In Our Headphones

Maxband - "Cut It Loose," a 2020 single on Maximum Band Recordings. With his side project Maxband, Max Savage of Parquet Courts steps out from behind the drum kit and grabs a guitar. He shares vocal duties with co-founder and bassist Patrick Smith of A Beacon School. Their first release was a limited-run cassette EP titled Perfect Strangers in 2018, but they reemerged in late 2020 with a new EP titled Top of the Stairs.  Today's featured track follows the Parquet path of lo-fi post-punk. Maxband explained to Under the Radar: “‘Cut It Loose’ was the first song we wrote for Top of the Stairs, and it functions as a good mission statement for where we are as a band: it was our first fully collaborative effort that was fleshed out from an idea that Patrick brought into a practice space, and the first song where Max and Patrick split vocal duties.”  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Knox Fortune - "Come Over" from the 2020 album Stock Child Wonder on Nice Work. Chicago-bred artist Knox Fortune (real name: Kevin Rhomberg) broke out of the Windy City's hip-hop scene after guest appearances on tracks by Chance the Rapper and Kami. Now based in Brooklyn, Knox returns with his genre-jumping sophomore release Stock Child Wonder. In an interview with Document, he explains the genesis of the album title and how it reflects his approach to songwriting: It came from a song I wrote in 2012. It was written in a different context. As I got older, it stuck with me as a tongue-in-cheek way to mean the ‘next big thing’ in a generic form. On a monthly basis we get hit with the same cookie cutter pop personality, and someone’s like, ‘oh, you’re gonna love this,’ and it’s force fed. No one likes it. It’s just a funny thing to me: the idea of the “next big thing,’ but I’m not saying that I’m that. It was also just an alternate personality I could take on which helped with songwriting. When you do solo albums, it’s very emotionally draining. You have to pull so much from yourself, and if the project fails it’s on you. If you succeed, it’s on you. Creating the character of Stock Child Wonder helped me create, while not divulging too much on some things I’m not too comfortable talking about.  Read the full post on KEXP.org  Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Oneohtrix Point Never - "Long Road Home" from the 2020 album Magic Oneohtrix Point Never on Warp. After scoring the soundtrack to the 2019 Adam Sandler film Uncut Gems, Oneohtrix Point Never (real name: Daniel Lopatin) returns to his roots with his ninth full length, Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, a nod to the Boston-based FM radio station Magic 106.7 that inspired his own band name. “I wanted to make a cohesive, punchy, 50-minute record that was very personal, but pulled from FM palettes that I was personally interested in," he told Apple Music. "I think it works really well as a metaphor for how I've changed. The things that I try to understand about my own life and being an avid musical listener and how much that's influenced me as a musician is kind of apparent on this record. That metaphor of transformation is something that I came to by thinking about the radio.” For today's Song of the Day, which features guest vocals by Caroline Polachek, he continues: “I imagined it as the beginning of the album’s journey. It's setting the thesis of the whole record up, which is sort of embracing transformation, even if it's kind of disturbing and the future is vast and unfortunately filled with question marks. But that's it. That's the game. That's where we are. That's who we are. And so, how to live alongside your incompleteness, instead of fight against it or to think that you can overcome it. There's no home you come to. There's just this kind of road, and the road is the thing. That's what that song is for me.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yung - "Such A Man" from the 2021 album Ongoing Dispute on PNKSLM. Danish indie rock quartet Yung return later this month with their sophomore full-length Ongoing Dispute, the highly anticipated follow-up to 2016's A Youthful Dream.  The band describe today's featured track as "a songwriting potluck of sorts, written in roughly an hour whilst Mikkel [Holm Silkjær, frontman] frantically roamed the corridors outside our rehearsal space working out the lyrics." Silkjær describes the results, via a press release: "A recent personal experience had sparked a train of reflection on manhood, fuelling the writing process and making its way into the song. Growing up, masculinity was portrayed to me as something very one-sided. The experience referenced in the lyrics helped me realise a pattern in coping with loss and pain in the archetypal man. I think from a subconscious point of view I needed to address that in order to fully reevaluate my childhood image of manliness." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite the perils of 2020, Seattle’s Tomo Nakayama had a momentous musical year. Alongside his excellent synth-pop turn with his third solo LP, Melonday, Nakayama released some stirring singles, including a December release of “Paper Snowflakes.” The song finds Nakayama back in the familiar territory of the acoustic guitar, providing the perfect foundation for his pristine, effortless vocals. It’s a winter song of longing, wishing the best for someone far away and detached. While the song references Christmas, its emotional core is timeless. As we enter the new year, “Paper Snowflakes” offers a moment to reflect and look back. Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the last day of 2020 and a new year is ahead of us. To bring on the transition, we get a little bit of something familiar and something new with The Hold Steady’s “Family Farm.” The indie rock legends make a momentous return with the first single from their upcoming album ‘Open Door Policy.’ A barrage of guitars and horns underscore Craig Finn’s impassioned, talk-singing vocals. It’s a triumphant last call for the year, feeling like the concussion of fireworks in the sky while we ride out into the sunset. More than that, it’s a harbinger of all the good music to come in the year ahead. Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With all of our top albums of 2020 lists behind us, it’s already time to start looking forward to the records that will consume our ear canals in 2021. Pom Poko give us an early frontrunner for future obsession with “Like a Lady’ from their upcoming album ‘Cheater.’  “The lyrics for the song slowly grew out from just jamming together, and are about what makes, or what one thinks makes, a woman, what even being a woman means, and it’s also a kind of tribute to all the different ways of being a woman that are out there,” the band said of the song in a statement on its release.  The song is thrillingly experimental, with bouts of furious distortion, spastic melodies, and a cacophony of glorious noise. This early look at the record gives us plenty to look forward to. Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re in the final days of 2020, a year that’s been physically and emotionally taxing for the world at large. While there’s been much tragedy and desperation throughout this year, KOKOROKO urges us to look ahead and celebrate life with their single “Baby Ayoola.” The group – which blends together Afrobeat, Highline, and Jazz music – wrote the track in tribute to the group’s saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi’s grandfather. The jubilant arrangement with a lively blend of horns, woodwinds, and sensationally groovy rhythms. Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christmas may be just behind us (and thankfully 2020 will be following suit soon), but DJ John Richards is keeping the holiday spirit alive with today’s Song of the Day, “Goin’ Broke for Christmas” by duo Lost Under Heaven. The song is the perfect salve for the post Christmas blues, with the festive sounds of jingle bells crashing the dirge-like marching rhythm and the duo’s mournful vocals. It’s the perfect song for soundtracking a foggy, egg nog afterglow or putting the season behind you for hopefully brighter futures. Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Michelle David & The Gospel Sessions - "It's a Soulful Christmas" from the 2020 album It's a Soulful Christmas on MDGS Records. This week, we are featuring Christmas-themed songs selected by Brian Foss, one of the hosts of KEXPs punk show Sonic Reducer, lover of off-brand holiday tunes, and owner of pants. Brian has been doing a punk rock Christmas special every year since 2004 and has been a Christmas Day on-air DJ since 2012. No standards are played, only original X-Mess songs, most with a humorous bent. Hear him this holiday season from 12-7 PM PT on Friday, December 25th, and get even more seasonal songs on his 17th annual Punk Rock Christmas show on Sonic Reducer, available in KEXP's two-week Streaming Archive (scroll down to the December 20th show). Brian says: Merry Christmas! Michelle David is a US born entertainer with a varied history. In the 1990's she's performed in touring theater groups, in the 2000's was a member of "Big Black & Beautiful" (a Female vocal group based in the Netherlands)  & has released 4 previous albums with The Gospel Sessions prior to this year's Christmas album. Here's to a hopeful 2021. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.