In Our Headphones

Fishbone and NOFX - “Estranged Fruit,” a 2023 single from Bottles To The Ground. Today's Song of the Day commemorates the 30-year friendship between ska legends Fishbone and punk group NOFX. The single features NOFX's El Hefe on trumpet and Fat Mike on guest vocals. Fat Mike also produced the band's latest EP — their first new release in nearly a decade — and is releasing it via his new label Bottles to the Ground. “Fishbone is the one band I’ve always wanted to produce ever since NOFX toured with them in 1992," Fat Mike said via a press release. "When I got the chance two years ago… I fucking gave it everything I got! I fucking love this band so much as friends and musicians, but I may like this record even more! I thank all of them for the opportunity.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

L'Rain - “New Years UnResolution,” a 2023 single from Mexican Summer Records. Brooklyn-based artist Taja Cheek — who records as L'Rain — reflects on a relationship in this atmospheric electronic track. The single was co-produced by Cheek's longtime collaborators Andrew Lappin and Ben Chapoteau-Katz, and marks her first new music since her outstanding 2021 full-length Fatigue. “The words of this song were written at different periods of time to give a sense of what it’s like to think through the trajectory of a relationship at different points of my life–right after a breakup, and many moons later,” L’Rain said in a press release. “I wonder: What is it like to feel like you’ve forgotten a part of yourself?; how does time pass differently at different moments in your life? (like molasses, like water, like air); how do you set new terms of engagement with someone you’ve interacted with in a very specific way for a long time?; how do you deal with the turmoil of stepping into a distant unknown after a period of fierce intimacy?” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ollella - "Head in the Clouds" from the 2023 self-released album Back Back Back Seattle musician Ellie Barber has trained as a classical cellist since the age of nine. She integrates these studies into her project Ollella (pronounced oh-lel-uh), crafting a jazzy, folktronica style that calls to mind Beth Orton.  “As someone who grew up playing classical cello but listening to indie music, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what direction I want to take my music as a new solo artist," she tells Glide Magazine. "I wrote 'Head in the Clouds' during a particularly exploratory period, playing with different effects on my loop pedal and not attaching judgment to what came out. The bones of this song immediately felt so genuine to the type of sound that I was seeking – so much so that I left it untouched for six months because I was afraid I would ruin it.”  “The verses speak to my own pivot towards music: how I kept feeling unsettled where I was in life because I wasn’t following the little voice in my gut to pursue full-time artistry,” she continues in a press release. Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

RVG - "Squid" from the 2023 album Brain Worms from Fire Records Travel back in time with Melbourne-quartet RVG on today's Song of the Day.  “'Squid' is a song about going back in time and stepping on a Tiktaalik and then going back to the present but you have the same job, the same problems you had before except you’re a squid,” vocalist Romy Vager explained to Rolling Stone Australia. “We jammed it on a whim and it ended up coming out really well. I left a large chunk of the lyrics till the last minute, finishing them off in Finsbury Park at 6 in the morning before I could get into the studio and record my vocals.” The track can be found on the band's third LP, Brain Worms, released last month via Fire Records. The band says the new album captures them at their most confident yet. “Hype is scary. After two years of COVID, it felt like the hype had gone down so we were able to just do stuff,” says Vager in a press statement. “This time around we were like, this is what we’re doing, we’re taking control, we’re taking risks, and we’re going to make an album that sounds big so that when we hear it on the radio we want to hear it again.”  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yeule - "sulky baby" a 2023 single from Ninja Tune For today's Song of the Day, Singapore-born, London-based artist Yeule turns to the pages of their journals, or "scars," as they call their collection of writings. They describe the track as "a conversation with a younger version of themselves." "'sulky baby' was like a 2000s alt-rock shoegaze hybrid tinted in sad satire," they share in a press statement. "I felt like I was talking to a younger version of me, stopping her from crying, looking back at the ways I betrayed and neglected that innocence from myself. I failed to protect her and I felt like I needed to go back in time and fulfill what she was starved of. So that she could return to my side. So that I can smile like a little kid again." "The song gives quite vivid descriptions of a depression I felt with almost a burning passion, yet I tried to give it a light-hearted tone. I think romanticizing is not always that bad. It helps to do it sometimes when you're dealing with a repressed memory. I think it is called an advantaged delusion? Sometimes, that's the only way I can remember parts of me I don't want to remember, so that I can lay her to rest and heal. My mother used to tell me as a child, not to sulk all the time. I guess that's why sulking is so special to me." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.