John Richards

Uncut commented to frontman James Murphy that the track is "insane." He responded: "I played it for my wife and by the back 20 per cent, she was leaning back in her chair: 'That might be too much... 'So I had to remix it and make some space. That song, for a really long time was just the drum at the start, a little percussion and voice, that's all it was. (Then) it just got bonkers. It was a bit of a beast to wrangle." See the first live performance of "How Do You Sleep?" at the Hollywood Bowl in 2018: bit.ly

In high school I got two speeding tickets and an accident with Pretty Hate Machine in the tape player. Such a great album to drive to! -Ira -- Thanks for playing “thats what I get” by NIN. One of the most underplayed and underappreciated songs in the catalog of my favorite artist of all time. This song and album got me through some tough years, in the warly 90s by giving all my emotions somewhere to manifest. Today I listen to it not with a feeling of darkness, but of hope. Thanks for being with me today, KEXP, as I push through 2020, another hard time in my life. KEXP and Trent Reznor have been a big part of me getting through it. -Jeremy -- Pretty Hate Machine was released on this day in 1989. Doesn't sound 31 years old.

"Pray" is the lead single from the new EP, Fiction, out October 30th. “Pray.” was recorded during a hot Dallas summer in 2015, originally for the band’s 2016 album Hold/Still. “It didn’t make the cut, probably because we loved it so much and thought we had an even better version of it in us,” says drummer Liam O’Neill. “We subsequently tried to record multiple versions of this song, none of which captured the unhinged energy of this live-off-the-floor performance. Discovering this lost jam and its power felt like a reminder to keep in the moment and to trust ourselves – you just have to keep moving forward.” northerntransmissions.com

Lead singer Ed Seed says of the single, "Growing up I felt like I didn’t fit in or belong where I was born and raised. I’m sure a lot of people feel this way. When it comes to the countryside we often talk about the natural - and by implication the unnatural - as if we are talking about the real, and by implication the fake. I felt somehow fake in Powys as a born incomer, un-local, neither Welsh nor English. But by looking at the landscape I started to realise the construction and extraction behind it, and the myth of its naturalness." bit.ly

Working Men's Club were able to play a couple of socially distanced shows earlier this month. Over by 10pm and everyone seated but it still beats Zoom. www.nme.com

CCFX EP released on this day, in 2017. -- John, You just blew my mind. I had no idea The One to Wait is only three years old. I could've sworn this was playing in the car radio back in the 80s. It sounds so much like the Cure and Dream Factory, etc., like something I've loved my whole life. Ok, I'm gonna go pick up my jaw from the floor on this now-backwards days. Rose -- Check out CCFX performing "The One to Wait" live from the KEXP studio back on April 3, 2018: bit.ly

Ian Devaney of Nation of Language explains how the cover came about: "People come to us all the time suggesting songs we should cover, but 98% of the time they’re songs written by our more obvious sonic influences. If I can’t offer a new angle or interpretation to the song, I’d rather spend that energy on creating original work. When Aidan suggested “Gouge Away” I was immediately struck by how badly I wanted to rework it in our style, and the whole song mapped itself out in my head right away. I didn’t let myself listen to the original from then until it was fully recorded so I might forget certain details about it, leaving only my impression of it’s foundational elements – the way the quiet, unsettling verses give way to the savage choruses, the way the big transitional guitar line overwhelms you every time it happens. What we ended up with felt like an honest reimagining so we’re proud to present it to everyone and shed light on our favorite song by a band we really love." You can get it right over here: nationoflanguage.bandcamp.com

Quivers have reimagined R.E.M.s’ iconic album Out of Time covering it in its entirety for Turntable Kitchen: bit.ly

Wishing Jeff a very happy 40th birthday Today from Morgan Smith in Toronto Canada As we all know this year has been tough on everyone thank you so much for keeping us smiling and dancing everyday. My husband has been a KEXP super fan for more years than I can count and for this very special birthday I had a big trip planned for our family to visit Portland and Seattle to celebrate with his 2 favourite things- good music and good beer. Alas- this trip will have to wait but we will make it to see you one day!! Thank you John for everything you do! -Morgan Smith (Toronto, Canada) ------------------------------------------- Happy birthday Jeff! - The Morning Show Crew

Released as a 7″ single for Record Store Day on 28 August 2020, "I WANT 2 B U" is the first song Matt Johnson has written and recorded using the quirky Omnichord instrument since 1983’s ‘This Is The Day’.

A month ago today, I lost my mom. I think I say “lost” instead of “died” because there is a part of me that’s still not ready to accept that she’s actually gone - that I won’t find her in all the usual places. That I won’t be able to pick up the phone and call her today or tomorrow or the next day. Even though I was there when she died, it still feels surreal and like I’m still trying to hold onto her. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to navigate this world without her. She’s seen me at my worst and at my best, and never once faltered in her support of me. She was a woman of few words, but she was always listening. I miss her so much. In summer, when the cattails are blooming in Michigan, you could find my mom pulled over, traipsing through the marshy ditches of the road cutting some down to bring home. The first time I heard “Cattails” by Big Thief a few months ago, I swore they wrote it for me and her, but the lyrics are even more salient now that she’s gone. Could you play it for her… and for me? I never got a chance to play it for her before she died. She would have liked it. As always, thanks for helping all of us feel less alone. -Jessica

Hey john how about some Til Tuesday to get us through the 7th best day? -Danny Boylan -- The end of this video where Aimee Mann rips off her hat in the theater and stands up and belts out the song ♡♡♡♡♡ and humiliates that awful man. -Megan (like vegan) www.youtube.com ------------------------------------- Look closely at the scene in The Big Lebowski where the nihilists are ordering pancakes and the gal on the end has a foot cast as the camera pans down - yep, that's Aimee Mann

Jessica also runs a night of music and art called Hate The Haus, which was selling out venues since 2018 and has now found a new home online, raising money for local aid groups tackling Covid-19. Bringing together an eclectic mix of acts, Hate The Haus runs events to promote and support philanthropic organisations, XR, pro-choice, women’s rights, Lesbians and Gays Support The Migrants and Women on Waves.

Lottie Cream of Goat Girl says of the song: “'Sad Cowboy' centres around the idea of losing a grip on reality and how often this can happen. When you’re within a world that constantly makes you feel as though you're living out a really bad dream, disillusionment is inevitable.” Find them here: goatgirl.bandcamp.com

Boy is 40 years old today. Four-zero. Bono told the Irish magazine Hot Press, October 1979: "'Out Of Control' is about waking up on your 18th birthday and realizing that you're 18 years old and that the two most important decisions in your life have nothing to do with you - being born and dying."

Talking about their latest number, the band’s Charlie Drinkwater says, “You know those days where you just move from screen to screen to screen? ‘Slideshow’ is about feeling mediated, manipulated, engaged, buoyed and repulsed in equal measures in our relationship to information, digital culture, and the algorithmic pace of 21st-century life. It’s a track that acknowledges that I’m a fully culpable participant in a behaviour ‘market’ developed by faceless tech which insists it’s the best thing for all humanity (as long as it can be monetised). And most of the time I LIKE IT (or at least tolerate it) while I scroll and scroll and scroll. I suppose all I can do is talk… On to the next one, content consumer…” bit.ly

On this day in 1982 The Clash played the Kingdome. Oh, the Kingdome --------------------------------------- Late to the party on this. I was at the Clash/Who show at the Kingdome in 82. The sound was of course really bad and seeing any details of the band at a great distance was tough. I was a bigger Clash fan than a Who fan, but appreciated both, don’t remember much about T-bone Burnett. The Clash set was short and sweet, I think they started with London calling. The Who set went on forever and I had a headache due to hours of Kingdome echo, got to hear every song twice! After this show I vowed to never attend huge arena shows ever again. Happily I still have great memories of seeing the Clash at the Paramount, that was a show! -Charles ---------------------------------------------- They did indeed open with "London Calling" Charles! Here is the full setlist: bit.ly

Frontman Charlie Steen explained of the James Ford-produced song: “‘Alphabet’ is a direct question, to the audience and the performer, on whether any of this will ever be enough to reach satisfaction. At the time of writing it, I was experiencing a series of surreal dreams where a manic subconscious was bleeding out of me and seeping into the lyrics. All the unsettling and distressing imagery I faced in my sleep have taken on their own form in the video.”

California band Tune-Yards are back with "nowhere, man", their first new single in over two years. The song name is a reference to the Beatles song of a similar name, and the video features Charlie Chapin–inspired footage. Merrill Garbus said, "We hope the music brings energy and a strong wind of encouragement to those who are shouting and singing loudly for justice right now.” www.youtube.com

Wooooo..... Talk Talk "Desire" packing such a punch.... Akin to a sledgehammer to the breastplate! AND - Mark Hollis even uses cow-bells probably long before anyone else even thought of anything like it!! Big Hug (from a social distance), Jim Holmes Dublin, Ireland ..... The love that eminates from KEXP travels far!! -- Hi John! Wondering if you could play something off Laughingstock or Spirit of Eden? Thanks! -Jim from Michigan -- Thank you for Talk Talk this morning. You alway seem to know what I need to hear before I do. ♥️ Peri -- The sessions for Spirit of Eden took place in a blacked-out studio, with an oil projector and strobe lighting. Engineer Phill Brown said that the album, along with its successor, was "recorded by chance, accident, and hours of trying every possible overdub idea. Twelve hours a day in the dark listening to the same six songs for eight months became pretty intense. There was very little communication with musicians who came in to play. They were led to a studio in darkness and a track would be played down the headphones."

Moby said the song is relatively accurate, scientifically speaking. "Apart from two elements everything else on the periodic table of elements came from the furnace of a star somewhere. Just remember: there's not a single part of you that wasn't present in the first 1/2 second of the big bang. Technically, we're all 13,600,000,000 years old." 13,600,000,000 years old? Maybe 2020 is just trying to catch us up to that age. Happy October 400th!

Another track from the fabulous SAULT off their 2nd album from this year saultglobal.bandcamp.com

This song about young love was the first US hit for Terence Trent D'Arby, who changed his name to Sananda Maitreya in 2001. Regarding the name change, he told Songfacts: "TTD had died. His psyche had been shot full of so many arrows that he could no longer hold his spirit. After intense pain I meditated for a new spirit, a new will, a new identity. Sananda Maitreya is an opportunity for me, this spirit, to live with a new psyche and use it to continue my work, the work I came to earth for."

"This is celebratory," Johnson said of the song. "It's the letting go of every little misstep - or even every little success that defines you. You made some sort of mistake and you're bringing yourself to task for it on a loop, and you don't need to. Like, this not the end of the world even though my brain is telling me that it is. This will get resolved. This will be a tiny mote in the river of the universe. One of the billion of things that happen in the course of a lifetime."

Deep Sea Diver were live from the lawn on Friday, September 26! You can find the archive of live performances at KEXP, including Lawn in the Morning shows, at kexp.org/archive! Just click on "sessions"

Celebrating Tom Petty on his birthday. He would have been 70 today. -- Sprinkle of Tom Petty is like the chocolate chips in a muffin! -Joelle ------------------ According to Rolling Stone, the journey to making Full Moon Fever began by chance, when Petty and Jeff Lynne started talking while stopped next to each other at a red light on Thanksgiving 1987. bit.ly

Rolling Stone on how "The Whole of the Moon" is "experiencing a moment." www.rollingstone.com

Bonobo has steamed up with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs for ‘Heartbreak’. It’s set to appear on a 12″ as the first release on Bonobo’s new label OUTLIER, come November 13. The track is a tribute to the disco scene in New York City over the ’70s and ’80s, centred around a sample from ‘Weekend’ by Class Action. bit.ly