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Friday, Jun 24 2022, 7AM
"That's right....Music will save the day." Welcome to the Friday edition of The Morning Show with John Richards! Thank you so much for listening!
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Original bass player Glen Matlock told Mojo magazine that this is his favorite Sex Pistols' statement. He explained: "Everything about it is just right. It's one of those rare moments captured, the vibe, the groove, and the bass ain't bad! It still sounds outrageous."
"Our freedom of speech is freedom or death
We got to fight the powers that be..."
Here's the story behind this song, brimming with rage: www.udiscovermusic.com
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See the official music video here: youtu.be
Kurt Cobain said he wrote this song because he was feeling "disgusted with my generation's apathy, and with my own apathy and spinelessness." This feeling of detachment is what led to lyrics like "Oh well, whatever, nevermind." Krist Novoselic added: "Kurt really despised the mainstream. That's what 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was all about: The mass mentality of conformity."
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Read the lyrics as you watch the band perform in the official music video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit": www.youtube.com
See the video for "Freedom": www.youtube.com
"Freedom" contains "Let Me Try", written by Frank Tirado, performed by Kaleidoscope; samples of "Collection Speech/Unidentified Lining Hymn", recorded by Alan Lomax in 1959, performed by Reverend R.C. Crenshaw; and samples of "Stewball", recorded by Alan Lomax and John Lomax, Sr. in 1947, performed by Prisoner "22" at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
Speaking of Beyoncé . . . her forthcoming project 'Renaissance' is due to drop July 29 - it will be her first drop of new music since 'Lemonade' (in 2016).
www.beyonce.com
Written by the group's lead singer Holly Johnson, bassist Mark O'Toole, and drummer Peter Gill, "Relax" was the first Frankie Goes to Hollywood single, and by far their biggest American hit.
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Although the lyrics are ambiguous, the song is filled with sexual innuendo. To throw censors off the scent, when "Relax" first came out, the band claimed publicly that it was written about "motivation." Later, they confessed it was actually about "shagging."
Morning! Wake Up by Arcade Fire. That song makes me want to run thru walls. Thanks!--Evan
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Arcade Fire (and Beck) will be at Climate Pledge Arena on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2022.
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You don't want to miss Arcade Fire's live performance of "Wake Up" at Coachella in 2011: www.youtube.com
Bikini Kill is playing two sold-out shows at the Capitol Theater in Olympia, WA on September 11th and 12th.
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"That girl thinks she's the queen of the neighborhood / I got news for you.... SHE IS!" --
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The song is an American Anthem. Enjoy this interview with Kathleen Hanna about "fascination, friendship, and desire": www.npr.org
This was the most sweeping track on Rage's 1992 debut.
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This song describes the operations of the FBI's "counterintelligence" program - which was to suppress any dissident movements in the '60s.
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The ending lyrics, "How long? Not long, cause what you reap, is what you sow" are taken from Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech "How Long, Not Long" in which King says, "How long? Not long, because you shall reap what you sow.": www.songmeaningsandfacts.com
7:37 AM
189th spin
In an interview last year, Janelle Monae talked about how the documentary "All In: The Fight for Democracy" motivated her to write a song about how America currently finds itself in mid-turn between "a lie" and real revolution.: bit.ly
Co-written by Brian Eno, this electronica-influenced track finds David Bowie in the grips of paranoia thanks to a guy named Jonny, whose propensity for violence and insatiable lust for material possessions frightens the singer.
The single version features additional vocals from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, who also contributed guitar, bass, and drums. Reznor, one of Bowie's touring mates, also starred in the music video as Jonny, stalking a terrified Bowie around New York City.: www.youtube.com
"We got your missy smitten rubbing on her little kitten
Dreaming of a world that's equal for women with no division..."
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See the official video: www.youtube.com
X-Ray Spex were London punk rock band formed in 1976 featuring the "effervescently discordant" vocals of lead singer Poly Styrene, who was inspired to form a band by seeing the Sex Pistols. During their first incarnation (1976–79), X-Ray Spex were "deliberate underachievers", only releasing five singles and one album. But still, their first single, "Oh Bondage Up Yours!", is now a classic punk rock single, and album 'Germfree Adolescents' a classic album of the punk rock genre. X-Ray Spex saxophonist Susan Whitby was only 16 when this song was recorded!
In 2018, NPR ranked this as the #133 greatest song by a female or nonbinary artist in the 21st century, saying:
Written in response to the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have outlawed gay marriage in the U.S., Gossip’s ‘Standing in the Way of Control’ became a rallying cry of liberation, empowerment and unity. With its minimal yet pulsating instrumentation and Beth Ditto’s impassioned, soulful vocals, the song signaled the trio’s evolution from dancepunk phenoms to pop disrupters. Today, its message rings as powerfully as ever for anyone who’s ever felt marginalized or constrained.
Nothing makes me feel empowered like Patti Smith's 'People Have the Power'.
It's almost like it's in the title.
ALWAYS gives me f**king chills.
Faithful Amplifier --Rich
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On April 13, 2019, Patti Smith + Stewart Copeland (on percussion) joined Choir! Choir! Choir! for a performance of "People Have the Power": www.youtube.com
First Aid Kit released this song on International Women's Day in 2017. ‘You Are the Problem Here’ isn’t a typical First Aid Kit-song,” Klara and Johanna Söderberg said in a statement. “It’s angry and direct. It’s a song written out of despair...."
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Here's a live performance: www.youtube.com
The Julie Ruin is the project of local, PNW rocker Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. The Julie Ruin contains Kathleen Hanna’s former Bikini Kill bandmate Kathi Wilcox, Carmine Covelli, Sara Landeau, and Kenny Mellman - one half of the drag duo Kiki and Herb.
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The video for "I Decide" stars Waxahatchee frontwoman Katie Crutchfield as she struts through downtown Austin during SXSW.: www.youtube.com
"I don't have pity not a single tear
For those who get joy from a woman's fear...": genius.com
7 Year Bitch was an American riot grrrl band that was active from 1990-1997. They were quite involved in feminist and activist scenes, participating in anti violence organizations and supporting domestic violence victims.
"These are our demands:
We want control of our bodies.
Decisions will now be ours.
You can carry out your noble actions,
We will carry our noble scars.
Reclamation."
There are 3 rights:
The three are:
“The right not to be killed. Murder is a crime, unless it is done by a policeman, or an aristocrat”.
“The right to food money, provided of course, you don’t mind a little investigation, humiliation, and, if you cross your fingers, rehabilitation”.
“The right to free speech (as long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it)”.
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The song is said to have been written as a sarcastic response to a series of public service announcements in poor areas reminding the civilians of their basic human rights.
"Although Rolling Stone audaciously described the 1989 track as 'disco-metal,' it resonated more because of how it felt than how it sounded. It was the Eighties’ last great shock-rock anthem — the line, “I’d rather die than give you control” is the worst nightmare of every dictator, politician, and parent — and its combination of change-rattling drum-machine patterns, soul-crushing guitar, and [Trent] Reznor’s screams foreshadowed grunge, emo, nu-metal, and trap hip-hop all at once.": www.rollingstone.com
Watch a live performance by a young Trent Reznor, performing "Terrible Lie" on the Hate Tour in 1990: www.youtube.com
In July, 2020, Lorely Rodriguez, aka Empress Of, shared an exclusive live set on KEXP Live at Home: www.youtube.com
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“Woman is a Word” is a clanging, yearning censure of women’s objectification, one where Rodríguez passionately condemns those who write her off as a purely physical being. “I’m only a figure if you can see my frame/I’m only a struggle if I get in your way.” On Twitter, Rodriguez explained that she wrote the song “as a reaction to feeling like the word ‘woman’ put me in a box of things I was capable to do.”
The Chicks wrote March March after attending the student-led March For Our Lives demonstration in support of legislation to prevent gun violence, which took place in Washington, DC, on March 24, 2018, a month after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
Emma Stayer of the band explained to Music Week magazine: "We were talking about that in the session, and that's where the march idea came up... But we didn't want to write three verses all about gun control, so we started talking about other things we were passionate about."
thechicks.com
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The video opens with a quote: “If your voice held no power, they wouldn’t try to silence you.” A montage of footage follows, exhibiting Americans demonstrating their first amendment rights to protest peacefully.: www.youtube.com
Camp Cope will be at The Crocodile on Saturday, July 30th, 2022.
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"If this is the bottom I will show you what to do....The only way out is up..." Download this song, a KEXP Song of the Day: www.kexp.org
As usual, you are on point with this morning's playlist. What a crazy backwards world we are living in...
Will you play Talkin' Bout a Revolution by Tracy Chapman?
Thanks for all you do - it truly makes a difference. --Meghan
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Chapman said about the inspiration for this song, "they didn’t think that people’s lives who…, people who didn’t have money or who were working class, their lives weren’t very significant and they also somehow couldn’t make a change. But I feel that’s where change comes from, that’s where people are in most need.” www.tracychapman.com
Morning John!
Amazing set, as usual! If you could squeeze it in, could you play "Stand For Myselfh" by Yola please. Thanks for EVERYTHING you and the rest of the members/volunteers at KEXP do for us, day in and day out. It's much appreciated! ❤️ --Maso
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John selected this song from Yolanda Quartey's sophomore album as a recent KEXP Song of the Day: www.kexp.org
In an interview on Fresh Air in 1991, Lesley Gore recalled when "You Don't Own Me" first came to her attention. "At the time, I know I chose it because I know I liked the strength in the lyric," she told host Terry Gross. "But, for me, it was not a song about being a woman. It was about being a person, and what was involved with that. Of course, it got picked up as an anthem for women, which makes me very proud." Learn more about this American anthem: www.npr.org
This single from Ministry's fifth album was co-written and co-produced by the band’s frontman Al Jourgensen and bassist Paul Barker. That's George H. W. Bush saying "a new world order" over and over."
The majority of the video for this song is a mix of police beatings, riots, and gunfights. It also includes a scene in which a woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty is beaten by police in a manner similar to the famous amateur video of Rodney King being beaten by police.: www.facebook.com
Friendly Fa$cism is a full-length album by industrial/hip hop artists Consolidated, released in 1991. The name comes from the title of a 1980 book by political scientist Bertram Gross, Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America. The book lays out the form of "creeping fascism" that Gross feared might come to pass in the United States. : www.discogs.com
Poet/performer Gil Scott-Heron’s recording of his famous epic poem/song “The Revolution Will
Not Be Televised” was named to the National Sound Registry in 2005. : www.loc.gov
“This Is America" is Childish Gambino's (aka Donald Glover) Grammy-winning exploration of trap music, gun violence, and America’s festering relationship with its long and bloody history on race. --
Do not miss this video: youtu.be
shekeepsbees.com
Basic right
we must defend
choose whether and when
without being demonized
because what control
can we have with
no control?
her body knows
need no chaperone
mother crow
help us mother crone
crow out it’s not your choice
dare to practice
medicine 4000 years old
what’s important now
is that I mind my body you mind your own
underside
for those who can afford the right
risk sickness, death or cast aside
to hell with a woman's life
mother crow
help us mother crone
crow out it’s not your choice
lie to control me?
we demand autonomy
your fear is sickness not hereditary
let me liberate me
our bodies our own
our bodies are our own
our own body our own choice
don’t control me
we demand autonomy
your fear is sickness not hereditary
let me liberate me
credits
released June 30, 2017
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She Keeps Bees is a band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2006 and consisting of Jessica Larrabee on vocals and guitar and Andy LaPlant on drums.
‘Get off the Internet‘ acted as a clarion call to activists to return to real life protest. As Johanna Fateman said in a 2002 interview in Venus Zine, it was a reminder to people “not to become isolated in their apartments or their offices with their e-mail.”
“People get so involved in online discourse that it sort of becomes meaningless — it’s kind of like being in a hall of mirrors or something. That’s what that song is about to me — it’s about actually remembering what your priorities are.”: thefword.org.uk
"MAH" equals "Mad as Hell." This song features a vocal sample from El Coco's 1977 song, "I'm Mad As Hell." (El Coco sampled Peter Finch in the movie "Network.")
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See the video for The Chemical Brothers' performance of this song: www.youtube.com
The Levellers formed in 1988, bringing together five Brighton, England, musicians -- Mark Chadwick (vocals, guitar, banjo), Alan Miles (vocals, guitar, mandolin, harmonica), Jeremy Cunningham (bass, bouzouki), Charlie Heather (drums), and Jon Sevink (fiddle). "Throughout these troubled times, the Levellers have inspired people to question authority, to make a difference, and not to be kept in their place. ": www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk
Karen O said in a press release that the song came "like a bolt out of the blue" when she was in the studio with Danger Mouse. Her first take found her "blurting unintelligible words", to which Danger Mouse responded "Dang! That was intense." The atmosphere was volatile with it being just after the election. A lot of people felt helpless like you do when you’re a scared kid looking for assurance that everything is gonna be alright. I like to write songs that anyone can relate to but this one felt especially for the inner child in me that needed the bullies out there to know you don’t f**k with me. I’m a woman now and I’ll protect that inner girl in me from hell and high water.”" -- bit.ly
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Totally gutted. Thanks for the music this morning. can you play Gold Guns Girls by metric?
- Andrea in Maine
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Frontwoman Emily Haines explained that after guitarist/producer James Shaw sent her a basic demo of this track, the lyrics were inspired by the 1983 gangster movie Scarface. Said Haines:
When Jimmy sent me this song as a rough sketch I listened to it over and over while watching Scarface, dreaming up ideas. The lyrics I wrote look at greed in all its forms, and the fact that we seem programmed to be insatiable....
“Jennifer’s Body” was conceived in 1992 by Courtney Love and Patty Schemel. It tells the gruesome story of a woman being kidnapped, murdered and dismembered.: www.lyrics.com
Ani DiFranco will play The Neptune Theatre next Friday, July 1st, 2022.
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Singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco joined forces with Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard for the new song “Disorders.” Proceeds from the charity single, which aims to raise awareness of women’s reproductive rights, will go towards the National Network of Abortion Funds. The organization’s mission is to build “power with members to remove financial and logistical barriers to abortion access by centering people who have abortions and organizing at the intersections of racial, economic and reproductive justice.”
“Disorders” also features saxophonist Skerik and Galactic drummer Stanton Moore as well as Josh Evans. : www.jambase.com
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Purchase the song here: anidifranco.bandcamp.com
I could use some Mountain Goats to remind me we'll make it through this day/week/year.
Thanks for doing what you do,
Lynn in Texas
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"I am gonna make it through this year if it kills me..."
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We know you know all the words! Sing along as you watch the rather bizarre video: www.youtube.com --
Go back to 2013 to see Billy Bragg perform for KEXP listeners during SXSW in Austin, Texas: www.youtube.com
As journalist John Harris puts it, “I’ve just not heard anyone evoke the termination of a pregnancy as bluntly as that song does.”: therumpus.net
This reviewer writes: "On the short list of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Irish Chanteuse Division, “Three Babies” is not a song that you would expect me to love, on paper. After all, it’s a string-laden requiem about the three miscarriages she’d had, so I shouldn’t relate to it in any way, shape, or form.
Each of these
My three babies
I will carry with me
For myself
I ask no one else will be
Mother to these three
And of course
I’m like a wild horse
But there’s no other way I could be.: medialoper.com
This song, written by Kate Bush, was originally released on the soundtrack of the movie She's Having A Baby in 1988. A year later, the song was included in Kate's sixth studio album The Sensual World. The lyric is about being forced to confront an unexpected and frightening crisis during the normal event of childbirth.
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See the official music video: www.youtube.com
Remember....don't give up. You are not alone.
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Jill Gabriel, who was Peter's wife at the time, said: "I saw an article in a newspaper about a woman who jumped out of a huge block of flats with her child and killed herself. I gave it to Peter and it was the original inspiration and he was heartbroken to read it.... Gabriel said of this song's message: "The basic idea is that handling failure is one of the hardest things we have to learn to do."
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See Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush embracing as they sing this lovely song: www.youtube.com
