Wednesday MidDay Medley
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

The 120 Best Recordings of 2024
(Part 4 of 4)

Wednesday MidDay Medley presents The Finale! part-four, of our four-week special: WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2024. Based on playlists of this little ole radio show, we’ve compiled representative tracks from our favorite full-length albums and EP recordings of 2024. We realize these “Best of” lists can seem subjective, so we ask that you please accept our list as a celebration of the year in music.

This Wednesday, we’ll count down #30 through #1 with tracks from: Eddie Moore, Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark, The Swallowtails, Kat King, Clarke Wyatt, Supermoto, Amble Haunt, The Roseline, Miss Boating, BLACKSTARKIDS, Flight Attendant, Waxahatchee, Krystle Warren & The Faculty, The Highwater, Little Miss Dynamite, Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits, Shabaka, Jamie xx, Charli xcx, X, Beth Gibbons, Moses Sumney, The Cure, Mdou Moctar, Leyla McCalla, Hembree, Cheery, Nala Sinephro, Adrianne Lenker, and Meshell Ndegeocello.

In 2024 we’ve broadcast nearly 900 different tracks on WMM over our 100,000 watts of 90.1 FM Community Radio Airwaves. Over 500 of these tracks were from New & MidCoastal Releases. 60 of the representative tracks in our “Best of” list are from MidCoastal Releases. We conducted over 118 interviews with 141 special guests. 40 of the bands and artists in our “Best of” list have joined us as guests on WMM.

1. “Main Title Instrumental – It’s Showtime Folks”
   from: Motion Picture Soundtrack to All That Jazz / Universal / Dec. 20, 1979
   [WMM’s theme]

2.(#30.) Shabaka – “End Of Innocence”
from: Perceive It’s Beauty, Acknowledge It’s Grace / Impulse Records / April 12, 2024
[Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace is the solo debut studio album of London jazz musician Shabaka Hutchings, working under the name Shabaka. The album was preceded by two singles, “End of Innocence” and “I’ll Do Whatever You Want”. // The album follows Hutchings’s hiatus from the saxophone and the end of his bands Sons of Kemet and the Comet Is Coming, and sees him focusing on different types of flutes, including the shakuhachi and the svirel, as well as the clarinet. // The album was recorded in Van Gelder Studio in 2022. Hutchings shared producing duties with Dilip Harris, and brought in a long list of collaborators including his own father Anum Iyapo, André 3000, Laraaji, and Floating Points. Musically, it focuses on jazz and new age music. Critical reception for the album was positive, highlighting the boldness of Hutchings’s shift in style. // On January 1, 2023, Hutchings announced his intention to take an indefinite hiatus from playing the saxophone, explaining later in the year that his enthusiasm for the instrument had waned after years of intense touring. This also coincided with the end of his two bands, Sons of Kemet and the Comet Is Coming. Hutchings’s last live saxophone performance was on 7 December 2023, where he played John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. // Hutchings’s new musical interests lied primarily with the flute and similar instruments, having started with them in 2019 after acquiring his first shakuhachi. Subsequent instruments Hutchings picked up include Mayan Teotihuacan drone flutes, Brazilian pifanos, Native American flutes, Slavic svirels, and South American quenas. The move coincided with an increase in attention on jazz flute following the release of André 3000’s 2023 album New Blue Sun, on which Hutchings contributed shakuhachi to one track. // Hutchings announced the album on 28 February 2024, set for a release on April 12, by Impulse! Records. On the same day, he released its lead single, “End of Innocence”, along with a music video directed by Phoebe Boswell. “End of Innocence” sees Hutchings playing the clarinet, with a band consisting of pianist Jason Moran, drummer Nasheet Waits, and percussionist Carlos Niño. // The second single, “I’ll Do Whatever You Want”, was released on March 21. Hutchings cowrote the song with Laraaji and Floating Points. It features Hutchings on shakuhachi, André 3000 on drone flute, Laraaji’s wordless vocals, Floating Points on Rhodes Chroma synthesizer and vibraphone, Esperanza Spalding and Tom Herbert on bass, Dave Okumu on guitar, Marcus Gilmore on drums, and Niño on percussion. Hutchings said the song is “about surrender and the intimate space we go to within the grasp of possession.” Other musicians on the record include Moses Sumney, Brandee Younger, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Saul Williams, Lianne La Havas, and Elucid. // Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace is Hutchings’s solo debut studio album, following his 2022 solo EP Afrikan Culture, which also centered Hutchings’s woodwind play. The titles of both releases are connected; in Hutchings’s words, they’re mean to be read as “Afrikan Culture, comma, Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace”, with his next album being “the next sentence in a long form poem that encapsulates, hopefully, all the solo records of my career.” The song names on the album were extracted from a poem written for the album.]

3.(#29.) Jamie xx – “Dafodil (ft. Kelsey Lu, John Glacier, Panda Bear)”
from: In Waves / Young / September 20, 2024
[5th single, released August 29, 2024 from In Waves is the second studio album by English producer Jamie xx. It was preceded by the singles “Baddy on the Floor” featuring Honey Dijon and “Treat Each Other Right”, and will be his first album in nine years, following In Colour (2015). The album also includes collaborations with Jamie xx’s xx bandmates Romy and Oliver Sim, Kelsey Lu, John Glacier, Panda Bear, Robyn, the Avalanches, and Oona Doherty. An additional collaboration with Erykah Badu will feature on the deluxe vinyl. // The album was recorded over a period of four years. In a statement, Jamie xx likened his experiences since releasing his previous album to “waves that we have all experienced together and alone”, and said that he wanted to “make something fun, joyful and introspective all at once” as “the best moments on a dance floor are usually that” for him. From 2022 to early 2024, Jamie xx released the standalone singles “Let’s Do It Again”, “Kill Dem”, and “It’s So Good”, which are included on the deluxe vinyl edition of the album. // James Thomas Smith (born 28 October 1988), known professionally as Jamie xx, is an English musician, DJ, record producer, and remixer. He is known for both his solo work and as a member of the indie pop band the xx. // He has been described as a “driving force” behind the xx,[2] contributing to the group’s significant commercial and critical success. As a solo artist, he has been recognised with a 2015 Mercury Prize nomination, and a 2016 Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album nomination for In Colour. // Smith was born in London on 28 October 1988. His musical career began in 2006 when he joined the xx accompanying old schoolmates Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim, and Baria Qureshi of the Elliott School in London, notable for alumni including Hot Chip, Burial, and Four Tet. He first used the stage name Jamie xx in July 2009 in a promotional mix for the band’s debut album xx released on the FACT magazine mix series. The mixtape was compiled by Jamie Smith and featured, amongst others, four tracks credited to Jamie xx – one self-production and three remixes. The xx album went on to become platinum in the UK. Afterward, Jamie Smith went on to do more remix work for artists like Florence + The Machine, Adele, Jack Peñate and Glasser. // In late 2010, a Jamie xx remix of the song “NY Is Killing Me” from Gil Scott-Heron’s last album I’m New Here aired on radio stations across the UK and Europe. The remix of “I’ll Take Care of U” followed in January 2011. Both singles drew the attention of the general public and the critics. They set the way for a 13-track remix album entitled We’re New Here, produced entirely by Jamie xx and credited to “Gil Scott-Heron and Jamie xx”. The album was released on February 21, 2011 on the XL Recordings label, but a full-album preview could be streamed on the website of The Guardian as early as 14 February. We’re New Here received critical acclaim and was named “a cohesive, considered masterpiece in its own right” by BBC’s Ele Beattie. // On June 6, 2011, the two-track self-produced single “Far Nearer / Beat For” was released. The song “Far Nearer” was selected Best New Track by Pitchfork, and the double A-side single charted at number 128 on the UK Singles Chart. Later the same year, Smith produced the title track off Drake’s second album, Take Care, which features Rihanna. In addition, Smith helped create several reworks for Radiohead’s song “Bloom” which were released on a remix album entitled TKOL RMX 1234567. He also co-produced the song “When It’s All Over” with Alicia Keys on her Girl on Fire album. In 2014, he announced an upcoming collaboration with John Talabot on Tim Sweeney’s Beats in Space online radio show. In 2014, he released the singles “Girl/Sleep Sound” and “All Under One Roof Raving”. // On 27 March 2015, he released two singles: “Loud Places”, featuring the xx’s Romy Madley Croft, and “Gosh”. On the same day he also announced that his debut album, In Colour, would be out on 1 June 2015. Ahead of its release, In Colour was streamed on iTunes as a preview with album-spanning visuals that ‘reacted’ to each sound.[14] It was ultimately released on 29 May 2015 to widespread critical acclaim, debuting at number three on the UK Albums Chart and receiving nominations for the 2015 Mercury Prize and for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 58th Grammy Awards. // Jamie xx composed the score for a ballet, Tree of Codes, commissioned by Manchester International Festival for its 2015 edition. Based on a novel of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer, the ballet was choreographed by Wayne McGregor and had a set created by Olafur Eliasson. // In 2020, he released his first single in five years, “Idontknow”, which received positive to lukewarm reception from critics. He was credited on Tyler, the Creator’s 2021 album Call Me If You Get Lost as a co-producer on the track “RISE!”. // Jamie xx has worked on each of his The xx bandmates’ respective solo albums: he produced Oliver Sim’s Hideous Bastard (2022), and co-produced Romy’s Mid Air (2023).]

4. (#28.) Charli xcx – “Apple”
   from: BRAT / Atlantic Recording Company / June 7, 2024
   [Brat is the sixth studio album by English singer Charli XCX. It features production by Charli XCX, her longtime executive producer A. G. Cook, Finn Keane, Cirkut, her partner George Daniel, and others. The album draws influence from the 2000s English rave music scene, with a more aggressive club sound than her previous album, Crash (2022). A deluxe edition, Brat and It’s the Same but There’s Three More Songs So It’s Not, with three additional tracks was released on 10 June 2024. A remix album, titled Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat, featuring 20 guest artists, was released on October 11, 2024. // Brat was met with widespread acclaim from critics. Commercially, it peaked at number one in the UK, Australia, and Ireland. It also reached the top ten in 12 additional countries, including the United States, where it debuted at number three, Charli XCX’s highest debut for an album. According to Metacritic, it is the highest rated album of 2024 and the 16th-highest-rated album of all time. The album was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize for 2024 Album of the Year. The cover art and aesthetic became a popular Internet trend, and was adopted by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign after Charli XCX tweeted about the candidate. // After Joe Biden decided to withdraw from the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the official Biden-Harris campaign profile renamed itself “Kamala HQ” and changed its banner picture in imitation of the album cover, replacing “brat” with “kamala hq”. This occurred after Charli XCX tweeted about Harris on X (formerly Twitter), saying “kamala IS brat”. Charli XCX later stated that although not meant as an explicit endorsement, she was “happy to help prevent democracy from failing forever”. Multiple TikTok videos have shown edits of songs from the album with footage of Harris in the background. Some analysts have suggested the connection between the campaign and album will create enthusiasm among young voters.// English singer Charli XCX has released six studio albums (seven including the limited-release 14), five mixtapes, three extended plays, one live album, one soundtrack album, one remix album, two DJ mixes, 48 singles (including 15 as a featured artist), and 13 promotional singles. In 2007, XCX began recording her debut album on a loan granted by her parents. Titled 14, after her age at the time, it received only a restricted public release. Two singles, “!Franchesckaar!” and double A-side “Emelline” / “Art Bitch”, were released in late 2008 under Orgy Music. In June 2012, Charli XCX released her first mixtape, titled Heartbreaks and Earthquakes, a one-track file consisting of eight songs. A second mixtape, titled Super Ultra, was released in November of the same year. Charli XCX’s major-label debut studio album, True Romance, was released in April 2013, and peaked at number 85 on the UK Albums Chart. While failing to appear on any main album charts internationally, the album reached number five on the Heatseekers Albums chart in the United States and number 11 on the ARIA Hitseekers chart in Australia. The album spawned five singles—”Stay Away”, “Nuclear Seasons”, “You’re the One”, “You (Ha Ha Ha)” and “What I Like”. In 2012, Charli XCX was featured on Icona Pop’s song “I Love It”, which peaked at number one in the UK and reached the top 10 in various countries including the US, Canada, Ireland and Germany. // “SuperLove” was released as a stand-alone single in December 2013, peaking at number 62 on the UK Singles Chart. In 2014, Charli XCX released the single “Boom Clap” for the soundtrack to the film The Fault in Our Stars. The song was an international success, peaking at number six on the UK Singles Chart, number eight on the US Billboard Hot 100 and reaching the top 10 in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. “Boom Clap” was later included on Charli XCX’s second studio album, Sucker, released in December 2014. The album charted at number 15 in her native UK, number 28 in the United States, and entered the top 50 in several other countries including Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, and Switzerland. Sucker also spawned the top-40 UK single “Break the Rules” and the top-10 UK single “Doing It”, which features English singer Rita Ora. Also in 2014, Charli XCX was featured on Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”, which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 and charted in the top 10 in several countries including the UK, Canada, Ireland and Australia. // In 2016, Charli XCX released the Vroom Vroom EP, which while not a commercial success, signaled a move for the singer into more experimental electronic territory. In promotion of her third studio album, she released the top-40 hits “After the Afterparty” and “Boys”. After the album leaked however, the project was scrapped. In 2017 Charli XCX released two more experimental mixtapes, Number 1 Angel, and Pop 2, both of which received critical acclaim. // In September 2019, she released her third studio album Charli, which debuted at number 14 in the United Kingdom, number 42 in the United States, and entered the top 50 in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, and Spain. The album’s lead single “1999” peaked at number 13 in the UK. She followed up Charli with How I’m Feeling Now (2020), an album recorded in six weeks during COVID-19 lockdowns. The album debuted at number 33 in the UK and received critical acclaim. // Charli XCX released her fifth studio album Crash in March 2022, her last album under with Asylum, before ultimately renewing her contract in 2023, with Atlantic. Crash is her most commercially successful album to date, topping the charts in the UK, Australia, and Ireland, and becoming her first top 20 in the United States, Belgium and Germany. It also spawned the top-40 single “Beg for You”. // In June 2024, Charli released her sixth studio album, Brat, with the Atlantic record label; it was well received both critically and commercially, becoming her biggest hit album within a month of its release.]

5. (#27.) X – “Big Black X”
   from: Smoke & Fiction / Fat Possum Records / August 2, 2024
   [X is an American punk rock band formed in Los Angeles. The original members are vocalist Exene Cervenka, vocalist-bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer D. J. Bonebrake. The band released seven studio albums from 1980 to 1993. After a period of inactivity during the mid-to-late 1990s, X reunited in the early 2000s and continues to tour as of 2024. // X achieved limited mainstream success but influenced various genres of music, including punk rock, Americana, and folk rock. In 1991, Music critic Robert Hilburn identified them as one of the most influential bands of their era. In 2003, X’s first two studio albums, Los Angeles and Wild Gift, were ranked by Rolling Stone as being among the 500 greatest albums of all time. Los Angeles was ranked 91st on Pitchfork’s Top 100 Albums of the 1980s. // “John Doe, Exene Cervenka, DJ Bonebrake and that wild, crazy rockabilly guitar weirdo, Billy Zoom, are four of the most important people in the history of American music, and I do not say that with hyperbole. I genuinely mean that.” – Brian Oake (KCMP) // “flashes back to the freewheeling, rockabilly-infused punk rock of their early records. Exene Cervenka’s voice sounds as intense and titanic as ever.” – Stereogum // “pays tribute to the last 40+ years and sounds like classic X.” – Brooklyn Vegan // “Few bands before or since have captured the sound & feel of LA quite as well as X.” – Louder Sound // “the band name “X” in some way “marks the spot” at the nexus where punk, folk, and rock came together.” – American Songwriter // “Exene’s iconic harmonies with singer/bassist John Doe kick in during the chorus, as Billy Zoom holds down slick rockabilly riffs alongside the steady rhythms of drummer DJ Bonebrake.” – Consequence of Sound. // X plays Uptown Theatre, 3700 Broadway Blvd., KCMO, Saturday, Juy 6, at 7:00pm with Jesse Ahern]

6. (#26.) The Highwater – “Spilling (Clean)”
   from: Spilling EP / The Highwater / April 1, 2024
   [Kansas City band Konrad Hell & The Highwater is in pursuit of 2000s indie coolness. The song is smooth, chic, sexy, rocky, electronic and reminiscent of NYC band The Strokes. The song transports you to a glitzy lounge, where the twinkling lights of a disco ball pour over your face. Despite being dressed in suits with a full band setup and mood lighting to boot, the relaxed nature of Konrad Hell & The Highwater makes it seem like this is just an average night for the group, and they’ll keep jamming long after the camera turns off.

7. (#25.) Little Miss Dynamite – “Coffee and Tunes”
   from: Grow Up / Rural Grit Records / May 3, 2024
   [Little Miss Dynamite is a four piece string band with Beth Watts Nelson on lead vocals & banjo, Betse Ellis (of The Wilders, Betse & Clarke) on fiddle, Brandon Day (of The Matchsellers) on bass, and Caleb Gardner (of Konza Swamp) on mandolin, guitar & vocals. Engineered and Mixed by Clarke Wyatt, Gnomes and Goats Studio.More info at: http://www.bethwattsnelson.com]

8. (#24.) Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits – “Stragglers (A Slight Return)”
   from: Other Cats, Other Bags, Vol VI / Scott Hrabko / June 20, 2024
   [.. And on the first day of Summer, 2024, it’s the fourth and final volume of Other Cats, Other Bags. This one began life in sessions recorded by Chad Bryan at his studio, with longtime stalwart Jason Beers, brand new Rabbit, Matt Brahl, and guest turns by Dave Randall (keyboardist with The Ants), Marco Pascolini and Dave Regnier (Dead Voices). The other two tracks were recorded at Hrabkotron with legendary cowboy/doo-wop singers, Leo and Roger Eilts, along with Hank Tilbury. // Jason Beers on piano & bass guitar; Matt Brahl on drums & percussion, Leo Eilts on harmony vocal & upright Bass; Roger Eilts on harmony vocal & guitar; Hank Tilbury on harmony vocal; Dave Randall on piano, Marco Pascolini on baritone guitar & steel guitar, Dave Regnier on vocals; Scott Hrabk0 on vocals & guitar. // All songs ©2024, Scott Hrabko. // Basic tracks for Borrowed Blues and Lost Country Song: Recorded by Chad Bryan at the anthill. Mixed by Scott Hrabko. // A Street Called Riddance and Stragglers (A Slight Return): Recorded and mixed by SH. Mastered by Mike Nolte at Eureka Mastering, Portland, OR. // Cover: Sam Hrabko http://www.inprnt.com/profile/hrab/ // On March 19, 2024 Scott Hrabko released Other Cats, Other Bags – Volume 1 (4– track EP). On April 19, 2024 Scott Hrabko released Other Cats, Other Bags – Volume II (4-track EP). On May 27, 2024 Scott Hrabko released Other Cats, Other Bags – Volume III (4– track EP). These 4 EP releases were part of Multi-Volume Project containing recordings that grew from sessions Scott did at home with a few longtime Rabbits and some new friends from the Kansas City Music Community. // On July 1, 2022 Scott Hrabko and The Rabitts released The Wonderful World Of Scott Hrabko & the Rabbits. This recording was #12 on WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2022. These two sprawling discs contain song-craft reminiscent of everything from classic ‘60s adult pop to nostalgia-free Americana to cut ’n’ paste hip hop-inspired grooves — and some wild detours between. “But it’s all me.” – Hrabko. The Rabbits, this time around: Jason Beers on Bass, Organ, Piano, Banjo, Harmonica, Slide Guitar; Clarke Wyatt on Drums; Matt Hopper on Lead Guitar; Chris DeVictor on Upright Bass; Chris Hudson on Nylon String Guitar, Mandolin, Lead Guitar; Mike Lindsey on Bass; Tim Higgins on Drums, Percussion; Gary Paredes on Slide Guitar, Wah Wah Guitar; Chad Brothers on Lead Acoustic, and Havilah Bruders on Vocals, with Scott Hrabko on Voices, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Drums, Percussion, Banjo, Static Outbursts, Ghosts Knob Twiddling and Digital Chicanery. This 2-CD, 22-song release, THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SCOTT HRABKO & THE RABBITS on July 1, 2022. The double album was recorded at Hrabko’s home studio in a time of a global pandemic and social unrest. Mike Warren writes in No Depression Magazine, “Hrabko’s rootsy songs are filled with trap doors, hidden nooks, and secret passageways. They’re like those dreams within comfortably familiar houses that suddenly have brand new rooms.” Scott Hrabko & The Rabbits have released six singles and released the albums and EPs: LAST DANCE (EP) in 2020, SMASH HITS FROM A PARALLEL UNIVERSE (EP) in 2019, SUMMER in 2017, and BISCUITS AND GRAVITY in 2015. Scott Hrabko’s 2013 critically acclaimed solo release, GONE PLACES was said to be 30 years in the making. Scott Hrabko has played with The Original Sinners, as well as the 1980s bands: The Splinters, and The Andersons. In the early 1990s Scott performed as a solo artist in coffee houses with Iris Dement and Howard Eisberg. More info at: http://www.scotthrabko.com]

10:28 – Underwriting

9. (#23.) Beth Gibbons – “Burden of Life”
   from: Lives Outgrown / Domino / April 14, 2024
   [Lives Outgrown is the debut solo studio album by English musician Beth Gibbons, released on 17 May 2024 through Domino Recording Company. The album was produced by Gibbons, James Ford and Lee Harris. It was preceded by the singles “Floating on a Moment”, “Reaching Out” and “Lost Changes”. // Gibbons wrote the album over a decade, with topics including “motherhood, anxiety, menopause, and mortality”. Gibbons said that the album was directly influenced by the deaths of family and friends over the preceding several years and she “realised what life was like with no hope” // eth Gibbons (born 4 January 1965) is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the band Portishead, who have released three albums. She released an album with Rustin Man, Out of Season, in 2002, and a recording of Górecki’s Symphony No. 3 with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2019. She released a solo album in 2024 titled Lives Outgrown. // Gibbons was born in Exeter, Devon, England and raised on a farm with three sisters. Her parents divorced when she was young. She attended St Katherine’s School in Pill, Somerset, in North Somerset. // At 22, she moved to Bath, then Bristol to pursue her singing career, where she met Geoff Barrow, her future collaborator in Portishead, on an Enterprise Allowance course in 1991. // With Adrian Utley, Gibbons and Barrow released the first Portishead album Dummy in 1994 and have produced two other studio albums, a live album, and various singles in the years since. // She has also collaborated on a separate project with former Talk Talk bassist Paul Webb (Rustin Man). Before she joined Geoff Barrow in Portishead, she had auditioned for the singer’s slot in .O.rang, the group formed by Webb after Talk Talk’s late-Eighties departure from EMI, but Portishead’s sudden success pre-empted matters. In October 2002, they released the album Out of Season in the United Kingdom under the name Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man. The album peaked at number 28 in the UK Albums Chart. It was released in the United States a year later: while touring in North America, Variety favourably described her performance with Rustin as “Billie Holiday fronting Siouxsie and the Banshees”. // In June 2013, Gibbons announced plans for a new solo album with Domino Records. She contributed vocals to a cover of the song “Black Sabbath” with the British metal band Gonga, released on April 24, 2014. // In 2018, Gibbons contributed vocal performances, along with Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins, to the Spill Festival held in Ipswich in an audio installation entitled ‘Clarion Calls’, which uses the voices of 100 women to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. // In 2014, Gibbons performed Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Górecki with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Krzysztof Penderecki. Gibbons sang in Polish. The performance was released in 2019; reviewing the album for Pitchfork, Jayson Greene wrote: “Part of the tension comes from hearing her untrained voice scale these rocky heights. Her vibrato, tight and trilling and barely controlled, sounds an awful lot like someone fighting off a panic attack. This would get her dismissed from a traditional opera audition, probably, but it is magnificently effective at sending raw shudders through what can be a pretty well-worn work.” In 2022, Gibbons featured on the track “Mother I Sober” from Kendrick Lamar’s album Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. For her collaboration in the album she received a nomination for Album of the Year at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards as a featured artist and songwriter. On February 7, 2024, Gibbons announced the release of her first solo studio album in over 20 years. The album, titled Lives Outgrown, was released May 17, 2024. It was announced alongside a single titled “Floating on a Moment”, with its second single “Reaching Out” being released later that year on 10 April. // She has cited Nina Simone, Bono of U2 for his performance on The Joshua Tree, Otis Redding and Jimmy Cliff as musical inspirations. She has covered Janis Joplin songs and enjoys the music of Janis Ian.]

10. (#22.) Moses Sumney – “Vintage”
    from: Sophcore – EP / TUMTUM Records / August 2, 2024
    [A collaboration with Portland producer Graham Jonson, who goes by quickly, quickly, yields Sophcore’s prettiest and liveliest moments. “Gold Coast” begins as a sensual, puttering thing indebted to Bjork’s Vespertine. Sumney’s chalky falsetto complements and works against the plucked guitars, distorted multi-tracked vocals, and synths; his impressionistic lyrics (“Talk in tongues, testify/Sunrise skin, color of clay”) say no thanks to coherence, bless them. A symphony of gurgles and music-box melodies cushions “I’m Better (I’m Bad),” in which Sumney recreates with louche delight a dialogue between himself and a feminized object of desire. Over Sophcore’s recombinant grooves, Sumney radiates a sense of fun. Confidence in his vocal talents doesn’t congeal into self-regard. Turns out he’s right: Trills and melisma suit arrangements that swell and contract like protoplasmic organisms. // Moses Sumney released grae on May 15, 2020 on Jagjaguar Records. Sumney made his US television debut with a performance of “Cut Me” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on February 11, 2020. Græ (stylized in all lowercase) is a double album composed of Part 1 and Part 2. The first part was released digitally on February 21, 2020. The second part and the full album was released on May 15, 2020. Græ features a diverse arrangement of musical and technical contributions from Daniel Lopatin, Thundercat, James Blake, Taiye Selasi, John Congleton, Rob Moose, Ezra Miller, Michael Chabon, Adult Jazz, Matthew Otto, Ian Chang, FKJ, Nubya Garcia, Shahzad Ismaily, Jill Scott, Tom Gallo, Shabaka Hutchings, Tunde Jegede, Brandee Younger, Jamie Stewart, and Mac DeMarco. The album was preceded by the singles “Virile”, “Polly”, “Me in 20 Years”, “Cut Me”, and “Bless Me”.Second album and follow up to his debut studio full length album Aromanticism released September 22, 2017 from American singer-songwriter Moses Frimpong Sumney, born May 19, 1990 in San Bernardino, California to Ghanaian parents. He moved with his family back to Ghana at the age of 10. Sumney described his childhood as “Americanized” by this age and had difficulty adjusting to the culture of Ghana. He did not learn to play any instruments until he was older, writing a cappella music for years instead. Sumney did not perform his musical compositions publicly until he was 20. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles. He is based in Los Angeles, California. His self recorded debut EP, Mid-City Island, was released in 2014 and self recorded onto a 4-track recorder given to him by TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek. The EP was described by Pitchfork as “primarily composed of first-takes and improvisation; the music is stirring but purposefully incomplete”. Sumney has performed as an opening act for Solange, Sufjan Stevens, and Erykah Badu. Sumney released another 5-song EP in 2016, titled Lamentations which featured a guest appearance from Thundercat.]

11. (#21.) Eddie Moore – “Freewheel”
    from: Aperture (Live Piano Works) / Eddie Moore Music / March 5, 2024
    [All songs written by Eddie Moore. Recorded by Eddie Moore and Jaylen Ward. Mixed by Eddie Moore. Mastered by Crayge Lindesay. Album art by Jeremy Ian Thomas. This project presents snapshots into the life of Eddie Moore. The fun times riding bikes, getting lost in the woods, and spending time with loved ones. As a special solo sharing, it only felt right to capture the velvet soothing energy live on stage at Corvino’s, where experimentation and vulnerability are encouraged. // Special thanks to the Corvinos and the staff for letting me sneak in during the “off hours” and post up for a few hours in a blizzard. // When you speak to Eddie Moore you find an ocean of calm, and when you listen to Eddie Moore you find the depth of that ocean. Moore reaches from the soul with every note, in a deep way, with a tension just below the surface. His yearning for exploration and curiosity in music contribute to an ebb and flow freedom of expression. // On April 20, 2023 Eddie Moore released the single “Tuunami” Recorded & produced at Moore’s Tribe Studios, this song features Jaylen Ward on drums. Mixed & mastered by veteran KC savant Crayge Lindesay. // Eddie Moore released his critically acclaimed album INTUITION on October 28, 2022. Written & Produced by Eddie Moore. Recorded at Tribe Studios. Featuring Tim Ogutu on guitar. Mix & Mastered by Rick Carson at Make Believe Studios. Album Art by Brandon Wilson. // Eddie Moore released the single, “Love Song” (with Joel Castillo and Bree Cummings) on October 22, 2021. // Eddie Moore released “We Chillin’” on April 9, 2021. // Eddie Moore’s band We The People released their album MISUNDERSTOOD on September 25, 2020. // Eddie Moore is the recipient of the 2016 Charlotte Street Generative Performance Award for his genre bending collaborations. Raised in Houston Texas, he began his musical journey at Texas Southern University where he later earned a Bachelors in Arts and immersed himself in the Houston music scene. Eddie relocated to Kansas City to study under Bobby Watson at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he received a M.A in Jazz Studies. 2017’s Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art “Artist in Residence” in collaboration with Rashid Johnson. In 2018 his work with The Outer Circle was nominated for an Indie Music Award for “007”. His music has been featured commercially for Sprint, Netflix’s “Queer Eye”, and Morgan Cooper’s short film “Room Tone”. Moore’ has shared the stage and recordings with Bobby Watson, Logan Richardson, Maurice Brown, Boys II Men, Brian Blade and the Fellowship, John Baptiste, Erykah Badu, Mosdef, Bilal, Ledisi, Chantae Cann, Krystal Warren, Matt Otto, Brandon Draper, Andre Hayward, Tivon Pennicott, Various Blonde, Dominique Sanders, 77 Jefferson, and the Marcus Lewis Big Band. We The People released the single, “Single Double” on June 10, 2021. Written & Produced By Eddie Moore with Moore on keyboards, key bass, & programming; Zach Morrow on drums; and Jason Emmond on bass. Recorded at Tribe Studios. Mixed by Rick Carson at Make Believe Studios. Eddie Moore joined WMM on Sept. 23, 2020 and Nov. 23, 2022. More info at http://www.eddiemooremusic.com]

12. (#20.) The Cure – “A Fragile Thing (Radio Edit)”
    from: Songs of A Lost World / Fiction/Capitol Records / October 31, 2024
    [THE CURE’s long-awaited, critically acclaimed new album, SONGS OF A LOST WORLD, their first new release in 16 years, is out now via Fiction/Capitol Records. // The band will be performed their only scheduled show of the year on Nov. 1, at Troxy in London, which was live streamed on The Cure’s YouTube page Show Of A Lost World The Cure Live At Troxy. // BBC2 aired a special evening of Cure programming to celebrate the release of SONGS OF A LOST WORLD. // Initially formed in 1978, The Cure has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, headlined the Glastonbury festival four times and been inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. They are considered to be one of the most influential bands to ever come out of the UK. // SONGS OF A LOST WORLD was written and arranged by Robert Smith, produced and mixed by Robert Smith & Paul Corkett and performed by The Cure – Robert Smith: Voice / guitar / 6string bass / keyboard, Simon Gallup: Bass, Jason Cooper: Drums / percussion, Roger O’Donnell: Keyboard, Reeves Gabrels: Guitar. The album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales. // Robert Smith created the sleeve concept, and Andy Vella, a long-time Cure collaborator, handled the album’s art and design. The cover art features ‘Bagatelle’, a 1975 sculpture by Janez Pirnat. // THE CURE – SONGS OF A LOST WORLD https://thecure.lnk.to/SongsOfALostWorld More info at: http://www.thecure.com]

13. (#19.) Mdou Moctar – “Funeral for Justice”
    from: Funeral for Justice / Matador / May 3, 2024
    [‘Funeral For Justice’ is the new album by Mdou Moctar. Recorded at the close of two years spent touring the globe following the release of 2021 breakout ‘Afrique Victime,’ it captures the Nigerien quartet in ferocious form. The music is louder, faster, and more wild. The guitar solos are feedback-scorched and the lyrics are passionately political. Nothing is held back or toned down. // Mdou Moctar immediately stands out as one of the most innovative artists in contemporary Saharan music. His unconventional interpretations of Tuareg guitar and have pushed him to the forefront of a crowded scene. Mdou shreds with a relentless and frenetic energy that puts his contemporaries to shame. More info at: http://www.mdoumoctar.com]

14. (#18.) Leyla McCalla – “Scaled To Survive”
    from: Sun Without The Heat / Anti – Records / April 12, 2024
    [Leyla McCalla on vocals, cello, banjo, guitars; Shawn Myers on percussion, drums; Nahum Zdybel on guitars; Pete Olynciw on electric bass, piano; Maryam Qudus on synthesizers, organs, backing vocals; Louis Michot on fiddle on “Tower”. Recorded and Produced by Maryam Qudus at Dockside Studios, June 20-29, 2023. Assisted by Justin Tocket. Mixed by Maryam Qudus at Best House. Mastered by Heba Kadry, NYC. All songs written by Leyla McCalla (Makala Music (BMI)) except “Love We Had” music by Ali Mohammed Birra, arrangement and lyrics by Leyla McCalla (Makala Music (BMI)) // On May 6, 2022 Leyla McCalla released Breaking the Thermometer on Anti- Records. // Leyla Sarah McCalla was born October 3, 1985. She is a classical and folk musician. She has been a cellist with the Grammy-winning string band Carolina Chocolate Drops but left that group to focus on her solo career. Both of McCalla’s parents were born in Haiti. Her father Jocelyn McCalla was the Executive Director of the New York-based National Coalition for Haitian Rights from 1988 to 2006 and is credited as translator on Vari-Colored Songs. Her mother Régine Dupuy arrived in the United States at age 5, is the daughter of Ben Dupuy who ran Haiti Progrès, a New York based Haitian socialist newspaper. McCalla’s mother went on to found Dwa Fanm, an anti-domestic violence human rights organization. McCalla was born in New York City and raised in New Jersey. She lived in Accra, Ghana for two years as a teen. After a year at Smith College, she transferred to New York University to study cello performance and chamber music. She then moved to New Orleans where she played music on the streets. We first played Leyla McCalla in 2016 the same year we saw her live at Folk Alliance International and the same year she released her critically acclaimed album Vari-Colored Songs on Music Maker Recordings on February 4, 2014. The album is a tribute to Langston Hughes which includes adaptations of his poems, Haitian folk songs sung in Haitian Creole and original compositions. McCalla says the first song she wrote for the album was Heart of Gold because it provided “a window into Hughes’ thinking”.McCalla chose to dedicate this work to Hughes because she says “reading his work made me want to be an artist.” McCalla started working on the album 5 years prior to its release. Commentators have noted the influence of Louisiana musical traditions such as old Cajun fiddle melodies and trad-jazz banjo on the album. Members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops appear on the album. Along with her solo work Leyla McCalla was part of Songs of Our Native Daughters is the debut Americana/folk album by four North American singer-songwriters collaborating as Our Native Daughters. The group includes Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla, and Allison Russell. The album was released on the Smithsonian Folkways label in early 2019. Songs of Our Native Daughters addresses American historical issues that have influenced the identity of black women, including slavery, racism, and sexism. The album features 13 songs, 11 of them written by the group’s members. It also includes a cover of a 1970s Bob Marley classic and a song that draws its lyrics from two poems.]

15. (#17.) Hembree – “Wonderful Life”
    from: Better Days / Hembree / August 9, 2024
    [Hembree’s third studio album. Performed by: Hembree. Hembree is: Isaac Flynn, Eric Davis, Garrett Childers, Alex Ward & Austin Ward. Mixed by: Isaac Flynn. Mastered by: Ian Sefchick. Drums engineered by: Martin Cooke. Additional vocals by: Devynn Carter on tracks 1, 6, 9 and 10. Recorded at Kingsize Soundlabs (Los Angeles, CA), Peermusic (Burbank, CA) and Isaac’s house. Produced by: Isaac Flynn . // Hembree released their The 15-track album, IT’S A DREAM on February 4, 2022. It was part of WMM 120 Best Recordings of 2023. Hembree, is a KC born band was formed in November of 2015, with Isaac Flynn on guitar, & lead vocals, Garrett Childers on bass & vocals, Eric Davis on keys & synth, Alex Ward on guitar, and Austin Ward on drums. Hembree is signed to Thirty Tigers of Nashville, TN. The band was founded by original members Isaac Flynn, Garrett Childers, and Eric Davis. Brothers Alex and Austin Ward later joined in 2018. Hembree quickly garnered national attention after their single “Holy Water” was placed in an Apple commercial that aired during Super Bowl LII. The band’s music has been featured in a variety of other national placements, including Monday Night Football (NFL) and Bose. Hembree has notably supported Elvis Costello, Phoenix, Cold War Kids, Vance Joy, JR JR, and Joywave, among others. The band first toured Europe in Fall 2018. In 2018, Hembree signed with Thirty Tigers to release their first full-length album House on Fire, released 4/26/2019. In 2019, Hembree performed at Hangout Music Festival. They will also appear on the soundtrack of 13 Reasons Why: Season 3 with the song “Culture”. Hembree was named one of NPR’s Slingshot 2018 Artists to Watch. Rolling Stone named Hembree as one of the thirty best artists at SXSW 2018. “Had It All” debuted on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 on January 19, 2017. Lowe described the song as “absolutely fantastic.” “Holy Water” was featured in Apple’s HomePod “Distortion” TV spot, which ran during Super Bowl LII, the 60th Annual Grammy Awards, and the 2018 Winter Olympics. Hembree released the single, “Reach Out” on July 20, 2021 and “Operators (feat. Bodye)” on Sept. 21, 2021on Oread Records. IHembree played The Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St., Lawrence KC, on Saturday, October 12, at 8:00pm with and Flash Floods. nfo at: http://www.hembreemusic.com]

16. (#16.) Cheery – “Concept Of Love”
    from: Bliss / Spirit House Records / March 20, 2024
    [Cheery released three new singles last summer, from her new home in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom. “True Lover” on July 19, 2023 // “90210 Poster” on August 16, 2023 // “Bliss” on September 20, 2023. All three singles came with fabulous music videos . Cheery is the “Dream Pop” music project of musician and singer and songwriter Katlyn Cowpland formerly known as Katlyn Conroy, who was formerly based in Lawrence, Kansas. Katlyn met her husband on OkCupid and moved 4000 miles away to get married and relocate in Liverpool, England. When she was still based in Lawrence, Kansas, As Cheery, Katlyn released the single “Concept of Love” and b-side, “Vulture” on August 3, 2021, written and performed by Katlyn Conroy, and engineered and mixed by Eric Davis. Katlyn Conroy released SAPPHIRES funder her previous moniker and band, La Guerre through The Record Machine on January 20, 2015. It was #10 on WMM’s 115 Best Recordings of 2015. Katlyn Conroy was also part of the critically acclaimed band, Cowboy Indian Bear. She was the recipient of the 2013 Pitch Music Award for Best Singer-Songwriter. With over 20 years of live performance experiences she has performed alongside Daniel Johnston, Florence and The Machine, Grizzly Bear, Sara Barielles, Why? and more. Katlyn Conroy joined us on WMM on March 4, 2015 and August 26, 2015. More info at: http://www.cheery.bandcamp.com or https://linktr.ee/HearCheery ]

11:00 – Station ID

17. (#15.) Nala Sinephro – “Continuum 5”
    from: Endlessness / Warp Records / September 6, 2024
    [Nala Sinephro (born 1996) is a Caribbean-Belgian experimental jazz musician, currently based in London. She is best known for her ambient jazz compositions, where she predominantly plays the pedal harp, modular synthesiser, keyboards and piano. // In 2021, she released her debut studio album, Space 1.8, on Warp Records to widespread critical acclaim. The album placed highly on several music publications’ end-of-year lists. // Nala Sinephro spent her childhood in Belgium, growing up on the outskirts of Brussels, near a forest. Her Belgian mother was a classical piano teacher and her Martiniquan/Guadeloupean father was a jazz saxophonist. // During her teenage years, Sinephro developed a tumor in her jaw. The tumor’s successful removal influenced a period of hedonistic living, with Sinephro frequenting Brussels-based clubs to seek out hardcore dance music. // Initially interested in becoming a biochemist, Sinephro eventually transferred to an arts-based high school which featured a jazz department. There, she discovered the harp, which she quickly connected with. Sinephro attended Berklee College of Music in Boston for one year, dropping out after finding her job as a sound engineer provided a more practical education. She moved to London and enrolled in a second jazz college, though she quickly dropped out as a result of the racial disparity there. // In London, Sinephro became a contemporary of saxophonists Shabaka Hutchings and Nubya Garcia, and the jazz improvisation collective Steam Down, where she developed a sense of individuality in her style. Sinephro began performing with Steam Down regularly, working alongside the London Contemporary Orchestra’s artistic director Robert Ames. // Sinephro began writing the songs that would appear on Space 1.8 in 2018 and 2019. Writing on piano, she would record her pedal harp and modular synthesiser parts at her home before entering Pink Bird recording studio to record with the album’s collaborators, with included saxophonists Nubya Garcia and James Mollison, drummer Jake Long, and bassists Twm Dylan and Wonky logic. Sinephro emphasized minimalism and intentionality when composing the album. // Sinephro currently lives in Tottenham, North London. She has family based in the Caribbean island Martinique. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sinephro spent months living on Martinique, where she developed an interest in field recordings.

18.(#14.) Adrianne Lenker – “Sadness As A Gift (Radio Edit)”
from: Bright Future / 4AD / March 22, 2024
[Adrianne Lenker writes: ““bright future” was made with everything in my heart, and it will be yours march 22nd. for today, i’m sharing the second song from it called ”sadness as a gift”. “sadness as a gift” was co-produced by Philip Weinrobe, with contributions from Mat Davidson, Nick Hakim, and Josefin Runsteen. // Mat, Nick and Josefin, y’all brought this whole thing to life in a way i never could’ve even imagined being possible. my heart broke open during those weeks together. your love makes it what it is and i am endlessly grateful for the presence you gave to our time together and to this music. Phil you inspire me endlessly, you ignite my curiosity and remind me to enjoy being alive. i learn so much from working and existing with you, thank you for going one thousand percent in with me, all the way through the shadows and the light. // mastered with care by the incredible Josh Bonati. // Adrianne Elizabeth Lenker was born July 9, 1991. She is an American musician. She is the lead vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter of the band Big Thief. // Lenker was born in Indianapolis and was raised in a Christian cult until the age of four, but primarily grew up in Minnesota. Her parents rented homes in Coon Rapids, Nisswa, and Bloomington, Minnesota, before settling down in Plymouth, Minnesota, where she lived for 10 years, excluding a brief time spent in Santa Cruz, California. She spent a summer traveling throughout the midwest and living out of a Ford cargo van. // Lenker wrote her first song at the age of eight, and recorded her first album at age 13. Her other interests included studying martial arts, and she was the state karate champion three years in a row.[citation needed] She moved to Santa Cruz for a year and a half, living with a family friend and working at a local McDonalds. She dropped out of Santa Cruz High School halfway into her sophomore year, moved back to Plymouth, and got her GED at the age of 16. She attended the Berklee College of Music on a scholarship provided by Susan Tedeschi of the Tedeschi Trucks Band. // On February 28, 2006, when Lenker was 14, she released her first solo album, Stages of the Sun. On January 9, 2014, Lenker released her second solo album, Hours Were the Birds. // On May 1, 2014, Lenker, together with future bandmate Buck Meek, released the LP records a-sides and b-sides. In 2015, Lenker and Meek, alongside Max Oleartchik and James Krivchenia, formed the band Big Thief, whose first album was released in 2016. // Lenker released her third solo album, Abysskiss, on October 5, 2018. // On October 23, 2020, Lenker released her two most recent albums, Songs and Instrumentals. // Lenker met the future Big Thief co-founder Buck Meek at a concert when she lived in Boston, and then she encountered him again in a bodega the day she moved to New York. The pair began to play together, and married when Lenker was 24. They divorced in 2018, remaining in Big Thief as “deep friends”. In 2019, Lenker was in a relationship with the artist Indigo Sparke, and the two separated sometime in 2020. // While Lenker is comfortable with the label “queer”, she has expressed a desire not to define her sexual orientation beyond that. Her lyrics often contain discussions of gender and the gender binary. In an interview with The Brag, Lenker said of those lyrics, “I feel within myself a constant dialogue between my masculinity, my femininity and the part of me that is neither of those things. I’m just trying to talk about it because I feel like I’m something that is very ambiguous.”]

19. (#13.) Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark – “Soft Landing”
    from: Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark / Lost River Sound / August 9, 2024
    [Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark released Cindergarden (A Sides) on May 22, 2022. They released Cindergarden (B Sidesd) on June 21, 2023. Kirstie Lynn is a classically trained soprano with a passion for songwriting, always looking to marry poetry and melody. Though Kirstie’s voice has been compared to that of Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez, her sound is uniquely her own. Kirstie Lynn is a folk singer-songwriter originally from the fingerlakes region of upstate, NY. She began her professional music studies at the age of 15, and has since received both a Bachelor’s degree from Shenandoah University and a Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University in voice and opera performance. Her vocal training lends her the freedom to paint her nature inspired lyrics with a wide range and a beautiful and effortless sound. Kirstie Lynn is one half of the duo Kirstie Lynn and Galen Clark. // Galen Clark introduces an alternative perspective and approach to music that contains multitudes. Migratory melodies, multi-instrumental fluency, and mysterious texture all outline the stylings of the newly transplanted Cuyahoga Valley songwriter, producer, and musician. // Born into an Air Force family, Clark grew up in many places with family anchors in Vermont and Colorado. At the age of 9 following many failed piano lessons, Clark’s grandparents gifted him a Harmony parlor guitar from a Shelburne flea market, starting a journey that would span almost 2 decades of stylistic development, a plethora of ephemeral bands, a degree in music production and recording technology, and a refined take on songwriting. .. Sharing songs spanning the stoic mountains of Idaho’s lost river range to the ancient hum of the Shenandoah Valley, Galen draws upon energy strewn between varied time and place, a broader quest for belonging, and rejuvenation beyond the front door. Clark’s previous records, Providence (2018) and The Well (2020) offer a contemplative portrait of moods in natural ambiguity, collective consciousness, and introspection. His most recent collaboration with Kansas City – based artist, Kirstie Lynn is a reckoning that is to be heard live and will transport you elsewhere if not in mind than in spirit.][Kirstie Lynn & Galen Clark joined us live on WMM on June 21. // Kirstie Lynn played IN THE ROUND with Calvin Arsenia, Julia Othmer, and Christena Graves at The Bauer, 115 West 18th Street, in KCMO’s West Crossroads, Oct. 17.]

20. (#12.) MeShell Ndegeocello – “LOVE”
    from: No More Water: The Gospel Of James Baldwin / Blue Note – Verve / August 2, 2024
    [“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word “love” here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace – not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” ― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time // 14th album from acclaimed GRAMMY-winning multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello. A tribute album to African-American thinkers and writers, including namesake James Baldwin and Audre Lorde. The album was released on Baldwin’s Centennial: August 2, 2024. (from http://www.bluenote.com): The visionary work is at once a musical experience, a church service, a celebration, a testimonial, and a call to action. With No More Water, Ndegeocello embarks on a prophetic musical odyssey that transcends boundaries and genres, delving headfirst into race, sexuality, religion, and other recurring themes explored in Baldwin’s canon. Following 2023’s The Omnichord Real Book, her acclaimed Blue Note debut which won the inaugural GRAMMY Award for Best Alternative Jazz Album, the multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer renders an immersive and palpable document that is as sagacious, unabashed, and introspective as Baldwin was in life. // Co-produced by Ndegeocello and guitarist Chris Bruce, No More Water features some of the bassist’s frequent collaborators including Bruce, vocalist Justin Hicks, saxophonist (and Omnichord producer) Josh Johnson, keyboardist Jebin Bruni, and drummer Abe Rounds. Also appearing on various songs are vocalist Kenita-Miller Hicks, keyboardists Jake Sherman and Julius Rodriguez, and Executive Director of the NYCPS Arts Office and trumpeter Paul Thompson. The album also showcases powerful spoken word by venerated poet Staceyann Chin and Pulitzer Prize-winning author and critic Hilton Als. // Nearly a decade in the making, the album’s origins began in 2016 during a performance at The Harlem Stage Gatehouse as part of their annual showcase honoring Baldwin. Ndegeocello had delved into Baldwin’s work the year before, including the seminal nonfiction work The Fire Next Time, which she considers “life-changing” and carries with her as a “spiritual text.” Ndegeocello says, “It was just a revelation to me, and it softened my heart in so many ways.” // “Inspired by Baldwin’s most well-known essay, Ndegeocello’s piece—often staged as a church service—employs music, sermon, text, images, and movement, all of which enter into conversation with Baldwin’s monumental and delicate essay about how black bodies were perceived not only by white Americans but by blacks themselves,” writes Als in the album’s liner notes. “The music you hear in No More Water, is Jimmy talking to Meshell and his words meeting the language of her sounds and then coming out again through a multitude of voices, a multitude of sounds and thoughts that bring Jimmy back and give him—finally—his whole and true self, that which he offered up, time and again, if only we knew then how to listen.” // Thematically, the album moves like a procession in a Black church—baptism, testimony, worship/praise, and ultimately, resurrection. For the album’s opening track and lead single, “Travel,” we are brought inside the mind of a man with suicidal thoughts, a recurring motif in much of Baldwin’s oeuvre. Setting a dystopian mood, Rodriguez’s organ and Chin’s echoing incantations help usher in Justin Hicks’ ominous vocals: “I’ll stay away with all the work to be done/I’ll be bleeding while you bake in the sun.” // “Raise The Roof” features Chin sans accompaniment as the intensity of her words captures the stark and harrowing reality of the pervasive racism we cannot seem to escape: “It must be in the fucking water being force-fed to the police, the prosecutor and the politicians who care nothing for Black bodies falling like leaves in late August…in Ferguson…in Cleveland…in Staten Island, only minutes away from where my own child sits, watching The Muppets take over Manhattan.” // No More Water marks a significant moment of self-discovery for Ndegeocello. She adds that Baldwin entered her life at precisely the right time. “It came when I was ready to look in the mirror. I’ve had to play Plantation Lullabies at a few shows. Looking back, I had an interesting perspective, but the dialogue was limited. It was more like a cathartic experience for a young person of color, whereas now I’m going, ‘How can I get us all to love each other? How can I get us all to see this for what it is?’”// Last year Meshell Ndegeocello released her Blue Note Records debut with The Omnichord Real Book, on June 16, 2023. // At The 2024 Grammy Awards, Meshell Ndegeocello won the first-ever GRAMMY for Best Alternative Jazz Album for The Omnichord Real Book. In her acceptance speech, the two-time GRAMMY winner and 12-time nominee thanked Don Was, the president of Blue Note Records, as well as other colleagues and loved ones — including her two sons. “I hope I haven’t forgotten anybody,” Ndegeocello graciously said at the end, and invoked an elder of the music: “Oliver Lake, this is for you.” // It was a visionary, expansive, and deeply jazz-influenced album that marks the start of a new chapter in her career. Following her 2018 album Ventriloquism, Meshell returns with an album of new original material that taps into a broad spectrum of her musical roots. The Omnichord Real Book was produced by Josh Johnson and features a wide range of guest artists including Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Joel Ross, Jeff Parker, Brandee Younger, Julius Rodriguez, Mark Guiliana, Cory Henry, Joan As Police Woman, Thandiswa, and others. // Meshell Ndegeocello was born Michelle Lynn Johnson on August 29, 1968 in West Berlin, Germany, to US Army Sergeant Major and saxophonist father Jacques Johnson and health care worker mother Helen. She was raised in Washington, D.C. where she attended Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Oxon Hill High School. She is a singer-songwriter, rapper, and bassist. She has gone by the name Meshell Suhaila Bashir-Shakur which is used as a writing credit on some of her later work. Her music incorporates a wide variety of influences, including funk, soul, jazz, hip hop, reggae and rock. She has received significant critical acclaim throughout her career, being nominated for eleven Grammy Awards, and winning one. She also has been credited for helping to “spark the neo-soul movement”. // Ndegeocello adopted her surname, which she says means “free like a bird” in Swahili. Early pressings of Plantation Lullabies were affixed with stickers to help pronounce her name. The spelling has changed in the hands of record labels a few times during her career; the correct spelling of her stage name as of 2001 is Meshell Ndegeocello.]

21.(#11.) The Swallowtails – “Cocoon”
from: LUCKY PENNY EP / The Swallowtails / February 20, 2024
[The independent acoustic band, experimenting in the rock/pop genres while performing on what are traditionally folk/classical instruments, enter a new era having produced the entirety of this project themselves, with the songwriting matter touching on life’s big changes, challenges, and the realizations that time will heal. // “Since becoming a duo, it was time for us to reinvent our sound again. The songwriting on this EP is split between Rachel and myself, and this is Rachel’s debut release as a writer and singer. We spent all of January 2024 finishing the arrangements, recording and mixing the mini-record. It was a much needed release of energy for both of us, and we are definitely looking forward to adding these songs into our live sets and performing new material.”– Miki P, songwriter, singer and musician in The Swallowtails. // Est. in 2018, The Swallowtails are a Kansas City based musical duo comprised of musicians Miki P on guitar/vocals and Rachel Lovelace on bassoon/vocals. Their vision is to write honest, heartfelt songs that feel like you’re coming home to an old friend. As recording and performance artists, they have been showcased throughout Kansas City, performing at the Folly Theatre, Boulevardia Music Festival, The Kansas City Public Library as part of the 2023 Art in the Loop: Celebrate project, and most recently at Green Guitar Folk House opening for The Wildwoods. Their songwriting was awarded Best Song by a KC Band in 2023 by the Pitch Magazine for their tune “Take it Slow.” // Live video’s will be released on The Swallowtails YouTube page in support of the EP, the live session was filmed at West Bottoms Whiskey Co. // Swallowtails will be featuring the new EP at the Folk Alliance International Conference February 21st-25th. Both Miki & Rachel have earned scholarships to attend the conference. // Swallowtails embark on their 4th year entering NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest featuring a song off the EP, called “I’m on Fire” posted to NPR’s official contest site. // The Swallowtails have recently been approved as part of KCAIC Touring Artists Roster, through the Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission. // On May 22, 2023 The Swallowtails released their 7-track EP THE WORLD STILL SPINS from Rachel Lovelace on bassoon, Adee Dancy on cello & vocals, and Miki P on guitar & lead vocals. Miki P is a self-taught musician/multi-instrumentalist & songwriter driving the Swallowtails into a creative collaboration like any other. Miki P was born in Kansas City, KS. Miki P started playing guitar in middle school. She taught herself to play the drums, while listening to Mitch Mitchell, Keith Moon and Ringo Starr. Miki P performed “She Loves You” at her 7th grade talent show. In 9th grade she joined a teen-band called American Slim as drummer & vocalist, and she wrote songs for their full-length album Irreplaceable released in 2017, followed by a single “Queen of Hearts” released April 11, 2018. Miki P has played Middle of the Map Fest, Crossroads Music Fest, Kauffman Stadium, Arrowhead Stadium, and The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art before officially ending in 2018. As a teen she played drums for various groups including American Slim. At 21, Miki P began work on her debut solo-record, DOME OF SWALLOWS, that was released August 2, 2018. She then formed Miki P and the Swallowtails who released their first EP, Swallowtail in 2019, In 2021 Miki P released the 6-song EP, DON’T LOSE HOPE, created in covid isolation, in Miki P’s home space. Sitting & working from Miki’s computer, she composed and recorded 80% of the EP, working through the music like a journal entry, creating each song from her internal hurricane of emotions. All songs written, recorded, played, & mixed by Miki P. Recorded & Mixed with Emma Klien & Jake Hilger. Mastered by Joel Nanos. Miki P released her single “Your Love” on June 24, 2022. Miki P’s released the single “Peter Parker!” on March 18, 2022. // The Swallowtails played the 20th Annual Crossroads Music Fest, August 24, on the Stockyards Brewing Stage with: Howard Mahan & Friends, The Canterberries, Danielle Ate The Sandwich, Beth Watts Nelson, Rural Grit All Stars, and Les Ismore & The Goats. // More info at: http://www.mikipmusic.com]

11:18 – THE TOP TEN!

22. (#10.) Kat King – “Baby Talk”
    from: Domestic Bliss EP / Manor Records / April 5, 2024
    [ Kat King, on lead vocals, Derek Melies on guitar, John Kaul McCain on bass, Daniel Cole on drums, & Kara LePage on keyboards. On October 6, 2023 Kat King released the single. “Bight-Eyed.” // On June 16, 2024 Kat King released the single “Baby Talk.” // On Jan. 13, 2023 Kat King released “Gone South” Produced by Joel Martin. Centering on themes of self-care, steadfast friendship, and revitalizing optimism. On September 20, 2022 Kat King released the single “With Nothing In My Way.” This followed their single “New Sun” released July 29, 2022. “New Sun” was a follow up to the June 9, 2021, SAY WHAT YOU MEAN 5-track EP, recorded with her band. Co-produced & mixed / mastered by Joel Martin. Lawrence KS based singer songwriter Kat King released her last single “Song of Spain” in 2019 and her single “2017” in, 2018. She released her 5-song EP “Falling Up” on Dec. 1, 2017. Kat has made music since the 2nd grade. She made a 13-song album and 3 EP’s, the 1st one released at 14.]

23. (#9.) Clarke Wyatt – “Green Eyes”
    from: CLARKES IN SPACE / Clarke Wyatt / March 19, 2024
    [CLARKESINSPACE is an ongoing project by Clarke Wyatt: multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, recording and video engineer. Clarke is a lifelong creator of original music. He has written string quartets, original compositions and songs, studio project parts and production, and video creations. And that’s just the start. His latest project in the works is called “Guitar Party”, where he plays drum kit with electric guitarists (sometimes switching places if the guitarist is also a drummer). It’s the beginning of a video series, first created for youtube, with options for multiple media.

24. (#8.) Supermoto – “Motown”
    from: Supermoto / Manor Records / Sept. 30, 2024
    [Hailing from Kansas City, this 5-piece group started meeting in the pre covid winter of 2020. April of 2021 they released their first two songs “Moonlight” and “Polarized” which led to a run of energetic and successful live performances – all the while building up many catchy originals drawing on their inspirations of jazz, funk, r&b, city pop and disco. Supermoto played HOWDY at 6523 Stadium Drive, KCMO on October 10, at for the Abandoncy album release of Assailable/Agonoism, with God’s Computer and Young Mvchetes.]

11:28 – Underwriting

25. (#7.) Amble Haunt – “Over-Under”
    from: Feather Led / Amble Haunt / August 9, 2024
    [Feather Led is the first full length studio album from midwest rock band Amble Haunt. // Produced under the guidance of producer/songwriter Nathan Hussey (All Get Out / ATX Heat) – Feather Led is a distinct milestone that embodies Amble Haunt’s unwavering love for the craft of writing and recording music. // The album represents a multi-year collaborative effort between vocalist Bryce Veazey and drummer Brandon Woodall. As the core members of Amble Haunt, Veazey and Woodall have been creating music together for over 20 years through various projects and bands. // Feather Led‘s lyrical content is diverse as it explores the corners of life and self-fulfillment. This album contains much more than love songs or aimless emotions, it is a journal of perseverance. A support to those who know there is more to life than death and taxes. // Amble Haunt released the 5-track debut EP EMPTY LOT on April 1, 2021. it was part of WMM’s Best Recordings of 2022. This Kansas City, Missouri based 4-piece band formed by Bryce Veazey, Brandon Woodall, Ara Woodall, and Jake Briscoe. The band writes: “Music has a way of haunting…Amble Haunt is the way those haunts are sung out into life.” A song about knowing your predispositions in life, and deciding to move forward regardless of the weight you carry. The band surfeited that “Jump Cross the Pool” is a song about knowing your predispositions in life, and deciding to move forward regardless of the weight you carry. More info at: http://www.amblehaunt.bandcamp.com.]

26. (#6) The Roseline – “Aloneness”
    from: Keystone of the Heart / RPH Records / February 2, 2024
    [Keystone of the Heart is the eighth album from the Lawrence, Kansas based band. The Roseline features: Colin Halliburton on lead vocals, Bradley McKellip on guitar, Heidi Gluck on Keyboards & backing vocals, Colin Jones on bass, Jim Piller on drums, and Chase Horseman on Mellotron. Engineered, produced, and mixed by Joel Nanos at Element Recording Studios in Kansas City, KS Mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering in Chicago, IL. // Keystone of the Heart, is arguably their most distilled, elegant, and emotionally resonant album of their career. Halliburton describes it as “a protest record which protests the dissolution of a marriage, the slog of existence in late stage capitalism, and grotesque hatred and violence.” While this certainly sounds clunky and heavy-handed, Halliburton knows when to inject some levity and humor. Songs which appear dour and grim in the early verses always seem to find some hope and light by their end. Keystone of the Heart offers pure aural aloe for troubled times. // The Roseline played an Album Release Show at The Bottleneck con February 2, 2024 with Suzannah Johannes and Empty Moon. The band will be traveling back to Scandinavia in March.// The Roseline’s 7th album CONSTANCY was released November 5, 2021, was #1 on WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2021. // The Roseline are a Lawrence, KS, based alt-country, Americana, rock band, formed by Colin Halliburton with friends in 2005. The Roseline released their 6th album GOOD / GRIEF on April 3, 2020. The Roseline released BLOOD on September 29, 2017; and TOWNIE on June 19, 2015. The band has toured the US and parts of Europe. Halliburton has completed two European solo tours thus far, taking him through Poland, Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands. // . The Roseline founder and principal songwriter, Colin Halliburton, began the project as an acoustic folk trio. It has since evolved into the five-piece heartland rock band of its current form. // Kind foreign press and high charting on the Euro Americana Chart (“Lust for Luster,” “Blood,” “GOOD/GRIEF” and “Constancy” all charted in the top 10) led to a deal in the Benelux with Dutch label King Forward Records. The band also released “Vast as Sky” in 2012 with the Bay Area label Ninth Street Opus (home to Sarah Lee Guthrie and Carrie Rodriguez). Aside from those, the project has largely been a truly DIY, independent venture. // The Roseline has had the good fortune of landing placements in indie movies and major network television shows such as ABC’s “Nashville” and “Resurrection,” as well as USA’s “Queen of the South,” Netflix’s “Virgin River” and MTV’s “Teen Mom.” The band’s work has been featured on NPR, “Pop Matters,” “American Songwriter,” “The Bluegrass Situation” and “No Depression,” among others. Colin Halliburton joined us on WMM on March 25, 2020. More info at: https://roselinemusic.com/%5D [The Roseline will tour throughout Sweden and Norway in March.]

27. (#5.) Miss Boating – “Jewel In The Trash”
    from: Jewel In The Trash / High Dive Records / June 29, 2024
    [Miss Boating recently signed with High Dive Records to release their debut album, JEWEL IN THE TRASH. Miss Boating is a KC based, five-piece with multi-instrumentalist & lead singer Charlie Coleborne, drummer Bill Belzer, Aaron Jones on trombone, Tom Gillespie on Saxophone, and Bryan McGuire on bass. (Phil Dickey played bass on the album.) Charlie and Bill met in the late 1980s. In the beginning they were called The Sympathetic Fringe, and then The Sleazebeats. In recent years Charlie & Bill added Aaron, Tim and Bryan. Described by one local radio host as “the perfect house band for a John Waters After Party.” One of their songs is about a friend’s mom’s dynamic relationship with prescription medication. Another is a tribute to the late Evan Jolly, their former bassist. All of the songs are written by Charlie Colborne through his blue/gay eyes. These songs have a fine patina of ditch weed, filthy humor, cigarette smoke, gay drama, Bee Gee’s inflected new wave, queer music hall schmaltz, odd stiff naive sambas, and box wine. More info at: http://www.highdivekc.com // From the ashes of their former band The Sleazebeats, Charles Colborne and Bill Belzer faced a difficult 2019 when combined with the death of Charlie’s own beloved mother, their friend and bassist Evan Vhargon died. The band wrote that they “were lost when Evan passed.” Through the tough times Bill and Charlie kept playing and wrote that they “were blown away when Phil Dickey wanted to jam with us… the jamming turned into something more and we were going again. We couldn’t be more thankful and humbled.” Phil is part of the bands Dragon Inn 3, and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. // On January 1, 2020 Miss Boating released The Vhargon Sidestep with: Charlie Colborne on keyboards, guitar, vocals; Bill Belzer: drums, vocals; Phil Dickey on bass; Aaron Jones on trombone; Tim Gillespie on saxophone. Ross Brown served as engineering, did all of the mixing for The Vhargon Sidestep and Mike Nolte handled all of the mastering. Miss Boating played an Album Release Show, Saturday, June 29 at 6:00pm at The Ship, 1221 Union Avenue, KCMO, with Fullbloods.]

28. (#4.) BLACKSTARKIDS – “SOULMATEZ”
    from: Saturn Dayz / Dirty Hit Records / September 30, 2022
    [Gen-Z upstarts BLACKSTARKIDS have released their sixth studio album Saturn Dayz on September 20, 2024 through Dirty Hit Records and immediately followed with an 8-track seventh studio album HEAVEN ON URF, on October 25, 2024 on Dirty Hit Records. Our friend and music writer Bill Brownlee talked with us about how the band created a double album, but the record company decided to release as two separate albums. The music from both albums relate to each other. Before the release of Saturn Dayz the band released their single and video “SOULMATEZ!” on August 30, 2024. “SOULMATEZ!,” is a magnetic, blissed-out bop that brings together pop, indie, and alt-rap, reminiscent of Dev Hynes-era Solange mixed with De La Soul. // The follow up to BLACKSTARKIDS’ acclaimed 2022 album CYBERKISS* which featured standout singles “CYBERKISS 2 U* ft. beabadoobee” and “SEX APPEAL,” SATURN DAYZ is an otherworldly, genre-crossing testament to their unrelenting artistry and is their most impressive work to date. PRESS HERE to pre-save SATURN DAYZ. // Putting out music at a prolific rate and making waves for their formidable songwriting and producing talents, as well as their endless energy and truly limitless sound, BLACKSTARKIDS have received critical acclaim from New York Times, MTV, UPROXX, Billboard, Alternative Press, SPIN, Ones To Watch, Rolling Stone France, The Line Of Best Fit, DIY, Coup De Main, and more. Blending garage rock with synth-punk and hip-hop to usher in a new surge of indie, such as on their beloved album Puppies Forever which features anthemic singles “ALL COPS ARE BASTARDS,” “JUNO,” and “FIGHT CLUB,” BLACKSTARKIDS are well on their way to indie stardom and have previously toured with the likes of The 1975, COIN, Glass Animals, beabadoobee, Christian Leave, GroupLove. // Incorporating each member’s wide-ranging influences into their blissful DIY sound, such as Toro Y Moi, NERD*, Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Outkast, Odd Future, and A Tribe Called Quest, BLACKSTARKIDS first captivated the internet with their “black coming of age trilogy” of projects Let’s Play Sports, Surf, and Whatever, Man that feature critically acclaimed singles including “BRITNEY BITCH” and “FRANKIE MUNIZ.” // Blackstarkids are phenomenon who came out of Kansas City in 2020 became the soundtrack for the summer. Blackstarkids are a pop/R&B/hip-hop trio based in Kansas City, Missouri. Members include: TheBabeGabe, Deiondre, and TyFaizon (of the Drop Dead XX collective). The members have known each other since high school in Raytown, Missouri. Members met at Raytown South High School and formed the band in 2019. The group released its first album, Let’s Play Sports, on August 1, 2019. Blackstarkids then released their second album SURF through their own label Bedroom Records on February 28, 2020. Blackstarkids caught the attention of The 1975’s frontman Matty Healy and were then signed to The 1975’s management company and UK-based label Dirty Hit Records. They were featured in Clash Magazine. Blackstarkids then released, Surf Basement Demos on Dirty Hit Records on March 5, 2020. On October 29, 2020, Blackstarkids released Whatever, Man on Dirty Hit Records, their third album release of 2020. Gabe, of Blackstarkids recently described the KC Music community to an interviewer, “The music scene here is really nice. There are a lot of bands who are super talented and do all types of genres. The jazz music here is really great as well. Kansas City is honestly a hidden gem when it comes to music. I feel like you can meet an artist anywhere and anyplace in this city.” Deiondre added, “The music scene here is getting cool now, there’s a lot of jazz musicians that go to school for music here too but you can find people from different scenes all over if around the city.” Ty wrote, “The Kansas City scene is great, the community here is so supportive and genuine. This is a really prideful city here and I think they’re finally getting the musicians they deserve.” There was a final concert scheduled at the end of the year that was cancelled. Were not sure if BLACKSTARKIDS will continue in their current form as a band.]

29. (#3.) Flight Attendant – “Therapy Couch (Radio Edit)”
    from: Under The Power Lines / Flight Attendant / November 15, 2024
    [“Flight Attendant delivers an experience,” – Rolling Stone Magazine. Flight Attendant belongs to that breed of rock bands made in Nashville, USA; where their sound is nothing less than a sonic unicorn. Blending sounds of grunge with power-pop hooks, viola and light synth textures, they have begun to create a hypnotic sound and energy all of their own. Glide Magazine says that Lead Singer Karalyne, “Commands your attention like Freddie Mercury working the crowd in an arena.” Flight Attendant band has been compared to Haim and Fleetwood Mac, or as TurnuptheVolume puts it, “Think Warpaint having a dance with Best Coast,” – This “Nashville based eclectic-indie band….is ready for take off”, Velvet Thunder. // Karalyne Winegarner lead singer of Flight Attendant, a Nashville based five piece band that formed while in the service of food and beverage. Karalyne, a certified sommelier from Kansas City, crossed paths with Vinny, an award-winning bartender from Boston, while they were working and making music together for fun. They were soon joined by their co-worker Nikki from Los Angeles, Derek from Boston, and Peyton, all fellow bartenders. Since their inception, Flight Attendant has released standout singles like “Man of Chaos” and “Therapy Couch,” which has received significant radio play. They’ve played sold-out shows from Austin to Nashville to Munich Germany, and at major festivals including SXSW, Boulevardia, Tomato Arts Fest, and the 20th Annual Crossroads Music Fest. Their eagerly awaited sophomore album, Under The Powerlines, \will be released on November 15. 2024. Flight Attendant is a five piece band that includes: Karalyne on lead vocals & keyboard, Vinny Maniscalco on vocals & guitar, Nikki Christie on vocals & viola, Derek Sprague on drums, anmd Peyton Rodeffer on vocals & bass.]

30. (#2.) Waxahatchee – “Bored”
    from: Tiger’s Blood / Merge Records / March 22, 2024
    [Kansas City based Katie Crutchfield’s southern roots are undeniable. The name of her solo musical project Waxahatchee comes from a creek not far from her childhood home in Alabama and seems to represent both where she came from and where she’s going. // Tiger’s Blood was produced by Brad Cook. Engineered & mixed by Gerardo “Jerry” Ordonez. Assistant engineering by Natalia Chernitsky. Mastered by Emily Lazar. Recorded and Mixed at Sonic Ranch Recording Studios. // On March 27, 2020 Waxahatchee released SAINT CLOUD which was in the TOP 20 of WMM’s 120 Best recordings of 2020. On Saint Cloud all songs were written by Katie Crutchfield. Recorded & mixed at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, TX & Long Pond in Stuyvesant, NY. Produced by Brad Cook. Engineered by Jerry Ordonez. Additional engineering by Jon Low. Mixed by Jon Low. Mastered by Brent Lambert at The Kitchen. KATIE CRUTCHFIELD on vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, keys; BRAD COOK on bass, acoustic guitar, piano, keys, synth; BOBBY COLOMBO on electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keys; BILL LENNOX on electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keys, percussion; NICK KINSEY on drums, percussion; JOSH KAUFMAN on electric guitars, piano, organ, percussion. More info at: http://www.waxahatchee.com.] [Waxahatchee played the Uptown Theatre on April 18, 2024]

31. (#1.) Krystle Warren & The Faculty – “Without U”
    from: Extended Play / Parlour Door Music / November 1, 2024
    [Following their double album LOVE SONGS (2012) and their single “Rising” released May 31, 2019, and written especially for Ava DuVernay’s critically acclaimed television mini series WHEN THEY SEE US, Krystle Warren & The Faculty, released the single, “Macca” on May 22, 2023, recorded on the heels of sessions for the band’s upcoming full length album EXTENDED PLAY. // The Faculty was formed with Krystle Warren, Solomon Dorsey, Zach Djanikian, Mike Riddleberger, and Dave Moore. While the four boys had classes and gigs, Krystle floated around New York and made a lot of friends. She busked and wrote songs, and, with the help of her band members and Ben Kane, who had an internship at Electric Lady Studios and was sneaking them in at odd hours, Krystle turned those songs into an e.p. called Diary. // Diary led to Circles, which Ben Kane co-produced with Voodoo engineer Russell “The Dragon” Elevado. Circles was bought by Because Music in France, but Krystle still recorded Love Songs in New York, a double album that invokes a Blakean duality with its two subtitles, ‘A Time to Refrain from Embracing’ and ‘A Time You May Embrace’. // Love Songs​ was produced with most of the Faculty (Zach was on tour with Amos Lee) and a slew of guest musicians in Brian Bender’s Brooklyn studio, The Motherbrain. Bender’s assistant, Jonathan Anderson, would later go on to replace Dave Moore on keys. // The Faculty has always been a tenuous project for everyone involved because of the distance and the schedules. While everyone remains close friends, the band members are spread across the globe. Krystle in France. Riddleberger in New York and Zach in Woodstock. Jonathan in Los Angeles. And then they are all working musicians, touring, recording, and collaborating with an impressive list of artists. Musicians like, in no particular order: D’Angelo, Hercules and Love Affair, Donald Fagen and the Nightfliers, Joan As Police Woman, Jonathan Wilson, Emily King, Janet Jackson, Ron Sexsmith, Amy Helm, Taylor Swift, Rufus Wainwright, Natalie Merchant, Graham Nash, The Knights, Bleachers, Emmylou Harris, Amos Lee, Mayra Andrade, Lana Del Rey, Broken Social Scene, Teddy Thompson, Lakecia Benjamin, and honestly that’s less than the half of it. // So they have been busy, and they have gained a lot of experience since the days of sneaking into ElectricLady late night or playing for meager pay and free wine at an East Village Italian resto. And while Diary, Circles, and Love Songs​ were recorded with everyone in the same room (​Three the Hard Way, Krystle’s solo album, was pared down to her and Kane collectively), Extended Play​ was recorded disparately and assembled together by the steady hands and ears of Kane and Krystle. There is distance between the musicians in the recording process, but there is still a close emotional connection that can be heard in these songs. // The songs that make up ​Extended Play​ are songs of experience—the lyrics reflect on a crush from high school, a departed musical hero, and others who live in memory. There is nostalgia in Extended Play, and a forlornness. // Krystle describes “When I Look Back,” the last song of the album, as “an apology to my teenage self.” Twenty years ago she was writing songs about what happened day-of because being young is about immediacy and living in the present tense. Now the songs are about years past because life slows down, and we are allowed the time to “look back.”// But as Krystle sings in “Rising,” “Future lingers while past is present.” She’s writing about the past because we are all our collected histories—or as she puts it in “When I Look Back”: “there’s still something of her that stays.” The future, of course, still lingers, always there waiting for us, for the next move. The album ends with a recording of Audre Lorde’s gravelly voice. She says, // I’m going on to something else, the shape of which, I have no idea. ‘Only thing I know is, it’s going to be quite different. What I leave behind has a life of its own – I’ve said this about poetry … Well in a sense, I’m saying it about the very artifact of who I have been. // Krystle Warren & The Faculty still have more to come. They have built twenty years of memories, experiences, recordings, and shows, and with the release of Extended Play,​ they continue to show a commitment to growing as musicians together, even if apart. The Extended Play bio written by Phil Anderson]

32. Noel Coward – “The Party’s Over Now”
    from: Noel Coward in New York / drg / 2003 [orig. 1957]

Tune into WMM thru Dec. for WMM’s 120 Best Recordings of 2024 Dec 4, 11, 18, and 25.

NEXT WEEK, on Wednesday MidDay Medley on Jan 1, 2024, we ring in the New Year w/ New Music from: Fullbloods, the eradicats, The Fur and the Fang, Day Shepherd, elska, The Slay Belles, Krystle Warren & The Faculty, David Luther, Clarke Wyatt, Piney Gir, Kim Deal, Horsegirl, The The, Helado Negro, Sylvester, Laura Marling, and we’ll also play Betse & Clarke, and Minnie Riperton, AND at 10:30 we’ll talk with electronic/ambient music recording artist elska about her 11-track album Dancing Alone released through Time Released Sound on July 5, 2024. AND at 11:00 we’ll talk LIVE with Krystle Warren the artist behind our #1 in WMM’s Best Recording of 2024, Krystle Warren & The Faculty and the album Extended Play.

Thank you to all who have donated during our two Fall Fund Drive Show on Wednesday MidDay Medley and our WMM Facebook Fundraiser, we received donations from 46 individuals who donated a total of $3436.00. That is 97% of our ambitious goal, I call that a success!!!

THANK YOU to our incredible KKFI Staff; Director of Development & Communications – J Kelly Dougherty, Volunteer Coordinator – Darryl Oliver, Chief Operator – Chad Brothers, KKFI Accounting & Administration – Shaina Littler.

This radio station is more than the individual hosts of each individual radio show. Instead it is about a collective spirit of hundreds of hardworking people, unselfishly setting aside ego, to work for the greater good of community building and the gigantic goal of keeping our airwaves free, non-commercial, and open to all! Congratulations and thank you to all programmers & volunteers who went the extra effort to keep our station alive.

Our Script/Playlist is a “cut and paste” of information.
Sources for notes: artist’s websites, bios, wikipedia.org

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Show #1075