In Our Headphones

Kara Jackson - "pawnshop" from the 2023 album Why Does The Earth Give People To Love? from September Recordings. As the 2019 National Youth Poet Laureate, Chicago-based singer/songwriter Kara Jackson has a demonstrated command of words, showcased on her debut full-length album, Why Does The Earth Give Us People To Love?. “There’s so many words on this project," Kara says via a press statement, "it’s important for me that people know I can write things, maybe in ways they aren’t used to seeing.” Jackson wrote and recorded the demos for her first LP in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic, reaching out to NNAMDÏ, Kaina, and Sen Morimoto to help record and produce.  Today's Song of the Day sets her thoughts against slide guitar in this country-tinged track. She says the song is “about uncovering how worth is subjective,” adding, “It’s taking ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ and reveling in that sentiment, taking pride in the fact that even if people can’t understand your value, only you know how priceless you are.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Blondes - "Beautiful World" from the 2023 EP In Separation from Lab Records. For today's Song of the Day, Nottingham-based quartet Blondes share an early listen to their forthcoming EP, titled In Separation, with the dreamy pop track "Beautiful World." "'Beautiful World' feels like our first proper pop song," shares guitarist Alex Davison. "It’s my favourite that we’ve written so far. It’s about our relationship with our environment and each other. We wrote it to speak not just for ourselves but to anyone that finds themselves looking around at our world and wondering just how we’ve become so disconnected from one another and the planet. We hope you like it.” In Separation will be released July 14th via C3 Records / LAB Records. "In Separation is a collection of songs written and recorded over the past two years," they say via a press release. "It’s a project that explores the ways in which we become disconnected from one another, taking you on an emotional journey through separation to reconciliation. It speaks to the ways we live with, and without, each other." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Smokey Brights - "Long Goodbye" from the 2023 album Levitator from Nine Mile. For over a decade, Seattle natives Smokey Brights have been building a loyal fanbase with their high-energy shows and emotionally resonant music. In early June, the quartet, led by husband-and-wife duo Kim West and Ryan Devlin, unveiled their fourth full-length Levitation. The record is touted as, “A motivational mix-tape for our collective crisis of confidence,” and a “musical, magical incantation cast to lift off and dance with the cosmos, to dig deep where the diamonds shine, to laugh away our self-pity.” Our Song of the Day is the early single “Long Goodbye” which features a rambling guitar line and belted harmonies, as West and Devlin examine the complex feelings left in the aftermath of a decayed relationship. The band describes the song like this: “Long Goodbye reflects on how some relationships only find their meaning in how they end. At the conclusion of an ill fated romance, a tumultuous friendship, or even a bad job, there’s a moment you realize that all that pain, all that uncertainty you felt surrounding the other person was a long goodbye.” Catch Smokey Brights at the Crocodile opening for Neal Francis on Saturday, July 8th, watch their KEXP in-studio session from 2018, and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Strange Ranger - "She's On Fire" from the 2023 album Pure Music from Fire Talk. New York-via-Philly-via Portland quartet Strange Ranger are have been making genre-bending indie rock since 2016, when they were just the duo of Isaac Eiger and Fred Nixon and went under the name Sioux Falls. A lot’s changed for them besides relocation. On their upcoming album Pure Music, due out July 21st via Fire Talk, they’re leaning heavier into the shoegaze-inspired sounds they dabbled with on their 2021 mixtape No Light In Heaven. Our Song of the Day “She’s On Fire” proves this evolution was a wise one. Wistful ‘80s synths set the dreamscape while hard-hitting drums keep us tethered to the ground throughout the percussive track. Swirls of sound bring constantly unfolding dynamics, giving listeners something new to gleam from the track with each repeated listen. “And I could die in pure music /Ringing from the sky, I won't refuse it,” bellows Eiger with backing vocals from co-vocalist and synth player Fiona Woodman. “Just let me slip away, yeah /Tonight (tonight) it all goes live /No more solutions.” “When you’re young, it feels like life has a kind of arc to it and up ahead in the future, there’s some point where all your experiences converge and this fog of confusion will lift and you will have arrived,” says Eiger of “She’s On Fire.” “This is definitely not true and increasingly, music is the steadying hand I lean on when looking for meaning. It provides a spiritualism that feels absent from much of life and I want to be as close to that feeling as possible.” Watch the video for “She’s On Fire" and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Grian Chatten - "Fairlies" from the 2023 album Chaos for the Fly from Partisan Records This Friday, Fontaines D.C. frontman Grian Chatten will release his debut solo album, titled Chaos for the Fly, via Partisan. He says he knew from the start that he wanted to tackle these tracks on his own. “I just thought: I want to do this myself. I know where we as a band are going next and that’s not where I want to go with this. I’ve got a couple of exaggerated aspects of my soul that I wanted to express,” he stated in a press release. “The rest of the band are all creative and songwriters in their own right, too. I didn’t want to go to them and be like, ‘No, every single thing has to be like this.’ I didn’t want to compromise with these songs in that way.” He adds that today's Song of the Day was written "in intense heat," explaining, "Partly in Jerez, Spain, partly in LA a couple of days before a Fontaines D.C. tour kicked off. It was a quick write, and I believe I celebrated each line with a beer." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Margo Cilker - "Lowland Trail" from the 2023 album Valley of Heart's Delight from Fluff & Gravy For today's Song of the Day, Goldendale, WA-based singer/songwriter Margo Cilker shares an early listen of her sophomore LP Valley Of Heart’s Delight, slated for a September 15th release via Fluff & Gravy Records. The album was produced by long-time KEXP fave Sera Cahoone, and recorded with guest musicians from The Decemberists, Band Of Horses, and Beirut. She says of the new album: I wrote these songs surrounded by the wild landscapes of the Northwest, but I was leaning toward the place I’d come from. I felt cut off from my family and the valley that held them. I spent hours thinking about my sense of belonging. I’d traveled through many places and then, when the travel stopped, I ruminated on where I had ended up. Where were you when the music stopped? I was in Enterprise, OR. And there in Enterprise, my mind drifted back to the Valley of Heart’s Delight. I wrote about family — about death and rebirth, and the arcs of love and art through a family line. There are songs that hint at missteps and redemption. There are songs about trees: in orchard rows, family trees, redwoods. And water: agricultural runoff, wild rivers, dammed rivers, baptismal flows. And there’s a [cover] song about a fish, cause it’s a damn good song and I wanted to record it. Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sea Lemon - "Cellar," a 2023 single from Luminelle Records. "Sometimes I imitate / Things that make me afraid" So sings Seattle-based singer/songwriter Natalie Lew — who records as Sea Lemon — in today's dreamy, yet eerie Song of the Day. “‘Cellar’ was inspired by my love of really classic horror and thriller films, like Blow Out and Misery, and how loving scary movies can sometimes feel like something is wrong with you," Lew shares in a press statement. "That idea of the ‘cellar’ in the song is based on the traditional horror trope where the protagonist can’t help but discover what’s lurking in the basement, and that what they find there often represents something really dark and horrifying. In the lyrics, I say ‘the cellar is where I belong’ which is me grappling with this idea that sometimes really terrifying imagery interests me the most.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Spoon Benders - Dichotomatic, from the 2023 self-released album How Things Repeat. Spoon Benders are a face-melting band from Portland who are making the pilgrimage that any young band bursting with the kind of energy that their hometown just can’t keep up with - to LA. Since the release of their 2020 debut album Dura Mater, they’ve been blowing minds with their psychedelic spin on hardcore and garage punk and that momentum has continued with the recent release of their sophomore full-length How Things Repeat. Our Song of the Day, “Dichotomatic,” is the slow-burning lead single and opening track off the album. Led by a swirling drum beat from AJ Herald and Velvet’s sludgey bass line, Buffy Pastor adds fiery guitar licks and frontwoman Katy Black growls lines like “I hold hands with the business plan for the guillotine man,” as a final brush stroke to their ominous painting. Watch the Karlee Boon-video for “Dichotomatic" and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Vagabon – Can I Talk My Shit?, a 2023 single on Nonesuch Records. Lætitia Tamko recently announced her third full-length as Vagabon, titled Sorry I Haven’t Called. The record sees the Cameroonian-American artist reinvent herself for her most exuberant and bold record yet. While her prior albums, 2017’s Infinite Worlds and her 2019 self-titled saw Vagabon pointed inwards for introspective indie rock, Sorry I Haven’t Called looks outwards, channeling dance music and effervescent pop. This new chapter is on full display with the album’s lead single “Can I Talk My Shit?” Released just in time to become a summer anthem mainstay, the bouncy track is full of sunshine with playful lyricism. “Can I talk my shit?” Tamko asks before admitting, “I got way too high for this.” “I didn't feel like being introspective,” says Tamko of Sorry I Haven’t Called. “I just wanted to have fun. This record feels like what I've been working towards. When I think of this album, I think of playfulness. It's completely euphoric. It's because things were dark that this record is so full of life and energy. It’s a reaction to what I was experiencing at the time, not a document of it.” Vagabon is going on tour this fall, with a date in Seattle on December 8th at Madame Lou’s *Watch the Zac Dov Wiesel-directed video for “Can I Talk My Shit?" and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week's Songs of the Day were selected by Kennady Quille as part of KEXP's Pride celebration. Tune in on Saturday, June 24th for a special day of programming from noon to 6 PM, and then join us LIVE from Pride on Capitol Hill at the Wildrose on Sunday from noon to 4 PM Pacific with Riz Rollins and friends; continuing our on-air celebration till 6 PM. More information here. On today's Song of the Day, Seattle power trio Black Ends return with "My Own Dead," the band's first release since 2020's stellar Stay Evil EP. A staple of the "gunk-pop" purveyors' live set, the single was recorded by legendary producer Jack Endino. And the results are typically tremendous: Singer/guitarist Nicolle Swims adds a little twang to their distinctive guitar playing, while the rhythm section of bassist Ben Swanson and drummer Billie Jessica Paine adds the sort of heft to the Machiavellian tone of Swims's lyrics that would feel perfectly in place on a compilation like Sub Pop 100.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.