Cheryl Waters

So ready for a Pool Party!! The DJ, producer, designer, copywriter, street artist, photographer and videographer released the album Dunk Reactions – which is influenced by everything from Daft Punk’s French house to Tame Impala’s psychedelic rock. Check out this song of the day profile KEXP did about the track! kexp.org www.instagram.com

Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season. elmichelsaffair.bandcamp.com "Dhuaan" - Music Video: youtu.be

'El Madrileno' and C. Tangana’s Formula to Reinvent the Spanish Song in a Latin Key. Read KEXP El Sonido co-host Albina Cabrera's article about this album. You can also check out the break down track by track on 'El madrileño' here: kexp.org

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down are a San Francisco based folk pop band based around the singing and songwriting of Thao Nguyen. "Holy Roller" was a KEXP Song of the Day. Read more, subscribe and download this song here: kexp.org Here's the Live on KEXP at Home session with Thao & The Get Down Stay Down from July 2020: youtu.be thaoandthegetdownstaydown.bandcamp.com

Of "Posing In Bondage", which comes complete with a creepy video set in a supermarket and self-directed by Zauner, the singer said: “‘Posing in Bondage’ is a ballad about loneliness and longing, a song about two people who want so badly to connect but are never quite able to do so. No place felt lonelier than an empty grocery at 1 AM." bit.ly Watch the video here: youtu.be michellezauner.bandcamp.com Check out the 2018 session with Japanese Breakfast live in the KEXP studio: youtu.be

From the debut album by the xx, released in 2009. The Pitchfork review for 'xx' said: "The xx are four 20-year-olds from South London who make predominantly slow, furtive pop music, mostly about sex. They are also one of the stranger recipients of UK hype in recent memory. They have no calling-card song.... Without one gimmick song they'll never be able to reproduce, without an alternate agenda, without a set-in-stone hip influence, the xx start to sound like a real actual band, even if, after dozens of listens, it's nearly incomprehensible to think that a group so fresh-faced produced xx." bit.ly Check out the xx live in the KEXP studio: www.youtube.com

Future Islands is opening for Modest Mouse at Marymoor Park on Saturday & Sunday, September 11 & 12. bit.ly

Album of previously unheard Woody Guthrie lyrics, put to music by Billy Bragg and Wilco ; this song and others live on KEXP from the Columbia City Theater in 2015: blog.kexp.org wilcoworld.net www.billybragg.co.uk

The Jayhawks are an American alternative country and country rock band that emerged from the Twin Cities music scene during the mid-1980s. bit.ly The Jayhawks performing live in the KEXP studio in 2016: youtu.be

My Morning Jacket will be playing at The Paramount Theatre on Friday & Saturday, October 1 & 2. With very special guest Durand Jones & The Indications! bit.ly Starts with a riff from Hawaii 5-0 Theme song. The music video for "Off the Record" features a school boy telling something to a young girl, who then passes the saying to another person; it eventually spreads to an office building. The people are soon arrested by the police for telling the saying. bit.ly Watch the video here: youtu.be mmorningjacket.bandcamp.com

Sisters Kara and Johanna Söderberg embody the phrase "beyond their years". As Swedish duo First Aid Kit, they've managed to capture generations' worth of American country and folk while still in their teens.... Time and touring have led the girls further from their youth, steeping the songs on their latest album, 'Stay Gold', with themes of heartache, doubt and homesickness. Yet their vigor remains, as the two prove in this gorgeously performed session at KEXP, their third in our studio. kexp.org

Vancouver singer/songwriter Kylie V – the nom de singer/songwriter of Kylie Van Slyke – has been writing, recording, and performing songs since they were 14 years old, but I would not categorize them as wise beyond their years by any means; I would categorize them as wise. The smoke clears for the crystalline waters of Big Blue, where Van Slyke deepens their songcraft with a collection of stately, tremendously well-crafted folk music made richer by meditative and beautiful lyricism. The album is stark yet comforting, like sitting under the full moon at midnight. Read more in KEXPs Throwaway Style about Kylie Vs album 'Big Blue': kexp.org

Antonioni is one of the bands in the excellent lineup for the official re-opening celebration at Neumos on Thursday, July 1st. The night will also feature Spirit Award (album release), Black Ends & KEXPs very own DJ Morgan. bit.ly Antonioni is a Seattle based band master-minded by singer and songwriter Sarah Pasillas. The new self-titled record builds out the band’s sharply written contemporary indie with plenty of nods to 90s smart-alternative and power-pop. Across the record’s ten tracks the band can be alternately brash or shimmery, fuzzed-out or contemplative. bit.ly antonioni.bandcamp.com

Black Ends is playing the official re-opening celebration at Neumos on Thursday, July 1st. The night will also feature Spirit Award (album release), Antonioni & KEXPs DJ Morgan. bit.ly Black Ends consists of Seattle's Nicolle Swims on guitar and vocals, Jonny Modes on drums, and Ben Swanson on bass. blackends.bandcamp.com In this KEXP essay, Nicolle Sims talks about being Black in America: www.kexp.org

Brand new music from Seattle songwriter, Joel DeJong. For DeJong, who goes by the moniker, ioele (ee-oh-eh-lay), both to his closest personal friends, and now when he writes his electronic, hopeful fusion tracks, the COVID-19 pandemic bore many hardships, but it also provided the keyhole through which to learn, grow and put forth his life-affirming, climactic compositions. youtu.be

Warren Dunes is playing a couple shows here in Seattle. They will be opening for The Dip at ZooTunes at the Woodland Park Zoo on Wednesday, July 28th: www.zoo.org They are playing with Shaina Shepherd & Black Ends on Saturday, July 31st at The Neptune Theatre: bit.ly warrendunes.bandcamp.com

"11:11" @ 11:11!! Check out Film School's 2018 live set for KEXP recorded at Avast! Recording Co.: youtu.be From the Los Angeles & San Francisco based band. filmschoolmusic.bandcamp.com

Check out their 2019 performance in the KEXP studio: youtu.be '99th Dream' is the fourth album released by Swervedriver. MTV called the album "packed with odes to psychedelia and mesmerizing sonic displays that draw heavily from [Swervedriver's] post-punk past." on.mtv.com swervedriver.bandcamp.com

Arcade Fire Working on New Album While Under Quarantine: "Regine and I have been writing for the last couple of years, and the band was a few months into recording new material when COVID-19 hit…We had been exploring a lot of lyrical and musical themes that feel almost eerily related to what is happening now (we actually have a song called Age of Anxiety written a year ago for Christ’s sake - ha ha ). Needless to say, the writing has intensified, and the work is flowing out... It is challenging as ever, and with just as much purpose. Though this crisis may ultimately change or destroy aspects of the music industry, I believe it will only strengthen music as an art form. It has never felt more essential, spiritual and irreplaceable...a church that lives in the air between the source and your ears... I just want you to know, dear reader, that you aren’t forgotten. The world is experiencing incredible suffering and uncertainty. I already know people who have been sick and died, and hope that you and those you love have been spared." You can read more here! www.kexp.org

Girl In Red (Marie Ulven) told NME that the track, "midnight love," "is about me making someone feel really small". bit.ly girl in red performed live at Kex Hostel in Reykjavik during Iceland Airwaves 2019. Watch that session here: youtu.be

Jenn Champion + Oyster Kids are sharing “Love Nobody,” a new lyric video for the title track from their forthcoming collaborative EP. The three-song, Love Nobody EP (Hardly Art) to be released June 29th, 2021, is packed with as many sexy synth lines and longing looks, much like an 80s teen movie. The project was born when Champion met Andrew Eapen (Oyster Kids) at a party shortly after she moved to LA. They became fast friends once they realized they shared a passion for sad pop songs. The two started writing music together only a few weeks later, and the song “Love Nobody” materialized in their very first session. Champion says, “‘Love Nobody’ is about the fear of falling so hard for someone when you know it’s destined to crash and burn. Those crushes where it feels like your heart is cannibalizing your brain. We’ve all been there when you look into someone’s eyes and know they will destroy you, and yet, nothing can pull you away. You are all in. You hate it and have never wanted anything more.” bit.ly youtu.be jennchampion.bandcamp.com

Lead single from an upcoming deluxe edition of Jessie Ware's 2020 album, 'What’s Your Pleasure?'. The Platinum Pleasure Edition of "What's Your Pleasure?" comes out June 11th. www.jessieware.com Watch the video at youtu.be

Check out Live Video from Hot Chip's 2019 KEXP In-Studio: youtu.be

Toronto poet and musician Mustafa's debut album, 'When Smoke Rises' released on his own Regent Park Songs. IG: @mustafathepoet The debut album from this Toronto artist (and founding member of the hip hop collective Halal Gang) is a powerful set of atmospheric folk-pop combining spare guitars, piano and synths with his warm, gentle vocals and poignant, deeply personal lyrics of friends’ lives cut short and dealing with the resulting feelings of loss and grief. Special guests include Sampha and James Blake. kexp.org mustafa.terriblemerch.com

"It’s never easy trying to articulate how you feel inside, especially when you’re doing it on a public platform. Aside from it taking an enormous amount of courage to be so open, it places a great vulnerability upon anyone, let alone an artist trying to survive in this world. A popular way to somewhat sidestep this is through creative lyricism. That is exactly what New York based artist Cassandra Jenkins has done with her new track, 'Michelangelo'." bit.ly cassandrajenkins.bandcamp.com

Kurt Vile wrote about this song and Courtney Barnett, "I started writing a tune that I hoped she’d do with me one day. I was doing promo for b'lieve I’m going down and being photographed in Philly with my acoustic and literally writing a song I had in mind for her (over everything) with the idea of alternating lines and everything." courtneybarnettandkurtvile.com Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile performed live in the KEXP studio in 2017. They opened the set with "Over Everything". Watch the full session: youtu.be

In a 2017 article, Britt Daniel traced his entire career to that point by talking about the band's discography. While Spoon named their band after a Can song, the influence wasn’t always immediately apparent. Though, at the time of release, 'Kill the Moonlight' might have been seen as a new peak of clarity and pop-friendly hook writing, far unlike the platonic ideal of prog rock, the album actually unveils a beautiful layering and push and pull much like the band that inspired their name. bit.ly

Spoon #2! Check out Spoon's live sessions in the KEXP studio: www.youtube.com

The prolific Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, solo project Moonface, etc.!) has never put out an album under his own name - until now! spencerkrug.com Spencer Krug’s 'Fading Graffiti' is an experiment in two ways. The first is the way in which it reimagines what were once intricate piano ballads — originally posted to the artist’s Patreon page over the course of 2019 — into full-band rock songs. The approach finds the songs brimming with new electricity, yet still alluring in their abstract lyricism and unconventional structures. The second experiment: this is Krug’s first self-release, through a tiny operation called Pronounced Kroog, with the aforementioned Patreon used to help fund the creation of the album. Being the first LP released under his own name, 'Fading Graffiti' marks a new way of making records for this songwriter. spencerkrug.bandcamp.com

BLK JKS are a seminal force in the South African underground. After an extended hiatus the Johannesburg foursome, championed by The Mars Volta and TV On The Radio (amongst many others), return with a groundbreaking new album. Monster grooves meet guitar and brass driven afro-rock. Echoes of spiritual jazz, post-apocalyptic funk, renegade dub and kwaito. Features Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Touré and Beastie Boys accomplice Money Mark on the track "Maiga.” “Abantu” is a surreal journey of an album, beaming with laser-like vision and power… that in parts possesses an almost hauntingly vulnerable beauty. blk-jks.bandcamp.com

Brand new King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard!!! Their third album in less than a year! kinggizzard.bandcamp.com About seven months ago, Stu Mackenzie's household acquired a new human alarm clock in the form of his baby daughter. Fans can rest assured that new fatherhood won’t disrupt the Gizzard’s infamously furious rate of output: Today, the band release 'Butterfly 3000', their third new album in less than a year, following last November’s 'K.G.' and February’s companion record, 'L.W.' But if becoming a parent hasn’t exactly affected Mackenzie’s work ethic, it’s certainly changed his outlook. “During the pandemic,” he says, “I’ve had times of productivity, but then also just extreme discontent — like, ‘What’s the point in doing anything?’ There’s just less stimulus input into the brain, which I think is bad for creativity, at least for me. The less I do, the more I find it hard to create stuff. So my daughter has been a nice arrow to point through this whole crazy time, and something to just reorient any negativity.” bit.ly