In Our Headphones

Harleighblu & Bluestaeb - "Queeen Dem (feat. Janne Robinson)" from the 2019 self-released album She. British R&B vocalist Harleighblu teams up with German producer Bluestaeb on the collaborative album She. On today's Song of the Day, the duo find inspiration in the poetry of Janne Robinson. Harleighblu told Highsnobiety in an email: I wrote the track Queeen Dem (pronounced like ManDem), after being inspired by a poem called 'This is for the women that don’t give a fuck' by Janne Robinson. The poem reads ‘this is for the women who drink too much whisky, stay up too late and have sex like they mean it — it really spoke to me. I tried to capture the strength of the poem, with a nod to Janne and then elaborate with my own take on completely owning your own womanhood. Within writing the first few lines, I entitled the piece 'Queeen Dem.' Queeen gets 3 E’s to accentuate the fact you are a queen. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fugazi - "Burning Too" from the 1989 album 13 Songs on Dischord Records. We have a responsibility / To use our abilities to keep this place alive / Right here right now / Do it. Now. Do it. Since forming in 1986, DC punk band Fugazi have become synonymous with DIY ethics and progressive political perspectives. “I was born in 1962 and I was here in Washington right through the civil rights stuff, the anti-war stuff, gay rights," frontman Ian MacKaye said in a rare interview with Loud & Quiet. “My parents and I went to a church that was radical liberation – very, very left, it had a woman saying mass in 1972, gay marriage in 1974, the Black Panthers spoke there, rock bands played there – it was radical. I was raised in that environment so I thought that’s how society would be. Then the ’70s came along and you had this period of people partying and disco music and such obsolescence, it was such a bummer and I felt so disconnected from it. I was like, ‘where’s the counter-culture?’ It seemed so real to me as a child but as a teenager it was gone.” MacKaye was able to revitalize a conscientious way of life through music. And while the now-legendary group are reticent when it comes to the meaning behind their lyrics, frontman Ian Mackaye's call to action in today's featured Song of the Day is undeniable. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stella Donnelly - "Beware of the Dogs" from the 2019 album Beware of the Dogs on Secretly Canadian. Following the breakout success of her debut EP Thrush Metal, Australian artist Stella Donnelly knew she wanted to use her first full-length, Beware of the Dogs, to address larger issues in the world. "My generation had this 'enough is enough' kind of feeling and a lot of the women I was working with were finding their ways of expressing that," she told Under the Radar last year. "Whether it was my friends who were artists, or in punk bands, or were poets, it just felt like I was part of a community that was speaking out at that moment." With the title track of the album, Donnelly sums it up, telling DIY Magazine:  This song is about the historic and continuing racism that flows through the Australian media and government. As a white Australian I am extremely privileged to have the platform that I do and whilst I occupy this space that in my opinion is far too often occupied by white people, I am going to use it to speak up. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Noname - "Song 33," a 2020 self-released single. With her first single of 2020, Chicago artist Noname works with producer Madlib to craft a track referencing the murder of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter activist Oluwatoyin Salau, and to, well, call out fellow rapper J. Cole, whose own single “Snow on Tha Bluff” seemed to criticize her social media presence.  "i've been thinking a lot about it and i am not proud of myself for responding with song 33," she tweeted. "i tried to use it as a moment to draw attention back to the issues i care about but i didn't have to respond. my ego got the best of me. i apologize for any further distraction this caused."   She added, "madlib killed that beat and i see there’s a lot of people that resonate with the words so i’m leaving it up but i’ll be donating my portion of the songs earnings to various mutual aid funds. black radical unity." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sango - "Eu Vou Passando (feat. Jé Santiago)" from the 2020 album Da Rocinha 4 on Soulection Records. Former Seattleite, current Michigander, Kai "Sango" Wright continues his Da Rocinha series, described as his "love letter to Rio De Janeiro Funk Carioca.”  “I’ve always been a person of culture through connecting dots and bridging gaps,” Sango says via a press release. “With the Da Rocinha series, it is about highlighting the history of Funk Carioca and paying homage to the creation of the funk sound. With this fourth installment, I wanted to reach out to the community of Rocinha, local areas in Rio de Janeiro and Brazil to give and receive support while I push this North American & South American sound.” On today's featured track, he teams up with São Paulo-based artist Jé Santiago, known for soulful trap-influenced hip hop. It's “from the people, for the people,” he concludes. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Working Men's Club - A.A.A.A. from the 2020 album Working Men's Club on Heavenly Recordings. Yorkshire band Working Mens Club was formed by a bunch of Working Teens last year. Eighteen-year-old frontman Sydney Minsky-Sargeant explains in a press release, "We grew up in northern towns trying to get in to pubs in social clubs because that's all we had. The name is an ode to that. Our surroundings and their differences has influenced us a lot on these tracks." Their self-titled debut album was produced by Ross Orton (The Fall, Arctic Monkeys). Minsky-Sargeant elaborates, “There’s not much going on, not much stuff to do as a teenager. It’s quite isolated. And it can get quite depressing being in a town where in the winter it gets light at nine in the morning and dark at four.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jessica Winter - "Sad Music" from the 2020 Sad Music EP on Roya Records. Brixton-based artist Jessica Winter stuns with her debut EP Sad Music, a perfect blend of introspective lyrics and infectious synth beats. “Music helps me realise that you are not alone that every one of us is capable of the best and worst feelings and actions in this world," Winter said via a press release. "This song was born out of a particularly bad day and how music was a saviour at that time.” Winter captures that feeling in the accompanying music video; she says: “This video was made over a year ago. Nan Moore (the director) and I started it with zero budget so we sweet talked our way into Specsavers and took a National Express down to Portsmouth beach to film the initial scenes... a year went past and we hustled, we toured together and eventually convinced someone to give us the cash to finish it off. The only reason we got into Spescavers was because I was there so often with a health condition called blepharitis, you treat it by using artificial tears. I think that reflects how as an artist, a woman putting out pop music, you always feel like there’s an element of being performative. 'Sad Music' is performative, it’s getting through heartbreak with a song and a dance.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dark Tropics - "Moroccan Sun," a 2020 single on Quiet Arch. Self-described "pop-noir" duo Dark Tropics return with their second single "Moroccan Sun," just in time to stretch out summer just a little bit longer. While the musicians, Rio and Gerard, reside in Belfast, Ireland, they first met in Morocco, and bring a sultry, sunny Mediterranean feel to today's featured track. In a press release, Rio shares: “’Moroccan Sun’ was written somewhat as a narrative for my first travelling experience fully on my own. It’s letting go of what you believed to be your comfort, your light in life and understanding that you will always have some constants, but by the same measure things will change and mould around you, and embracing this brings a new sense of happiness. Taking the step to leave the old behind, move forward into the new and embracing a new chapter.” “I did take a lot of inspiration from my travel diary, especially my night sleeping under the stars in the Sahara and the 12hr drive back to the city the next day where I spent a lot of time thinking about the life I was coming back to and what I really wanted.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Adia Victoria - "South Gotta Change," a 2020 single on Atlantic Records. 'Cause I love you, I won't leave you Won't let you slip away Come what may We're gonna find a way Nashville-based artist Adia Victoria takes an introspective look at her city on her latest single, "South Gotta Change." The song, executive produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett, is not only a love letter to her town, but a plea for change. On Twitter, she declared, "this isn’t a song about hope, this is a howl for change." She continues in a press statement: In 2020 I have watched as the world became irreversibly altered. The upheaval COVID-19 caused has allowed for a sacred pause in our daily life. During this lapse we lost Congressman John Lewis. In the days following his death I pondered the work he accomplished and the work left to us who remain. "South Gotta Change" is a prayer, an affirmation, and a battle cry all at once. It is a promise to engage in the kind of ‘good trouble’ John Lewis understood necessary to form a more perfect union. No other place embodies the American experiment with the precision of the South. It is home to both unspeakable horror and unshakable faith. It is up to us, those who are blessed enough to be Southern, to take up the mantle Brother Lewis left us. As the old saying goes, “As the South goes, so goes the nation.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Of Mexican Descent - "All Turn Native" from the 2006 self-released album Exitos Y Mas Exitos (Edicion De Lujo). Of Mexican Descent is a collaboration between Los Angeles-based artists, rapper 2Mex (real name: Alejandro Ocana) and Xololanxinxo (real name: Daniel Rodriguez). They began the project in 1991, and quickly became an elemental part of the rising Los Angeles underground hip hop movement. Their debut EP Exitos y Mas Exitos was originally released in 1998, and was recently re-released digitally via 2Mex's Bandcamp page. KEXP's DJ Gabriel Teodros says: "Of Mexican Descent is the duo of 2Mex and Xololanxinxo, two legendary underground Los Angeles MC's who cut their teeth performing at the famed Good Life Cafe, as documented in Ava DuVernay's 2008 film This Is The Life. As I was just coming into making music myself in the late '90s, OMD's work found its way to my Walkman via dubbed cassettes that friends were passing around, as we were all big fans of the styles coming out of the Good Life and Project Blowed. This was in a time when independent hip-hop had to physically travel to reach you; the internet wasn't used to distribute music the way it is now. 2Mex and Xololanxinxo both had such a courageous vulnerability in their approach, they kept love at the center of everything they did, and they represented an Indigenous perspective in hip-hop I hadn't yet heard at that point. The impact their music had on me then is something you can still see and feel in everything I do today. It only felt right to help shine a light on my OGs. "2Mex and Xololanxinxo are both very active today, Xololanxinxo has brand new music with The Psychic Temple you can listen to here and you can check the latest solo work from 2Mex here. "There's rumors of a new Visionaries album coming soon, too!" Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.