John Richards

Bragg stated, “To me, ‘I Will Be Your Shield’ is the heart and soul of the album. I’ve come to the conclusion that empathy is the currency of music — that our job as songwriters is to help people come to terms with their feelings by offering them examples of how others may have dealt with a situation similar to that in which listeners find themselves. After what we’ve all been through, the idea of being a shield, physically, emotionally, psychologically, really resonates." - bit.ly You can preorder the new album, out October 8th on a couple different colors of 140g vinyl at Rough Trade: bit.ly

Aimee Mann has a new album, "Queens of the Summer Hotel", coming out November 6th. Hear the lead single here: orcd.co

Here's the local band performing live at KEXP in 2017: www.youtube.com

The Howl Sessions is a collection of B-sides from the Howl period, originally released in a limited run in 2006 as an "add-on" to Howl and includes this extended version of Mercy. BRMC have played live on KEXP a couple of times. Check out this session from 2013: www.youtube.com and this one from 2018: www.youtube.com

Find this Smashing Pumpkins cover here: whimsical1.bandcamp.com

Bob Mould will be at Neumos on September 28th with his "Distortion and Blue Hearts!" tour! bit.ly

Hey John and team, Just wanted to say “Hey” and congratulate you on the 20 miler. I too am training for Portland but have been battling a few injuries over the past few weeks which have slowed me down. Anyway I have been seeing a PT and this morning had my first pain-free (albeit short, and slow) run in about two weeks. I always love the Runcast and enjoy hearing you talk about running occasionally during the Morning Show. Wanted to share one of my favorite warm up songs on these cool darker mornings is “We Dance” by Pavement. It’s an oldie but a goodie and a great way to ease into a workout. Hope you all have a great day. Jacob in Portland ----- "Everybody loves Wowee Zowee now, including the fans who were traumatized by it in 1995." Read When Did Pavement’s ‘Wowee Zowee’ Become a Masterpiece? at Rolling Stone: bit.ly

Rogue Wave - Cover Me tracklist: Rescue (Echo & the Bunnymen) In Between Days (The Cure) Let My Love Open The Door (Pete Townshend) That's All (Genesis) Bette Davis Eyes (Kim Carnes) Sharp Dressed Man (ZZ Top) She Sells Sanctuary (The Cult) Under The Milky Way (The Church) Talking In Your Sleep (The Romantics) Bonus material: 1) in a big country (Big Country) 2) love my way (Psychedelic Furs) 3) money changes everything (Cyndi Lauper)

Nation of Language are playing The Crocodile on Thursday, October 14th: bit.ly "Can I ever get past the wounds of love?" As frontman Ian Devaney explains: “Wounds Of Love” is a song about getting caught in a mental feedback loop when a relationship ends. It’s an endless inner argument — wanting to move on defiantly, but feeling utterly lost about how to do it when the other person has informed so much about how you see yourself. For every bit of progress there’s just as much retreating, and eventually it seems like this back-and-forth becomes the new root of your identity — still tied to the same person, just without them actually being there. Read the full statement from Ian Devaney here: bit.ly 'A Way Forward' is out November 5th. nationoflanguage.bandcamp.com

Good morning John! If you could play "At The River" by Groove Armada that'd be killer! -Sal ============= Tom Findlay, songwriter & producer on "At the River": "When we started making music, we packed a sampler and a keyboard and rented a little old house in Ambleside in the Lake District to write an album in a week. On the last day there we picked up a Sounds of the 1950s compilation from a 50p bargain bin in the local shop. That’s where the vocal sample on At the River comes from – it’s Patti Page singing Old Cape Cod. We sampled her singing, “If you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air, quaint little villages here and there…”, slowed a breakbeat right down to get a lazy feel, and made a bass sound with the keyboard. Not using the rest of the original song’s lyrics left our song open to conjecture, giving it a slightly eerie, melancholy quality. I’d love to say it was a stroke of genius, but the truth is we could only fit 10 seconds of her singing in the sampler."

Becoming X was released on this day, 1996 in the UK. The US didn't get it until February 25th 1997. The album marked the only appearance of Kelli Dayton as lead singer before she was asked to leave the band; Chris Corner replaced her for the band's subsequent albums.

Good morning! Love the start of the show today. We lost Scott (maybe your biggest Adorable requestor?!) a year ago Monday but today I'm taking our son to start college in NYC. Sad but joyous. Would love to hear anything that fits that. Never saw our son moving to NYC all the times Scott and I sang Fairytale of New York at the top of our lungs but you just never know! Many thanks as always. Lauren ============== Thank you Lauren. You are not alone!

Future Islands are playing two nights at Marymoor Park with Modest Mouse! Sept 11th & 12th. Also playing in Tacoma on Sept 8th. Find all the tour dates here: future-islands.com

Stephen writes: You know you live in a truly free country when real freedom infringements are so rare that being mandated to wear a mask during a global pandemic is the rallying cry for your cause. I'm trying to find the empathy, as a person, as an American, as a health care provider, as a father, but my well is just about dry. Benjamin Gibbard and Tycho came and saved the day. Only Love. I keep those words on repeat. A timely song for me. == Scott Hansen, a.k.a. Tycho, said in a statement. “Ben’s voice was a very inspiring element to work with from a production standpoint; I felt it really meshed well with the kinds of sounds and instrumentation I gravitate toward. ... It was certainly an honor to be able to work with such an iconic voice.” tycho.bandcamp.com

Off the third soundtrack in the Twilight Saga film series, which also features Florence + The Machine, The Black Keys, The Dead Weather, and Vampire Weekend (HA! You see what they did there)

John and gang, happy Friday eve. My oldest son is in college, my youngest is in the 8th grade, my wife is in Corpus Christi. I'm home. All alone. Working remotely. And all I can think of is Happy from the wrens. Having KEXP right now makes me feel good. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Much love to you guys. Ivan in San Antonio ============

On is the third studio album by Imperial Teen. On March 30, 2009, Amazon.com selected it as the 43rd greatest indie rock album of all time.

Morning KEXP! I'd love to hear new parquet courts again if you have time Garrett in San Diego =============

The Parrots on the new track: "we’ve been feeling that people are settling and giving up their dreams for the ones people post on social media, we wanted to express that lack of individuality, how it’s easier to copy other models of success rather than follow your own. With this song we wanted to punch that trend (or feeling) in the face and remind people and ourselves that success has more to do with personal feelings and self-care than social acceptance. We’ve always felt very comfortable being treated as outsiders in most circles and we are proud of that, fight back, don’t kneel and don’t try to be liked by everyone. Some things work for you but others may not. Why are people so worried about communism and stuff when it’s capitalism itself which tries to make us all exactly the same, boring with the same dreams and motivations?” heavenlyemporium.com

Speaking of work.... Watch The Godfathers performing this one live in 1988: www.youtube.com

Hi John, I’ve been out of sync lately, listening to the Morning Show in the evenings as I work out and loved that Angel Olsen cover of Billy Idol. I’d love to request St. Vincent covering another suggestion for “best ballad of the eighties,” INXS’ Never Tear Us Apart. Cheers, Rob in Los Angeles ========= Beck recorded the entire INXS album in a single day with Annie Clark and Daniel Hart from St. Vincent, Sergio Dias from the Brazilian band Os Mutantes and Brian Lebarton. Angus Andrew, Aaron Hamphill and Julian Gross from Liars also appear with Angus singing on most of the songs.

Catagorized as “jangle pop,” “Here’s Where the Story Ends,” is the bands signature song. The vocals of Harriet Wheeler – who co-wrote the song with guitarist and future-husband David Gavurin – are the defining element of “Here’s Where the Story Ends”, but its breezy arrangement and lightly melancholic lyrics make its eventual success seem inevitable in hindsight. Watch the video here: youtu.be

The song was originally written by Randy Weeks and recorded by Lucinda Williams for her 1998 album, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. Marc writes, That song was written by Randy Weeks, songwriter & performer who now lives in the puget sound area. He & his band play every other Sunday at Tim"s Tavern in Greenwood. The next show is this Sunday, 6-9pm. == Fourteen years after Raising Sand, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have reunited. "Can't Let Go" — written by Randy Weeks and originally recorded by Lucinda Williams — is the first single from Raise the Roof (out Nov. 19) n.pr

John, Owen: Great start to the show. I’d you have room for more covers, could we hear the new Matt Berninger cover of Velvet Underground? Thanks! Spencer ============= New V.U. tribute features Michael Stipe, Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen, Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett and more!

"There She Goes" is a song with one crazy story, so hang on. It was written by the Liverpool singer and guitarist Lee Mavers, and recorded by his band The La's. The La's released it on their only album, titled The La's. "There She Goes" was released as a single, not once, not twice, but four times! The first release scratched the UK Singles chart in 1988 at #51. The second release in 1990 was the peak, with #13 on the UK Singles and also charting in the US. The third release was in 1999, and it charted the UK Singles at #65. The fourth release was in 2008, on vinyl only for the song's 20th anniversary, and charted again at #181.: www.songfacts.com

She's So High" is a song by the English rock band Blur, released as a double A-side single with "I Know" on 15 October 1990 as their debut single. It is the first track on the band's debut album, Leisure, released in 1991.

Tom McGreevy, 1/2 of the Toronto duo describes the song this way in a press release: "It is about personal connection in an environment that is hostile to it, and about friendships with people who are physically distant. Me and Evan have both moved around a lot, and have friends in far-off places we don’t see as often as we’d like. In fact, we partly made this record while Evan was living in Australia and I was in Toronto. Some of those friendships are extremely important to me, and the song is kind of about grasping for those lifelines when it’s particularly difficult to believe that things are going to work out, or if there’s even any point in trying.” www.fyimusicnews.ca

At the height of their popularity, the group was hounded to accept sponsorship deals, including a ridiculous one involving this song. "The worst thing was they wanted us to remake the 'Good Thing' video with Hondas instead of Vespas," David Steele told Q magazine in 1990. "I used to hang out with scooter kids and to them the biggest joke in the whole world was the Honda scooter." Check out the video her: bit.ly

The beginning of the song, "All God's children need traveling shoes" is the title of a book by the writer Maya Angelou. It is the fifth and last book of her autobiography series in which Angelou writes about her dream to return home as a black American woman to Africa and her subsequent emigration to Ghana. Said Tikaram: "I don't know why I used it but it sounded poetic and spiritual too me; the rest of the song is really about not understanding - when you're 18, you've got a very particular emotional relationship with the world, you feel very isolated, and everybody else is so distant and cold. And I think I was singing about not feeling anything or not being moved by things around. I think this is a strong feeling when you're just after adolescence.

This is an a cappella song that became a hit in 1990 when the British production duo DNA added a beat and released the remix as a bootleg. The contrast between Vega's subtle vocal and the driving dance rhythm meshed unexpectedly well. Of course, DNA didn't ask Vega's permission, and when Suzanne first heard it, she said she wasn't sure whether she should sue them or congratulate them. (She decided against litigation...) --- When German engineers were developing the MP3 file format, they used this song to test their creation, checking for loss of fidelity. They picked an a cappella tune because they were particularly concerned about degrading the human voice.

John in Virginia is "dancing, dancing, dancing," adding, "Thank you for playin. UDS. This song brings me joy even though it is a tough time. Only on kexp could this song, the exact song I needed to hear, be played." == "Deeper Shade of Soul" is the debut single by Dutch band Urban Dance Squad and samples the Ray Barretto song recorded in 1968 with a similar name ("A Deeper Shade of Soul"). Originally released in 1990, the single reached number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 1991 and stayed on the charts for 18 weeks.

This was P.M. Dawn's only #1 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100. The track is well-known for the prominent sample of Spandau Ballet's "True" -- that band's lead singer, Tony Hadley, appears near the end of the music video for "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss".

Great set John! Makes me think of Little Fluffy Clouds by The Orb. Scott - Seattle =========== The Orb on how this famous track came to be: "A fan who worked in a record shop in Birmingham sent me a tape with a note saying it would be perfect for the Orb. On one side, Pat Metheny was playing Steve Reich’s 'Electric Counterpoint'. On the other was an interview with Rickie Lee Jones. Someone asked her: “So what were the skies like when you were young?” and she launched into a trippy monologue about stars and clouds. I sampled it and put it over a basic pulse. That was the start of Little Fluffy Clouds."

"Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" is the third studio album by English space rock band Spiritualized. The album's title is from the philosophical novel "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder. The excerpt reads, "Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence. Some of them fall off, but others cling on desperately and yell at the people nestling deep in the snug softness, stuffing themselves with delicious food and drink. 'Ladies and Gentlemen,' they yell, 'we are floating in space!' But none of the people down there care"

"We all have fears; 'Disintegration' was Robert Smith’s way of letting go of his apprehensive doubts. There’s a beauty in the smiles that Smith shares in 'Plainsong.' What at first sounds like chorus of funeral now sound like nervous wedding bells, heartbeats overwhelming those moments of life that define us.": dontforgetthesongs365.wordpress.com

This being the last song on the album, The Beatles found an interesting way to close it out. After the final note, Lennon had producer George Martin dub in a high pitched tone, which most humans can't hear, but drives dogs crazy. This was followed by a loop of incomprehensible studio noise, along with Paul McCartney saying, "Never could see any other way," all spliced together. It was put there so vinyl copies would play this continuously in the run-out groove, sounding like something went horribly wrong with the record. Another good reason to own vinyl.

Happy 45th birthday to Régine Chassagne of Arcade fire! She plays many instruments on stage, including accordion, drums, xylophone, hurdy-gurdy, keyboards, organ and guitar. In Arcade Fire, Chassagne performs lead vocals on some songs.

Watch LADIES perform this song live www.youtube.com

Because deep down, we know that what matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too. Even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then. --Mr. Rogers : bit.ly --- An untrained children's choir accompanies the Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman on this song from the soundtrack that she composed for the 2009 film.: www.youtube.com