“KCSU’s Top 10 Spinning This Week” is written by the KCSU Music Directors and describes the top artists that your local 90.5 FM DJs are playing this week! This article is posted weekly on Sundays and discussed on their show “KCSU Weekly Gem Countdown” which airs every Monday from 12-1 p.m. During the show, you can learn more about each musician or band before tuning in to the top 10 countdowns on Monday from 11-noon, in which the music directors present to you the latest songs topping the charts and breaking down each song’s sound and feel.”

*=Brand new to the charts!

1. Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – Rock – (10 spins of “Microwave Dave” off of the 2022 album, “Night Gnomes”)

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets have made it twice on the charts for the second week in a row, this time claiming the first spot! The short melodic song, “Microwave Dave”, may cause listeners to question, “who is Dave, and why can he hardly recognize himself at night?”

2. Steve Lacy – R&B/Soul – (9 spins of “Bad Habit” off of the 2022 album, “Gemini Rights”)

Alternative R&B artist Steve Lacy is in a presumably small class of musicians who have co-produced a Grammy-nominated album while in high school. He first joined the band The Internet in 2014 as a guitarist. The artist from Compton California, who also created all his music on Garage Band, has won a multitude of awards and is now critically acclaimed.

“Bad Habit,” the lead single off his popular new album “Gemini Rights” tells a story many people can relate to. The song is about reflecting on an attraction to someone, and what it could have been if he had expressed how it felt to the person he is singing about.

3. The Lumineers — Folk — (7 spins of “Brightside” off of the 2021 album release, “Brightside”)

The Lumineers are a Denver-based folk trio that consists of Wesley Schultz, Neyla Pekarek, and Jeremiah Fraites. According to AllMusic, “their self-titled 2011 EP earned them (much success and) a management deal, and they soon decamped to Seattle to record their debut album.” Their hit song, “Ho Hey” helped their debut album peak at number two on the Billboard Top 200 Charts, leading them to earn two Grammy nominations.

According to Spotify, “Brightside (is) The Lumineers’ fourth studio album … (and) marks The Lumineers’ first new music in more than two years as well as the band’s most joyous and spontaneous piece of work thus far.”

 4. *tummyache – Rock – (6 spins of “Teeth” off of the 2022 album, “SOAK”)
Alternative rock project tummyache is created by songwriter/producer Soren Bryce. “The project is named after one of the side effects of severe physical anxiety. tummyache manifested from Bryce’s need to explore a new set of emotions she experienced while living in Brooklyn, New York,” according to their website.

According to their Bandcamp, the album, “SOAK”, was recorded “in the backyard of (their) parent’s house in rural Texas during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.” They considered this to be an intense period of their life.

5. *Fake Shark – Alt/Indie – (6 spins of “Loser” off of the 2021 album, “Time For the Future”)

Fake Shark claims that they are the “only indie rock band with a hype man,” according to their Spotify. The “freaky indie pop band” met in high school, but did not form the band until some time after graduation. “Loser” was the hit single off of the band’s most recent album.

6. Orion Sun – R&B/Soul — (5 spins of “concrete” off of the 2022 album release, “Getaway”)

Orion Sun’s Tiffany Majette is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer based in Philadelphia. Sun explained her music roots in an interview with Billboard, “I sang in church. I was leading youth worship sometimes. I was really enthralled by it. It’s the first music that moved me (to tears) … That put the music seed in me to the point where it’s like, I don’t want to go to church, but I go to church to hear the music.”

In an interview with Mom and Pop Music, Sun also described the vision behind her new EP, Getaway. “Seeing my community plagued with COVID simultaneously led me to feel that the world was a dangerous place to be. This EP was born from that. The yearning to get out and get away. The want to learn more, to grow more, to love more and to evolve.”

6. Psychedelic Porn Crumpets – Rock – (4 spins of “In, Dream Out” off of the 2022 album, “Night Gnomes”)

A mix of sprawling, exploratory, psychedelic pop, progressive rock, and heavy garage riffs, Australia’s Psychedelic Porn Crumpets emerged out of Perth’s indie underground scene. Formed in 2014, the band grew out of the solo endeavors of singer/guitarist Jack McEwan, and earned a devoted fan base through hard touring and releases. Working out of a horse barn in rural Leederville, McEwan, fellow guitarist Luke Parish, bassist Luke Reynolds, and drummer Danny Caddy pooled their collective consciousness in massive all-night jam sessions. “In, Dream Out” is an instrumental sound that transports you to a calmer place. The band now has over 400,000 listeners on Spotify.

7. Renata Zeiguer – Alt/Indie – (3 spins of “Sunset Boulevard” off of the 2022 album, “Picnic in the Dark”)

Brooklyn based artist Renata Zeiguer creates a “sonic dreamworld infused with magical realism that tells an extremely personal narrative” in her album, according to Spotify. She explains that the album is integrating her child-self into her adult life with immense compassion and enlightenment. It is not only an album of exploration but one of transformation, healing and self-actualization, all told through a courageous journey towards that extremely uncomfortable yet fertile liminal space between familiarity and uncertainty.

Sunset Boulevard is shimmering but shadowy, channeling a certain era of haunting old theatrics as Zeiguer’s voice stays high and airy.

8. *Shakey Graves – Folk – (3 spins of “Nobody’s Fool” off of the 2017 album release, “Shakey Graves And The Horse He Rode In On”)

Combining blues, folk and rock, Shakey Graves, also known as Alejandro Rose-Garcia, has made a name for himself in the music industry. Shakey Graves grew up in a family that encouraged his creative pursuits, “his mother was an actress who also worked as a director and writer, while his father managed a theater.” Initially, Graves followed his interest in acting by working with his high school’s drama club. He later moved to Los Angeles, where he appeared in several films including “Spy Kids 3: Game Over” and “Material Girls,” as well as landing a recurring role on the television series “Friday Night Lights.”

9. CMAT – Pop – (3 spins of “Lonely” off of the 2022 album release, “If My Wife Knew I’d Be Dead”)

“Lonely,” one of CMAT’s last singles before releasing her album “If My Wife Knew I’d Be Dead”, explores a feeling everyone can relate to – loneliness. CMAT explains, “I wrote this about a time when I was living in Manchester. I lived there for two years, and I think that was the peak of my problem-person period. … I would just stay in the Arndale Food Court and watch everyone just hanging out, being friends, having more money than me because I was really … broke, crying into my … Taco Bell Crunchwrap.”

10. CARRTOONS – R&B/Soul – (2 spins of “Hollywood” off of the 2022 album, “HOMEGROWN”)

CARRTOONS, also knows as Ben Carr, is a “multi-instrumentalist and producer from New York whose music brings the electric bass to the forefront” according to Spotify. Over time, he has become a sought-after producer through his eye-catching visuals.

The Music Directors can be reached at music@kcsufm.com