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Friday, Jan 15 2021, 7AM
Oh, good morning and happy Friday to you! Thank you for listening to The Morning Show with John Richards.
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This song was composed by Steve Earle as the culmination of his album "J.T.," a tribute to his son Justin Townes Earle, who died in August, 2020. The powerful album includes covers of 10 of Justin Townes Earles' compositions.: www.soundslikenashville.com
"We used to laugh together..."
See the lamented Justin Townes Earle, singing live with John Prine on this beautiful version of Prine's "Far From Me": www.youtube.com
"Surrounded by your boundless love..." Here's a remembrance by Elvis Costello of John Prine, whose grace, humor, and boundless love we lost last year: jambands.com
I've said it before many times, but we're so thankful for your show, John. Thanks so much. Happy 2021.
Doug from Moscow, ID
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Jeff Tweedy said this album came about at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown when he began “writing country songs to console myself. Folk and country type forms being the shapes that come most easily to me in a comforting way.” He recorded 'Love Is the King' in April at the Loft in Chicago, working with his sons Spencer and Sammy, and also published his new book, 'How to Write One Song,' on October 13th.
www.rollingstone.com
jefftweedy.bandcamp.com
"You can't raise up your children, watch them grow...
Without peace in the valley down below..."
Here are the lyrics to this song, a memorial to Geronimo: genius.com
The Jayhawks' lead singer Gary Louris and drummer Tim O’Reagan share vocals on a track co-written by Louris and bassist Marc Perlman. John Richards selected this song as a free KEXP Song of the Day. Download it for yourself here: www.kexp.org
The song, "Carousels," released in June of last year, was based on a drum sample from the late Tony Allen. The album was Doves' first new music in 11 years.: www.nme.com
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Here's a live version: www.youtube.com
"Leaders of the Free World" was Elbow's third studio album, released in 2005.: www.popmatters.com
'THE GEORGIA E.P." is a brand-new collection of five covers of songs by some of Death Cab for Cutie's favorite artists from the great state of Georgia (including this Neutral Milk Hotel cover - the band spent time living in Athens, GA). Proceeds from the sale of this EP went to Fair Fight Action, which works to assure free and fair elections in Georgia and beyond. deathcabforcutie.bandcamp.com
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Here's the original from Neutral Milk Hotel: www.youtube.com
Moon Palace is Carrie Biell (vocals and bass),
Cat Biell (back-up vocals and guitar),
Gabriel Molinaro (synth), and
Jude Miqueli (drums). Moon Palace first worked on Faultlines during the Covid-19 stay-at-home order in Washington state. Carrie Biell wrote the song in her basement studio and sent Jude the track on May 10, 2020. From there each member began writing parts at home and working together remotely to bring you this first single off their new EP.: moonpalacemusic.bandcamp.com
Irish songwriter Dolores O'Riordan, most famously of The Cranberries, passed away at the age of 46 on this date in 2018. Read this KEXP remembrance of this talented artist: www.kexp.org
"On an album as raw and aggressive as 'The Lonesome Crowded West,' this type of songwriting could seem out of place, but the band knows so well how to write a hook, how to use melody and major chords to command attention, that 'Polar Opposites' represents just another peak in the album's trajectory. It's the track you'd lift from the album and play for your friend who needs to be eased into a record as disarmingly dense as this one. It goes down easy." Read a fine discussion of this Modest Mouse song: www.popmatters.com
Watch Built to Spill's live performance in the KEXP studio in 2015: www.youtube.com
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Good morning John, really great music this AM. Music heals. Thank you and have a great weekend.
Jeff in Olympia
Miss Grit is the Korean-American musician Margaret Sohn. Check out her music and more here: missgrit.com
"Put most simply, I think that ‘Faith Healer’ is a song about vices, both the obvious and the more insidious ways that they show up in the human experience,” Baker explained in a statement, adding that the song is over two years old. “There are so many channels and behaviors that we use to placate discomfort unhealthily which exist outside the formal definition of addiction. I (and so many other people) are willing to believe whomever — a political pundit, a preacher, a drug dealer, an energy healer — when they promise healing, and how that willingness, however genuine, might actually impede healing.”
www.stereogum.com
'Little Oblivions' is set to release on February 26. julienbaker.bandcamp.com
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Watch Julien Baker sharing a live performance recorded exclusively for KEXP and talking to Cheryl Waters. Recorded January 6, 2021. www.youtube.com
Elbow AND Liz Phair?!? Happy Fri-yay to me!! Thanks the pick me up on this drizzly morning! --Cricket
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"Listen here young lady
All that matters is what makes you happy
But you leave this house knowing my opinion
Won't make you love me if you don't care. ": www.lyricsmode.com
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She performs "What Makes You Happy" live here: www.youtube.com
This was Elastica's first single. It was released on November 1, 1993; its production was limited to 5,000 copies pressed on 7-inch vinyl.
John Harris in his book "The Last Party" wrote: "Its lyrics concerned [Justine] Frischmann's frustration with the occasional problem of drunken male impotence."
Erica in Rhode Island: YES!!!! 🙌🏻🙌🏻 INXS!!
Saw them way back when Kick first came out in the US, at UNH, in the field house - which was half empty. I was right up front in front of the stage. They dropped pieces of paper from the ceiling during Mediate with the words from it written in them. I still have mine - corner torn from another girl grabbing it at the same time ❤️
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The music video was directed by Richard Lowenstein, a friend of the band's from Australia who established their early look: lots of layered images with a focus on Michael Hutchence, who rocked a metrosexual look. In 1988, MTV showed their appreciation by handing out five Video Music Awards to "Need You Tonight/Mediate," including Video Of The Year.: www.youtube.com
Hey John,
My 4-year old Evan is a massive fan of KEXP. He listens to your show while eating breakfast every morning. If you're willing, he'd love it if you'd play Blinding Lights (The Weeknd). Cheers, Gabe (and Evan)
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The Weeknd, a three-time Grammy Award winner whose 2020 album "After Hours" is the most-streamed R&B album of all time, will perform during the Pepsi Super Bowl LV Halftime Show on February 7th, 2021.: www.sportingnews.com
Simple Minds were "alive and kicking" in 1985 when they released this song as the first single from their "Once Upon A Time" album. The group was enjoying creative and critical success, with their 1984 album "Sparkle in the Rain" a breakthrough.
Lead singer Jim Kerr, who wrote the lyrics, had reason to celebrate on a personal level: He married Chrissie Hynde in 1984 and the couple had a daughter, Yasmin, the next year.
Matt Johnson (The The) wrote this song following the death of his brother Eugene. In his grief, he found that writing this song was therapeutic for him.
The title is a paraphrase of a Biblical quote: "Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death...." (Song of Solomon 8:6)
"Walls" was the first single from their soundtrack album, "Songs and Music from "She's the One". The song features Lindsey Buckingham on background vocals.
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Tom Petty was going through a transitional phase when he wrote this song. In 1994, he released "Wildflowers," his first album without The Heartbreakers. After touring for the album, his marriage fell apart, and in 1996 he got divorced from his first wife, Jane, whom he married in 1974. He was living on his own in a rented house when he wrote "Walls," which explores the swingline of life in very poetic terms, starting with the first verse:
Some days are diamonds
Some days are rocks
Some doors are open
Some roads are blocked...
In the end, it's a hopeful song, aimed at a girl with a heart so big she could "crush this town." She's bound to reach him eventually, because even walls fall down.
Tim Showalter (Strand of Oaks) performed "Weird Ways" during a live session in the KEXP studio in 2019. See that whole wonderful performance: www.youtube.com
From The Wrens' third album, released in 2003. Recording of the album originally began in January 1999, but writer's block and a loss of faith in the tracks they were recording meant the band took four years to complete the album, with many songs being rewritten or scrapped as recording proceeded. Named after the New Jersey Meadowlands, the wetlands near the Wrens' home in New Jersey.
In a 2004 interview, guitarist Charles Bissell said that exhaustion and loss of confidence in their writing was a decisive reason for the delay in the album: "We did spend a couple years dealing with lawyers and labels. But after we released an EP in '97, we were at a plateau with our music. We weren't moving forward anymore. We were sort of exhausted. I had lost perspective and didn't know what was good anymore and couldn't write lyrics. We needed to crank out another album, but weren't sure why... There seemed to be no end in sight because every song sucked, every idea was bad. We didn't know what to do." bit.ly
"B-b-burn the skin off and climb the roof top...
Thy will be done...
B-b-bite the nose off and make it the most of
Your king- kingdom kingdom kingdommmmmmm!!!"
Watch them perform "My Kingdom" live in London in 2011: www.youtube.com
Hi John,
I didn’t know I needed to hear these sets this morning until you played them. The weight of the last few weeks on top of the last year has taken a toll. This music helps. A lot.
Be well.
Thank you,
Marc
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See the official video for "Love My Way": www.youtube.com
Ahhh.....the Friday song! Thanks, Henry, for digging deep! Last week's Sound & Vision episode looked at how venues are affected by the new COVID relief bill: www.kexp.org
Tom: "Let's get the am started with Ministry's "Halloween!" Because, really, everyday (lately) is a bit like Halloween (my fav holiday, BTW)."
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This acoustic version of "Halloween" features Al Jourgensen, Dave Navarro, Liz Walton, Dan Cleary, Michael Rozon, Morgan Kibler, and Charlie Clouser on keys.: www.youtube.com
This album was included in the Pitchfork list: 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Pitchfork also included it in their The Best Britpop Albums… That Aren’t British list.
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The Dandys were live in our studio in 2016: www.youtube.com
You are not alone.
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Watch rare footage of New Order performing "Ceremony" in 1981: www.npr.org
Kind of late in the show but if you could play some TR/ST for my wife she'd really love it. Happy Anniversary to Sara Leigh. I can't believe we made it to ten years. Hope you all have a awesome day. Ryan
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Robert Alfons AKA TR/ST stopped by KEXP after the release of The Destroyer - Part 1 early in 2019 and spoke with KEXP DJ Abbie. Watch this dark, intimate session here: www.youtube.com
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The video for this song, featuring famed choreographer Ryan Heffington, is fantastic: www.youtube.com
Neil Tennant started to write the song while staying at his cousin's house in Nottingham and watching a gangster film starring James Cagney. Just when he was about to head to sleep, he came up with the lines: "Sometimes you're better off dead, there's a gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head". The lyrics were inspired by TS Eliot's poem 'The Waste Land', particularly its different narrative voices and mysterious references.
Here's a guide to those mysterious references: www.smoothradio.com
Moodswings is a musical duo composed of Grant Showbiz and James F. T. Hood.
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Here is Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered on August 28, 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, in its entirety: www.npr.org
Loving the music this morning, definitely hitting a new wall of never alone but so damn lonely.
Thank you for being the thread of normalcy ---Nicole
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BRONSON is the side project from American electronic duo of ODESZA’s Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight, along with Australian producer Tom Still of Golden Features. They enlisted British producer Orlando Tobias Edward Higginbottom (aka Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs) to produce this song. They say of "DAWN": “It’s such an emotional journey of a song to us. The lyrics represent this renewed sense of hope, which feels very needed, now more than ever.”: wearebronson.bandcamp.com
Peter writes: Great show this morning! Really emotional and I can see from the playlist comments we are all connecting today. Thank you!
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"Outro" is the final song on M83's "Hurry Up. We're Dreaming."
"Facing tempests of dust, I'll fight until the end / Creatures of my dreams, raise up and dance with me..." ilovem83.com
Seth: Start to finish one of the BEST shows ever. Needed that on a day when I, like many people, was feeling a little worn out. Thank for all that you do to keep us all sane.
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"With singed eyelashes
And a humming in our ears....
And silver-colored tears...
And soot in our eyes...."
lyricstranslate.com
We thank you for being there for us every day!....Right now we are all living near the edge, we are grieving loved ones, we are isolated for our safety, we are yearning for the fellowship of communities gathering. But while we wait for this day we are not alone, thanks to our KEXP community. A True Blessing!
We send you Love,
Stay Safe,
Curtis
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Sit in the front row for this live version of "Your Hand in Mine": www.youtube.com
I know I'm not alone in saying thank you for helping me start today off mindfully and with a yearning to make it full!! You are loved and thank you!! ---Pete
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The lyrics were inspired by Bono's experience with Jubilee 2000, a benefit urging politicians to drop the Third World Debt. Bono describes the song as about "a man who has lost everything, but finds joy in what he still has. Musician Nichole Nordeman, who covered this song, said: "'Beautiful Day' just cries out for what's ahead. What's next. The light peering over the hill. The dawn. The crack in the heavy drapes. Don't let it get away."
R.I.P., Sylvain Sylvain. “As most of you know, Sylvain battled cancer for the past two and half years,” his wife Wanda O’Kelley Mizrahi wrote in a statement on his Facebook page. “Though he fought it valiantly, yesterday he passed away from this disease. While we grieve his loss, we know that he is finally at peace and out of pain. Please crank up his music, light a candle, say a prayer and let’s send this beautiful doll on his way.”: www.rollingstone.com