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Gordi - Sandwiches Jul 07, 2020

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Gordi - "Sandwiches" from the 2020 album Our Two Skins on Jagjaguwar.

On her latest LP Our Two Skins, Australian folktronica artist Gordi (real name: Sophie Payten) mourns the passing of her beloved grandmother, Alisa, whose spirit fills the gorgeous new album. It was even recorded in her hometown. "Her whole life was in Canowindra, and that's why I wanted to make the record there," Payten explains via a press release. "We made it in a house that's a hundred meters from her house."

The title of today's Song of the Day was derived from a moment during Alisa's last day in the world. Payten explained to ABC that she and her mother were making sandwiches to disperse among those visiting around her grandmother's hospital bed. “It was one of those moments where everyone was finally taking their first breath of the day that she chose to quietly slip away.”

“I’d been wanting to write a song about her and all of it, but I didn’t want it to be this terribly dreary, melancholic song, because it was a celebration of a life. So, I tried to focus on the tiny details.”

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Phoebe Bridgers - Kyoto Jul 06, 2020

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Phoebe Bridgers - "Kyoto" from the 2020 album Punisher on Dead Oceans.

Singer/songwriter Phoebe Bridgers has always brought a vulnerability and candidness to her lyrics, but especially on her highly-anticipated sophomore album Punisher, where she tackles themes of loneliness, disappointment, and feeling like an outsider. And on today's featured track, in particular, Bridgers works through her complicated feelings about her father.

Bridgers has written about her complicated feelings for her dad before, but on today's KEXP Song of the Day, she tackles it from a new perspective. “I feel so much fucking empathy and so much fucking anger toward him,” she told The New Yorker. She elaborated in an interview with NPR Music:

"This record, in a lot of ways, kind of feels like a graduation, but I feel like I'm trying to be self-aware about my resentments. I feel like I have strong opinions weakly held. So that's what 'Kyoto' is about. There's a lot of just straight up hatred and resentment on the first record — about all kinds of people — and then on this record I'm exploring just how quickly that all goes away with a little bit of examination."

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Deep Sea Diver - Stop Pretending Jul 03, 2020

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Deep Sea Diver - "Stop Pretending," a 2020 self-released single.

Seattle's Deep Sea Diver has managed to adapt creatively to the stay-at-home orders. As we reported via our Sound & Vision series in April (listen here), band members Jessica Dobson and Peter Mansen have been doling out "stems" — a drum beat or guitar riff to play with and create a song out of — and then featuring the best songs every weekend via Instagram Live. The project even resulted in today's featured track, “Stop Pretending.”

"We recorded this song, 'Stop Pretending', this week, as we were continuing to stay at home," they explained via their Bandcamp page. "The song was written using a collaboration exercise that we had given to our fans as an outlet to create and find connection in a time of duress & isolation (we called it the "Stay Home Stems" series) — and it ended up also working for us — this song was written, recorded, mixed and mastered in two days at our house, & this what we have to show for it. [I] often write apocalyptic songs as way to enter a new world that juxtaposes despair with hope.. I hope it can bring a little bit of light in a dark season."

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Liv.e - SirLadyMakemFall Jul 02, 2020

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Liv.e - “SirLadyMakemFall “ from the 2020 Bout These Pipedreams / Lessons from My Mistakes.. but I Lost Your Number EP on In Real Life Music / AWAL.

Following a tour with Earl Sweatshirt and appearances on both his and Pink Siifu’s recent albums, Dallas-bred, Los Angeles-based artist Liv.e (pronounced "liv") somehow found time for a forthcoming full-length, titled Couldn't Wait To Tell You, out later this year via In Real Life Records. Today's featured track is a sneak peek at the upcoming release.

On today's Song of the Day, Liv.e taps into her roots for a little Western swing behind the soulful R&B sounds. She gave some insight into the track to The Fader, explaining, "'SirLadyMakemFall' started off as a conversation I was having with myself about how I would view myself from a feminine and masculine stand point. Hence 'sir lady.' Like what them boys gotta say about Liv? And what them girls gotta say?"

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Sibille Attar - Hurt Me Jul 01, 2020

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Sibille Attar - “Hurt Me,” a 2020 single on PNKSLM Recordings.

Swedish singer/songwriter Sibille Attar shares a first listen of her forthcoming full-length out this fall via PNKSLM Recordings, a follow-up to her 2013 debut album Sleepyhead. Formerly a member of bands like The Tourettes and Speedmarket Avenue, Sleepyhead was the Scandinavian songstress's first solo effort, and her first on a major label.

“Sleepyhead was my first attempt [at going solo] and I got signed to a big label and it was kind of overwhelming,” she told BTR Today. “Being told what to do was not my favorite thing, which meant it was a lot of unnecessary struggles, and I realized I should be independent… So I had to recollect myself — I was questioning my entire motive of doing music at all because I thought the industry was so shitty. I kind of lost my confidence. When everyone starts having opinions on what you do… I started questioning myself.”

Since signing with beloved indie label PNK SLM (hear our spotlight on KEXP's Weekly Mix podcast here), her confidence has returned, as evident on today's featured track. Listen below.

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Jake Blount - Where Did You Sleep Last Night Jun 30, 2020

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Jake Blount - “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” covered by Jake Blount from the 2020 album Spider Tales on Free Dirt Records.

The song "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" has been covered hundreds of times before — the track is often associated with blues musician Lead Belly, but the Nirvana version from their 1993 MTV Unplugged performance is perhaps the best known rendition. And now, banjo player and fiddler Jake Blount has added his own interpretation, influenced by his research into Black and Indigenous cultures, as well as his own experiences as an LGBTQ activist.

“Connecting with my family history and my father’s childhood history, he’d talk about people disappearing,” he reflected in a press release. “Those lynchings didn’t all happen in broad daylight; my dad talked about people in his community ‘disappearing’ and you’d kind of assume what had happened. For me there was a very direct connection between what I’d gone through in the queer community and this narrative of disappearance and loss that surrounded the Black community in the South throughout much of our nation’s history, and still arguably does.”

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SPECSWIZARD - Floyd Jun 29, 2020

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SPECSWIZARD - “Floyd,” a 2020 self-released single.

Michael Hall is a long-time fixture of Seattle's hip-hop scene, recording under the names Specs One and Specs Wizard. (Seattle's bi-weekly alt-paper The Stranger dubbed him "the Holy Ghost of Northwest Hiphop.") He began rapping and making beats while growing up in the High Point neighborhood of West Seattle in 1979, began releasing albums in the late '80s, and made waves with his crew The Elevators throughout the '90s.

Today's Song of the Day is a powerful reflection on the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. "And if you Black, you know that this is nothing new," he raps solemnly against a wistful piano loop. Hear his musical memorial below.

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Danny Denial - I'm Not Your Type (feat. DoNormaal) Jun 26, 2020

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Danny Denial - "I'm Not Your Type (feat. DoNormaal)" from the 2020 album fuck danny denial on Cruisin' Records.

On his third solo album, "goth-punk auteur" Danny Denial teams up with The Black Tones’ Eva Walker, Rat Queen, Razor Clam, and, on today's Song of the Day, DoNormaal. When KEXP premiered this track late last year, Denial told our writer Martin Douglas:

"I approached this solo record mainly wanting to experiment with genre and work with artists and bands I admire, and 'I'm not your type' felt like the right song to push the envelope. I created the foundation for the beat cutting up pieces of Courtney Love's breathing and screaming, and worked with a producer called Bibz in New York, and then took it to DoNormaal in Seattle to write and record the rest of the song, so its journey has been a very unique one. And, honestly, I think it's the first song I've ever made that I'd describe as 'fun.'"

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Baronhawk Poitier - Temperado Tornado Jun 25, 2020

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Baronhawk Poitier - "Temperado Tornado" from the 2020 Temperado Tornado EP on Honey Soundsystem.

Baronhawk Poitier is a busy man: not only is he a long-running DJ/producer, but he's also a professional dancer and co-founder of the NeedlExchange crew and club night in his hometown of Washington, D.C.

When Honey Soundsystem Records asked Baronhawk Poitier to make them an EP "he would want to dance to", he replied, "Oh Honey, I have never made any that I didn’t." Check out the title track from his latest dancefloor soundtrack.

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Princess Nokia - Gemini Jun 24, 2020

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Princess Nokia - "Gemini" from the 2020 self-released album Everything Is Beautiful.

Earlier this year, New York-born Puerto Rican MC Princess Nokia (real name: Destiny Nicole Frasqueri) released not one, but two albums: the perfectly-titled Everything Sucks and Everything is Beautiful. In a press release, Everything Sucks is described as “a brash, ruthless and insistent collection,” and Everything is Beautiful as “a representation of the sensitive, feminine side of the gender fluid artist.”

Today's Song of the Day reflects that duality as Frasqueri reflects on their astrological sign, the twins of the zodiac. “I am Gemini / Like Pac, André, Lauren / and Kanye, Boy George, and Anne Frank,” they rap. “And all the famous rappers got a sign like me / And all the famous rappers got a heart like me / But I know that I’m different and they’re not quite me.”

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