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Thursday, Mar 10 2022, 7AM
#155
"Everybody Knows" features in the 1990 film Pump Up the Volume as protagonist Mark Hunter (Christian Slater, as the operator of an FM pirate radio station) plays it several times during his clandestine broadcasts. A cover by Concrete Blonde is used at the film's end, and it is this cover version that made it onto the film's soundtrack album rather than Cohen's version.
Cohen's original version was also featured prominently in Atom Egoyan's 1994 film Exotica, as the theme music of exotic dancer Christina when she performs at the club of the film's title....because that makes sense.
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#154
This is one of Fleetwood Mac's most enduring songs, but it was merely an album cut, as Fleetwood Mac's label, Reprise, didn't issue it as a single
#153
Originally released as a B-Side to the song "Grass," this was not included with the original pressing of Skylarking. After DJ's across America picked-up on the song, Geffen Records decided to replace the track "Mermaid Smiles" with "Dear God."
#152
PJ Harvey has a book of poetry, "Orlan", being published in April. A second edition including her own artwork comes out in October.
Find out more: t.co
#151
In a 2009 interview with Clash Magazine, lead singer Ian Brown explained that he "didn't actually want people to adore me. I was trying to say then, if you want to be adored, it's like a sin, like lust or gluttony or something like that."
#150
Noel Gallagher started writing this song when he was a roadie for The Inspiral Carpets. It helped convince his brother Liam to let him join his band, Oasis.
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Noel Gallagher said in an interview that he never had a life goal until he penned this song. "Where I came from, and the times that I grew up in, it was best not to have any ambitions. It was quite a bleak time," he said. "I never had a life goal until I wrote 'Live Forever.' And then when I wrote 'Live Forever,' I wanted to be in the biggest band in the world."
#149
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
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#148
This is the first song on the first Violent Femmes album, introducing the band with the famous guitar riff and snare hits. Lead singer and song writer Gordon Gano was just 19 when the album was released.
Check out the version Violent Femmes performed in the Gathering Space with a barbeque:
www.youtube.com
#147 1/3
Robert Smith said of "Boys Don't Cry": "When I was growing up, there was peer pressure on you to conform to be a certain way. And as an English boy at the time, you’re encouraged not to show your emotion to any degree. And I couldn’t help but show my emotions when I was younger. I never found it awkward showing my emotions. I couldn’t really continue without showing my emotions; you’d have to be a pretty boring singer to do that.
So I kind of made a big thing about it. I thought, ‘Well, it’s part of my nature to rail against being told not to do something.’”: faroutmagazine.co.uk
#147
The band tried to add more production to the recorded version and finish it off, but without success. Bass player Alex James says it was "The realization you don't have to polish everything. Sometimes the thing you do first of all is when you mean it."
#146
'[Björk] said “Army of Me” was written as an ultimatum to her own brother, to regain control of his life, lest he “meet an army of me.” Björk scratches at the depths of her voice, and the industrial backbone of the song, the crashes and shrapnel, fortify the task. “Army of Me” is proof that being the most obvious misfit in the room often requires being the toughest, too.'
From Jenn Pelly's excellent Pitchfork retrospective on 'Post": pitchfork.com
#145 1/3
Blondie and The Doors mashup from Mark Vidler (Go Home Productions) that Blondie ended up putting on their Greatest Hits compilation.
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Keep KEXP weird!
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#145
European disco producer Giorgio Moroder wrote this with Debbie Harry, who thus became the first woman in British chart history to write three #1 hits. However she wasn't Moroder's first choice. The Italian disco king had originally wanted Stevie Nicks to provide vocals on the track but the Fleetwood Mac vocalist declined the offer.
#144
John hosted this live performance by IDLES in our studio in 2018. Check out this incredible performance of "Colossus":
www.youtube.com
#143
Murphy explained the inspiration for the song to ieallylovemusic.co.uk: "When I was DJing, playing Can, Liquid Liquid, ESG, all that kind of stuff, I became kind of cool for a moment, which was a total anomaly. And when I heard other DJs playing similar music I was like: 'F--k! I'm out of a job! These are my records!' But it was like someone had crept into my brain and said all these words that I hate. Did I make the records? Did I f--k! So, I started becoming horrified by my own attitude. I had this moment of glory though. People would use me to DJ just to get them cool. They'd be like 'It's the cool rock disco guy' and this was really weird. And to be honest I was afraid that this new found coolness was going to go away and that's where 'Losing My Edge' comes from. It is about being horrified by my own silliness. And then it became a wider thing about people who grip onto other people's creations like they are their own. There is a lot of pathos in that character though because it's born out of inadequacy and love."
www.songfacts.com
#142
Lindsey Buckingham wrote this as a message to Stevie Nicks. It describes their breakup, with the most obvious line being, "Packing up, shacking up is all you want to do," and concluding that he is better off without her - she can go her own way as far as he's concerned. Stevie insisted she never shacked up with anyone when they were going out, and wanted Lindsey to take out the line, but he refused.
Stevie Nicks told Q magazine June 2009: "It was certainly a message within a song. And not a very nice one at that."
#141
The Waterboys were not fans of of synth-based pop, but when Mike Scott heard Prince's 'Purple Rain', he realized it could work if done right. 'This Is the Sea' is peppered with these sounds, played by the group's keyboard player Karl Wallinger, most prominently in "The Whole Of The Moon." It came full circle when Prince performed this song at shows in 2014 and 2015! Learn more tinyurl.com.
#140
"Debaser" has many features of a Nirvana song because the Pixies were one of Kurt Cobain's main influences. Cobain said that when writing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" he was trying to imitate "Debaser" musically and lyrically. The guitar riffs of the two songs are very similar.
#139
This was the Sex Pistols' first single, and it caused quite a stir in England with its lyrics advocating violence against the government. Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols was not released until a year later, partly because of distribution concerns: after hearing "Anarchy In The UK," some organizations refused to ship the album.
#138
This is the title track of Simon's most successful album, selling over 15 million copies and winning a Grammy for Album of the Year. It is an album focusing mostly on African music, but it also explores other forms of non-mainstream music, like Zydeco. The single also won Simon his third Record of the Year award - he previously won for "Mrs. Robinson" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water."
#137
Great sax outro, or greatest sax outro? Sax it up and donate at KEXP.ORG!
#136
"Pictures of You" is the fourth and final single from the British rock band the Cure's 1989 album Disintegration. The song has a single version which is a shorter edit of the album version. An extended remix of the original album version which, at 7:59, runs slightly longer than the album version. There is also an edit which was released on 12" in the US, titled "extended remix" as in the European and Australasian releases, but which runs for 6:40 rather than 7:59.
No short 'radio edits' here! You get the full 7+ minutes on KEXP
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