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Tuesday, Nov 10 2020, 7AM
About Joey Calvert, the girl you hear singing with Kermit, according to Sesame Street Unpaved:
“Although she looked young, she was twice the age of the average viewer, so she knew the answer to most of the questions being asked on the show. One day, while taping a "One of These Things" sketch, Joey kept giving the correct answer before the song was over. The show's producers took her out of the scene, and decided to put in some children who didn't know all the answers."
The new single, “Choirs To Heaven” also comes with some great visuals shot on 16mm film at the great Funkhaus Berlin. Be sure to give the music video directed by Peter Kaaden a watch: bit.ly
Quivers have reimagined R.E.M.'s Out of Time album for Turntable Kitchen: www.turntablekitchen.com
Listen to more tracks and preorder the album, out November 13th, on bandcamp: marikahackman.bandcamp.com
Back on September 25th, Deep Sea Diver played a Lawn in the Morning session and you can listen to it here: www.kexp.org
English producer, songwriter, and musician James Chapman, a.k.a. Maps says of the song:
“Music has always been a therapy for me, and I definitely have an escapist mentality when creating and listening to songs. ‘Sleep Today’ is a song that always lifts my spirits when I listen to it, and that is the feeling I was trying to evoke when writing and recording the track.”
Future Islands were the musical guests on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in early October. They performed “For Sure” from As Long As You Are. See it here: youtu.be
After Dark 3 spans 17 previously unreleased tracks in total that run the gamut of synth possibilities. Alongside music from Jewel’s various projects, including Chromatics, Glass Candy, and Desire, there’s selections from newcomers such as Orion, Joon, MOTHERMARY, Double Mixte, and more.
The album has several different versions according to different territories, containing different tracks and different track order. The UK, Canadian, and US cassette versions of the album also contained a whole side of remixes of various album tracks.
Here’s what the band’s Josh Kolenik had to say about the track in a statement:
Tampa’s about that trip you visualize in the future to keep the ship afloat in your present. The paradise you’ll reach where everything will fall into place.The thing is, when you actually arrive, you just end up staring at your phone, instead of racing with the dolphins. Your relationship problems are still there, actually amplified by the high stakes of “making the time count”. It’s that “wherever I go, there I am” dilemma.
As a local New Yorker/Long Islander, Florida has always loomed as some wonky off-brand version of Heaven, and Tampa itself the actual location where you go to ride that Sea Doo out through the palm-tree lined pearly gates. So the idea of a couple heading there to snatch little piece of that Heaven on Earth for themselves, only to find that whatever baggage they brought lying there next to their piña coladas was a compelling setup for a song.
Nick Laird-Clowes recalled to Mojo magazine in a 2011 interview: "The song was created in a Southgate bedsit where Gilbert Gabriel had a room. We wrote it while sitting on a floor. Just two guitars - one nylon strung with just three strings on it, while the other was the same guitar that was on the cover of Nick Drake's Bryter Layter. We had the idea, even before we sat down, to write a folk song with an African-style chorus. We started it and when we got to the verse melody, there was something about it that reminded me of Nick Drake, who I had been turned on to in 1972 by Roundhouse DJ Jeff Dexter. It was Jeff who first informed me what a brilliant record Bryter Layter was. He claimed, 'I know where that guitar is and one day we'll get hold of it.'
I was working at the RCA record factory in Ladbroke Grove at the time and bought Nick Drake's guitar for £100. When the single was completed I dedicated it to Nick."
Sault's second great album of the year was released just three months after the first came out on Juneteenth. Born of an alliance between previous collaborators—the U.K. producer Inflo (Little Simz, Michael Kiwanuka), the R. & B. singer Cleo Sol, and the Chicago performer Kid Sister, among others—the spotlight-averse band has quickly become synonymous with the sounds of Black protest against police brutality.: www.newyorker.com
Common, Black Thought and PJ performed of “Say Peace” on last Wednesday’s episode of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The song is off Common’s jazzy new album A Beautiful Revolution Pt 1, which came out last Friday, October 30th. See the performance here: youtu.be
Could you please play the beastie boys intergalactic for my son Reef's 13th birthday?!
-Matt in West Seattle
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Happy 13th Reef!
Bicep is the London-based duo of Matt McBriar and Andy Ferguson, childhood friends from Belfast . The new single “Apricots” is a wistful combination of glistening synths and shuffling beats surrounding prominent vocal samples of traditional Malawian singers and a 1950s performance by the Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Vocal Choir.
JOHN it's Rachel from Bellingham WA! I got my KEXP coloring book this weekend and completed my first piece of art! I absolutely love your show and constant messages of "you are not alone". I'm so happy to be a part of the KEXP family! Would love to hear David Byrne's Everybody's Coming to My House!
8:10 AM
1st spin?!
Midnight Oil have returned with their first new song in 18 years, sharing the powerful “Gadigal Land”.
Taking its name from the traditional owners of Sydney, The Gadigal lands include what is now the CBD plus areas from South Head through to the inner west. The track provides a provocative account of what happened there and around the country, in 1788.
This was the band's breakthrough hit in the US. It's success originated from MTV, which had only just come on air, showing their video of the band in the Sri Lanka jungle (they also shot the clips for "Lonely in Your Nightmare" and "Save a Prayer" on this trip). It was an early sensation particularly in the Deep South where the channel was being trialled. In a pre-MTV world where Duran Duran could be heard but not seen, it is unlikely that they would have broken through in America.
Duran Duran were asked in an interview with Q magazine (February 2008) for their memories of the video. Drummer Roger Taylor recalled: "We'd go to Alabama or Texas and the girls would be screaming and the guys in cowboy hats would be looking at us with clenched fists. I don't suppose they'd seen so many guys in make-up pouting before." Singer Simon Le Bon added: "It worked for us though. Video made it possible to create a cult of personality across the globe. You arrive on a tour bus and they'd already seen us on a yacht in a video."
“The video for ‘Crash’ takes place on a flight,” Yanya said in a statement. “Last year, doing a lot of touring I found myself becoming more and more anxious each time I boarded a plane, something that was new for me as I’ve never had a fear of flying. With each flight we took it felt like the turbulence was getting worse and I was convinced my luck was due to run out. I didn’t write ‘Crash’ about being on an airplane, but I really like it visually as an embodiment of the song.”
In addition to “Crash,” the EP will include two other tracks. “One of the songs had the theme of luck in it as a concept but then I realized they all do,” she said. “That got me thinking about luck in general: good and bad. Things out of our control and things in control of us, how often we put acts and happenings down to the fortune of good luck or bad luck when things exceed our expectations or don’t go according to plan.”
Read more at Rolling Stone: bit.ly
In 'Come With Me', vocalist Ed Seed paint a vivid picture of growing up in the Welsh mountains:
"I grew up in a granite house 1100 feet up, two miles from the nearest town. The sounds I remember strongest are buzzards’ cries and the roar of military jets - the RAF use the Welsh hills to train fighter pilots to fly low. Up there you get every kind of weather full in the face and you can see so far in every direction it feels like you’re floating on top of the world. Animals are born and die in the open fields. Black storms move quickly across the horizon over distant towns. You could have some big, scary ideas about the world when there’s no one around to temper you. Wherever you come from, whatever you want, whatever you lack - the mountain seems to promise it to you."
Yung will release Ongoing Dispute, their first album since 2015 debut A Youthful Dream, in January. The band says “Above Water,” is inspired by Yo La Tengo. Here’s their statement:
"For a long time we referred to this song as “The Yo La Tengo Song.” Finishing “Above Water” helped spark a curiosity towards a less obvious approach to songwriting. Originally, the song had a different ending but our friend and producer Neil R. Young swept in with a slick outro, which concluded the song in a big way. Lyrically, the song is an ode to individuals taking a stand against injustice and structures in society which oppose equality. These people often become the voice and the talisman of movements and generations, something that might come at a personal cost, but nonetheless something that makes way for dialog, discussions and hopefully positive change."
This was the last song ever performed by Joy Division, as it was the final song of the last gig on May 2, 1980 at Birmingham University.
Good morning John! Could you please play some Cure today? It's a Cure kinda day, I think 🤔
-Rachel in Seattle
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Robert Smith:
"The song is about excess. Anything I do is not enough, there always has to be something else or you'd stop, and the fact that there is always something else drives you into excess."
'Sad Music' was the KEXP podcast song of the day 10/21/2020 as as chosen by Kevin Cole. Read more and download it here: www.kexp.org
Happy birthday to Kristin!
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Garrett writes: I'm pretty sure TMBG is the antidote to most bad things.
Hello, Mr. John Morning.
If you could find it in your heart to play superbike by jay som, I would be eternally grateful. As always, if not, no biggie.
Thanks a million!
Erik from Sacramento
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Back in September 2019 Jay Som performed 'Superbike' live in the KEXP studio. www.youtube.com
And here is 'Gepetto' live in the KEXP studio from August 2018: www.youtube.com
On this day in 1992 Digable Planets released the single "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)". The song features samples from "Stretching" by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (1978), "Blow Your Head" by Fred Wesley and The J.B.'s (1974), "Foodstamps" by The 24-Carat Black (1973), "Impeach the President" by The Honey Drippers (1973), and "On the Subway" by The Last Poets (1970).
The Jazz Messengers were a jazz combo that existed for over thirty-five years beginning in the early 1950s as a collective, and ending when long-time leader and founding drummer Art Blakey died in 1990. Blakey led or co-led the group from the outset. "Art Blakey" and "Jazz Messengers" became synonymous over the years, though Blakey did lead non-Messenger recording sessions and played as a sideman for other groups throughout his career.
Fred Wesley is an American trombonist who worked with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s and Parliament-Funkadelic in the second half of the 1970s. Wesley's 35-year career includes playing with and arranging for a wide variety of other artists including Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, Randy Crawford, Vanessa Williams, The SOS Band, Cameo, Van Morrison, Socalled and rappers De La Soul, to name a few.
In addition to "On the Subway", being sampled by Digable Planets, the songs from The Last Poets were used by other hip hop musicians, including N.W.A, Notorious B.I.G. and Brand Nubian.
There has to be at least 50 songs that have sampled 'Impeach the President' by The Honey Drippers. Check out the list here: en.wikipedia.org
This song played with a cartoon that aired regularly on the television show Sesame Street. There were 11 different versions (2 through 12, with no version made for the number 1), all with the same main chorus but different styles of music for the individual numbers - some jazz, some funk, one with music hailing for the Caribbean Islands - eclectic but familiar enough so the children would identify each number with a separate melody. (Think Schoolhouse Rocks but for numbers.) See all the segments here: www.youtube.com
Miina writes: Good morning, John and Owen! Love these Sesame Street songs! My fave was Oscar singing "let a frown be your umbrella". When my kids were babies, I'd actually sing that Pointer Sisters song to them; maybe teaching them to count and trying to be cutesy? I also love Cake's version on "Mahna Mahna". So many good memories of watching Sesame Street, when I was a kid, and with my kids. My family had a collection on their records. We scratched them so badly. Thanks for the lovely flashback. Happy Tuesday (ha!).
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Video: www.youtube.com
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“Mahna Mahna” is as catchy as a song can be, like a fishing hook stuck in your tympanum. Most people know the tune from a classic sketch that aired during The Muppet Show’s 1976 premiere, in which an orange-haired hepcat unsuccessfully tries to persuade two hot-pink creatures with long, disapproving snouts to get into the “Mahna Mahna” groove. But the bit goes back further, and the song further still, originating in, of all places, an Italian soft-core movie called Sweden: Heaven and Hell. youtu.be
Need more Angel Olsen? Here are three of her KEXP in-studio sessions. They're all great!
Dec '19 -www.youtube.com
Feb '17 - www.youtube.com
Mar '14 -www.youtube.com
The dentist is actually a gorilla, and Björk explained:
When Michel [Gondry] gets his strokes of genius and, in the video for "Army of Me", wants a dentist that's a gorilla to find a diamond in my mouth, some people call it nonsense. But it's probably the most realistic way of expressing what situation I'm in – all these people trying to take things away from me, and the gorilla finding a diamond that I don't know I have and then stealing it. "Army of Me" is so much about me actually learning that I have to defend myself. I have to stand up and fight the fucking gorilla. Once I've got the diamond and I run away with it, it becomes massive 'cos it's mine. But if the gorilla had kept it, it would have gone really tiny. That's surrealism for me.
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
Joe Talbot sees people at a food bank near his home. “It’s savage,” says Joe. “To have people going to charities for food – it’s not government subsidiaries, they’re charities – is dark.” IDLES’ frontman wrote the song "Carcinogenic" about these struggles, and how they’re compounded by advertisers telling these same people to eat better, look better, be better – leading to what Joe describes as “a cycle of blame, shame, and oppression”.
“Why are they being pummelled with the idea they’re not good enough?” he asks, shaking his head.: www.kerrang.com
Watch Nirvana perform 'On a Plain' from the legendary 1992 Reading Festival: www.youtube.com
In 1973 Stevie Wonder appeared on Sesame Street performing a number of songs and skits.
www.youtube.com