Song of the Day

Penelope Isles - Play It Cool (Alt Mix) - a 2022 single on Bella Union. It’s a family affair for Penelope Isles, the sibling songwriting duo of Lily and Jack Wolter, who have channeled the energy of their UK homeland the Isle of Man for some seriously dreamy sounds over the course of two records. Now based in Brighton, their latest record, 2021’s Which Way To Happy, sees the band recruit the help of Henry Nicholson, Joe Taylor, and Hannah Feenstra to fill out their expansive soundscapes for...

Oceanator - "Beach Days (Alive Again)" from the 2022 album Nothing's Ever Fine on Big Scary Monsters. "By the ocean / Is where i wanna be / When this all comes to an end" On her 2020 debut album Things I Never Said, Brooklyn-based songwriter Oceanator (real name: Elise Okusami) pondered the apocalypse against grungy guitars and Green Day-inspired pop/punk. On her follow-up LP Nothing’s Ever Fine, she continues to explore similar themes... except on today's Song of the Day. “I feel like...

Camilla Munck - "Blessed Be" from the 2021 album Aeon on Moondrop Records. Danish artist Camilla Munck began with a background in soundtracks and sound design. On her debut album AEON, she taps into these skills for an emotive, atmospheric experience. On her Facebook page, she describes today's Song of the Day as "a song about finding oneself in and outside communities. to dare step in and out of them. about following oneself, following one's curiosity. and about finding peace in the...

Confidence Man - "Holiday" from the 2022 album TILT on Heavenly Recordings/[PIAS]. With today's Song of the Day, Australian electro-pop duo Confidence Man aim to make the party last forever. “We’ve been trying for the most epic, hands up, euphoric anthem for a while and this is the first time we’ve come close… Turns out it’s pretty difficult, but nothing’s too hard for Con Man,” said vocalist Sugar Bones. His bandmate Janet Planet added: “No one tells Confidence Man what to do. Who said a...

Beautiful Freaks - "CROCODILE," a 2022 single on Scream Queen Records. Constantly evolving in their sound, Beautiful Freaks has always been a band built more on energy and experimentation than a specific genre tag. Formed in 2013, Peter Bryson and James Bonaci came together over their love for metal, jazz & punk. Their 2018 debut Cameo Artist was hardcore glam at its most frenzied and visceral but the former Bellingham band now resides in Seattle and is entering the next phase of their...

Chainsaw Girl - "Chainsaw Girl" from the 2021 self-released Chainsaw Girl EP. Portland’s Chainsaw Girl were brought together with a combination of fate and Yu-Gi-Oh. Guitarists Manny Ruiz and Kei Iguchi met at a conference for the Japanese manga series in 2016 and found their common interests spanned beyond Yu-Gi-Oh and into a deep love for music. Vocalist Cricket Greene was later asked to join after their loud and constant singing could be heard through Iguchi’s walls. With the rest of the...

Ethel Cain - Hard Times - from the 2022 album Preacher's Daughter on Daughters of Cain Records The album title Preacher's Daughter is on point for 24-year-old artist Ethel Cain.Raised and home-schooled in a tight-knit Southern Baptist community where her father served as deacon and her mother sang in the church choir, Cain (legal name: Hayden Silas Anhedönia after a name-change at age 20) struggled against her conservative upbringing. At the age of 12, she came out as gay to her mom, and was...

Dreamer Isioma - Dream Girl - from the 2022 album Goodnight Dreamer on Dreamer Isioma/AWAL. Goodnight Dreamer may be the debut album for 21-year-old Nigerian-American artist Dreamer Isioma, but it's hardly their first foray into music. “Well, it started before birth,” Isioma told theChicago Tribune, revealing their parents enrolled them in Mommy & Me music classes before they were even out of the womb. “Basically, my parents had a plan. They’re like, this child is either gonna do music or be...

Tasha - Perfect Wife - from the 2021 album Tell Me What You Miss The Most on Father/Daughter Records. With her sophomore full-length Tell Me What You Miss The Most, Chicago-based singer/songwriter Tasha invites the listener to nestle in to each track, allowing yourself to be enveloped by the warmth and light. "These are swaying songs," she says of the swoonful new release. “I was inspired by a distance I felt from myself,” she continues in a press release, “the writing was kind of born from...

Musician, producer, sound engineer, and all-around creative force Erik Blood is known for a lot of things - one-half of Knife Knights alongside Ishmael Butler, his recent funkified sensual project Pink Lotion with Rachel Ferguson, Black Constellation all-star contributor, and a solo artist in his own right. Something you may have missed was his 2011 foray into music soundtracking which saw the multi-hyphenate write an album’s worth of original music for the Brazilian film Center of Gravity....

In April, Chaz Bear dropped the seventh studio album from his constantly evolving project Toro y Moi titled Mahal. One of his jammier records, Mahal veers heavily towards psych-funk and features a hefty list of contributors including Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Neilson, Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo, visual artist and musician Sofie Royer, and jazz duo the Mattson 2. Our Song of the Day is the breezy track and early single “The Loop.” Led by a funky bassline and a meandering guitar, the...

Poppy Ajudha - MOTHERS SISTERS GIRLFRIENDS - from the 2022 self-released album THE POWER IN US On her debut album The Power In Us, Poppy Ajudha displays just that: a fearless force-of-nature, with songs about feminism, colonialism, gender politics, mental health, and other social issues on her mind. Today's Song of the Day, in particular, is a call to action for women's rights. "Women don’t have to be just what they are taught to be," she emphasizes, via a press release. "There is so much...

Sampa the Great - Lane (feat. Denzel Curry) - a 2022 single on Loma Vista. Today's Song of the Day finds Zambian-born, Botswana-raised artist Sampa The Great taking up some well-deserved space, alongside guest vocalist and fellow rapper Denzel Curry. “We’re not going to stay in one lane, we’re going to create multiple ones,” she said in a press statement. “My truest self encourages me to explore different lanes, and go beyond what I think I know of myself.” She adds that the song is “about...

Alabaster DePlume - I'm Good at Not Crying - from the 2022 album GOLD on International Anthem. Quirkiness is in the cards with a nom de plume like Alabaster DePlume. The London-based poet/songwriter (real name: Gus Fairbairn) has just released his cheekily-titled sophomore album, Gold, a 2xLP collection, captured chaotically. During the 2020 recording sessions, DePlume invited a different set of musicians each day to record the same songs at the same speed. Two rules were in place: one, that...

Hollis - Burn Burn - a 2022 single on AntiFragile Music. After years as a supporting artist for artists like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and bands like The Flavr Blue, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Hollis (full name: Hollis Wong-Wear) is front and center on her solo album debut Subliminal, out now via Anti Fragile. "It’s an opportunity for me to sonically chart the spectrum of feelings," she shared in a press release, "from existential angst and the tension of our historical moment, to...

Zola Jesus - The Fall - from the 2022 album Arkhon on Sacred Bones. Zola Jesus returns with her sixth full-length later this month titled Arkhon. The artist, whose real name is Nika Roza Danilova, explains that the title translates to "power" or "ruler" in ancient Greek. "Arkons are a Gnostic idea of power wielded through a flawed god," Danilova elaborated via a press release. "They taint and tarnish humanity, keeping them corrupted instead of letting them find their harmonious selves. I do...

The Heavy Heavy - Miles and Miles - from the 2022 album Life and Life Only on ATO. Brighton, UK-based duo The Heavy Heavy channel the sun-drenched sound of the '60s with today's Song of the Day. “‘Miles and Miles’ is about driving across the country, trying to get from place to place — free and easy but with real energy and motion," band member Georgie Fuller said in a press release. "It was inspired by the landscapes of Easy Rider and Vanishing Point and this fantasy of racing down the...

Porridge Radio - "The Rip" from the 2022 album Waterslide, Diving Board, Ladder to the Sky on Secretly Canadian. Right before the pandemic shut the world down, Brighton band Porridge Radio dropped Every Bad, their first record on Secretly Canadian that would go on to receive a Mercury Prize nomination as well as a generous amount of airplay on KEXP. While not technically the first album under the Porridge Radio moniker, it felt like an introduction to the band, who blended UK post-punk with...

Julia Jacklin - "Lydia Wears A Cross" from the 2022 album Pre Pleasure on Polyvinyl. Four years after charming the socks off of us with her 2018 record Crushing, Julia Jacklin is finally releasing its anticipated follow-up. Titled Pre Pleasure, the record was conceived upon returning home at the end of a mammoth Crushing world tour and finished in a frantic few months of recording in Montreal. Our Song of the Day is the lead single and opening track off the record, “Lydia Wears a Cross.”...

These Arms Are Snakes - "Camera Shy" from the 2022 album Duct Tape & Shivering Crows on Suicide Squeeze. Thirteen years after the unceremonious breakup of post-hardcore outfit These Arms Are Snakes, the Seattle band have released the double LP Duct Tape & Shivering Crows. While it’s not made up of entirely new material, the record gives a thorough overview of the band’s expansive experimentations over their seven-year run. Our Song of the Day is the track “Camera Shy.” Originally released on...