In Our Headphones

Killer Mike's latest album reflects on his childhood in Atlanta and draws inspiration from the civil rights and abolitionist movements. It features collaborations with CeeLo Green, Young Thug, and André 3000. The podcast discusses the importance of scientists and engineers as friends, challenges of success, and the power of communication. It also showcases an energetic and intense rap performance, touching on themes of determination and the realities of life.

Pozi - "Slightly Shaking Cells" from the 2023 album Smiling Pools on PRAH Recordings On their sophomore full-length Smiling Pools, London-tro Pozi break away from the post-punk sound they demonstrated on their debut LP, PZ1.  “It’s not our goal to totally embrace and restrict ourselves within a genre,” says bassist Tom Jones. “I feel that the tracks on Smiling Pools demonstrate that we’re taking our music to a different place and we want to bring the listener along on that journey.” Today's Song of the Day shows shades of krautrock. “This song is inspired by figures such as Boudica, Cleopatra and Xena the Warrior Princess, and the kind of immortality you can create through believing in your own strength," the band state via Bandcamp. "The song then switches to someone admiring another person from afar, zooming into everyday existence away from matters of life and death.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sen Morimoto - "If The Answer Isn't Love" from the 2023 album Diagnosis on City Slang Records. Chicago-based artist Sen Morimoto has signed with City Slang Records, accompanying the announcement with the new single "If The Answer Isn’t Love." The track will appear on his third album, Diagnosis, out November 3rd via City Slang in partnership with his own Sooper Records. “In the face of imminent climate disaster, war and unending sickness it’s natural to start considering what will remain and what might have made it all worth it,” Morimoto says of today's Song of the Day. “I want the sound of my music to reflect that same urgency – instruments warbling and splattered over the beat, melodies tangled and contradicting. I wrote this song about the enduring power of love and the struggle to hang onto that feeling when in crisis.” The song's video was directed by Chicago film production duo New Trash. Morimoto continues, "Up until my first tour in Japan, I washed dishes for a living. I would daydream all day at work about being a full time musician. My fantasies were sweet and naive, mostly just pop culture references glued together, stuff I’d seen in movies and music videos. It wasn’t until I started touring full time that I realized how long the road is from being a working musician to building a life in music that is actually sustainable, which has become even harder as touring proves itself to be a gamble with bad odds, even for more established acts. I wrote this video concept as a kind of tongue-in-cheek visualization of those mid-shift daydreams. I’m dreaming of this big guitar solo in the sky, but even my fantasy is insecure, balancing on a rusted beam with no support." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

RUB - "Contentment," a 2023 single on RUB Sounds. Today's Song of the Day is the debut single from Rub, a Seattle supergroup featuring members of Trick Candles, Salt Lick, Acid Tongue, Killer Workout, Cute Lepers, Panama Gold, and NighTraiN. The group are currently recording their debut full-length. On today's featured track, the band write: "This song is about Contentment. When will it happen, and what to do when you finally get it? It's about remembering that you are in control of your happiness and can choose it anytime. In the video, we wanted to show something mundane like band practice and how you can turn everything into a moment of celebration. You're doing the work by just being." Check out the video for the single, directed by Nina Wasankari, below.  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Veldt - "The Everlasting Gobstopper," a 2023 single on 5BC Records. Flashback to 1989. North Carolina-based identical twins Daniel and Danny Chavis had formed The Veldt just a few years before, inspired by soul, Sun Ra, and shoegaze. They began recording the LP The Everlasting Gobstopper with Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie on production, but despite this dream pairing, their label, Capitol Records, shelved the project.  Jump back to 2023, and the album will finally see the light of day, via The Veldt’s own 5BC Records. Guthrie has returned to remaster the LP, and the album features backing vocals from his Cocteau Twins bandmate Liz Fraser. While the full album won't be out until the fall, the group has shared the title track as a teaser.  “As the benchmark of the new sound we had started to develop, The Everlasting Gobstopper was a throwback to our younger days of our family getting together on holidays, when Willy Wonka would be playing, and the certain atmosphere would be filled with a sense of love and security,” Daniel Chavis shared in a press release. “Upon reminiscing about this, my brother Danny came up with a riff and then called it The Everlasting Gobstopper as a lullaby to put his baby daughter to sleep. Thus was born this sound that would develop into what we have right now. This is significant – the birth of the sound that we have come to develop until present, because back then we were quite a different band. Robin pretty much shaved off all the excess and led us toward the sound we have now, so The Everlasting Gobstopper is the cornerstone that Robin helped us to lay for our own unique sound, which we still have to this day.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Obongjayar - "Just Cool," a 2023 single on September Recordings London-based Nigerian artist Obongjayar shares his first new single in a year, declaring, "Everyone is on edge! How could we not be?”  He continues, "Where’s our united humanity? Where is our united love for our brothers and sisters and children looking for safety and opportunity? Where is the love for our planet? We’re constantly being lied to, used and squeezed of whatever energy is left in us. We’re in a pit fighting amongst ourselves while the bloodsuckers incite division and cheer from high above while poking at us continuously. Be cool and let cool." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beverly Glenn-Copeland - "Africa Calling" from the 2023 album The Ones Ahead on Transgressive Records Late last month, celebrated vocalist/composer Beverly Glenn-Copeland returned with his first new album in 20 years, titled The Ones Ahead. “As the old world crumbles, a new world is waiting to be born," he shared in a press release. "All of our various strengths are needed. The generations of those yet to come are calling us forward.”  Today's Song of the Day finds Glenn-Copeland exploring his heritage. “In the ‘80s I had the honor of performing with an incredible artist named Dido, a master of the drums indigenous to West Africa. The beauty of this drumming tradition is explored in ‘Africa Calling,’” he continued. “Over the years, in many conversations, I have come to understand that I share an undefinable, unnamed feeling — a calling — with many other members of the African diaspora, a bone-deep need to explore and express our heritage. Alongside the grief, there is a longing to know our roots, hidden from us as family lines were torn apart in the terrible days of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In a world still caught in the ties of colonialism, I know I am not alone in needing to heed the call of this generations-old longing.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MJ Lenderman - "Rudolph," a 2023 single on ANTI- When not playing guitar in the band Wednesday, Asheville, North Carolina-based singer/songwriter MJ Lenderman has a solo project on the side. Last year, ANTI- Records released his solo LP, Boat Songs.  Today's Song of the Day is the first track he's shared since the release of that album. "I had been sitting on the guitar part for a long time and slowly worked out the song whenever I could in between tours in 2022," the busy musician explained in a press release. "I finished the lyrics with my friend one late night after a Wednesday gig in Atlanta." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tomo Nakayama - "Contigo," a 2023 single on Ricebelly Music Long-running Seattle singer/songwriter Tomo Nakayama continues to capture the hearts of his listeners, this time with the swoon-worthy single "Contigo." As he sings in Spanish, "Quiero estar contigo," which translates to "I want to be with you." As Nakayama shares in a Spotify playlist, the song draws inspiration from The Cure to PM Dawn to Caetano Veloso and more. Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ghost of Vroom - "Still Getting It Done" from the 2023 album Ghost of Vroom 3 on Mod y Vi Ghost of Vroom — a project of former Soul Coughing-frontman Mike Doughty and his longtime collaborator Andrew “Scrap” Livingston — return with Ghost of Vroom 3, out September 1st via Mod y Vi Records. The LP was produced and mixed by Beastie Boys collaborator Mario Caldado, Jr., who worked with the duo on previous releases.  “It’s a dream, and a groove, and its language is an object,” writes author Rick Moody in an essay accompanying the album, “one that leads beyond where Doughty started, into a life of greater improvisation, the aleatory, the migratory, the dilatory, hand signals, dropping in and dropping out the kid goes for broke, and here makes one of the great records of his life, a thing of its time, a thing of another time, a thing that makes dreams out of time, and a thing of great beauty, and, let it be said, acceleration, here it is the third of three, like hypothesis, antithesis, synthesis, GHOST OF VROOM 3.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.