Song of the Day: Small Black - Boys Life

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Morning Show with John Richards, is “Boys Life” by Small Black from the 2015 album Best Blues on Jagjaguwar.

Small Black - Boys Life (MP3)

Small Black's tightly-coiled electronic songs give a vibrant platform to the band's wistful, reflective songs. Led by singer/multi-instrumentalist Josh Kolenik, the band's roots lie in the New York band Slowlands, where Kolenik first began collaborating with future Small Black members guitarist Ryan Heyner and drummer Jeff Curtin. In 2008, Kolenik and Heyner began working on what would become the first Small Black songs, and it wasn't before long that the project would evolve into a proper band (with the addition of bassist Juan Pieczanski) and sign with Jagjaguwar for a wide release of their debut EP. Since then, the band have toured internationally and released a trio of LPs: 2010's New Chain, 2013's Limits of Desire, and this year's Best Blues, which centered on themes of loss. "Boys Life" was one of many songs the band wrote after Kolenik's family home was destroyed in Hurricane Sandy, but its serene, tempered pulse captures more of the reflective aftermath of the storm rather than the tempest itself. The elliptical, echoing refrain ("Pictures of you/picturing you") is delivered with a sad-eyed gaze that recalls the magnetic melancholy of a similarly titled song, albeit with a dance beat. There are a myriad of gauzy tones that surround Kolenik's longing performance, and it's to the band's credit that they can make a tune so fascinatingly sad also so curiously accessible, putting "Boys Life" in the revered category of sad dance songs that hit the right emotional chord with every four-on-the-floor beat.

Small Black will be LIVE on KEXP on Wednesday, October 28 at 1:00 pm. You'll be able to watch that session as it's happening via live streaming video. That night, they'll play The Crocodile with Painted Palms. Get tickets and more info on that all-ages show here, keep up with the band at their website and Facebook, and watch the video for "Boys Life" below.