Key Change: Hanif Abdurraqib

“Lost In the Supermarket” by The Clash

My guest today is Hanif Abdurraqib, a poet, cultural critic, and New York Times bestselling author of books like They Can’t Kill us Until They Kill Us, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest, and A Little Devil in America, which won the Andrew Carnegie medal for nonfiction. I’ve been a guest on Hanif’s podcast, Object of Sound, and I just love reading and hearing his thoughts about music. When I first started toying with the idea for this Key Change series, I was specifically excited about the idea that it could give me the chance to have Hanif on as a guest.

You can buy or stream “Lost in the Supermarket” here.

footnotes:
Hanif’s profile on Spotify
The Columbus Metropolitan Library
Whitney Houston
Miriam Makeba
Hugh Masekela
The Oregon Trail
“Call The Doctor” by Sleater-Kinney
Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein
“Rudy Can’t Fail,” “Brand New Cadillac,” and “Jimmy Jazz” – The Clash

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Episode 288: Sasami

“In Love With A Memory (feat. Clairo)”

Sasami is a singer, songwriter and producer who grew up in Los Angeles. But now she’s based in Northern California, and as you’ll hear in this episode, that’s significant. Sasami went to school for classical French horn. She was in the band Cherry Glazerr, and she’s had a lot of collaborations with other artists on their projects and her own. Collaboration is at the heart of the song that I talked to her about for this episode. It’s called “In Love with a Memory,” and it features Clairo on vocals, and it was co-produced with Grammy-winning producer Rostam. The song is on Sasami’s third album, Blood on the Silver Screen, which is out March 2025. Coming up, you’ll hear the original voice memos that she recorded for this song back in the fall of 2022. You’ll also hear the demo she made in Garageband after that, and then how she and Rostam turned that demo into the final version, a duet with Clairo.

You can buy or stream “In Love With A Memory” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Graham Brooks – guitarist
Drew Tachine – drummer
Squeeze – Sasami’s second album
David Lynch
GarageBand software
Haim
Licorice Pizza
Hand Habits and King Tuff
Thelma & Louise

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Episode 287: of Montreal

“Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games”

Kevin Barnes started of Montreal in 1996 in Athens, Georgia. The Sunlandic Twins came out in 2005; it was their seventh album. And I remember when that album came out, how it felt like they were suddenly everywhere. And the breakout song from that breakout album was “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games.” And so, for this episode, I spoke to Kevin Barnes about how that song came together, and what it meant to them then, and what it means to them now.

You can buy or stream “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Satanic Panic in the Attic – of Montreal’s 2004 album
Reason software, Cubase software
Prince and Duran Duran
Bryan Poole – former of Montreal band member
Ray Davies and The Kinks
Edward Gorey, Tristan and Isolde, Oedipus
Afrobeat and Fela Kuti
Pointillism

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