In Our Headphones

System Olympia - "Falling in Love" from the 2023 album New Erotica Collection on Okay Nature Over the past few years, London-based producer, DJ, and vocalist System Olympia (real name: Francesca Macri) has been releasing a series of sultry stand-along singles, including today's Song of the Day, featuring guest vocals from South London artist P Nut. Earlier this year, she compiled nine of these tracks into the LP New Erotica Collection,  With an album title like that, you won't be surprised that System Olympia finds inspiration in Tinto Brass films and Anaïs Nin's Delta of Venus short story collection. (In fact, Macri's 2020 LP of the same title is an ode to those literary works.) On her Bandcamp page, she cites "night rides in my Mercedes Benz." Check out the video for today's Song of the Day, and climb into the passenger seat.  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Say She She - "Reeling" a 2023 single on Colemine/Karma Chief. It's a tongue-twister, but Brooklyn trio Say She She named their group as a tribute to none other than Nile Rodgers ("C’est chi-chi!: It's Chic!,” they explain on their Bandcamp). They also carry his torch with their self-described "discodelic soul," sure to get you out on the dance floor. On today's Song of the Day, band members Nya Gazelle Brown, Sabrina Cunningham, and Piya Malik deliver an "incantation from Mother Earth to the masses to join the rising against the calamitous forces of unfettered capitalism that has left our seas and skies grappling." In flawless harmony, the incite the listener to:  Shake it all offToss the ashesKick the door downSmash the ceilingLeave 'em reeling Check out the accompanying video (directed by Lisa Schiller), and then revisit their November 2022 KEXP in-studio session below. Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Outside - "Then It Hits You," a 2023 single on Dorado Records Limited. "I’ve evolved the mixture of modern and retro," says multi-instrumentalist, writer, and arranger Matt Cooper. "That’s the Outside sound." Cooper began Outside during the '90s London club scene, releasing his 1993 debut album Almost In at the age of 20. Now, 30 years later, he returns with a forthcoming sixth studio album, Almost Out. The album was recording during lockdown from his home studio in west London, and in a press release, he calls it, "a distillation of everything I’ve produced here." Today's Song of the Day gives us an early listen; the track features guest vocals from Danish artist Marie Dahlstrom. "This album is a lot more minimal," he continues. "I used to throw the kitchen sink into each song, and have massive layers. I’ve evolved: I can have fewer instruments, but those instruments speak better because they have room to breathe." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rose City Band - “Chasing Rainbows” from the 2023 album Garden Party on Thrill Jockey. Rose City Band, the brainchild of Ripley Johnson (also of Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo and, with a name like that, was either born to play music or be the keeper of facts that you may, or may not, believe) is due to release their fourth record later this month. Titled Garden Party, the album follows up 2021’s Earth Trip and is said to be, “A celebration of summer and all it brings: communal gatherings, the respites offered by nature, and an appreciation for even the simplest beauty, from 12-foot sunflowers to a contorted carrot planted in the spring.” The record’s lead single and our Song of the Day does not dispute that claim. “Chasing Rainbows,” by name alone, suggests the nostalgic innocence of childhood when one’s summer days might consist of chasing things one cannot capture but deeply believe they can. Led by a rollicking pedal steel by Barry Walker, the song actually tells a story not of childhood but on the road on tour, which can feel like a certain kind of childhood in that your days are filled with car rides and playing music. ”Tour ‘round the world and back,” sings Johnson. “Throw it out and you blaze a path /Wanderin' a dream all our own.” Rose City Band will be chasing rainbows all the way to Seattle on Friday, May 5th to play the Tractor Tavern. Read Martin Douglas’ Throwaway Style piece on Rose City Band and watch Ripley Johnson front a Wooden Shjips KEXP in-studio performance from all the way back in 2013 at the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tanukichan - “Thin Air (feat. Enumclaw)” from the 2023 album GIZMO on Company Records. Last month, San Francisco-based artist Hannah Van Loon, known better as Tanukichan, released her incredible sophomore record GIZMO which widened the depth of the shoegaze-indebted dreampop that she’s been making since 2016. Co-produced by Toro y Moi’s Chaz Bear, who’s been assisting Van Loon since her debut EP Radiolove, GIZMO is a massively textured record that deserves repeat listens. One of the highlights on the record comes from an unexpected but deeply exciting collaboration with one of Seattle’s brightest rising stars, Enumclaw. The band’s frontman Aramis Johnson lends vocals on our fuzz-filled Song of the Day, “Thin Air.” Johnson’s languid, disaffected croons interplay with Van Loon’s ethereal, breathy hums in a way that on paper doesn’t seem like it should work but come together magnificently for a wistful malaise that reads perfectly for this song. "This song is about exes,” explains Van Loon. “Some people that I really cared about but ultimately didn’t want to be with.The sadness I feel when I’m hurting someone, and missing them and knowing you won’t ever have that closeness again. It’s about how important they are and how much they’ve taught me, or helped me, but how I also know that people come and go. The chorus has a double meaning for me where I feel like I can’t prioritize relationships because I need to keep on focusing on myself. The other is feeling like I’m broken and keep ending up with the wrong people, and hurting them." Tanukichan will be playing her first KEXP in-studio session on Monday, April 24th at noon PST. Until then, relive Enumclaw’s KEXP in-studio session, recorded in November 2022, and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Momma – “Bang Bang,” a 2023 single on Polyvinyl. With their latest single "Bang Bang," Brooklyn-based trio Momma set out to write something provocative. “We wanted to write something lyrically different than anything else we’d done," explained band member Allegra Weingarten, "just super literal and crude." Today's Song of the Day came out of a COVID bubble between Weingarten and her bandmate Etta Friedman. "We decided to isolate, get drunk, and write together,” Friedman said in a press release. “Within a night, we had demoed a hot sounding song about great sex.” They sent the demo to their bandmate/bassist/producer Aron Kobayashi Ritch. "He sent us back a new version with a lot of added extra production: drums, bass, synths, acoustic guitar, etc. It felt totally different and fresh," Weingarten says. "The finished song has a lot of classic Momma – heavy guitars and catchy melodies – but packaged in a different form. It feels immediate, like a whole new sound for the band." Read the full story at KEXP.org  Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Indigo De Souza- “Younger and Dumber” from the 2023 album All of This Will End on Saddle Creek On today's Song of the Day, Asheville, NC-based artist Indigo De Souza reflects on the insecurities of her youth. The track serves as a sneak peek to her forthcoming full-length, All Of This Will End, which will be released April 28th via Saddle Creek.  In a press statement, she shares: “Younger and Dumber” is a flood beam of my emotional and spiritual human experience. My growing up defeated by a world brutally littered with trash, violence and grief, and somehow finding beauty, purpose, and boundless love existing in the same place. This song felt really emotionally intense for me when I wrote it. I was sitting in my house and it kind of flowed right to me as if it had already been written by some other force. A lot of the lyrics are a nod to the idea that your experiences make you who you are. I endured some heavy darkness and dysfunction when I was a teenager. But if I hadn’t been through those things, I wouldn’t be who I am now. When you’re young, you don’t know any better, but you learn from your experiences, and then you become somebody who’s been alive and learning. It’s also about how heartbreaking that is; to start as a child with vivid curiosity, innocent imagination and joy, and for the world to end up being kind of brutal to be a part of. This song is a love letter to everyone’s inner child. No one can prepare us for how insane it is to be alive. How many times we will have to rise from the ashes and what courage it will take. De Souza directed the song's accompanying music video, as well as co-designed the costumes alongside her mother. Of the clip, she says: I took psilocybin for the shoot. I have a very specific way of dancing when I’m on mushrooms. The movements feel like electricity rising up from the earth through ancient networks of mycelium. It feels like the trees and plants are moving my body for me and I am just surrendering. It feels so clear to me now more than ever, how important it is to unabashedly embody my truest spirit. Because I am not special, and I’m fleeting, and it feels like it’s my purpose to help mobilize others to come home to themselves. To wake from our societal sleepwalk and consider the importance in creating deep connection within community and relationships. To find a preciousness in the time we have and the earth we’re nourished by. To see nature in all its primordial magic, as something to learn from and grow with. Something to protect. Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ven Y Mira - “Padre Nostro” from the 2023 self-released album Parque de Letras. With today's Song of the Day, Mexico-based quartet Ven y Mira shares a sneak peek at their forthcoming debut full-length, Parque de Letras, due for release on April 28th.  Expanding on the psych-inspired sounds we heard on last year's EP, Nota Roja, the group takes a harder, punk-influenced approach on today's featured track, crafting a cacophony of fierce percussion punctuated by impassioned vocals.  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Who Is She? - My My Orca Card a 2023 single on Father/Daughter. Seattle supergroup Who Is She?, made up of Bree McKenna of Tacocat, Robin Edwards AKA Lisa Prank, and Chastity Belt frontwoman Julia Shapiro, have been making sweetly sardonic music since 2017, when they released their debut record Seattle Gossip. After a few years of silence from the trio, the band went from Who Is She? to Where Are They? (Admittedly, busy with their other bands.) But they came back in a big way when they were invited to be the house band for Seattle’s newly established hockey team The Kraken for a weekend and played “My My Orca Card” at “Jeff Bezos’ Climate Pledge Arena.” A reimagining of Le Tigre’s 1999 song “My My Metrocard,” the song takes aim at Amazon’s head honcho and multi-billionaire Bezos. “Oh, no /Jeffrey Bezos /He’s such /A total jerk /Shut down /all the bookstores /Billionaires /Do not work.” They were swiftly fired after one night of playing the song, making it the most punk, anti-establishment music moment to happen in Seattle in far too long. Hear more about the story of how this legendary moment came to be in KEXP’s Dusty Henry’s interview with the band prior to their performance and watch Lisa Prank’s KEXP in-studio session from 2016 at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TV Star - In-Between from the 2023 album Hallucinate Me on Painter Man. Seattle’s TV Star make desert-tinged neo-psych with nods to The Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Formed in 2020, the five-piece features members of Shine, Regional Justice Center, and Advertisement and unveiled their debut EP in February, Hallucinate Me. Our Song of the Day is the rambling “In-Between,” the dreamy guitar-led early single off the record. Ashlyn Nagel’s crystalline vocals cry out with catharsis, “I’m comin clean/ I’m livin free/ The in-between,” about ditching what’s expected in order to become one’s authentic self. She had this to say about the song: “‘In-Between’ is about breaking out of a funk, letting go of the pressure, and living the way you want to. It’s about caring less what others think and making self-fulfilling decisions.” The song comes with a lo-fi fisheye shot video of the band on the road, being themselves. Watch the Nate Kahn-directed video and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.