In Our Headphones

Nick Hakim - “Vertigo” from the 2022 album COMETA on ATO / PIAS. Nick Hakim has been making amorphous psych-soul since 2014 that hones in on his gorgeous buttery smooth croons. Just since 2020, he’s released three projects, 2020’s WIl This Make Me Good, a collaborative record with jazz saxophonist Roy Nathanson, Small Things, in 2021, and, most recently, the intimately stunning COMETA. Featuring appearances by Alex G, Helado Negro, Arto Lindsay, and DJ Dahl, with co-production from indie’s go-to guy Andrew Sarlo, COMETA is a collection of romantic songs written through different lenses, guided by Hakim’s own experience of falling in love in a way that made him feel like he was floating. This is best seen on our Song of the Day, “Vertigo,” in which Hakim is struck by the hypnotic feelings of falling in love. The tender track whirrs and sputters as Hakim coos, "Can't tell if it's me or the room that's moving." “The key is to find that extremity of love for yourself,” he says of the romantic themes on the record. “It’s about growing into someone you want to be; it’s about finding pure love within yourself when the world around us seems to be crumbling.” The song comes with a cinematic and perfectly-paired video by Asli Baykal shot at a real-life rotating house in Bosnia-Herzegovina built by Vojin Kusic for his wife, who desired a life where she could enjoy constantly-evolving views. Watch it and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dina Ögon - "Oas," a 2022 single on Playground Music Scandinavia. Stockholm-based songwriter Dina Ögon captures the warmth of Laurel Canyon with her immaculate, soothing arrangements, and pristine vocals. After releasing her self-titled debut album in 2021, Ögon teases more of what’s to come with new single titled “Oas.” The title track from her forthcoming sophomore album on Feb. 3, 2023, the song is a breezy exhale as we reach the end of the year. Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SHIRT - "Dave Chappelle Is Wrong (Beef With God)" from the 2022 album I Turned Myself into Myself on Mello Music Group. Queens-based artist Shirt carries many titles – rapper, conceptual artist, experimentalist. These are all titles that are easy to call yourself and harder to live up to. Shirt, of course, rises to the occasion. On his Bandcamp page he describes his latest album, I Turned Myself Into Myself, as “an album that understands that the devil’s greatest trick is mobilizing our collective fear, to render us catatonic and indifferent to so much possibility around us.” With that in mind, the opening track “Dave Chapelle Is Wrong (Beef With God)” comes out blazing without mincing his words. It’s a song that dares to up to our heroes and push for the right way forward. Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SAULT - "Money" from the 2022 album Today & Tomorrow on Forever Living Originals. Ever-mysterious and always reliably great, SAULT capped off 2022 by dropping five albums simultaneously on Nov. 11. “Money” is a raucous standout from one of those album, Today & Tomorrow. While the whole album digs into the grittier side of the anonymous collective’s work, “Money” is the band at their most distorted and tenacious. It’s a punk rock squall to getting your due – mainly cold hard cash. Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zahara Elan - “Dear Santa…(NAUGHTY),” a 2022 self-released single. This week, we are continuing a long-held tradition of featuring Christmas-themed songs selected by Brian Foss, host of KEXP’s punk show Sonic Reducer. He will be hosting his 18th annual Punk Rock Xmess on Saturday, December 24th from 9pm -12am and then jump back on the mic Christmas day from noon - 9pm for his no standards, non-traditional Christmas broadcast, including a special holiday edition of Sunday Soul. Zahara Elan is a young musical prodigy who’s been posting her covers and, recently, original songs on YouTube the past couple of years. Born in 2008 with Malignant Infantile Osteopetrosis (MIOP), a very rare and fatal genetic bone disorder in which the bones grow unchecked, Zahara (formerly known as Zoe) required serious medical procedures to save her life. Early videos on her YouTube channel, made by her parents, focused entirely on her therapies and development but recently they’ve shifted to focus on her main passion: creating and performing music. Her latest original song is, to put it lightly, an absolute banger. “Dear Santa…(NAUGHTY)” is, indeed, bawdy, with the Seattle-based pre-teen not holding back on the curse words. “Mind your fucking business,” Elan declares in one verse to the nosy and judgemental Saint Nick. But it’s the chorus that packs the biggest punch with, “WHAT THE FUCK, Santa?! /Don’t tell me to be good /I blow off steam from time to time /Because I’m misunderstood.” It’s about time someone gave Santa the middle finger. Watch the adorably creative video for “Dear Santa…(NAUGHTY),” written, directed, filmed, and edited by Elan’s mother Kellie Newton, and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We Are The Union - “Yr Always Alone (On Christmas)” from the 2022 album I Surrender Sleighs on I Surrender Records. This week, we are continuing a long-held tradition of featuring Christmas-themed songs selected by Brian Foss, host of KEXP’s punk show Sonic Reducer. He will be hosting his 18th annual Punk Rock Xmess on Saturday, December 24th from 9pm -12am and then jump back on the mic Christmas day from noon - 9pm for his no standards, non-traditional Christmas broadcast, including a special holiday edition of Sunday Soul. We Are The Union have been making ska-infused pop punk since 2005 with five full-length records to their name. After multiple lineup changes, original members vocalist/guitarist Reade Wolcott and bassist Brandon Benson have remained and added Ricky Weber on lead guitar and Jer Hunter on the ska-important trombone. Their latest single “Yr Always Alone (On Christmas)” centers on the idea of loneliness and how especially excruciating the feeling is around the holidays. “Nuclear holiday /Oh, oh, oh, oh, detonate, set me free,” Wolcott sings with a nasally snarl. “Venom in your head, brandy on your breath /'Tis the season to be vile and mean.” The band had this to say about the song: “Yr Always Alone (On Christmas)' is almost not a holiday song. It's a fairly cynical take on loneliness as a consequence of selfishness, but it's centered around Christmas as a focal point.” The song was released on a compilation album of original, non-traditional Christmas songs via I Surrender Records titled I Surrender Sleighs. Watch the video for “Yr Always Alone (On Christmas),” directed by Rae Mystic, and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BumbleWasps - "Ill Be at Work for Christmas" from the 2021 self-released album F U Xmas. UK-based BumbleWasps describe themselves as “cute like a bee, scary like a wasp.” It’s an apt description for the project with its bubbly aesthetics and biting lyricism. No more is that better exemplified with their yearly Christmas music, especially last year’s F U Christmas. Stand out track “I’ll Be At Work for Christmas” captures the dismal capitalist nightmare of working on the holidays. While you’re smashing back that egg nog and roasting the Yule log, let BumbleWasps remind you that they and others are somewhere out there putting in the hours. Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bat Hearse - “Coffin for Christmas,” a 2021 self-released single. This week, we are continuing a long-held tradition of featuring Christmas-themed songs selected by Brian Foss, host of KEXP’s punk show Sonic Reducer. He will be hosting his 18th annual Punk Rock Xmess on Saturday, December 24th from 9pm -12am and then jump back on the mic Christmas day from noon - 9pm for his no standards, non-traditional Christmas broadcast, including a special holiday edition of Sunday Soul. Detroit-based Gothabilly band Bat Hearse lean into darkness and horror but with a humorous slant. The five-piece have released two records, their 2021 self-titled debut and 2022’s Transylvania Moonshine but before dropping either, their first single was a tune in celebration of a very unlikely holiday for a band gushing Halloween out of their pours. “Coffin for Christmas” barrels in like an undead force to be reckoned with. In between frequent howls, frontman Rick Ruiner sings of unrequited love and is either threatening them with a coffin for Christmas or is proclaiming that’s what he’s received. Either way, his anger is palpable. “Are you looking for stocking stuffer, baby?” asks vocalist/guitarist Nina Friday and Ruiner’s howls confirm the answer is most definitely affirmative. Watch the blast of a video for “Coffin for Christmas” at the link below. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

James Kochalka Superstar – “Christmas Muffin,” a 2017 self-released single. This week, we are continuing a long-held tradition of featuring Christmas-themed songs selected by Brian Foss, host of KEXP’s punk show Sonic Reducer. He will be hosting his 18th annual Punk Rock Xmess on Saturday, December 24th from 9pm -12am and then jump back on the mic Christmas day from noon - 9pm for his no standards, non-traditional Christmas broadcast, including a special holiday edition of Sunday Soul. James Kochalka is a Vermont-based comic book artist and writer, animator, and rock musician. Under his James Kochalka Superstar moniker, it makes sardonic comic rock with nearly twenty releases to his name, going back to 1995. As you’d imagine, his take on a Christmas tune is wry and undeniably silly. “Christmas Muffin” grapples with the very adult reality of having to purchase gifts when you’re flat broke. With little dinero to his name, our narrator instead offers the most generous gift of a muffin - or at least half of it. The song is less than a minute long but his point is made quickly and succinctly. Over a spare high hat beat, Kochalka declares, “Ain’t got no money to buy you nothin’ /Ain’t got no money to buy you shit / Ain’t got no money to buy you nothin’ so I got you this muffin /But we’ll have to split it.” If that’s not the true spirit of Christmas, I don’t know what is. Watch the selfie-shot video for "Christmas Muffin" at the link below. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kennebec - Tall Tales (feat. Hemlock Ernst and Sudan Archives) from the 2022 album Without Star or Compass on Night Time Stories. While Eric Phillips has only been releasing cinematic instrumental soundscapes under the name Kennebec since 2020, his enchanting works have garnered attention and led to a number of incredible collaborations. Our Song of the Day, “Tall Tales,” sees the Portland-based artist team up with Samuel T. Herring of Future Islands under his rap moniker Hemlock Ernst and Brittany Denise Parks, better known as the LA-based musician Sudan Archives. The early single off his sophomore record Without Star or Compass is one of three tracks on the album that Herring contributes to but the only one under his rap alias. Over a guitar-strummed hook, Herring and Parks swap stream-of-consciousness verses and come together for heavenly harmonies on the chorus. While the lyrics are esoteric, ripe with references to nature, the seeming meaning revolves around our inability to fully know what another is thinking or feeling. Phillips had this to say about working with Herring: “I think our styles just resonated well with one another, and we clicked naturally. We sent some ideas back and forth remotely and then he flew out to Portland and we recorded all the vocals in three days together. It was so fun and inspiring – and really deepened my appreciation for his craft. He’s such a nice guy and a total genius. Sam’s lyrics really hit a beautiful balance between that sense of magic and folklore in the natural world that I’m after, while really bringing his own sense of narrative. He’s really amazing at constructing lyrical concepts in a way that I think compliments my own strengths (and weaknesses).” Watch Future Islands’ Live on KEXP at Home performance from 2020 and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.