John Richards

“We lived for awhile in a house in the hills,” Callahan said of the song in a statement. “Coyote hills. The coyotes would start their song at dawn. Dawn and dusk were their main appearance times. Our dog would sleep outside sometimes in the morning and our boy was still bite-size. The coyotes would come take notes, edging closer each day. Mornings on the kingsize outdoor daybed. Like a righteous floating tide the coyotes would drift into our world. Predator and prey, blurred. Past and present, blurred. The young, the aged are to be snatched and devoured. Past lives edge in closer to try to speak to us. Current lives eye the past ones like sleeping dogs. And love spans all, that is why the feeling is so deep—deeper than one lifetime.”

According to the REM Project Blog, the term 'king of birds' is a Mayan folk legend where the quetzal is chosen to be king. He does so with deception and then arrogance. The roadrunner had helped him with plumage and was repaid with nothing, as the quetzal left the roadrunner naked and alone. Read more: tinyurl.com

Regarding this song's meaning, Conor O'Brien said that it "is a sort of ode to meaninglessness, that absolute void that we all feel at some stage in our lives, if not every single day. It sort of proposes that this void is the very thing that binds us all together as human beings on this planet." Download it for yourself as a free KEXP Song of the Day: www.kexp.org

First Aid Kit says of the new single, Out of My Head, "We wrote this song last year together with songwriter and producer Björn Yttling. It was the first time we wrote for First Aid Kit with someone else and it was very inspiring. The song was written in the spur of the moment, almost like a stream of consciousness. It's about feeling stuck inside your own thoughts and desperately wanting to escape." bit.ly --- Here is First Aid Kit performing in the KEXP studios back in 2014: bit.ly

Hi John, and good morning from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada! My wife Liz and I listen all the time while working. Love the message and the positive vibes you're putting out there into the world. I'm hoping you can play "This Year" by the Mountain Goats. We've had a rough year with our own grief and the grief of people around us. This song has become special to us, an extra push to keep going when things seem darkest. It would mean a lot to Liz to hear it, I think, and hopefully it can inspire others to keep going too. Thanks, Glenn

Good morning John and KEXP crew- Just wanted to start this week with a note of gratitude for all that you do. On Saturday, my two kids,11 and 13 years old, my wife and I completed a 22 mile hike as a fundraiser for the Make-a-wish foundation. We are so grateful that we were able to do this as a family because our 13 year old completed chemotherapy for his stage 4 cancer only a year ago. During our hike on the hilly potowatomi trail in Michigan we took our tunes with us and we had a great playlist that was heavily influenced by the morning show classics-pixies, bowie, bowie and queen, fugazi, idles, mountain goats, empire of the sun, and so many more. So we had kexp with us on the hike. During my son's treatments kexp was with us all the time. The voices of Gabriel, John, Cheryl, Larry and Kevin filled our days at the hospital and the overnight DJs kept me company while I sat with him through the nights during his multi-day treatments. I always wore my “you are not alone” T-shirt for those overnight stays as a reminder, because we were always by ourselves. During the height of Covid we were constantly in the hospital, isolated from friends and family. But we always had kexp. I mean, who wouldn't want to listen to the greatest morning show on the air--there's only one guy that can get you from the beatles to prong via mongolian metal and german industrial in 15 songs. Thanks for getting us through so much. It is hard to describe how much this community has given to us—the hope, laughter and joy are always there. But there’s something more—a sense that we’re all in this together and that we really can care about people that we will never meet. Kexp and the DJs give so much, and we are so grateful. I am a long-time amplifier and proud to power kexp. But really kexp powers me and my family. Thanks for all you do. Love you guys. Nate

New Cumulus album will be out October 10th! find them on bandcamp here cumulus.bandcamp.com Sunbeam was recently the song of the day at KEXP www.kexp.org

New Yeah Yeah Yeahs! “when you hit your 40s as a rock musician,” Karen O said, it is a head-snap. “Who are we now? Let’s have the process reflect how much we’ve grown as people, the humility and the compassion. There’s no room for cynicism any more, after what we’ve been through.” find the article at www.nytimes.com The bandcamp link yeahyeahyeahs.bandcamp.com

Break It Down Again song was Tears for Fears' second single released after the departure of Curt Smith from the band in 1993. Smith returned to the band in 2004.

A note from Jay: I haven't written for awhile but still listen regularly. For a new health issue from out of the blue I would like to request a song with peaceful, healing vibes for all who need this morning. You are playing many of those already but Badly Drawn Boy - The Shining came to mind. A song I first heard on your show. Also, one time I told a friend Wendy I listened to KEXP. She said she knew of the station from seeing John on TV. So I said yeah, we're buddies, he plays my requests a lot :) So cheers, Your buddy Jay :)

Sunny Day Real State are playing at The Moore Theater December 18th! Pitchfork re-reviewd this album upon the re-release and named it 'Best New Reissue': pitchfork.com

"'The Great Salt Lake' isn’t about the Great Salt Lake at all, it’s about Lake Murray. A lot of the imagery is about South Carolina, combined with some incidents we heard about from some hilarious fuck-ups we knew from Salt Lake City.” - Ben Bridwell The music video for the song shows band members Ben Bridwell, Creighton Barrett and Rob Hampton playing in a softball match. Watch the video here: youtu.be.

Bauer’s back with another new one called “Skulls.” Here’s what he had to say about it: “Skulls” came out of a really strong period of writing music without thinking. I had stumbled onto this new style of guitar playing that brought me a lot of joy. I started using a distortion pedal for the first time in my life and discovered I could play all these riffs. “Skulls” came out of this kind of endless waterfalling soloing I played for hours and then cut down to what you hear on tape. www.stereogum.com Skulls was highlighted as the song of the day at KEXP recently www.kexp.org

Santigold plays an all-ages show at Showbox SoDo in Seattle on Tuesday, November 8th! "High Priestess" was KEXP's song of the day on 8/29/2022: kexp.org

Last year, the Go! Team released a new album called Get Up Sequences Part One, their first full-length since 2018. Part One implies the existence of another one to come, and the Go Team! are now announcing Get Up Sequences Part Two, which will be out next February! It features guest appearances from Apples In Stereo’s Hilarie Bratset, Lucie Too’s Kokubo Chisato, Neha Hatwar, the Star Feminine Band, Nitty Scott, and more. Watch the music video to Divebomb here www.youtube.com

Tokyo Police Club live on KEXP from back in 2010 www.youtube.com

Out on August 19th, hot chip's new album features contributions from Cadence Weapon, Soulwax, and Lou Hayter. “We were living through a period where it was very easy to feel like people were losing control of their lives in different ways,” Joe Goddard said. “There’s a darkness that runs through a lot of those tracks.” pitchfork.com

A request from Matt from Brooklyn! Is it a happy Monday though? Lets make it one!

It’s been way too long since LCD Soundsystem's last release! The band has created the single for Netflix adaptation of Don DeLillo’s White Noise. "Like LCD hits of yore, “new body rhumba” is a geometric, cowbell-friendly dance-punk track that looks warily at modern society." pitchfork.com

Note from Wen: I am not sure if I ever wrote to you before, but I want to tell you that you are one of the main reasons I Iisten and support KEXP. I have a staycation of 3 days in a hospital and doctors were checking my heart and brain... I had like a "short circuit" in my brain and couldn't talk for few minutes and then I figured out my whole right side of the body was numb. Yesterday I was able to leave the hospital and all my tests were great.. I am a lucky bastard! Can you please play "Smile" by Pearl Jam? pj is y favorite band and this song is one of my favourite. Yes... it is Monday... again; but god damn! it is the best Monday I've had in a lot of time! Love ya'll.... We are not alone Wen

New from the Beths! the Beths performed at KEXP back in 2018 www.youtube.com Find it on bandcamp here thebethsnz.bandcamp.com

1991! -- kexp.org KEXP's Rachel Stevens spoke to Kristin Hersh about her book "Seeing Sideways: A Memoir of Music and Motherhood", and what it's like to tour with four boys and navigate an industry she hates in order to do what she loves. You can find the interview for Sound & Vision's "Apparently" mini-series: kexp.org

“I caught a cold / I coughed on all my friends / Now everyone is coughing on everybody else / And we’re coughing on our doctors and our doctors cough out: / ‘Everything is fine!’”: www.lyricsmin.com Doesn't this sound familiar...hmmm --- See the lyric video: www.youtube.com

New single from M.I.A requested by Jay in Tennessee. The single is from the band's forthcoming album MATA. “Popular” is an ode to the pressures of keeping up with appearances and the Kafka-esque onslaught of social media. The video plays with this idea via an M.I.A. “influencer-bot” called M.A.I. learning all of M.I.A.’s movements. bit.ly

‘Strangers’ features both A$AP Rocky and Run the Jewels, with a distinctively Danger Mouse beat foregrounding rapid-fire verses from Black Thought, Rocky, El-P and Killer Mike. “We were honored to get down with our elite and legendary friends Danger Mouse, Black Thought and A$AP Rocky on this banger,” Run the Jewels said in a statement about the collaboration. Read more here: www.nme.com

Hip hop group based in The Bronx, New York, NY, United States. Founded by Kool Keith in 1984, the group also includes Ced Gee, TR Love and Moe Love. More info here www.discogs.com Ego Tripping was the first song to sample Melvin Bliss' "Synthetic Substitution.": www.whosampled.com

Dutch band formed in 1986 that played a fusion of hardcore/metal, funk, hip hop, reggae, jazz, ska and soul. The group stopped in 2000. More information here www.discogs.com

Singer Graham Sayle : “Trauma Bonds” was written after the news of another tragic suicide of one of our friends during lockdown. It forced us to reflect on how the death of young people had become so normalized within our group of friends that we had become numb to it. Friendships became Trauma Bonds and the gravity of these situations suppressed through toxic coping mechanisms. The song is a hopeful exploration into these feelings in an attempt to support each other through better communication and collective empathy. www.stereogum.com

Seasonally appropriate song! Watch Buffalo Tom's performance for KEXP here www.youtube.com

'A Coventry woman who won a legal battle to erect a gravestone with an inscription in Irish, to honour her late mother, has described Fontaines DC's new song inspired by the case as "a fitting end to the journey that we went on as a family". Bernadette Martin, daughter of Margaret Keane, and her family, last year successfully fought for the right to have a Celtic cross bearing the words "In ár gCroíthe go deo" - which translates into English as "In our hearts forever" - on her grave at St Giles Church in Exhall.': tinyurl.com. Watch Fountains D.C.'s performance at KEXP here www.youtube.com

By request! Released in 2003, The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place is an album about hope. Listening to the record on vinyl is a luxuriant experience. Its cover, designed by Esteban Rey, bears its titular statement scrawled over and over in stark black handwriting, a defiantly positive mantra in the post-9/11 landscape. “That way we could kind of imagine that it was written by someone who sees all the horror and terror of the world, but who is also trying to look at all the wonderful and beautiful things,” explained drummer Chris Hrasky. Read more here guitar.com

“Every Day Is Exactly the Same” was the third of the three successful singles released from "With Teeth," Nine Inch Nails' fourth studio album. The song reached the number one spot on Billboard’s Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart and was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the 2007 Grammy Awards. --- Check out John's exclusive KEXP interview with Trent Reznor: www.kexp.org