Heavy Rotation: 10 Songs Public Radio Can't Stop Playing
With his catchy songwriting and rock-star stage presence, BØRNS grabbed WNKU's attention. Nick Walker/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
With his catchy songwriting and rock-star stage presence, BØRNS grabbed WNKU's attention.
Nick Walker/Courtesy of the artistIt's officially summer, and our panel of public-radio hosts clearly had the warmer months in mind when we asked them to select their favorite songs of the moment. Their mix includes an impossibly catchy jam from BØRNS that could have been crafted especially for summer nights, a road-trip-worthy surf-rock anthem from Django Django, and a dream-pop creation from Portland duo Wishyunu. Hear all the songs below.
Hear The Songs
BØRNS. Nick Walker/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
BØRNS, 'Electric Love'
- from Candy
"Electric Love" is catchy and clever, but not too clever. The genius behind BØRNS is Garrett Borns, who's poised to become a major rock star. He's got it all: solid songwriting, a stage presence well beyond his years, an intriguingly androgynous look and sound. Borns was an award-winning visual-arts prodigy as a kid in Grand Haven, Mich., and that art, like his music, is incredible. Lucky for us, he ran off to L.A. to join the circus.
—John Patrick McGue, WNKU
Django Django. Fiona Garden & Antonio Zarli/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Django Django, 'Shake And Tremble'
- from Born Under Saturn
Django Django's "Shake And Tremble" opens with a riff reminiscent of the fuzzy bassline driving Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme. From there, it grazes across surf rock and then, with Beach Boys-style harmonies, it becomes the most accessible pop anthem of the summer. I can't help but get sucked into the synths, harmonies and nods to the band's favorite pop and psych-rock sounds. "Shake And Tremble" is my lead-off road-trip track, a true summer mixtape essential.
—Anne Litt, KCRW
Eilen Jewell. Otto Kitsinger/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Eilen Jewell, 'Hallelujah Band'
- from Sundown Over Ghost Town
After years away, Eilen Jewell recently returned home to Idaho, and what she found there was both heartening and heartbreaking. On one hand, the town of her childhood was born anew — pulsing with fresh life and activity. On the other, the endless miles of undeveloped and undisturbed plains were shrinking. Jewell's new album, Sundown Over Ghost Town, takes a look at her contradictory feelings and images surrounding the place she calls home. "Hallelujah Band," for example, looks at that feeling when you discover something you're certain no one has ever encountered before. It's a beautiful ode to feeling open and ready and willing to accept whatever the universe might want to show you.
—Elena See, Folk Alley
Wishyunu. Courtesy of the artist hide caption
02Summer Suit
Wishyunu, 'Summer Suit'
- from Photoplay
The drums-and-synth duo Wishyunu has been writing and recording shoegaze-y dream-pop in Portland basements since 2008. But after self-releasing a debut album that same year, drummer Tony Bertaccini and vocalist Bei Yan have kept a low profile, releasing only small bundles of promising tracks in fits and starts. That's set to change this year. In the spring, the band announced that a full-length LP called Ghost Ambition was in the works; then, the group released a 7" single for the song "Photoplay." This track, "Summer Suit," is the lush B-side to that recording, driven by Bertaccini's tasteful drumming, Yan's atmospheric guitar work and propulsive synth lines. Above it all, Yan's smoky voice floats like fog burning off the beach on a sleepy summer morning.
—Jerad Walker, opbmusic
Low Cut Connie. Phil Knott/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Low Cut Connie, 'Shake It Little Tina'
- from Hi Honey
Philadelphia's Low Cut Connie does rock 'n' raunch right on its third album, Hi Honey. There, the vibe is always like your favorite dive bar at last call, and Jerry Lee Lewis and Ike and Tina Turner rub shoulders with the best bands from the classic garage-rock comp Nuggets and The Replacements at their best. (That is to say, in the early days, when Bob Stinson took the stage in a diaper or wrapped head-to-foot in aluminum foil.) Fleet-fingered keyboardist Adam Weiner and Low Cut Connie's co-founder, drummer/guitarist Dan Finnemore, roam this familiar turf with such unbridled enthusiasm and deliciously sordid sarcasm that they make you believe they're the only real rock 'n' roll band in a world of fakes and poseurs. Listen to "Shake It Little Tina" and you'll see what I mean.
—Jim DeRogatis, Sound Opinions
Dope Body. Josh Sisk/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Dope Body, 'Old Grey'
- from Kunk
Critics applied the word "grunge" to Lifer, Dope Body's 2014 album, and they'll do the same for Kunk, out in August. "Old Grey," Kunk's first single, would have sounded dandy on a 1990 compilation from landmark noise-rock label Amphetamine Reptile. But am I crazy, or do I detect some groove in "Old Grey"? A smear of New York post-punk, perhaps? Those who don't have the Soul Jazz collection New York Noise baked into their minds might not hear it, but it's one of the first things I thought of when this single first punched its way through my headphones. "Old Grey" sputters and shrieks like a battered freight train, but one day, that mechanical chug could take Dope Body all the way to Funky Town.
—Ally Schweitzer, WAMU 88.5's Bandwidth.fm
Orange O'Clock. Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Orange O'Clock, 'Belly Button'
- from Crazy Carnival
Orange O'Clock, a young band from Sherbrooke, Quebec, just won the CBC's 2015 Searchlight contest for Canada's Best New Artist. Listeners and judges helped determine the winner from among more than 3,300 entrants this year. When I say this rock 'n' roll trio is young, I'm not kidding: The drummer is only 16, while the other two members top out at 20. Orange O'Clock's sound is a terrific mix of then and now, conjuring images of organ-fueled '60s garage rock, turn-of-the-millennium dance-punk and modern-day indie rock.
—Grant Lawrence, CBC Music
Robyn Sherwell. Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Robyn Sherwell, 'Islander'
- from Islander
Spread across the U.K., the BBC Introducing network gathers local artists' songs and shares them with national stations and shows. That's how we found this month's star, Robyn Sherwell. She was discovered by BBC Introducing in Guernsey, one of the islands surrounding mainland Britain, and we think she has a wonderful voice.
—Huw Stephens, BBC Music
Mylko. Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Mylko, 'Animal'
- from Animal
The electronic duo Mylko got its name from a dumb joke: A friend of the band's said, "I can fake Spanish. It's easy: Just add an 'o' to a word —'milk' becomes 'milk-o.'" You can see what happened. Mylko's members are multi-instrumentalists from Mexico City, still in their mid-20s, who cite James Blake, Flying Lotus and FKA Twigs as influences. "Animal" is built around a relatively simple melody that becomes complicated as the percussive electronics build. Soon, contrasting instrumental lines are breaking down and building again into a fantastic rhythmic frenzy. Mylko's debut album is scheduled for this fall.
—David Dye, World Café
Somi. Glynis Carpenter/Courtesy of the artist hide caption
Somi, 'Ginger Me Slowly'
- from The Lagos Music Salon
Jazz singer Somi is a study in cosmopolitanism. She was born in Illinois to Rwandan and Ugandan parents, then spent a few years in New York before moving to Nigeria to record The Lagos Music Salon. The standout single from that album, "Ginger Me Slowly," gained traction after it was featured on the BET network melodrama Being Mary Jane. The song beautifully fuses organic soul with jazz undertones; its title is an East African expression that means, "to spice someone up and make them feel good." "Ginger Me Slowly" accomplishes that objective and more, as it wraps a sublimely structured melody around Somi's beautiful, elegant voice — a reaffirmation of music's power to uplift, captivate and inspire.
—Chris Campbell, WDET's The Progressive Underground
Heavy Rotation is a monthly sampler of public-radio hosts' favorite songs. Stream Heavy Rotation picks from the first half of 2015 via our Spotify playlist.