Ready your ears for the sonic delights of not one, but two guest DJ sets — KCRW DJ Francesca Harding, and genre-defying song-crafter Santigold. Harding’s mix is called “The Long Way Home,” and features songs that invoke that feeling when “maybe you take the extra scenic route home so that you can listen to the whole thing and not cut it off early?” This includes P.M. Dawn’s “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss,” Hawa’s funkified cover of the 2007 Justice classic “D.A.N.C.E.,” and Res’ 2001 heartstopper “They-Say Vision” — a song she recalls hearing for the first time in Baltimore, and circling the block to listen through until the end. Catch Harding and MBE co-host Anthony Valadez sharing the decks once more this Saturday, Aug. 12 in the courtyard at KCRW HQ as part of KCRW’s Summer Nights. Local darlings Pearl & The Oysters will also be performing live.
Then, we welcome the genre-obliterating queen that is Santigold who we are now privileged to call an LA local. She’s sharing songs and stories that are just as eclectic as her soul-punk-electro hybrid hits à la “L.E.S. Artistes,” “Disparate Youth,” and “Lights Out.” Get in as she breaks down why Schoolly D’s “P.S.K. What Does It Mean?” makes her nostalgic for her Philly childhood, how the “poetry” of the Smiths’ “Still Ill” makes her wish she’d written it herself, and the reasons behind Gregory Issaacs’ “Material Man” becoming her go-to dressing room chill out jam. Catch her tomorrow night (post-dressing room chill sesh) at DTLA’s newest venue, The Bellwether where she’ll go deep into her 2022 album Spirituals, and all the auditory gold she’s spun along the way.