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José González - Head On Jun 28, 2021

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After six years, Swedish singer-songwriter José González will return with his new album Local Valley, recorded in his home studio outside Gothenburg during quarantine. On today's Song of the Day, González taps into his hardcore past from the '90s.

"I wrote 'Head On' as a combat song or a list of instructions…a manual," he explains in a press release. "I mean both 'straight ahead' and head ON — as in switching on your mind. It was inspired by Fela Kuti’s 'Zombie' and the way I used to write lyrics for my hardcore band. It’s also in the vein of my song “What Will” from 2015. That one and this one are both anti-dogma, pro-reason songs. Some of the terms I use, like 'rent seeker' or 'value extractor,' are from books on economics that I’ve been reading, like The Value Of Everything by Mariana Mazzucato."

Local Valley will be released 9/17 on Mute.

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Sleater-Kinney - Worry With You Jun 25, 2021

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Sleater-Kinney - "Worry With You" from the 2021 album Path of Wellness on Mom + Pop.

Iconic Northwest duo Sleater-Kinney returned with the album Path of Wellness earlier this month, their tenth album overall, but their first that they've produced themselves. "The entire process relied upon taking stock of who and what was nearby, upon generosity of time, spirit, and input, but mostly upon a mutual love, need, and gratitude for making music," they shared on Facebook.

The album was written last Spring and Summer during the pandemic, and recorded in late Summer and early Fall. As such, the video for today's Song of the Day hints at the lockdown, with director Karen Murphy capturing a young couple (portrayed by Megan Watson and Fabi Reyna, editor-in-chief of She Shreds magazine) struggling with sheltering in place.

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Elohim - Strut (feat. Big Freedia) Jun 24, 2021

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Elohim - "Strut (feat. Big Freedia)," a 2021 self-released single.

Los Angeles-based producer Elohim has spoken publicly in the past about her struggles with anxiety. On today's Song of the Day, she encourages herself and others to confront those feelings, teaming up with the Queen of Confidence, New Orleans artist Big Freedia. “Her music and story have inspired and continues to inspire humans all over the world. I am moved by anyone who is true to who they are,” Elohim declared in a press release.

She continues, “‘Strut’ is a daily reminder to all of us, myself included, that the power we hold within ourselves is infinite. It’s a story of self-discovery and I feel proud, excited, and empowered to share a record like this. I want to inspire others to own who they are, celebrate their uniqueness, and shine their wonderful light to the world!”

Big Freedia adds, "Elohim is something else. I was so excited to get to work with her. ‘Strut’ is about owning your attitude, no matter who you are!”

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Mykki Blanco - Free Ride Jun 23, 2021

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Mykki Blanco - "Free Ride," a 2021 self-released single.

Innovative rapper Mykki Blanco returned last week with the EP Broken Hearts & Beauty Sleep, their first new release in five years and their first for Transgressive Records. On today's Song of the Day, they looked back to road trips with their mother.

"Some of the most intimate moments and conversations I have ever shared were with my mother on long drives in the Southern countryside when I was a teenager," they related in a press release. "The music that soundtracked these memories on our daily journey’s was the stuff of my mothers generation. I would find myself daydreaming, reflecting and envisioning the kind of life I would like to create for myself. These memories and the music of Luther Vandross were the first inspirations behind the creation of my new song 'Free Ride.'"

In the accompanying video, director Hannah Rosselin captured footage in Paris over two days.

“It was one of my most enjoyable shooting experiences so far," Rosselin shared. "The collaboration with Mykki was based on trust and respect since day one. I met them by chance, and, as we like to say together, it had to happen. If I had to describe some of my intentions with this video, I think I would say that I wanted to picture my representation of the family experience: mixed, unstructured, messy, and yet full of love. I also aimed to break the traditional codes affiliated with a religious gathering like a christening, obviously to try to make it more fun. And finally, with humility and some derision, I wanted to overlap my idea of 'the world from before' and hopefully the world that will come after.”

Mykki continued, “Seeing the first edit of this video for was actually very emotional for me personally. I’m at a place in my life now where I know I want to have a family of my own one day and that I have entered a more mature phase of my life where this is a kind of thing I think about now. And on a professional level, I know videos have been such a key part of my journey and this truly feels like a video which is showing the world something new from me. Especially in light of the year we have all been through with the pandemic with limited engagement in person with those we love, this just feels like such a warm and positive visual to be sharing with the world to recall the joy we’ve been missing from gatherings like this and an encouragement to remain optimistic in looking forward to be able to return to engaging like this with those who we love. I am so grateful and impressed by Hannah and Division and the rest of the team involved with bringing this video to life, the video has such a beautiful cinematic feel to it and really captured what I’d hoped we would be able to show with the video for this song.”

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MAN ON MAN - It’s So Fun (To Be Gay) Jun 22, 2021

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MAN ON MAN - "It's So Fun (To Be Gay)" from the 2021 album MAN ON MAN on Polyvinyl.

While others were baking banana bread or binging shows on Netflix, Faith No More keyboardist Roddy Bottum and his boyfriend Joey Holman started the music project Man on Man during the pandemic.

“Roddy was just like, ‘We’re both musicians, let’s just do it to pass time.’ At first, we were just going to share with our friends,” Holman told Rolling Stone, but the online response to their debut single, "Daddy", was so enthusiastic. “They were like, ‘Thank you, I see myself in this. This is me.’ Which is so cool! People have never seen two gay guys who are a couple making the kind of music we’re making, writing about what we’re writing about, displaying it in the way we’re displaying it.”

Today's Song of the Day is a charming pop tune with a heartwarming accompanying video. "We wanted 'It's So Fun (To Be Gay)' to feel organic and warm with a strong, universal message," the band shared via a press statement. "For the video we aimed to focus on our community. Getting through the hardships of the past year, we leaned heavily on what we mean to each other in terms of support and understanding. We were in the middle of launching our Chosen Family project and had just finished linking people up for our penpal program and sourcing art for our quarterly zine. We thought the best way to exhibit the joy in the song would be to have a video full of our chosen family — friends, peers, and heros. So, we asked friends to share their love and lives and these queer testimonials are what make up the bulk of the video. Our togetherness and bond is key to moving forward in these times especially and we aimed to capture that bond and essence, particularly with Gay Pride 2021 on the horizon. It felt fitting to donate the launch-day's sales to Born Perfect, which is a non-profit whose mission is to end conversion therapy."

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Fred again.. & The Blessed Madonna - Marea (We’ve Lost Dancing) Jun 21, 2021

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Fred again.. & The Blessed Madonna - “Marea (We’ve Lost Dancing)” from the 2021 album Actual Life (April 14 - December 17 2020) on Atlantic.

When the clubs shut down during the pandemic, London producer Fred again.. wrote today's Song of the Day as a eulogy to the dancefloor, sampling a voice mail message from his dear friend The Blessed Madonna (real name: Marea Stamper).

"Marea and I met in Palestine around 5 years ago now. I call her my rave shaman," Fred again.. said in a press release. "I think she’s that for a lot of other people too to be honest! Her ability to tell stories and share things has always been a particularly beautiful part of her beautiful mind so I guess it makes sense that I ended up making a song out of sampling one of our conversations! She's a real hug of a human."

Stamper continues, "Right from the second I met Fred there was a real closeness and even though I didn’t know him at all, I always felt like 'this is gonna be a person in my life.' On this particular night in lockdown, Fred asked how I was feeling and I just talked to him like I normally would. Somehow he digs in all my babble and makes it into something beautiful and personal. Fred is a singular artist. He had such a tender way of looking at sound. You can’t fake it. You gotta have real heart. No one has a heart like that."

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Shabazz Palaces - 20 Gear Science Jun 18, 2021

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Shabazz Palaces - "20 Gear Science," a 2021 self-released single.

Seattle's Shabazz Palaces share "20 Gear Science," the first single from their forthcoming LP The Lost Vibes Of Shabazz: The Skrilla Scrolls, a collection of rarities and previously unreleased songs. True to their decade-long career, the song is a spacey, cinematic (or "sinematic", as their video production is called) journey of synths and swagger.

Accompanying the track is a video filmed by Stephan Gray and Shabazz vocalist/producer Ishmael Butler. As they explain in the YouTube description, "While on vacation at their Baška hideaway retired Cantù basketball star Capricio "Prici" Drogba and his girlfriend Glo Moonlit must deal with the strange interloper that has appeared down by the pool." (Both Drogba and the pool boy are portrayed by Butler.)

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DAM - Hada yid'ie sitna Jun 17, 2021

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DAM - "Hada Yid’ie Sitna" from the 2019 album Ben Haana Wa Maana on Cooking Vinyl.

Formed in the late '90s, DAM have been called "the first Palestinian hip hop crew and among the first to rap in Arabic." Since the very beginning, the group have used their lyrics to speak out about the trials of being Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. On their third and most recent release, Ben Haana Wa Maana (which translates to "Between Both Worlds"), DAM explore the subject of self-love.

“We know that we had hit hard times. We always talked about the darkness we live in,” founding member Tamer Nafar said in a press release. “But this time we changed our attitude. As we say in one of our songs 'Hada Yidi’e Sitna'; This is not a darkness of a tomb, we are in a darkness of a womb.”

In an interview with The National, they explain that today's Song of the Day is "the story of kids fighting on the streets before somebody calls their mothers." Songwriter and rapper Maysa Daw (who joined the collective in 2012) explains, "In that song, we’re calling for women to take the leadership and guide us in a better way."

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Thee Sacred Souls - Give Us Justice Jun 16, 2021

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Thee Sacred Souls - "Give Us Justice," a 2020 single on Daptone Records.

With today's Song of the Day, San Diego-based trio Thee Sacred Souls reflect on the deaths of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery, singing "there'll be no peace / until there's justice." The Grammy-nominated band The Black Pumas declared it "the song that will define 2020 for me" in Rolling Stone magazine.

"The song kind of wrote and spoke for itself," vocalist Josh Lane told KPBS. "I might not have been someone who was murdered... but in a certain situation I could've been any other people who lost their lives to police brutality or brutality in general."

As the band states on their Bandcamp page, "proceeds from this single will go to promoting the freedoms, rights, and wellbeing of black people, spread across various organizations which they will continue to research over time, starting with The Movement for Black Lives."

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Al-Bara'em - Ishraq Jun 15, 2021

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Al-Bara’em - "Ishraq" from the 2021 Al-Bara'em EP on SMNTCS.

A few years ago, Houston-based music journalist Sama'an Ashrawi found out a surprising fact about his Dad: back in the 1960s-'70s, his father and all but one of his aunts and uncles were the founding members Al-Bara'em ("The Blooms" in Arabic), Palestine's first original rock band, and the first Palestinian rock band to feature women on stage.

“At a family gathering — either Thanksgiving or Christmas — one of my uncles told me that recordings of the band existed,” Ashrawi told The Arab News. “In that moment it became something very sacred to me. It was bigger than our family history; it became immediately clear that it was Palestinian cultural history. People needed to know about this.”

After the revelation, Ashrawi headed to Palestine on a research trip, unearthing recordings and photographs, including the live shot seen above, from a sold-out performance at the Jerusalem YMCA in December 1973. He's currently filming a documentary of his discoveries, and hopes to recruit younger musicians under supervision of his uncles to record some previously unrecorded songs. “I’m so grateful, mashallah, that all the members of the band are still alive, and that’s what makes it even more urgent to get the full story of the band out as soon as possible.”

Of today’s Song of the Day, Ashrawi explains to KEXP, “During Al-Bara’em member Samir’s recording of the demo in the early 1980s, a gospel choir happened to be just outside in the studio lobby while Samir was recording; when he stepped outside to take a break, he found that the choir were harmonizing to his melodies and was quite touched. He told them he’s from the same place as Jesus and asked if they’d like to record their harmonies, which you can now hear over the end of ‘Ishraq.’”

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