he began posting videos of himself singing in the Indigenous Yup'ik language on Facebook. The media even dubbed him the "Justin Bieber of Alaska."  Since then, he's relocated from the coastal town of Toksook Bay to Anchorage, to "get faster internet," he confessed to KYUK. “I feel like it would mess with my momentum a little bit, 'cause sometimes I’d be excited to work on a track, but then having internet problems would just kind of wash that away.” The move worked, because now, almost ten years later, he's returned with a new album, titled Ayagnera [The Beginning], a collection of rap, R&B, and dance songs, all sung in Yugtun, the Indigenous language he grew up speaking. “I came up with the title Ayagnera [The Beginning] because I felt like it was the start of Yup’ik modern music," he told Rolling Stone India. "There’s currently no oth

Digging Roots - "Tall Grass" from the 2022 album Zhawenim on Ishkōdé Records. Canadian duo Digging Roots returned this summer with their fourth LP Zhawenim. Since 2004, the husband-and-wife team of Raven Kanatakta Polson-Lahache and Sho-Shona Kish have crafted an award-winning blend of folk, hip-hop, and more with traditional Indigenous music. (Sho-Shona is Anishinabe, from Batchewana First Nation, while Raven is Anishinabe and Mohawk, from Winneway, Quebec.) The album title of "zhawenim" translates from Anishinabemowin to "to love unconditionally." As they write on their Facebook page, "Each of us has a thousand Ancestors standing with us. This collection of songs is for all our Ancestors, past, present and future. We’re dedicating Zhawenim to the children. Those living now, those yet to come and to those little ones who were stolen and never made it home to their families. We will always live life to its fullest for them, play music and dance for them, and feast for them. Niikaanaagaanah."  Read the full st

Mare Advertencia - "Escribiendo La Historia" from the 2022 Siempreviva EP on Derretida Ent / MuyMAL. An Indigenous Zapotec artist, rapper and activist Mare Advertencia Lirika has been using her voice to amplify underrepresented communities since she burst onto the scene in 2003 alongside Dj TBear. "My life context has taught me that I can use my voice,” she told Refinery 29 last year, “And maybe that’s a privilege of mine, one I shouldn’t have, but I trust very much what I have to say. I don’t fear what I have to say.” On her 2020 EP SiempreViva, she combines rap and funk to help express her reflections on feminism, cultural identity, and social inequality. She said in a press release at the time, "It is a material that invites us to learn to live despite death and violence, proposes a metaphor with the everlasting flower that reminds us that, despite adversity, hope is always with us. We have the possibility to reinvent our reality, the way life is presented to us and to find ourselves in community." Read th

TeZATalks - Lex Luthor a 2022 self-released single. Since 2016, TeZATalks has been enchanting fans with her unique genre-blending sound that explores electronic, hip-hop, metal, and dark pop in bewitching fashion. The self-described “Hard-Core Popstar” was born in Oahu but calls Seattle home and we’re more than happy to have her represent the diversity of music that breeds here. “Lex Luther” is the artist’s most recent release and the first taste from her upcoming debut full-length, of which she currently hasn’t dropped any details on yet. What we do know is that if this what we can expect the record to sound like, then we’re in for a wild ride. Produced by Grammy-nominated artist, writer, and producer Blakksoul, “Lex Luther” taps into the hardest, grimiest aspects of TeZATalks’ sound, turning the heat up full throttle for a breakup song zeroed in on the anger and resentment felt for her ex. In a recent interview with American Songwriter, who premiered the track, she calls the song an, “anthem for victims of

Disq - "Cujo Kiddies" from the 2022 album Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet on Saddle Creek. Wisconsin-based quintet Disq are releasing their sophomore record Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet this Friday two years after dropping their debut Collector. Our Song of the Day and the album’s lead single “Cujo Kiddies” emphasizes the band’s ability to craft eclectic art rock but is also a deeply personal song for vocalist/bassist Raina Bock. In a lengthy statement, Bock had this to say about the song: “I wanted to make a song that sounded like a freight train full of clowns and silly toys, barreling through the dark, observing and taking note of the various gloomy landscapes of my brain (without dwelling too long or taking any of it too seriously).I wrote the first half of ‘Cujo’ from deep inside the hole of substance abuse and loneliness. The song was meant to function as a blueprint for how I wished my reality could look. Six months later, sitting in an ocean of boxes all packed up for what would be my f

Miss Grit - "Like You," a 2022 single on Mute. New York-based, Korean-American artist Miss Grit (real name: Margaret Sohn) shares the new single "Like You," her first track released since signing to Mute Records. “Mute is one of the labels I put on a pedestal in my mind, so the fact I was even on their radar was really flattering,” Sohn said in a press release. “And then to think they believed in my music enough to want to work together made me so happy.” Today's Song of the Day is an electropop groove that builds into a radiant burst of synths. The lyrics take inspiration from the 2014 film Ex Machina, the story of a computer programmer interacting with a beautiful robot.  “I had the character of Ex Machina in mind as the voice I was singing from. Her arc in the movie felt really beautiful to me, and I wanted to reach the same ending as her in this song.” Listen to song below, and check out their 2021 Live on KEXP at Home session, too.  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/do

Ty Segall - "Distraction" from the 2022 album "Hello, Hi" on Drag City. From glam rock to garage to experimental noise, Ty Segall has covered it all over his 14-album discography. On his latest, titled “Hello, Hi”, he takes an intimate acoustic approach to songs that gestated during the pandemic. The album title itself acknowledges the strange isolation of that period, and how he missed just talking to people. “It’s a simple sentiment,” Segall told Esquire. “A salutation. And just, how nice that is. When you can’t do it. And it’s like, you don’t ever think about it, until it’s gone. Just saying, ‘Hey!’ It’s a simple thing.” He adds, "It was like, ‘now here I’m in this room, and I’m daydreaming about all this weird shit around me, just, the window and the cement floors. And I just want to say hi.”  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MorMor - "Seasons Change," a 2022 single on Don't Guess / AWAL. On today's Song of the Day, Toronto-based artist MorMor (real name: Seth Nyquist) encourages listeners to seize the day. "I won't leave it to fate / as seasons change," he sings against a laid-back, electro-pop groove, reminiscent of fellow Canadians Broken Social Scene. "‘Seasons Change’ is a song about the constraints of time," he explained via a press release. "The sentiment is that if you are to live once, why not give into your natural desires.” The track will appear on his long-awaited debut album Semblance, out November 4th. You can catch him next year on February 1st at Neumos. Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cumulus - "Sunbeam" from the 2022 album Something Brighter on Share It Music. KEXP’s love and respect for Cumulus has been at least a decade in the making, spanning before the release of their 2013 debut I Never Meant to Be Like This. Back in 2018, our coverage of Cumulus’ sophomore record Comfort World was glowing and persistent, and for good reason. Alexandra Lockhart (née Niedzialkowski)’s ability to convey a wide range of introspective feelings while keeping every single song immensely catchy is a skill few have. At long last, Cumulus is releasing their third record Something Brighter on October 21st via Share It Music. The name is an apt representation of the tone of the record because, despite being written and recorded during the darkness of the pandemic, Lockhart’s ability to find hope and light is stronger than ever. A big catalyst for that lightness is the love Lockhart found with her now-husband and that comes out in our Song of the Day, “Sunbeam.” “When you’re next to me /It’s like I’m sleeping in

Big Joanie - "In My Arms" from the 2022 album Back Home on Kill Rock Stars. British punk trio and International Clash Day alums Big Joanie are releasing this sophomore record Back Home on November 4th via Thurston Moore and Eva Prinz’s Daydream Library Series (UK) and Kill Rock Stars in the US. Ahead of its release, they’ve dropped a string of singles including “Happier Still” and our Song of the Day, “In My Arms.” Led by a rambling guitar, the nostalgic track looks back on a past relationship with regret and melancholy. “I’ve compromised too many times /In my life,” sings Stephanie Phillips. “One day I’ll make the great escape /And send another you away /But now I dream /Of you in my arms.” Frontwoman Stephanie Phillips said this of the song in a statement: “At this point I was getting tired of living in London and dreaming about another life. It’s about knowing you should go another way in life but you end up dreaming about the road you’ve already travelled down even though you know it won’t take you where

Peter Matthew Bauer - "Skulls" from the 2022 album Flowers on Fortune Tellers. With The Walkmen still on hiatus, multi-instrumentalist Peter Matthew Bauer continues their anthemic style of indie rock on his latest solo LP, Flowers. On today's Song of the Day, he displays the ways he's developed musically since the band took a break. "'Skulls' was inspired by a new style of guitar playing that I stumbled on," he told Under the Radar. "In all the years I’d made music, I’d never figured out a way to take a guitar solo before. I started using a distortion pedal and a space echo, playing these kind of waterfalling guitar riffs over some farfisa chords. It felt really loose and brought me a lot of joy. From there, I tried to write a very joyous melody to match it. There’s a record by Peter One and Jess Sah Bi, it’s a kind of 1980s country rock record from the Cote d’Ivoire. I feel like their style of melodies really inspired me throughout this album. Just the rhythm and the way they’re both laid back but really let

Rocky Votolato - "Little Black Diamond" from the 2022 album Wild Roots on Spartan. Long-beloved local artist Rocky Votolato returns with his most personal album yet. Wild Roots is his first new album in seven years. Written during the pandemic, Votolato sought to craft an album about "family connection," adding to People magazine, "but on a deeper level, it's about the human struggle and overcoming and surviving anything that is handed to you." (You can hear and read more about this album in an upcoming interview here on KEXP!) Today's Song of the Day was inspired by Votolato's niece Carissa. As he writes on social media, "it’s a song about loyalty and how much keeping your word and telling the truth means to the ones closest to you. I wrote it after we went for a walk one day and she helped me find a little stone that I carried around with me in my pocket for years and years on every tour I did. That little rock came to represent loyalty to me and was a constant reminder of all the people in my life who love