John Richards

Good morning early birds! Thanks for being here. Kicking it off by wishing David Lovering, drummer of Pixies and The Martinis, a happy birthday - born on this day in 1961.

This one goes out to the year 2022. The Sunset Tree is The Mountain Goats' 9th album and revolves around the house John Darnielle grew up in and the people who lived there, including his mother, sister, stepfather, friends, and enemies.

How Tuesday of us.

This Is the Sea is considered by critics to be the finest album of their early rock-oriented sound, described as "epic" and "a defining moment". It was the first Waterboys album to enter the United Kingdom charts, peaking at number 37. Steve Wickham makes his Waterboys recording debut playing violin on 'The Pan Within' and subsequently joined the band, appearing on the video of "The Whole of the Moon". This Is the Sea is the last album with contributions from Karl Wallinger, who left the group to form his own band, World Party. The Waterboys came to KEXP and played an inspiring set in 2013, which can be found here: bit.ly

The waterfront in this song is the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland where the band is from. "The song itself is about the rebirth of our city," says lead singer Jim Kerr. "It talks about the water, and anyone listening might think it's Biblical. A baptism or something." bit.ly

Bono's lyric was inspired by his mother, who died in 1974 when he was 14. Bono calls it "a song about unconditional love." For sound effects, bottles were thrown on the floor and bicycle wheels were spun and hit with bottles and knives. You can also hear a glockenspiel being played.

For Hamish Kilgour, who passed away on December 5th. Rest in peace. The Clean's label, Merge Records released the following statement: "With very heavy hearts, we can confirm that Hamish Kilgour has passed away in his home country of New Zealand. As a founding member of the Clean, with his brother, David, and Robert Scott, Hamish produced one of the most important and timeless bodies of work in rock music. As a drummer, Hamish had a propulsive, instantly recognizable style and an understated power; he was a joy to watch play. Hamish was one of the most colorful and creative musicians we have been lucky to work with, both as a singer, guitarist, and songwriter with the group he started with Lisa Siegel, the Mad Scene, and, of course, with the Clean. Hamish was also an accomplished visual artist, and his fantastical drawings adorn many record sleeves." bit.ly

From rising Seattle indie group, Love Interest frames "modern stories of love and longing through a nostalgic lens, evoking lush summer drives and luminous city nights." Model Shop rose to the scene in 2019, formed by longtime friends and bandmates Kevin Emerson and Ethan Jones. They played their first shows just before the pandemic hit. modelshop.bandcamp.com

New debut record from the solo project of Charles Bert of Math and Physics Club. fieldschool.bandcamp.com

Music from Albany, New York. lavedamusic.bandcamp.com www.lavedaband.com

Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea was PJ Harvey's fifth studio album. Recorded during March to April 2000, it contains themes of love that are tied into Harvey's affection for New York City.

ENOLA is the moniker for Australian post punk solo artist Ruby Marshall, unveiling the new single Metal Body, an effective track which expresses feelings of resentment and frustration about broken healthcare systems. enolaenola.bandcamp.com

This self-titled debut album came out in 1995. "We ended up having 48 tracks of samples and loops, and all sorts of strange processed sound effects and weird guitar overdubs, and then through the mix process we'd add and subtract until we'd get to a point where the song still came across," said Butch Vig on the creative process of Garbage.

"Hey John, I went down to Portland on the weekend to catch The New Pornographers playing two nights at the Aladdin theater. Both great shows!! So, now I’m suffering a bit of Pornographers withdrawal/hangover. Can you help me by playing something/anything from them? Thanks, Francis"

Holy smokes, it's ONLY Tuesday. Feeling homesick for the "Island (even though it's not an island anymore) of West Seattle" Any Clinton from the backyard available this morning? 🙂 Have the best day friends! Ann Marie in West Seattle

From Adrian Sherwood‘s full reimagining of Spoon's latest album, ‘Lucifer On The Sofa‘ spoontheband.bandcamp.com

Listen Like Thieves was recorded over a three-month period at the Rhinoceros studio in Sydney, NSW, Australia. Many of the album's songs were written by the song writing duo of Hutchence and Andrew Farriss.

Hey John, Owen, and the rest of the KEXP crew: I don't know why (maybe there's a feeling of reeling, reckless, "here we go again" fatalism to the day) but this morning feels a little like "Good Enough" by Mudhoney. Wouldn't mind hearing it if it fits into your set! Thanks for all you do, Ben

Frontman James Smith said of this song, “I liked the juxtaposition of the bleak world with the cartoon bassline. Despite all the advances humanity has made, the threat of devolution feels increasingly possible in the modern world, and on my bad days when I’m spiraling, I can’t help but get trapped in my own head envisioning this post-apocalyptic future we’re seemingly headed toward...": www.nme.com

Thanks for such a great show this morning, I'm really needing it today! If you have the room, could you play something from The The? I heard you play Uncertain Smile in October and I haven't been able to get enough of them! Brendan in DC - Dusk was recorded in 1992 and is the fourth studio album by The The. This song features Johnny Marr on guitar!

Special Interest is a punk band from New Orleans, Louisiana that consists of Alli Logout on vocals, Maria Elena on guitar, Nathan Cassiani on bass, and Ruth Mascelli on synthesizer and drum machine. In interviews, they have described themselves as "genre non-conforming," -- On the lead single from Endure, their third album, the New Orleans band pays tribute to girls who aren’t finding the support they need at the club. - bit.ly specialinterestno.bandcamp.com

The Cure released the album, "Japanese Whispers" on this day in 1983!

Katherine Paul (Black Belt Eagle Scout) has announced a new LP which is called The Land, The Water, The Sky and will be out February 10 via Saddle Creek. According to a release, the 12-track album is about Paul’s 2020 journey from Portland to the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community. “‘My Blood Runs Through This Land’ is about the connection I have with my ancestors,” Paul adds about this single.: www.stereogum.com

Frank Ocean collaborator Noah Goldstein produced "God Is A Circle," legendary Alan Moulder mixed the track, and backup vocals come from Thoom and Drain Gang member Ecco2K. yves-tumor.bandcamp.com

Explaining Heavy Heavy's title in a press release, Young Fathers said to Pitchfork: "Heavy Heavy could be a mood, or it could describe the smoothed granite of bass that supports the sound… or it could be a nod to the natural progression of boys to grown men and the inevitable toll of living, a joyous burden, relationships, family, the natural momentum of a group that has been around long enough to witness massive changes." bit.ly

Get Inspired is Genesis Owusu's second single of this year! Genesis Owusu, is a Ghanaian-Australian singer from Canberra. The song comes with a new video: www.youtube.com www.genesisowusu.com

“Electric Avenue” was Eddy Grant's response to the Brixton riots that took place in 1981. Those riots came about as a result of the high levels of poverty and unemployment prevalent among the Caribbean migrants in Britain at the time. -- This track became one of the highest-grossing reggae-influenced songs ever. It peaked at number 2 in UK and hit number 2 in the US. In 1983, the song was earned a nomination at the Grammy Awards for Best R & B Song. It however, lost to Billie Jean by Michael Jackson.

This latest release from the duo of Killer Mike and El-P features reimagined, Latin-flavored versions of songs from their last album (2020’s RTJ4), aided by a variety of guest Latin artists including Bomba Estéreo, Mexican Institute of Sound, Zack de la Rocha and other notable artists.

"Blush" is the full length debut album from this London dance pop trio.: www.nme.com pvaareok.bandcamp.com PVA performed on KEXP Live at Home - you can watch the recording here: www.youtube.com

Trent Reznor was working as an assistant engineer, janitor and all-round dogsbody at Right Track Studios in Cleveland, Ohio when he wrote and recorded the song that would put Nine Inch Nails on the map. He said, "“I wanted to be a musician. I had an idea of what I wanted to do with my life, but I had not put the work into it to get to that stage. For me, the whole project was an experiment to see what would happen if I focused all my energy into one thing: put my life out of balance and just work on it. That involved starting to write songs. I think I’d always been kind of afraid because if they were terrible, I didn’t know what I was going to do with myself.”: www.loudersound.com

Hi! Could you play anything Nick Cave? It feels like that kind of morning! Thanks, Leslie

Sisters of Mercy leader Andrew Eldritch described the track in a 1987 Sounds Magazine interview: "It's about people who sing about the revolution while selling it short, about people who sing about the corrosion of things while they themselves are falling apart. People who miss the point... It's also stupidly over-the-top bombastic, but rightly so."

Fred John Philip Gibson, known professionally as Fred Again (stylised as Fred again..) is a British record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and DJ. www.fredagain.com

The album takes its name from a line in the poem "Geography" by the New York poet Michael Brownstein, whose reading of it is also sampled on the title track.

How do you turn the 7th best day of the week into one of the best days of the year? You have your birthday on it! Can you please wish Ms Oona Buzz a happy 11th birthday and play anything by LCD Sound System? With love, Mom, dad and Oscar

Founding bandmember Bernard Sumner told Mojo in a 2015 interview that this is probably his favorite New Order song. He said: "It's got a spirituality to it. It's really uplifting without actually getting a specific message across. It was interesting to see that you could do that while, at the time, being fairly abstract. I struggled with the literalness of my lyrics in the early days. I didn't want to expose my inner feelings to the general public ." See the official music video for "Temptation": www.youtube.com

Cool for Cats is the second studio album by Squeeze, released in 1979. In 1992/1993, the song was used (with altered product specific lyrics) for the “Wake Up to Milk” series of U.K. milk adverts.

Take care friends - thanks for listening with us!

Good morning, everyone! Happy Tuesday and welcome to The Midday Show with the indefatigable Troy Nelson! Thanks so much for listening! -- Jim James wrote the song after attending a Los Angeles rally the day after the tragic shootings at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. Jim James on “Here in Spirit”: "I was feeling so utterly gutted that things like this keep happening. It’s a song about speaking out and trying to be there for people in spirit even if you can’t be at every rally and battle. We have such a duty to speak out for equality and for each other. I will always lend my voice to whatever the civil rights issue is of the day, to whomever needs the most help and love." -- Here's a live performance: www.youtube.com