A Deeper Listen

Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe is a Coast Salish writer and musician whose 2022 memoir recently won the Washington State Book Award. Her memoir is called 'Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk.' It travels across generations to tell a story of healing, weaving in narratives of Sasha’s ancestors with her own experiences growing up on the Swinomish reservation and getting involved in the Pacific Northwest DIY punk scene. She performs vocals for the bands Medusa Stare and Fleur du Louve.

Sasha speaks with KEXP’s Isabel Khalili on location at Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center. They discuss Sasha’s early musical influences and the impact of Kathleen Hanna’s voice, her search for a sense of permanence in a post settler colonial landscape, creating her own rituals through punk music, and the importance of storytelling as a means of preservation.

Celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day with KEXP at kexp.org/indigenous-peoples-day/ .

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No-No Boy released his album, 'Empire Electric,' on September 29th. His previous work was part of his PhD dissertation, with albums that looked at WWII Japanese incarceration camps, his mother’s Vietnamese family history, and his own racial identity. This latest album also explores Asian American history, family, and identity, but was not part of his degree.

Julian Saporiti of No-No Boy talks with Emily Fox about the stories and histories he’s sharing in this new record, such as how Asian sailors arrived in Oregon two centuries before Lewis and Clark. They also discuss how the album was largely inspired by a trip Saporiti took to a Buddhist monastery after feeling narrow-minded through his experience in academia.

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As part of KEXP’s Latinx Heritage month programming, Aqui y Ahora, KEXP’s Albina Cabrera shares five tracks from artists reshaping alternative Latin music right now.  

1. Diego Raposo - EL UNDERGROUND (feat. mediopicky)  
2. Verito Asprilla - Letras Millonarias  
3. Terror Cactus/ Pahua - Ferrocarril（Rainsoft remix)  
4. Amor Muere - Love Dies  
5. Luzmila Carpio - Chakana Sagrada 

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BIGSOUND is Australia’s biggest, most established showcase for emerging local artists. Celine Teo-Blockey went to the event and shares a highlight reel of the music she saw.

1. Miss Kaninna - Blak Britney 
2. Kobie Dee - Basics 
3. Porpoise Spit - People Like Me 
4. The Empty Threats - Boys in the Gutter & Dear Sunshine 
5. Dyan Tai - Ni Hao 
6. Proteins of Magic - Divine Physics 
7. Georgia Llewellyn - Like This 
8. The Merindas - Before Daylight & History Eraser 
9. SouthEast Desert Metal - Beds Are Burning 
10. Radio Free Alice - Look What You’ve Done 
11. Jujulipps - Airplane Mode 
12. Good Pash - How We’ll End Up 
13. Moaning Lisa - Carrie (I Want A Girl)  
14. Logan - Huh 
15. Smol fish - Sweet Taste & Big Love 

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The instrumental group Explosions in the Sky released their eighth studio album, titled 'End,' on September 15th. KEXP’s Roddy Nikpour speaks with drummer Chris Hrasky about how this isn’t in fact “the end” for the band. They also discuss inspiration behind the new album and how four friends with fairly average lives strive to create music that hits you right in the gut.

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Vagabon released her third album, 'Sorry I Haven’t Called,' on September 15th. It’s her most upbeat, produced, and poppy album to date. It was written following the passing of Vagabon’s dear friend and collaborator, Eric Littmann. Vagabon talks with Emily Fox about Eric Littman’s impact on her, making upbeat music through grief, and retreating to Germany for a mental reset while she made this album. 

“I felt tremendous guilt about the music that was coming out of me in this time. I fully thought I would make a somber record. I had all these things that I wanted to say but it turned out I didn’t want to say those things on songs. I was having those conversations in my life . . . and so the music I was making ended up being kind of opposite from the grief I was living in. It really was a form of escapism for me and an honor to Eric’s life because he lived so vibrantly,” Vagabon says.  

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Corinne Bailey Rae of “Put Your Records On” fame has released her fourth studio album, called 'Black Rainbows.' It was largely inspired by Theaster Gates' arts-focused restoration of The Stony Island Arts Bank, a former community savings and loan building in the south side of Chicago that has been transformed into what’s been described as a cathedral of Black art.

On this episode, Corinne Bailey Rae talks about the history of the building and what kind of art and artifacts it now showcases, and how those collections have inspired songs on the record. She also talks about getting "extraterrestrial" on this album as she explored the idea of transformation.

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After six years away, New York-based singer-songwriter Julie Byrne returns with a new album, 'The Greater Wings.' The time away represented a sea change in her life as well as an opportunity to explore new songs. During the recording of the album, Byrne’s creative partner Eric Littman passed away. Byrne finished the album, which she describes as a testament to the depth of chosen family.

KEXP’s Dusty Henry catches up with Byrne to learn more about the process of writing the record and the stories behind some of the songs.

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Genesis Owusu’s latest album “Struggler” has him genre shifting while telling a story of a cockroach which represents humanity. This comes after his debut album, “Smiling with No Teeth” explored issues of racism and depression through the characters of two black dogs. Genesis Owusu talks with Emily Fox about moving away from feeling like he can only make music as a form of therapy. He also talks about moving to Australia from Ghana as a young child and growing up in a small white city and feeling like an outsider. He says he’s embraced that outsider identity as an artist.  

“That label as an outsider became a badge of honor as I went on in life and I figured out it’s really cool to live on the outskirts of these cultures and be able to take what I want but be able to meld it into my own way and avert people’s expectations. And when I started making art then it became, I get to put all these little twists and turns and all these genre spikes in my music that no one would expect,” Owusu says.  

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There’s a new book out looking at the history of Seattle and the Northwest music scene from the late 50s to mid-60s. It’s called Stomp and Shout—R&B and the Origins of Northwest Rock and Roll. Author Peter Blecha talks with Emily Fox about the book and Seattle’s music history. 

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