John Richards

This song was featured movie Magnolia. The film itself was basically a story created around Aimee Mann's songs. She explained: "Well, I wrote it (Wise Up) for Jerry Maguire. Cameron Crowe really liked the demo, and then he didn't like the finished version, so he didn't put it in the movie. Then after the movie came out, he called me and said, 'I don't know what I was thinking! Your version is awesome. I guess I was just kind of attached to the demo.' So he put it on the soundtrack album. So it's there, and on the DVD, but it wasn't in the original release of the film. And then Paul Thomas Anderson heard it, and he really liked it. So [the song's prominent use in Magnolia] was kind of a sweet shout-out."

This tale of anxiety and self-harm was very real to Sia. The very night she wrote it, she attempted suicide by taking 22 Valium and downing a bottle of vodka, something she didn't reveal until a series of interviews in 2018. After, a phone call from an old friend convinced her to get sober. You are not alone.

Oh man John... you got me. Right off the bat. I forgot I could cry like this until right now, and I thank you. Jon in San jose -- Ahh, nothing like Moby when its all wrong. Woke abruptly to the smell of smoke and paniced. Cats were not aggitated, that helped quite a bit. All this to say thank you for being there. Thanks for never leaving us alone, not for a minute every day. We’ll always be thankful to KEXP in my house, in my life. Love to entire staff, Joel -- When asked what’s the best song he’s ever written Moby replied, “God Moving Over the Face of the Waters.” He explained, “Ironically enough it’s a song that doesn’t have any lyrics to it. It’s a song called God Moving Over the Face of the Waters, and it’s an instrumental piece of music that, when I was writing it, I had this vision, like at least according to the Old Testament, the creation story, at one point you know, what is it – the earth was without form and void and God was moving over the face of the waters. And this particular piece of music was written with that in mind.”

“DAWN” finds veteran British producer Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs lending his vocals to the collective effort - “Not only do the lyrics provide this renewed sense of hope, but his vocals compliment the tone and energy of the song perfectly – “DAWN” is a song meant to take you on a journey and explore various concepts and emotions of the record. We couldn’t think of a more fitting song to end the album with,” shared BRONSON.

From The Atlantic on "To Build A Home": "A home is a place where most people long to be. A home does not have to be a certain place; home is what you make it. I grew up in the same house for over 20 years. I loved the idea of always having a place to go back to. Then one day I left—some big event had changed that place for me. Then I wanted to go make my own home. I still have yet to feel so connected to another place. I love the warmth and love that you can feel in a home. The memories that tatter the walls. I feel that the song “To Build a Home” truly captures the emptiness of an old home that is no longer yours. It seems a part of you has been left in that place. Hopefully the person or things that later inhabit it appreciate the little things you once noticed and held dear. This song is not one that is entirely depressive, because at the end it lifts you up—as if to say, “There is always hope for the future; there will be brighter days.” One day it will all end, but we will have made our home somewhere—or even just it someone’s heart."

The four track release, which is titled ‘Anthem + 3’ opens with a cover of Cohen’s 1992 track ‘Anthem’. The rest of the EP is comprised by three tracks previously covered by the singer – Link Wray’s ‘Fallin’ Rain’, Cat Stevens’ ‘Trouble’ and Leonard Cohen’s ‘One of Us Cannot Be Wrong.’ All proceeds from the release will go to CARE Action and Ground Game LA.

Future Islands have announced their new album As Long as You Are. The follow-up to 2017’s The Far Field arrives October 9 via 4AD. On the release day for the new album, Future Islands will host a ticketed livestream performance from Baltimore. More details can be found here: fi-alaya.myshopify.com

Cars frontman Ric Ocasek wrote this song, but he didn't sing the lead vocal: their bass player Ben Orr did. Orr died of Pancreatic cancer in 2000. "Drive" was played in his honor at a memorial service at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

THE NEVERLY BOYS finds Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio teaming up with Swedish singer/songwriter Daniel Ledinsky to explore "the unknown, the magic, the heartbreaks, and the aspirations," as they put it, on their debut album Dark Side of Everything. (The two teamed up previously to co-write songs for Blondie, Pussy Riot, and TV on the Radio.) “I’m not really good at personalizing it. We just tell stories, but I think you can find a song on this record, no matter who you are or what you’re going through. Some might not speak to you at the moment, but there is a wide range of emotion,” Sitek told American Songwriter. “We were trying not to conceal doubt or vulnerability. There’s been a lot of emphasis in modern music on escapism and things are better than they seem.”

Happy birthday Violet! In November 2010, Sharon Van Etten performed "One Day" Live on KEXP. See that here: www.youtube.com

Hi John and Team Sparkle Motion: My best friend Nora’s 6-year-old daughter, Clara Jane, was diagnosed with leukemia this summer, and unfortunately, it’s proven to be chemo-resistant. She will need a bone marrow transplant. She is of mixed heritage (Filipino, Egyptian, Caucasian), so finding a match for her will be very difficult—the doctors put the chances at about 0%. I wanted to ask if you could shout out to all your listeners to PLEASE join the Be The Match bone marrow registry ASAP, especially if they have similar heritage. It only requires a cheek swab, which you can order at bethematch.org And if you can play THIS YEAR by the Mountain Goats, it would be great. Nora introduced me to the Mountain Goats many years ago when she was a student in Claremont/Pomona in the 90s. Thank you so much KEXP team, for all you do to help us through this. -Wendy

Neko Case told Uncut in 2015: "I still think it might be one of the best songs I've written. It's not so much about being a lone wolf as it is, 'I don't want that like that.' But it doesn't go on to tell you how you need it."

Good morning, It’s been a tough 3 weeks lost my nephew he was 31 his birthday was yesterday and just was the sweetest person I’ve ever met. Can you please play Over the Rainbow and can you pick the artist. You guys are amazing on who has sang that song. Thank you, Jennifer from Seattle.

Josiah Johnson will be live on Lawn in the Morning on Friday September 11th at 9:30 AM! Remember to tune in here, or watch it live on Instagram at @djjohnrichards Find the album here: josiahsjohnsons.bandcamp.com

Good morning. Thank you for being there today & every day. Driving back from Portland to Denver having dropped our daughter off for her final year of college. Would you please play Great Salt Lake as we prepare to drive past the Great Salt Lake? Missing PNW & our daughter already! -Lenny in Colorado -- When this was released as a single in August 2006 it failed to chart but has become one of Band of Horses' best known songs.

For Helen who writes "Thank you! Needed this on this dumpster fire Tuesday. Now I can have a decent day. " -- The Hold Steady stopped in to KEXP in August 2019, you can watch their full performance here: www.youtube.com

In an interview with Billboard, Andrew Savage described the album having a funk influence saying, "there's this duality between joy and anger that I find to be really interesting, and that's something the record kind of deals with at large. I always thought it was really interesting how hardcore could be such an angry music form but could make you feel so positive. There's a lot of moments on the record when all of us are singing at the same time and I guess that's something I kind of associate with hardcore, or Funkadelic."

“This is us exploring the outer edges of what we do,” frontman Nic Offer said in a statement. “We try a lot of different things with the hopes of coming up with something fresh by getting it wrong. How wrong did we get it this time?”

No request, just some positivity this AM. While 2020 has been a dumpster fire there are some distinct positives - COVID has made everyday WFH day so I have spent 11 weeks of this summer on an island in Maine instead of my 11 sqft apartment in Hoboken. I've spent WAY more time with my kids than any other time except the two weeks following their births. My wife and I have increased clarity on our "goals" and plan for family greatly facilitated by the disruption of the pandemic. Last but most important KEXP all day, every day. I am not alone -Chris from Hoboken -- said the music video for ‘Heat Waves’ is “a love letter to live music and the culture and togetherness surrounding it. It was filmed at the peak of the lockdown in my neighbourhood in East London by the lovely people who live around me, just using their phones.” The video sees frontman Dave Bayley wandering the streets of London under quarantine, pulling a wagon loaded with music gear and making his way to an empty venue. Watch it here: youtu.be

Good morning John, morning faithful here! Could you play the song " the radio man says..." That's all I know! 😳 -Mitch in Marysville --- Jim tweets @loserboy - "Soul Coughing was just such a gift. Great albums..." ----- MIKE Doughty was studying at Eugene Lang College, a tiny liberal arts school in New York City, and living in the “supremely seedy, pre-Giuliani Union Square” when he dreamed up a poem about the decadent vortex of L.A. It was informed -- barely -- by a trip west the previous summer. “My mom won a free trip anywhere and she went to Huntington Beach to take care of her sister, and I went too. I had these dreams of seeing L.A. -- I kept thinking of that Arlo Guthrie singing ‘coming into Los Ang-uh-leez . . .’ But I didn’t see anything of the real L.A.”

Greetings from Monterey, CA, where the weather forecast is 'cool and smoky'. We're standing in solidarity with folks throughout the state and with y'all up in WA during these difficult, and fiery, times. To kick us off on this seventh-best day of the week, I thought it might be nice to hear something with a fighting spirit. For me, SAULT's Bow does the trick: It always gets me focused on resilience and moving forward. Plus, the shoutouts to countries across the African continent signals in a way the type of solidarity we all need to show right now across the globe. - Daniel

"I wanted to write a song that presented a resigned, even joyful look at doom," recalls David Byrne in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "At our deaths and at the apocalypse… (always looming, folks). I think it succeeded. The front bit, the white gospel choir, is kind of tacked on, 'cause I didn't think the rest of the song was enough… I mean, it was only two chords. So, out of embarrassment, or shame, I wrote an intro section that had a couple more in it."

A Moment Apart is the third studio album by ODESZA, released on this day in 2017 through Counter, Ninja Tune and the duo's own label, Foreign Family Collective.

“In the past I’d often tell myself, ‘This other person is going through something worse than I am, so their pain weighs more,’” said Jessica Dobson of Deep Sea Diver. “‘Impossible Weight’ is about finding more compassion for yourself, instead of discrediting your pain in that way.”

“It’s been a strange and extremely charged 4 years since we last released music. It’s been overwhelming and painful, hopefully leading to tangible positive change,” Jessica Weiss wrote in a statement. “In contrast, this time has personally brought a lot of healing, shutting the door finally on elements that have been toxic and draining in my life for too long. This song is an assertion of a voice, a cry of independence. As the lyrics state, I ‘spent a few years in tears, but now I’m steel’. It’s a song about the role of words in constructing the self. We create ourselves like books, and I’m ready to tell a different story.”

The Cave Singers performed "Black Leaf" live on KEXP on 2/21/11. See it here: www.youtube.com

Hi John, This past weekend marked the 10th anniversary of my dad dying of an opioid overdose. Usually we head to a baseball game to celebrate his life, but with COVID this year, this was a no go. I was trying to think of a song to play in his honor, but couldn't think of one that seemed appropriate. He liked Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers, the Rolling Stones and George Strait a lot. My Dad, also named John, lived in a rural mining community in Arizona, but was quite liberal (something he prided himself on), and he was a good person with a big heart who was not able to overcome his addiction. Opioid overdose deaths are again on the rise as a result of the pandemic, so I hope that if you play something we can also remind people to get help, talk to someone, and that you are not alone. Thanks John.

John, Sending a shout out to all in the McKenzie River area east of Eugene. Level 3 "Get Out Now" evacuation in place this morning. This is one of my favorite places in all of the PNW, now it's on fire. -Jim in Phinney Ridge -- Murdoch's first album, Time Without Consequence, was released on 6 June 2006 on his own label, Zero Summer. As with the EP, Murdoch continued to turn down the record deals he was offered from numerous major labels to maintain creative control.

Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington, and 9th Wonder are the supergroup, Dinner Party. Dinner Party came together while Martin and Glasper — who first met way back in 1996 at a jazz band camp — were touring with Glasper’s R+R=NOW project. The core idea was to tap into elements of jazz and soul, but root the new group in hip-hop. To bring it all together, Martin enlisted fellow saxophonist Washington and storied hip-hop producer 9th Wonder.

Thank you for the new New Order John!!! ❤️. It might seem late on your end, but perfect timing for me. Having a tough couple of says and this really did the trick! 🙏🌈🦄 -Lisa ---- New Order have released a new song, “Be a Rebel" and they have a concert scheduled for the Gorge on October 9th, 2021. The band originally intended the track to accompany their tour with Pet Shop Boys, now delayed until next fall. “In tough times we wanted to reach out with a new song,” wrote Bernard Sumner in a statement. “We can’t play live for a while, but music is still something we can all share together.” “Be a Rebel” marks the first new music from New Order since the release of Music Complete back in 2015. During the half-decade since, they’ve released the live album NOMC15 and a collaborative live recording with visual artist Liam Gillick and a synthesizer orchestra: ∑(No,12k,Lg,17Mif) New Order + Liam Gillick: So it goes… The band will release a box set reissue of 1983’s Power, Corruption & Lies on October 2. In conjunction, they will also individually reissue the four 12-inch singles that came out around Power, Corruption and Lies for tracks that didn’t make the album, including “Blue Monday,” “Confusion,” “Thieves Like Us” and “Murder.”

According to DJ Dan Whitford, the band's name was a random choice: "I was in the edit menu [of my computer] and I moved down in the document to the few words that didn't make sense together, and at that particular day and time the words 'cut' and 'copy' really stood out to me. At the time it felt like a fairly abstract choice but now it feels very tied in with what we do".

See The National at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Paris in 2017, performing "Day I Die" live: www.youtube.com