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Friday, Jan 31 2020, 6AM
Good morning and happy Friday. This very cathartic song began as a droning riff guitarist Stone Gossard started playing. The rest of the band started forming the track, and Eddie Vedder walked up to the microphone and poured out the words that would make up most of the lyrics. It was a very emotional song for Vedder, who was thinking about the pain and loss he had been through: he found out as a teenager that the man he thought was his father was actually his stepfather, and his real father died before they could connect. Eddie realized that the song had a similar meaning for his bandmates, who were still dealing with the death of Andrew Wood, who was the lead singer in Gossard and Jeff Ament's band before they formed Pearl Jam.
Death Cab for Cutie will indubitably play this song at Seattle's Showbox on Monday, Tuesday, and/or Wednesday, February 24th, 25th, or 26th, 2020. Watch a live version here: www.youtube.com
Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, the subject of this song, remembers being in India with The Beatles and The Maharishi.: www.rollingstone.com
Thom Yorke said of this song: "I was pissed in a club, and I suddenly had the funniest thought I'd had for ages - what if all the people who were drinking were hanging from the bottles... if the bottles were hung from the ceiling with string, and the floor caved in, and the only thing that kept everyone up was the bottles? It's also about an enormous fear of being trapped."
That's a loop of a single word from rapper Akinyele’s ‘Outta State’ (1993)providing the ‘midnight-midnight-midnight’ hook. Take a deep dive into this classic track by DJ Shadow (Josh Davis): www.soundonsound.com
Want to know more about this duo that "rewired shoegaze to trip-hop"?: music.avclub.com
You can hear Algiers perform this song at The Crocodile on Sunday, March 29th, 2020. Buy tickets and learn more about the band and their new album here: www.thecrocodile.com
This Scottish trio was stunning in a 2018 KEXP in-studio session.: www.kexp.org
Directed by Danny Jelinek and written by Jake Fogelnest, the video stars Pee-Wee Herman himself (Paul Reuben}s as "Racer Steven," a driver trying to get back on the track. Making things a bit difficult is the fact that Reubens is being haunted on the sidelines by Doctor Who's beautiful Karen Gillan.: www.youtube.com
John Richards sat down with Seattle artist Rudy Willingham last year to discuss his fine album, "Dunk Reactions": www.kexp.org
On Tuesday, Gorillaz released details of a new project, "Song Machine." It's a series of collaborative singles, aka “episodes,” that will be released throughout the year. This song is the first installment. “Momentary Bliss” is a collaboration with the politically charged British rapper slowthai and the UK punk duo Slaves. : bit.ly
Happy 5th birthday, Everett! We bet that your mom, Emily, will let you watch The Replacements play this song live: www.youtube.com
Is this song on your running playlist? This critic says, "One of the most joyous, primal songs ever recorded, “Roadrunner” by The Modern Lovers is a serious contender for The Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Song ever, full stop." Ihttps://medialoper.com/certain-songs-1184-the-modern-lovers-roadrunner/
Paul Weller said, "I wrote this after I'd seen the Pistols and The Clash and I was obviously into my Who phrase. I just wanted to capture some of that excitement." The song's descending opening bassline re-appeared a few months later on the Sex Pistols' single "Holidays in The Sun." Weller subsequently had a scrap with Pistols bassist Sid Vicious in the Speakeasy Club over the pilfering of the riff.
Stay positive! Watch the official video for this song: www.youtube.com
Sophie Allison, aka Soccer Mommy, will be at Neumos on Monday, April 27th, 2020. Read a review of "circle the drain": www.spin.com
Juliana Hatfield will be LIVE on KEXP today, Friday, January 31st at 1:00 PM!
In this interview, Pom Pom Squad’s Mia Berrin opens up about the depression, pain, and vulnerability lying at the heart of the Brooklyn band’s dark, impassioned 2019 EP ‘Ow’.: atwoodmagazine.com
Watch The Walkmen playing "Angela Surf City" live: www.youtube.com
"While [Nicola] Jaar has embraced house and dance elements in his music before, never has he covered the genres in such breadth and with so much confidence than he does with 2012 - 2017." Read KEXP's own Dusty Henry's fine review of this album: www.kexp.org
"Up all night, dance on the weekend, rain don't shine, praying that the music will change my life..." Want to know what they're singing?: genius.com
Here's a biography of the great, great Stevie Wonder: www.biography.com
You must take a look at the official video for "Because I'm Me": www.youtube.com
"Whale, whale, whale....what have we here?" There are tinfoil boxers in the video for this Swedish band's song: www.stereogum.com
Ahhh....the Friday song. Learn more about the history of International Clash Day (February 7th) when you watch this KEXP mini-documentary: www.kexp.org
Great pick, Griffin, for your 6th birthday! We hope it's a wonderful day!
John Williams conducted this score with the London Symphony Orchestra, but his main orchestra was the Boston Pops Orchestra, with which he conducted other famous film themes. This theme won him a simultaneous Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA, Saturn, and Grammy award.: www.billboard.com
Speaking of space, make space on your playlist for this KEXP Song of the Day. You can have it for free here: www.kexp.org
Baby Dayliner (Ethan Marunas) was born and raised in New York City, and went to LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and the Performing Arts.: babydayliner.bandcamp.com
Bowie described this Eddie Cochran-inspired single in a 1987 interview as "a piece of sexist rock 'n roll. [laughs] It's about picking up birds. It's not very cerebral, that piece."
Mr. Bowie is covering the Pixies here. He performed it live in Berlin in 2002: www.youtube.com
"No song exemplifies the career-wide sound Pixies sound in 'Surfer Rosa' as much as the standout 'Break My Body,' an irresistible two-minute burst of bristling guitar and upfront vocal from one who seems to have lived to tell a tale, enigmatic but perhaps open to interpretation.: www.seattlepi.com
Happy birthday to "New Day Rising," released on this date in 1985.
Recently, a good friend of Aesop Rock's, Kurt Hayashi unexpectedly passed away. Kurt was a well-known skate videographer and he also shot the music video for Aesop's "Hot Dogs". A portion of the proceeds from all "Rogue Wave" sales will be donated to the Hayashi family in Kurt's honor.: aesoprock.bandcamp.com
Want to know who else, besides the Average White Band, that A Tribe Called Quest sampled here?: bit.ly
Born in New York but a resident of the UK for the last few years as he completed a master’s degree in fine art, Baba Ali has spent the last few years honing both his music and his visual art while attending Goldsmiths University.: www.elicitmagazine.com
Thank you, Rhonda, for this request. Roger Charlery, best known as Ranking Roger, died in March, 2019, at age 56.: www.npr.org
Send us a note at kids@kexp.org if you'd like your kids to participate on International Clash Day: Clash For Climate.
"The Globe" samples the 1981 song, "Should I Stay or Should I Go", which was written by Big Audio Dynamite II singer Mick Jones during his tenure with The Clash, and Lionel Richie's 1983 single, "All Night Long (All Night)".
The Australian Performing Rights Association placed "Beds
Are
Burning" third — after The Easybeats "Friday On My Mind" and Daddy Cool’s "Eagle Rock" — in their Top 30 Australian Songs of all time poll. Peter Garrett calls it the song Midnight Oil was “born to write”.: bit.ly
Drive-By Truckers is is kicking off this election year with "The Unraveling," their first new album in three-and-a-half years. They say that "If the last one was a warning shot hinting at a coming storm, this one was written in the wreckage and aftermath." They'll play The Showbox on Wednesday, March 18th, 2020.
Did you know that Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his own father?: www.history.com
Durand Jones is covering David Bowie (David Robert Jones) here. Watch a recent live performance in the KEXP studio: www.youtube.com
"Don't Believe" is a single from Psychedelic Furs' first new album in nearly thirty (!!) years. The band’s last album was 1991’s "World Outside." : pitchfork.com
Take the initiative to go (hear) Shopping at The Sunset Tavern on Friday, March 6th, 2020.
Neighbours Burning Neighbours is a post-punk/noise pop band from Rotterdam.: neighboursburningneighbours.com
Thanks, Adam, for this Spoon request. 1996's "Telephono" was Spoon's debut album.
Black Midi performed live at Kex Hostel in Reykjavik during Iceland Airwaves 2018. : www.youtube.com
Speaking of live performances that wowed us...here are Snapped Ankles (dressed as trees) during KEXP's International Clash Day broadcast from London last February: www.youtube.com
Aaron, you said in your request that you were getting a Mclusky vibe. Read a biography of this "ragged Welsh trio": www.allmusic.com
"In the Meantime" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1992.: www.youtube.com
John Richards picked IDLES' "Colossus" as a KEXP Song of the Day. You can have it for your very own: www.kexp.org
The theme song for a man who's headed to the mountains....John? This classic song was written by the incredibly talented and prolific songwriter, Cynthia Weil, and her husband, Barry Mann: www.npr.org
Watch shirtless Fugazi performing this song before (within) a raucous crowd: www.youtube.com
