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Wednesday, Jul 27 2022, 7AM
Good Morning!
It’s KEXP’s 50th anniversary, and to celebrate we’re taking an in-depth look at each year of our history – from 1972 to 2022
Today, it's 1989!
Released in 1989, the “Fight the Power” anthem served as the theme for Spike Lee’s 'Do the Right Thing' and is featured on Public Enemy’s 1990 album 'Fear of a Black Planet'.
Video:
youtu.be
Celebrating 1989! www.kexp.org
MC Lyte released her second LP in 1989 - she began rapping at the age of twelve and is widely regarded as ushering in the era of women in hip-hop and rap.
www.mclytenow.com
Follow Mc Lyte on Twitter! twitter.com
It's possible there's a sample or two in this one. A few more in the whole album, maybe... www.kexp.org
Celebrating 1989 and 50 years of KEXP!
Back in 2016 KEXP celebrated 3 Feet High and Rising with 12 hours of programming featuring songs sampled on the album, rarites and interviews! www.kexp.org
50 years of KEXP!
Mental Floss for the Globe is the debut album by Dutch rap rock band Urban Dance Squad. It was released in 1989, The album features a crossover of several music genres, such as rock, hip hop, and funk. Biggest hit from the album was "Deeper Shade of Soul," which gained the band international recognition, including in the United States, where they toured with Living Colour.
Ed in Boston considers this a deepcut!
"Biting My Nails" is a cover of a song by Genevieve Waite off her 1974 album "Romance is on the Rise".
1989 - it was a very good year for music
From the second studio album by English rock band Pop Will Eat Itself.
www.popwilleatitself.net
This single was released in 7", 10", and 12" formats, each with a different edit of the song.
Janet Jackson sampled the bass riff from Sly & the Family Stone's
"Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"on her 1989 hit "Rhythm Nation."
www.janetjackson.com
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Check out Janet's acceptance speech from her 2019 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "And Rock and Roll Hall of Fame please, 2020: Induct more women. Thank you so much." tinyurl.com
Technique is New Order's fifth studio album.
"Fine Time" was written and partially recorded in Ibiza; its title was inspired by an incident in which band member Stephen Morris's car was towed, and he had to remember to pay the fine.
"Getting Away with It" is the first single by the English band Electronic, which comprised Bernard Sumner of New Order, ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, and guest vocalist Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys, yep, that's him on background vocals. Released in 1989!
From Kat in Port Townsend -
Good morning John! Waking up to1989 tunes has been such a treat today. I woke up in some sort of mood but 30 minutes of KEXP later and im feeling like a person again. Thank you for always playing the right vibes! Could you please try to fit in She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Cannibals at some point? Thank you!
Got a request? Of course you do! email dj@kexp.org or text us at 206-903-5397
Formed in 1987 in Bristol, Avon, England. From allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine: "Building on the jangly guitar pop of the Smiths and the trance-like dream pop of bands like the Cocteau Twins, the Sundays cultivated a dedicated following in indie rock circles, both in their native England and in America, in the early '90s." bit.ly
Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week! is the second studio album from the Sugarcubes, released in September 1989. The name of the album was inspired by Mr. Toad from the famous children's book The Wind in the Willows.
When recounting Channel Z, the B-52s said it's “probably our most straightforward political song up until then,” said Fred Schneider 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. Back to 1989!!!!!
This was the debut UK hit for The Lightning Seeds and the band's only Top 40 hit in the US.
Celebrating the music of 1989 and Fifty Years of KEXP!
The Ocean Blue formed in Hershey, Pennsylvania in 1986. The band members first met in junior high school and were still in high school when they signed a three-album deal in 1988 with Sire Records, at the behest of Sire founder Seymour Stein.
The Ocean Blue played this song and others for KEXP listeners during a live NYC Cutting Room session in 2015: www.kexp.org
In a 2009 interview with Clash Magazine, The Stone Roses' 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."
Fifty Years of KEXP!
The British group formed in 1986; it featured Guy Chadwick (vocals, guitar), Terry Bickers (guitar), Andrea Heukamp (vocals, guitar), Pete Evans (drums), and Chris Groothuizen (bass). Here's a biography: www.allmusic.com
Happy 1989 day. I had a glorious mullet.
LET THE DAY BEGIN by The Call still sounds good.
I'm bald now.
Have a great day!
Larry in Michigan
"In early 1988 Seattle’s ace recording engineer/producer, Jack Endino, passed off a new cassette of fresh tunes he'd cut with a little band from Aberdeen named Nirvana to a few industry folks including KCMU DJ Shirley Carlson... Months later, the band's leader Kurt Cobain (1967-1994) walked a copy of their debut Sub Pop single "Love Buzz" into KCMU hoping that they might air it. Then, as he and a girlfriend made the return trek home in her car, dashboard radio locked onto 90.3-FM, he was disappointed that the disc wasn't being aired. So mid-route, she exited I-5 and, using a gas-station payphone, Cobain called in an anonymous request for the song. Soon after, the record was blasting forth and the couple reveled in that magic moment. KCMU would also debut tracks from Nirvana's follow-up album, Bleach. Three years later, in September 1991, a grateful Cobain (and Nirvana) returned to the station to do an on-air release-day interview promoting the band's second album, the immortal 'Nevermind'."
www.historylink.org
The fourth studio album by Ministry, released on November 14, 1989 by Sire Records. The music took a more hardcore, aggressively guitar-driven direction, with Al Jourgensen inspired by Stormtroopers of Death and Rigor Mortis to add thrash metal guitars to the album and subsequent Ministry releases. As with most of Ministry's work, the album's lyrics deal mainly with political corruption, cultural violence, environmental degradation, nuclear war, drug addiction, and insanity. In other words, a nice pop album!
Trent Reznor wrote "Head Like a Hole" in 1988, after touring with Skinny Puppy. Flood, Adrian Sherwood, and Keith LeBlanc were co-producers of the song, and it was recorded in 1989. "Head Like a Hole" was one of the last songs completed for the album, since Flood did not arrive to the studio (Ric Ocasek's Syncro Sound Studios in Boston) until the completion of Depeche Mode's Violator. bit.ly
WTH! Was 1989 a great year for music or what?
This is an environmental song written by guitarist Kim Thayil (music) and lead singer Chris Cornell (lyrics). It's about the abuse of mother nature (blanketing the ocean with oil, the clear cutting of old growth forests). Then the lyrics go on to say, "Put your hands away, your gonna kill your mother," meaning the Earth. --- www.youtube.com
Sonic Temple is the fourth studio album by The Cult. The album features some of the band's most popular songs, including "Fire Woman" and "Edie (Ciao Baby)".
Sonic Temple was the last album recorded with longtime bassist Jamie Stewart, who left in 1990, and the first to feature former Hall & Oates and then-current Bryan Adams drummer, Mickey Curry. Mickey Curry? I can go for that!
1989!!!! #KEXP50
“Ladies First,” a track from Latifah’s 1989 “All Hail the Queen” album that featured British rapper Monie Love, was a bold declaration, in the days when hip-hop was still defining itself, that women could hold their own:
The ladies will kick it, the rhyme that is wicked
Those that don’t know how to be pros get evicted
A woman can bear you, break you, take you
Now it’s time to rhyme, can you relate to
A sister dope enough to make you holler and scream?
The music video for "Like a Prayer", portrays Madonna witnessing a young white woman being killed by a group of white men. While a black man is arrested for the murder, Madonna hides in a church for safety, seeking strength to go forth as a witness.
The video depicts a church and Catholic symbols such as stigmata. It also features the Ku Klux Klan's burning crosses and a dream about kissing a black saint. The Vatican condemned the video, while family and religious groups protested against its broadcast. Protestors boycotted products by Pepsi, who had used the song in their commercial. The company canceled their sponsorship contract with Madonna, but allowed her to retain the $5 million fee. #losers
Released as a single in 1989, prior to its inclusion on 1990's Violator, "Personal Jesus" reached No. 13 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The single was their first to make the US Top 40 since 1984's "People Are People", and was their first gold-certified single in the US (quickly followed by its successor, "Enjoy the Silence").
And the rest is history!
Gretchen in Kirkland wrote "I made googly drunk eyes at Chris Isaak in a dive bar in SF and he was better looking in person than I can possibly describe. He didn't respond to my subtle hypnosis."
Steamy video... www.youtube.com
This track was featured in David Lynch's 1990 film "Wild at Heart" with Laura Dern and Nick Cage, leading to it becoming a chart-topper around the world -- it's since been covered by artists ranging from HIM and Giant Drag to October Noir and DJ XENO
"Dirty Blvd." topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart for four weeks in early 1989 and was one of the four songs Reed performed with David Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party in 1997.
Celebrating 1989!
While recording the Disintegration album, Robert Smith created a strange restriction: He wouldn't speak during the sessions. To communicate, he passed notes to his bandmates, sometimes when they were in the middle of playing. He was trying to foster a kind of nonverbal communication.
A deep cut off of Love and Rockets' fourth studio album. 1989!!!!
Peter Murphy, of course, was the vocalist for Bauhaus. In an interview, he was asked what it is that "cuts you up and spits you out." He replied: "The path of discovery, self-knowledge, wisdom... once you feel you have it. Then the path will spit you out or off the way and ruin your assumptions of this path. In fact, it is a great mighty necessity for those spiritual seekers or so-called 'holy state' desirers who become arrogant."
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The song is driven by a violin riff played on a synthesizer. According to Simon Rogers, who produced the track, they brought in a musician to replicate it on viola, but it didn't sound right.
Greg wrote in and asked -
"Is it greedy to add a second request? Fugazi's Margin Walker came out in 1989 on the 13 Songs album. During high school cross country playing Margin Walker in my head would keep me at my race cadence. :-D"
No, Greg, this is our kind of greedy!
Bleach is the debut studio album by Nirvana, released on June 15, 1989, by Sub Pop. After the release of their debut single "Love Buzz" on Sub Pop in November 1988, Nirvana rehearsed for two to three weeks in preparation for recording a full-length album. The main recording sessions for Bleach took place at Reciprocal Recording in Seattle between December 1988 and January 1989. It is the only Nirvana album released on the Sub Pop label and their only album to feature drummer Chad Channing.
Everyone's a critic, and some get paid for it!
"The Jesus and Mary Chain's third studio album was a mixed bag, a touch rougher and more aggressive-sounding than Darklands, but still not the equivalent of Psychocandy for sheer kicks. Part of the problem was the actual studio setup; while soon-to-be superstar producer/engineer Alan Moulder did a great job on the sound, finding a way to mix thick guitar rumbles without sounding uncommercial, the fact was that the band was really just the brothers at this point."
www.allmusic.com
Celebrating 1989 and Fifty Years of KEXP - thanks to everyone for making it happen!
This track was co-written and produced by Rick Rubin; Rubin created the concept based on his ambivalence about moving from NYC to LA. Samples Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force's "Planet Rock"
"Pump Up the Jam" is from Belgian act Technotronic's first album, Pump Up the Jam: The Album. It was a worldwide hit, reaching number two in the United Kingdom in 1989 and on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1990. The song was later certified triple platinum.
Celebrating Fifty Years of KEXP!
"Disappointed" is the first single from 9, PIL's seventh studio album. Lyrically, the song was inspired by John Lydon's experiences with friends within the band throughout its history, who he commented often let him down. Musically, guitarist John McGeoch used an alternate tuning courtesy of Who guitarist Pete Townshend to begin composing the song.
Our fav' key lime pie recipe...
www.onceuponachef.com
Made with ordinary limes, this “Key lime” pie tastes every bit as authentic as the real deal — plus it’s easier to make.
Great music and recipes, only from KEXP!