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The Churchhill Garden - birds Nov 11, 2020

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The Churchhill Garden - "birds," a 2020 self-released single.

Under the stay-at-home order, many bands have taken to the internet in order to create and record new music, e-mailing each other files and rehearsing via Zoom calls. But for shoegaze duo The Churchhill Garden, collaborating across the ocean has long been their modus operandi. Vocalist Krissy Vanderwoude explained the process to Fade Away Radiate in 2018:

“With [bandmate] Andy [Jossi] being in Switzerland and me in the US (Indiana), he writes the song structure and then sends it to me via dropbox. I write and record the vocals (usually scratch tracks at first, to see if he likes the direction), and send them back to him. We are both very honest with each other, so if there is something that we do not like, or think would sound better another way, we are sure to offer up that feedback. There is never any hard feelings or wounded pride, as we both value constructive criticism and want the tracks to be perfect in the end. Once we agree on a direction, I record the vocals raw and then send him the vocal tracks back, via dropbox. He then begins the mixing process (which he is also genius enough to know how to do himself), and then we send out the track for mastering to Andrew Rose once it is done! Thankfully, it’s actually very easy to write together, because of these advances in modern technology!”

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TV Priest - This Island Nov 10, 2020

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TV Priest - "This Island" from the 2021 album Uppers on Sub Pop.

With today's Song of the Day, London-based post-punk quartet TV Priest share an early look at their forthcoming full-length Uppers, out February 5th via Sub Pop. In a press statement, frontman Charlie Drinkwater calls the track "an unrequited love letter, and a howl of frustration; a mea culpa and a call to arms." He adds:

"'This Island' is about incoherence and inarticulate responses, both personal and political, in a time and place you don’t fully understand anymore... We wrote this to an increasingly nationalistic and isolationist drum beat playing out at home and abroad, and frankly we are scared and appalled.

As artists we aren’t offering up solutions for living, but maybe we can extend a hand and let someone know that you aren’t alone in feeling under prepared in your responses yet powerful in your convictions.

That small boats can still make big waves. That we have a world to win."

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Ghost of Vroom - Rona Pollona Nov 09, 2020

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Ghost of Vroom - "Rona Pollona" from the 2020 Ghost of Vroom 2 EP on Mod y Vi Records.

Back in the '90s, NYC-based band Soul Coughing combined improvisational jazz with samples and the stream-of-consciousness poetry of frontman Mike Doughty. Decades later, Doughty returns with Ghost of Vroom (the band name a nod to SC's debut 1994 album Ruby Vroom), a project with bassist and longtime collaborator Andrew “Scrap” Livingston.

"This is the Soul Coughing stuff that was never made," Doughty explained to Stereogum. "It’s a very specific return to ’94, ’95 Soul Coughing. I’m getting deep, but the way the band sounded at the end of the Ruby Vroom tour, but before we went in with David Kahne to make 'Super Bon Bon' and 'Lazybones,' all those songs."

On today's Song of the Day, Ghost of Vroom take a lighthearted look at the current pandemic. "If you dig enough, there’s darkness in there, but it’s essentially jokes about coronavirus," Doughty confirms.

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J'Von - cnn Nov 06, 2020

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J'Von - "cnn" from the 2020 album THUNDERBOY on PLZCOMEAGAIN.

Seattle's own J'Von returned last month with his latest LP of lo-fi hip-hop titled Thunderboy. True to his history of multidisciplinary approach, J'Von wrote, arranged, produced, recorded, and mixed the album himself (with one track co-produced by grady), as well as created all the art, characters, and animations.

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Dave B - Worthy Nov 05, 2020

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Dave B - "Worthy," a 2020 self-released single.

With his single "Worthy," Renton, WA-based rapper Dave B wanted to remind the Black community that they are worthy of love and respect.

"A lot of people post their black squares and do what they do and they get to throw it to the side they don't have to live it," he said to King 5 News. "We have to wake up every day and start to do this. I got to walk outside every day and I'm still worried about what might happen if I do the wrong thing or say the wrong thing."

Proceeds from the track are being donated to Acts On Stage, WA Black Trans Task Force, and the Black Trans Travel Fund.

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Quetzal - Justice Never Dies Nov 04, 2020

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Quetzal - "Justice Never Dies," a 2020 self-released single.

As we rebuild the world around us

As others still fight and die

We keep doing all we can

“We don’t just survive

We wanna thrive!”

Since forming in the early '90s, East L.A.-based band Quetzal have long used their musical platform to speak out about social justice and education. Frontwoman Martha Gonzalez is an associate professor at Scripps College and just released the book Chican@ Artivistas: Music, Community and Transborder Tactics in East Los Angeles.

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Tiffany Wilson - America (feat. Lady Tasz & Vitamin D) Nov 03, 2020

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Tiffany Wilson - "America (feat. Lady Tasz & Vitamin D)," a 2020 single on Loosegroove Records.

You know a song is good when it brings a record label out of a twenty year hiatus, which is just what happened with Tiffany Wilson and Loosegroove Records, a label founded by Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam) and Regan Hagar (Malfunkshun, Brad). Based in Seattle, Wilson is also a former member of local gospel group SOUL.

On her latest single (a first-listen to her forthcoming full length coming in 2021), Wilson recruits the powerful voices of Lady Tasz and Vitamin D to convey a somber message. She writes on her YouTube page:

“This song is a question. Is this how they keep America great? With violence and hatred? What role do you play in interrupting and addressing that? I’m thinking about the stigma placed on black people as ‘Dangerous killers and blah blah blah.’ All of the mass shootings and big bombs…those weren’t us. Instead, we’re deemed a threat. The hatred has become so much more prevalent. We’ve gone back in the past. I want to make people aware.

It speaks from the perspective of a young or old white killer and how ‘hard’ their life is having been given everything. It keeps everyone subdued and afraid to fight back. Is this America’s secret weapon?”

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Sa-Roc - The Black Renaissance (feat. Black Thought) Nov 02, 2020

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Sa-Roc - "The Black Renaissance (feat. Black Thought)" from the 2020 album The Sharecropper's Daughter on Rhymesayers.

The first time Sa-Roc met Black Thought of The Roots, he was pulling her up on stage at the 2014 A3C Hip Hop Festival in front of tens of thousands of people.

“We had a mutual friend who’s close to him and had been sharing music or whatever," the Atlanta-based MC remembered to HipHopDX. "He was anticipating meeting us there and Thought, being the Hip Hop icon who went through the fire and came up doing cyphers and freestyles, he completely believed in making sure an MC is up to par with going through that cold trial-by-fire thing.

The impromptu performance set the stage for the collaboration on today's Song of the Day. She told ABC Australia:

"I knew as soon as I started writing this album, I wanted Black Thought to feature and when [producer] Sol Messiah showed me this track, I was like, 'This is the one.' I have such high regard for Black Thought as an MC and how he elevates lyricism to an extent that's really not seen within the mainstream industry. So, we got on the track, we recorded in the studio, and just went crazy: back and forth bar for bar. So, this is lyricism at its finest."

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Rell Be Free - Paythefeee Oct 30, 2020

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Rell Be Free - "Paythefeee" from the 2020 self-released album P.T.F.D.

Rell Be Free (real name: Jerrell Davis) is a self-described "musician, underground educator, and multifaceted entrepreneur" from the South End of Seattle. A rapper since the age of 12, Davis utilizes his skills to speak out for social justice. He's the Restorative Justice Director and co-founder of the youth organization WA-BLOC (Washington Building Leaders of Change), serves as a Corner Greeter Coordinator for Rainier Beach, and was named one of Seattle’s Most Influential People by Seattle Magazine in 2018.

"I’m very comfortable with who I am and so I’m not trying to perpetuate a false image," Davis told the South Seattle Emerald. "When you front, you’ve got to keep it up and I’m not prepared to keep up a façade. I’d rather keep up who I really am. No matter how popular my music gets, I’ve got to remember that it’s really not about me. Honestly, I use music as art, but I really see music as a tool toward revolution – a way to change the material conditions of our people."

Watch Rell Be Free perform today's Song of the Day from an event held by Decriminalize Seattle.

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Harleighblu x Bluestaeb - Queeen Dem (feat. Janne Robinson) Oct 29, 2020

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Harleighblu & Bluestaeb - "Queeen Dem (feat. Janne Robinson)" from the 2019 self-released album She.

British R&B vocalist Harleighblu teams up with German producer Bluestaeb on the collaborative album She. On today's Song of the Day, the duo find inspiration in the poetry of Janne Robinson. Harleighblu told Highsnobiety in an email:

I wrote the track Queeen Dem (pronounced like ManDem), after being inspired by a poem called 'This is for the women that don’t give a fuck' by Janne Robinson. The poem reads ‘this is for the women who drink too much whisky, stay up too late and have sex like they mean it — it really spoke to me. I tried to capture the strength of the poem, with a nod to Janne and then elaborate with my own take on completely owning your own womanhood. Within writing the first few lines, I entitled the piece 'Queeen Dem.' Queeen gets 3 E’s to accentuate the fact you are a queen.

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