John Richards

Good morning, a very happy Friday, and welcome to The Morning Show with the handsome John Richards! Today, December 9th, is the last day to get in your votes for your favorite albums of the year: www.kexp.org We're so glad you're here! -- This lead single from Avery's new album features HAAi and Kelly Lee Owens. -- “’Ultra Truth’ finds me in a different place to where I’ve been before,” Avery said of the release. “My previous albums have all focused on the idea of music being an escape or a distraction from the world but that’s not the case this time. “For me this album is about looking directly into the darkness, not running away from it. There’s a way through these times but it involves keeping the important people in your life close to you and navigating the noise together. This is an intentionally heavy and dense album, the hooks often hidden in dusty corners. I’m no longer dealing in a misty-eyed euphoria. ‘Ultra Truth’ is a distorted fever dream of a record: riled, determined and alive.”: bit.ly

This 2008 release was the fifth studio album from M83. It was produced by the legendary British producer Ken Thomas, who died in July of 2021. He worked with Queen, David Bowie, Sigur Ros, and many others.

Norwegian singer Aurora co-wrote this song with The Chemical Brothers and is featured on vocals. The duo said, "Aurora really made this by coming up with these amazing images. Sonics-wise, there are a lot of ideas and a lot of movement. There are moments where it almost feels that whole thing has gone too far, the way it builds and then you’re back down. It's a rolling psychedelic journey, for want of a better word." -- Aurora was live in the KEXP studio in 2018: www.youtube.com.

Lyrically, the song is centered around clips of an interview with Rickie Lee Jones, who talks dreamily of the fluffy clouds in the Texas skies of her childhood. The conversation comes from a CD that was distributed to record stores and media outlets to promote her 1989 album "Flying Cowboys." Jones later said in interviews that the odd nasal tonality of her voice was the result of a heavy cold. The song also includes a guitar riff from American minimalist composer Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint," as recorded by Pat Metheny, and a harmonica sample from Ennio Morricone's "The Man With The Harmonica" from the soundtrack of the 1968 spaghetti Western, "Once Upon a Time in the West

Watch Suzanne Vega perform "Tom's Diner" live at The Royal Albert Hall in 1986: www.youtube.com

On this energetic new single, Copenhagen's Lo Ersare invites you to pause, rewind the tape and bring the magic of childhood to the present. "Children's gut feeling is more intact and they are great at following their intuition. When we grow up, we tend to forget our ability to listen to what our body and subconscious are trying to communicate," she explains. -- Go here to order this brand-new single: luckylo.bandcamp.com

"So tell me where to put my love Do I wait for time to do what it does?..." Like many of us, the COVID-19 lockdown really threw Florence + the Machine frontwoman Florence Welch. Unable to do the things she loves - going to clubs, dancing, performing on stage – Welch also experienced writer's block, which prevented her from putting her love of music into writing. She wrote this song about her search for a creative outlet in a pandemic era. -- Ironically, this song where Welch bemoans her creative standstill became her creative breakthrough. It broke her writer's block and opened the floodgates for the other songs on Dance Fever.

These beloved sisters will be at The Paramount Theatre (with special guest Hurray for the Riff Raff) on Wednesday, May 24th, 2023. -- First Aid Kit says of this 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

Paul Dennis Miller, known as DJ Spooky (aka That Subliminal Kid), is "a composer, multimedia artist, and writer.": djspooky.com -- "Galactic Funk" sampled Jean-Jacques Perrey's 1970 song "E.V.A.," Ramsey Lewis' 1974 "Sun Goddess," and "Funky Toes" by The Politicians (1972)

Sure to make John's list of top five albums of 2022... This review of "Blush" says that these "London dance pop maestros are impossible to ignore.": www.nme.com -- PVA performed on KEXP Live at Home - you can watch the recording here: www.youtube.com Although they previously released an EP, "Blush" is the debut album from this London dance pop trio.: www.nme.com -- Enjoy this performance and interview with Troy Nelson on KEXP Live at Home last year: www.youtube.com

Martin Gore in 1998: "The whole 'Songs Of Faith And Devotion' project started off with the basic principle that we wanted to become more live, spontaneous and have a lot more performances involved. So that whole album turned out to be the rockiest that we've ever wanted to achieve. 'I Feel You' is probably the pinnacle of that and it's about the closest we're going to come to sounding like a real authentic rock band."

This song, named for a racing greyhound, sampled Lyn Collins' 1972 song "Think (About It)." -- What'd he say? "Rioja Rioja, Reverend Al Green, Deep blue Morocco, The water on stone....": genius.com

Adrian Sherwood is an English producer who specializes in dub music: www.adriansherwood.com -- "Lucifer on the Moon" is his top-to-bottom reworking of Spoon's tenth album, "Lucifer on the Sofa": spoontheband.bandcamp.com

The Haunted Youth is the band centered around 28-year-old Joachim Liebens from Hasselt, Belgium. : www.thehauntedyouth.be Order their debut album here: thehauntedyouthofficial.bandcamp.com -- John Richards selected "Coming Home" as a free KEXP Song of the Day recently: www.kexp.org

Producer and composer Adrian Quesada is best known for his work with Black Pumas.: www.universalproductionmusic.com

Ghanaian-Australian artist Genesis Owusu, born Kofi Owusu-Ansah, has released his second single of the year. ""Get Inspired" was produced by Dann Hume and Andrew Klippel and features a series of siren-like guitar wails, jutting bass notes and Kofi's inimitable lyrical jabs. Offsetting a menacing and poetic punk hybridity is Owusu's infectious falsetto breakdown midway through the piece before a driving rhythm resumes.": bit.ly -- The song comes with a new video: www.youtube.com

Speaking of 1996... This song was released as a single in 1996. Songwriting credits include Kim Deal of the Breeders, as the looped wah-wah guitar riff in "Firestarter" was sampled from the Breeders' track "S.O.S." from the album "Last Splash." -- The video won the NME award for Best Music Video: www.youtube.com

Anne Dudley, Gary Langan, and Paul Morley were members of producer Trevor Horn's in-house studio band in the early '80s before they formed the Art of Noise, a techno-pop group whose music was an amalgam of studio gimmickry, tape splicing, and synthesized beats. The Art of Noise took material from a variety of sources: hip-hop, rock, jazz, R&B, traditional pop, found sounds, and noise all worked their way into the group's distinctly postmodern soundscapes.: theartofnoiseonline.com

Trooko (Jeffrey Peñalva) is a Honduran-born, LA-based GRAMMY, Latin GRAMMY, and 2022 SESAC Latina Producer of the Year award-winning producer, mixer and mastering engineer.: www.trooko.com -- Taken from Run the Jewels Latin-inspired reworking of RTJ4 released last month. "We are honored and delighted to have had the opportunity to work with the amazing producers, vocalists, musicians, and artists who made this album happen. we set out to make a remix album, but we consider the end result of RTJ CU4TRO to be more than that. it’s a reimagining of RTJ4 through the lens of collaboration and a fusing of numerous musical cultures and influences... a rare chance for us to connect, create and be inspired by people who we may never have had the chance to get down with if we weren’t lucky enough to be in a position to put it all together. we thank them for all their generosity, energy, and creativity. this is a piece of music filled with love, respect and craft and everyone truly gave it their all, genuinely humbling us in the process." - bit.ly

This vibrant album, released in March, has made its way onto many reviewer's top ten lists.: www.theguardian.com --- Ibibio Sound Machine was in our studio in September. They opened their terrific live set with "Electricity": youtu.be

Good morning, today is my birthday and I would love to hear some Sugarcube please! ---Danny -- Justin Robertson has plotted a successful career as a DJ, remixer, and producer (the latter under his own name as well as Lionrock).: www.justinrobertson.co.uk This is his remix of The Sugarcubes' classic "Birthday."

Ahhh.....the Friday song. Go here to enjoy our DJs' lists of their top albums of 2022: www.kexp.org

I'd like to request Lizzo's "Everybody's Gay" in honor of Congress passing the respect for marriage act this week. -- Rodney -- "And no, when I sing ‘Take your mask off,’ I didn't mean your N95," Lizzo says. "I meant like the mask of the person that you have to uphold when you're out in the world, the mask that protects your true self. Take that off, because we accept you for who you are in this space." -- tinyurl.com

“Take Me With U” wasn’t originally intended as a Prince and the Revolution song. The plan had been for the track to make its debut on the self-titled album by the Prince-created group Apollonia 6. Instead, Prince sang the track on "Purple Rain" as a duet with Apollonia. -- You know not to miss this 1985 live performance: www.youtube.com

The debut album from this German duo comprised of producer/multi-instrumentalist Sebastian Nagel and drummer Lucas Kockbeck (both of whom are also a part of Bacao Rhythm & Steel band, among other projects) is a potent set of instrumental funk, combining stinging guitar riffs, punchy horns and in-the-pocket funk rhythms.: thewinstonbrothers.bandcamp.com

Did you know that composer Ennio Morricone was a classmate of director Sergio Leone? The two established a powerful partnership over many films.: www.enniomorricone.org

Watch the King of Surf Rock, Dick Dale, performing the classic "Misirlou" LIVE in the KEXP studio back in 2009: www.youtube.com -- This legend died in 2019 at age 81: www.theguardian.com

The 1988 track "Having an Average Weekend" was used as the theme to the Canadian sketch comedy TV show The Kids in the Hall. -- Ever wonder what happened to this band? You're not the only one: www.forbes.com

Morning, Morning Show ~ Could use some tambourine this morning - love to hear Brian Jonestown Massacre - Straight Up and Down. Peace, Amy from Baltimore -- Here's an almost-11 minute live version of "Straight Up and Down": www.youtube.com

The Dandy Warhols will play The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall with The Portland Symphony in Portland on Thursday, March 16th, 2023. -- This album was included in the Pitchfork list: 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Pitchfork also included it in their "The Best Britpop Albums… That Aren’t British" list. bit.ly

You can purchase "Water" from London band Bicep here: bicep.bandcamp.com

Peter Hook denied a drug connection in this song: "'True Faith' features some of the best New Order lyrics in my opinion, but no, it is not about heroin, that is not something that any of our lyrics ever touched on. I think it's clear to see though that the lyrics do reflect being under some sort of influence." His bandmate Bernard Sumner has stated otherwise, however, telling Q magazine in 1999 that the song is about drug dependency, and that while he didn't do heroin, he wrote it from the perspective of a user. -- Here are the lyrics: www.songfacts.com

"Loops of Fury" was a four-song EP released by The Chemical Brothers in 1996. The songs were primarily leftovers from the duo's debut, "Exit Planet Dust" in 1995.

This was the second single from Doves' extraordinary studio album, "The Last Broadcast." Do you think that (maybe) "Pounding" refers to Andy Williams on the drums? Maybe you would like to see a live version: www.youtube.com

The vocals are sampled from gospel legend Clara Ward’s 1994 rendition of the hymn “The Storm Is Passing Over”. -- "[W]hat makes Fred Again’s work different from most records in this genre is the songwriting: Where many if not most electronic musicians approach their songs from a musician’s or producer’s angle, he meshes these elements into unusually memorable melodies..." bit.ly

Neil Tennant's lyrics were written as a satire of Thatcherism and its embodiment of conspicuous consumption in the United Kingdom during the 1980s. The Pet Shop singer penned them after his bandmate, keyboardist Chris Lowe, asked him to make up a lyric based around the line "let's make lots of money." This song was written during the Pet Shop Boys' formative years, in 1983. They recorded it in 1984 with the American dance producer Bobby O, but that version was never released. After issuing "West End Girls" that year on Epic Records, they had a fall-out with Bobby O and moved on to EMI Records, which released "Opportunities" as their first single on the label in July 1985.

"I don't mind the sun sometimes The images it shows I can taste you on my lips And smell you in my clothes Cinnamon and sugary And softly spoken lies You never know just how you look Through other people's eyes...": www.songfacts.com -- The video for "Pepper", directed by Gavin Bowden, features 1960s style news clip-like footage of a group of people being arrested in a Texas hotel for kidnapping while newscasters and cameramen crowd around. The kidnapping victim, rescued by the police, is portrayed by Erik Estrada. Singer Gibby Haynes is portrayed as the ringleader, and is shown being interviewed by reporters as police gather evidence. The newsreel segment is filmed in 16mm black and white, and is broken up by 1960s-style color footage, showing the band performing on a show much like American Bandstand.: www.youtube.com

See a live performance by The Afghan Whigs in our studio back in 2017: www.youtube.com

This is the thirteenth track from Modest Mouse's debut album, released on April 16th, 1996. Modest Mouse's first two albums were re-released in 2014 by Isaac Brock's Glacial Pace imprint. Calling them "best new reissue," Pitchfork said "they are a reminder of the group's insular, visionary oddness.": bit.ly

Imperial Teen is a San Francisco-based pop group made up of Roddy Bottum (Faith No More) on guitar/vocals, Will Schwartz (hey willpower) on guitar/vocals, Lynn Truell (née Perko; Sister Double Happiness, The Dicks, The Wrecks) on drums/backing vocals, & Jone Stebbins (The Wrecks) on bass/backing vocals.: www.facebook.com

See the incredible video of Johnny Cash's cover of Soundarden.: www.youtube.com

Goose will be playing the Paramount Theatre on Saturday, April 22 and Sunday, April 23! Here they are covering Nina Simone's famous 1965 live rendition of the traditional African American spiritual song -- for Secretly Canadian’s charitable series of 25th anniversary singles. All net proceeds from the track will go towards New Hope For Families, an organization aiding homeless families in the label’s hometown of Bloomington, Indiana. - bit.ly www.goosetheband.com