John Richards

Stromae gets candid about his mental health on “L’Enfer,” a new piano-backed single in which he explores themes of loneliness and depression and reveals he’s had suicidal thoughts in the past. “People often define my songs as ones with joyful music and themes that are a little darker, a little sadder,” he said before performing. “It’s how I see life… There is no high without low, there is no low without high. That’s life.” www.rollingstone.com ====== Remember, you are not alone!

Comprising Sunderland-born producer Ryan Hope (the band is named after St. Gabriels Avenue, the street on which Hope grew up), Calfiornian producer and classically trained musician Ari Balouzian, and the stunning gospel vocals of Compton’s Jacob Lusk, they have quickly amassed an arsenal of famous fans, including Annie Mac, Gilles Peterson and Elton John, who described the debut EP’s title track as, “one of the most seminal records I’ve heard in the last ten years” gabriels.bandcamp.com

Josiah Johnson is playing at the Sunset on March 9th! bit.ly “Writing “Hello, Hello on Fire!”, I was thinking about the legacies that I carry in me,” Johnson explained. “Are they real? Do they come from what happened, or from how I tell the story of it? Sometimes it seems like my history is physical and sometimes it is in my head. And is there a difference between those two things? How do I release myself from a history I don’t want to keep reliving? It can get tangled and overgrown unless I live in reality. Put down the backpack full of rocks. And at its heart, it is for our friends and for us when we lose our way and need to be brought back in.” josiahsjohnsons.bandcamp.com

Good morning-it's my birthday today-I posted a pic on Facebook from 30(!) years ago and the poster in the background (Love and Rockets Motorcyle) made me want to hear some Love and Rockets (DJ's choice-can't go wrong!). Have a great day. Leslie in Sammamish P.S. L & R was one of the best concerts I have seen. Worked my way to the front row by giving out gum! Random! == Formed in 1985, Love and Rockets was guitarist/vocalist Daniel Ash, bassist/vocalist David J, and drummer Kevin Haskins, all former members of the pioneering goth band Bauhaus. "Yin and Yang the Flower Pot Man" is ecstatically upbeat, offering a propulsive rhythm, flailing guitars, and insistent bass -- a compulsively danceable and bliss-inducing track. bit.ly -- Back in 2017 David J stopped by KEXP for an in-studio performance: www.youtube.com

Bandmember Pete Fijalkowski said of "Homeboy": This was written pre-Adorable when we were called the Candy Thieves, which I had formed in 1988 with my friend Wayne Peters on guitar, when we were on a Film Studies course together at Warwick University. I can still remember the day we wrote it. Wil started playing the bass line, and Kevin joined in on the floor tom. I sang a whole load of lines culled from other discarded songs, Wayne picked some notes, and then when it felt right I stepped on my distortion pedal to make it start feeding back, Kevin sensed it was time to move onto the snare and we all crashed in – it was beautiful. www.creation-records.com

"The Dream" is out tomorrow! You can see alt-J along with Portugal. The Man at WaMu theater on March 29th! bit.ly

Catch Sharon Van Etten with Julien Baker and Angel Olsen at Marymoor Park on August 3rd! bit.ly sharonvanetten.bandcamp.com

Beach House are coming to the Paramount on April 3rd! bit.ly ----- Once Twice Melody is the 8th studio album by Beach House. It is a double album, featuring 18 songs presented in 4 chapters. Across these songs, many types of style and song structures can be heard. Songs without drums, songs centered around acoustic guitar, mostly electronic songs with no guitar, wandering and repetitive melodies, songs built around the string sections. In addition to new sounds, many of the drum machines, organs, keyboards and tones that listeners may associate with previous Beach House records remain present throughout many of the compositions. beachhouse.bandcamp.com

Any. chance of playing Planet Z by the B52s today? Such a great song. Gary in Bonney Lake =========== On Channel Z: “Probably our most straightforward political song up until then,” says Fred Schneider of the B-52's in a 2008 interview. “It was about the state of the country. And who knew nearly 20 years later it’d be worse?” (bit.ly) And who knew that 14 more years later... never mind.

NEW MUSIC!! ODESZA credits Bettye LaVette as a featured artist for their heavy sampling of her 1965 track “Let Me Down Easy.” “This song was born out of the concept of trying to bring these lasting, defining musical pieces like the 1965 release of ‘Let Me Down Easy’ by Bettye LaVette into a modern and contemporary electronic setting,” Odesza explained. “The idea of bringing two worlds together, that at first seem distant, has always been something we’ve been drawn to. It was an absolute honor to be able to work with Bettye’s voice over the course of writing the track. She’s able to convey emotion with her vocal work unlike any other. To date, this has been one of the more fulfilling songs we’ve had the chance to work on as artists. We hope everyone who listens enjoys the track as much as we did making it.” Video! youtu.be

The song, recorded by The 5th Dimension, was a medley of two songs written in 1967 by James Rado, Gerome Ragni and Galt MacDermot for the 1967 musical, "Hair." -- Their performance at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival was captured for the soundtrack of the documentary "Summer of Soul": pitchfork.com

“The Garden Path,” saxophonist/bandleader Washington’s first new original music in nearly a year, features some of Washington’s regular collaborators, such as Brandon Coleman, Allakoi Peete, Cameron Graves, Ronald Bruner Jr., Miles Mosley, and others. -- Washington said of his new song in a press release: “The world feels turned upside down. There’s so much push and pull in every direction, from everyone you meet—no one knows what to think, who to believe, or how to approach life right now. No matter how smart you are, it’s hard not to feel blind.” kamasiwashington.bandcamp.com See Kamasi's 2016 KEXP in-studio performance here: bit.ly

Hi John! Can you spin Outside from MorMor please? Great show! Víctor in Ecuador I'm a very very faithful kexp listener. First trip tu the us as soon as I get into the my rented car, turned on the radio, started to scan a radio station, and stopped on a cool melody played by kexp and bang! More than ten years have gone by now. ============ MorMor is Toronto artist Seth Nyquist. Enjoy live video from MorMor's October 2020 Live on KEXP at Home session, including his discussion with Cheryl Waters: youtu.be mormor.bandcamp.com

Good morning. Wondering if we might hear some Johnny Marr this am? Something of The Messenger maybe? Such a great conversation on the podcast! Reeder on Bainbridge ============ Johnny Marr will be at Climate Pledge Arena (with The Killers) on Saturday, August 20th, 2022. -- A 16-track double LP is due to be released February 25th, 2022, making it the former Smiths guitarist’s first album of new music since his 2018 release "Call The Comet.": bit.ly

The Smile is the new band from Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet's Tom Skinner on drums. “The Smoke” is produced by Nigel Godrich and features contributions from Sons of Kemet tuba player Theon Cross and British jazz trumpeter Byron Wallen. Additional contributors include saxophonists Chelsea Carmichael and Jason Yarde, trombonist Nathaniel Cross (brother of Theon), and multi-instrumentalist Robert Stillman.

Describing her lo-fi jungle style as ‘future-classic’, 22-year-old Nia Archives is carving new shapes in a genre linked intrinsically to her dual-cultural identity. “I grew up around soundsystem culture, as half of my family are Jamaican, and I was always drawn towards that sound, the drums and the distorted bass,” she says. A new EP titled ‘Forbidden Feelingz’ is set to arrive in February, which she describes as a representation of her life in its current state. archivesnia.bandcamp.com

Rosalía explained in a statement that she came up with the beatfor "SAOKO" while playing an upright piano at Electric Lady’s Studio B in New York. From there, she added classic reggaeton drums from a music library sent to her by the producer Mr. NaisGai, a go-to collaborator of Rauw Alejandro. Rosalía, who has teased the song on social media for several weeks, added that she wanted to use the “Saoco” sample because it was “the most direct homage I can make to classic reggaeton, a genre that I love and that has been a constant and great inspiration throughout the Motomami project.”

Amores perros is a 2000 Mexican psychological drama film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu. The title is a pun in Spanish; the word "perros", which literally means "dogs", can also be used to refer to misery, so that it roughly means 'bad loves' with canine connotations.

Tricky covering Public Enemy with Martina Topley-Bird on vocals www.trickysite.com --- Tricky on KEXP Live at Home: www.youtube.com

Public Enemy's 'Public Enemy No. 1' sampled Fred Wesley and The J.B.'s' 1974 'Blow Your Head." --- It was February 10th, 1987, when the debut album from Public Enemy was released. It would be one of the most influential albums in hip hop history. Here's the "secret history" of that classic release: www.okayplayer.com

It’s already been a morning. Sure would be cool to hear Ministry’s “Stigmata”…. Thank you! Lizzz in Port Townsend ---------------- Hoping this turns your morning around!

Van Halen released their self-titled debut album *ahem* 44 YEARS AGO TODAY . The lead single was a cover of the Kinks classic "You Really Got Me. RIP Eddie Van Halen www.kexp.org

In "More Pressure," Kae Tempest is joined by BROCKHAMPTON's Kevin Abstract. "'The Line Is A Curve' is about letting go. Of shame, anxiety, isolation, and falling instead into surrender," Kae says. "I want people to feel welcomed into this record, by me, the person who made it, and I have let go of some of my airier concerns. I feel less shame in my body because I am not hiding from the world anymore. I wanted to show my face, and I dreamed of it being Wolfgang Tillmans who took the portrait." bit.ly

Portugal. The Man haven't released a new album since 2017's Woodstock, but now they're finally ready to put out their long-awaited ninth album this June. Title and exact release date TBA, but we know the album was produced by longtime Kanye West collaborator Jeff Bhasker, and that it'll include their just-released new single "What, Me Worry?", which also features co-production by Ryan Tedder. "While recording this album and hanging in LA, we got into a conversation with Jeff Bhasker and Ryan Tedder about how much we missed laughter," frontman John Gourley said in a statement. "The last few years it’s been so easy to forget the fun in what we do. We talked about childhood memories of laughing at the world and ourselves while flipping through Mad Magazine. We missed those days and remembered that we all make music. So we took that afternoon to make a song about it." bit.ly Portugal. The Man will be at WaMu Theater on March 29th with alt-J!

Brooklyn's Bodega have announced their second full-length album, Broken Equipment, which will be out March 11th. "Sometime on tour near the end of 2019 I found myself reading and watching a plethora of self-help books and YouTube vids,” says the band's Ben Hozie, explaining the idea behind the lyric. “This started from a genuine desire for spiritual and physical improvement, but I soon started noticing how advertisements everywhere were utilising the language of self-help. I was being programmed." ‘You don’t have time to cook dinner tonight because you are too busy crushing it as a doer: You are creating next level content and don’t have time to hang out w/ friends or family this weekend so download this app and have ready-made food delivered to you for 29.99.’ This ideology of constant productivity forces you to treat your own body, mind, time, and friends as products to mine. As a result, the world becomes a smaller, duller place.” www.brooklynvegan.com

To accompany the studio version of the song, Spoon also shared a live performance of “My Babe” taken from a recent gig at the Teragram in Los Angeles.: www.youtube.com The new album is out tomorrow and Spoon head out on tour in April - no Seattle date yet though. spoontheband.com

I know you hit terrapin station yesterday morning, just wanted to throw out that possibly the most universally agreed best live Grateful Dead show was at Cornell in May of '77. One might think, well, the 'official' release of the album didn't come till 40 years later. But I would argue that the cassette of that show was circulated nearly in real time and was traded ubiquitously before they issued a master release... …perhaps one of these off that show? Deal brown-Eyed Women Mama Tried or Scarlet Begonias alone... Thanks for the brilliant programming as always, you all get my family through the morning rush year after year! John in Ballard =========== Thanks John!

The Lumineers shared a live performance recorded exclusively for KEXP and talked to John on January 12th. Check out the performance and interview: bit.ly They'll be at The Gorge on July 16th! bit.ly

Morning Jon It's been a rough morning here in Chicago. Learned last last night that my father had passed, just a month's shy of his 75th birthday. He was my excuse to visit Seattle & KEXP nearly every spring, as he lived up in Alyn. We were not the closest, but after my mother had died in January of 2020, I knew I had to make an attempt to try to not take him for granted. I was lucky enough to visit him last year despite trying to not go near him & even sleeping in my car each night. He was here when my mother passed, and after leaving the hospital I am no stranger to pouring my feelings out to you guys, as you had played a request for the previous year's mom show. I had sent him a sound file of that & he said it was beautiful. So I suppose that if you could play something from John Prine, for my father Terry, maybe he can marvel once again over music at the touch of a finger. Thanks Toby =========== Prine’s final recorded song, “I Remember Everything”, was released on June 11th 2020, and it debuted at the top of the Rock Digital Song Sales chart, making it the highest-charting single of the late legend’s entire career. Given that Prine passed away following a battle with coronavirus, the song’s life-spanning, self-reflective lyrics are achingly prescient. consequenceofsound.net

Hey hey from Columbus OH! Long time amplifier here, really love your show, and a huge fan of International Clash Day - what a wonderful day of radio! Today I'd like to give a big shoutout to a buddy of mine, also a huge KEXP fan, and specifically John in the Morning fan with me. He's driving through Santa Barbara and we're both texting back and forth ab your show. Please play anything by Frightened Rabbit (we're both big fans, we both really miss Scott) for my buddy Jason aka J-Flow, if you can get around to it. if not, aint no thing....we'll still tune in tomorrow! Thanks for all you do John! Music matters Ryan from Columbus ============ Julien Baker joined frontman Scott Hutchison for vocals on this song. Here's Frightened Rabbit performing live in the KEXP studio in 2016: www.youtube.com

Watch Kacey Musgraves performing this one live on SNL in 2018 here... it'll likely give you chills: youtu.be The New York Times had a video feature on Kacey Musgraves and her psychedelic path to "Golden Hour" -- tinyurl.com

Cover of the 1988 hit song from When in Rome that appears on Simpson's second album 'Metamodern Sounds in Country Music'

"The Promise" is the debut single by the British band When in Rome. In 2020, Farrington and Mann, in collaboration with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Slovenia Symphonic Film Orchestra, released a 30th anniversary orchestral edition of their hit song "The Promise" on both CD and vinyl. The release contains eleven tracks, including remixes, extended mixes, and instrumentals. www.farrington-mann.com

I picked up a perfect copy of Dream Academy at a stoop sale a few months back for $1. I was pretty excited about it. My wife was like, Dream Academy, who is that? I put it on and she was like, oh John Richards plays this song all the time. I like these guys. And my 4 year old started dancing. Sometimes life doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. Thanks for the tunes this week - some of the best ever. jon in brooklyn == "Northern Town" started life with a different title. Laird-Clowes told Mojo that he had befriended Paul Simon at one point and the two stayed in touch. He recalled: "I played him the song and he asked, 'What are you going to call it - 'Ah Hey Ma Ma Ma?' I told him that we intended to name it 'Morning Lasted All Day.' 'That's no good,' he said and so I came up with 'Life In A Northern Town.' which he thought was a great title." Just another day where Paul Simon helps with your song titles.

When asked about the prophetic tune in 2012, he said, "I wasn't trying to be ahead of the curve, I was just writing about things that seemed obvious at the time. We still haven't done anything about it. I can't get my head around the stupidity of materialism." Here's World Party performing live in the KEXP studio in 2012 - www.youtube.com

Upon its release, Their Satanic Majesties Request was accused by critics as being too close to the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Following this dip in the psychedelic pond, the Rolling Stones returned to their original blues-rock sound. This song is a plot point in the 2021 Ted Lasso episode "Rainbow." Early in the episode, it plays as the ringtone when Higgins' wife calls - he explains that it was the song that was playing when they met. Later, the song plays when the soccer club's former star, Roy Kent, returns to join the coaching staff.

I picked up a perfect copy of Dream Academy at a stoop sale a few months back for $1. I was pretty excited about it. My wife was like, Dream Academy, who is that? I put it on and she was like, oh John Richards plays this song all the time. I like these guys. And my 4 year old started dancing. Sometimes life doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. Thanks for the tunes this week - some of the best ever. jon in brooklyn ------ From their only studio album. New Radicals broke up in 1999—just months after the release of their 1998 single “You Get What You Give," but reunited to deliver a one-time performance 22 years after at the Biden/Harris inauguration. The song is very important to Biden because his son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015, often played it. Singer-songwriter Gregg Alexander stated: "Performing the song again after such a long time is a huge honor because we all have deep respect for Beau's military service and such high hopes for the unity and normalcy Joe and Kamala will bring our country again in this time of crisis." - bit.ly