John Richards

Hey Wednesday, it's time for The Morning Show! --- Happy birthday to Michael Stipe, born on this day in 1960! Michael Stipe is an American singer, songwriter, musician, film producer, music video director, and visual artist. He is best known as being the lead singer of R.E.M. from their formation in 1980 until their dissolution in 2011. - michaelstipe.com

Happy birthday to Mark Hollis, born on this day in 1955! Mark Hollis was the co-founder, lead singer and principal songwriter of the band Talk Talk. Hollis wrote or co-wrote most of Talk Talk's music, including hits like 'It's My Life' (1984) and 'Life's What You Make It' (1986). He died aged 64 on 25 February 2019.

Happy birthday to Bernard Sumner, born on this day in 1956. Bernard Sumner is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer (Warsaw, Joy Division, New Order). He is a founding member of the bands Joy Division, New Order, and Electronic.

Happy birthday to Beth Gibbons, born on this day in 1965! Beth Gibbons is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the singer and lyricist for the band Portishead. - bethgibbons.net

Happy birthday to Robin Guthrie, born on this day in 1962. Robin Guthrie is a Scottish musician, songwriter, composer, record producer and audio engineer. During his career Guthrie has performed guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums and other musical instruments, in addition to programming, sampling and sound processing. He is best known as the co-founder of the alternative rock band Cocteau Twins. - www.robinguthrie.com

New Ladytron! "City of Angels" is the first single from Ladytron's new album 'Time's Arrow," due for release on January 20th. Pre-order album here - ladytron.bandcamp.com --- Ladytron will play The Neptune Theatre on Wednesday, May 10th, 2023. - www.stgpresents.org

This is the only studio album that guitarist Robert Smith of the Cure composed and recorded with Siouxsie and the Banshees. "Dazzle" featured strings played by musicians of the London Symphonic Orchestra, a 27-piece orchestra called the "Chandos Players" and uses melodies composed on piano by Siousxie herself. - bit.ly

Selmasongs: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack 'Dancer in the Dark' is the first soundtrack album by Icelandic musician Björk. It was released in 2000 to promote and accompany the film Dancer in the Dark. In the film, Björk starred as Selma Ježková, a Czech immigrant who has moved to the United States and suffers from a degenerative eye condition and is saving for an operation to prevent her young son from suffering the same fate.

The latest studio album from London artist Daniel Avery, featuring James Massiah - danielavery.bandcamp.com

Earth is the ninth studio album from British band Sault, one of five released for free via digital distribution on November 1, 2022 along with 11, AIIR, Today & Tomorrow, and Untitled (God). The download was available for only five days via a password-encrypted link and made as an offering to God. - saultglobal.bandcamp.com

The Haunted Youth, the band of 29-year-old Joachim Liebens, is based in Hasselt, Belgium. -www.thehauntedyouth.be

In 1985 The Stone Roses were locked in a room by their record producer Martin Hannett and told they weren't allowed out until they wrote a song, and this is the one! This tune was the result of this curfew. The original version was shorter and faster and was included on the Stone Roses 1985 Garage Flower album - bit.ly

Hey there! My daughter Stella is 13 years old today!! I would love to dedicate a song to my shining star. She adores the pixies. if you could play anything you'd like by them & dedicate it to her that'd be awesome! Thx folx xo Janine

Cliché Cult are a 4 piece Indie outfit from Leeds, UK, consisting of Jimmy Sweeney (Vocals/Guitar), Robin Green (Drums), Jake Clayton (Guitar) and Jimmy Ingham (Bass). Formed in 2020, in the midst of the first nationwide lockdown in the UK, they have gone on to take the North of England by storm, releasing 5 singles up until now with their new single Slippy being the first as part of a collaboration with Blaggers Records. --- John chose Cliché Cult's Slippy as a KEXP Song Of The Day last month. Get it here - www.kexp.org

"International Bright Young Thing" contains a sample of Clyde Stubblefield's work on "Funky Drummer." Doubt is the second album by Jesus Jones. - www.jesusjones.com

Dazy is the one-man band of James Goodson, the Richmond, VA-based artist (and music publicist) who’s played in a number of noisy punk outfits over the years like Teen Death and Bashful. - bit.ly --- Outofbody is Dazy's first-full length album - dazysound.bandcamp.com

As we’re being hit by another atmospheric river of rain here in San Francisco, I’m feeling as if I never left Seattle… and actually missing it a bit right now. Would you help with my nostalgia of when I first moved down her in 1993 and play No Rain by Blind Melon pretty-pretty please? Special Note: I got my You’re Not Alone T-Shirt in the mail a few weeks back and was wearing it proudly around SF and received ALL the compliments and questions on “what is KEXP?” and “where did you get that shirt?” – of course I bragged and bragged and bragged about the radio station that has been with me since the KCMU days. Appreciate your longevity, vision and you – thank you. Send a boat, Darla in San Francisco

Greetings John and Owen and welcome back and, of course, HNY! For this hopeful new year may I please request "I Believe (when I Fall In Love This Time It Will Be Forever)" off Talking Book Cheers Kevin on Beacon Hill

New Live album from The Smile, Radiohead veterans Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, alongside Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. - www.thesmiletheband.com

I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings is a live album by Radiohead. Recorded during Radiohead's 2001 tour, it comprises songs from their fourth and fifth albums Kid A and Amnesiac. - www.radiohead.com

Catherine Wheel, by request! --- Featuring Tanya Donelly from Throwing Muses, Breeders, and Belly on vocals! "How was it singing with Tanya Donnelly on "Judy Staring at the Sun?" Rob Dickinson and Brian Futter of Catherine Wheel were asked in an interview. "It was fun. We actually did our parts separately, I did my bits in England and then me and Gil flew to fort Apache in Boston and Tanya did all her parts in about six hours. Then we took it back to England and pulled it apart and put it back together. It was kind of a disjointed way of doing it but it worked out very well." bit.ly

Black Belt Eagle Scout will be at Neumos on Wednesday, February 15th, 2023. - www.neumos.com --- Black Belt Eagle Scout, aka Katherine Paul, has announced her third full-length album, The Land, The Water, The Sky, out February 10, 2023! blackbelteaglescout.bandcamp.com -- She says about this song: “Don’t Give Up” is a song about mental health awareness and the importance that my connection to the land plays within my own mental health journey. Spending time with the land and on the water are ways that strengthen my connection to my ancestors and to my culture. It helps heal my spirit and is the form of self-care that helps me the most. The lyrics “I don’t give up” mean staying alive. - bit.ly

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

Rid of Me is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter and musician PJ Harvey. - pjharvey.net --- According to PJ Harvey, "“Rub Til It Bleeds” was quite a difficult song for me because it took me a long time to get the timing of the pauses right. There are a lot of pauses and it keeps building to a crescendo at the end of each verse. Then when it hits the chorus, it has to explode. That was very hard to get that feel right." - bit.ly

Mosquito is the fourth studio album by NYC-based Yeah Yeah Yeahs - yeahyeahyeahs.com --- Karen O described this to The Sun as "a love song to despair." She added: "It's a feeling that you have that visits you time and time again. It's an incredibly uplifting song , though, about wanting to run away from certain darkness in your life. "It's a reassurance," Karen O continued, "and just what I needed when I was writing it. It was like a nurturing and reassuring letter to myself and to anyone else going through something hard." - bit.ly

Dirty is Sonic Youth's seventh full-length studio album and second double album. - www.sonicyouth.com --- The music video for "Sugar Kane" was shot in New York City and portrayed Sonic Youth performing in the midst of a fashion show that showcased "grunge" clothing. The clothing, in fact, was one of the collections ("Grunge Collection") done by Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis in 1992. Jacobs was a close friend of bassist Kim Gordon and the band. The video also marked the first film appearance of Chloë Sevigny. Watch it here: youtu.be

BRAND NEW from shame! The UK-based band's third album, ‘Food For Worms’ is described as “a celebration of life” and “an ode to friendship”, and is out in February 2023. - shamebanduk.bandcamp.com

NEW MUSIC from Yves Tumor! 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.com

Dear Science is the third studio album by Brooklyn, NY band TV on the Radio. Kyp Malone said that the title came from "a note that Dave [Sitek] wrote in the studio that said, "Dear Science, please start solving problems and curing diseases or shut the fuck up." - www.tvontheradio.com

The latest release from Ghanaian-Australian artist Genesis Owusu. Check out the music video for "Get Inspired": bit.ly www.genesisowusu.com

According to Eddy Grant, "Electric Avenue" carries a serious message about race and equality. It refers to a real place in London, and tells the story of a poor man who beholds the things in life he could never achieve. - eddygrant.com

Teenage Sequence is the British-South Asian punk act that is the project of Dewan-Dean Soomary (Vocals, Synths, Programming, Drum Machines, Guitar, Bass, Hand Claps). teenagesequence.bandcamp.com

Cut is the debut studio album by English punk band the Slits. “I used to say to the girls, ‘Sing in the same register of voice that you would use if you were shouting across a playground at school to someone,’” recalled guitarist Viv Albertine, whose boyfriend at the time, Mick Jones of the Clash, urged her to make the song more straightforward. Thankfully, the Slits didn’t listen. - bit.ly

"Our Lips Are Sealed" was co-written by Jane Wiedlin, guitarist of the Go-Go's, and Terry Hall, singer of the Specials and Fun Boy Three. Fun Boy Three were an English new wave pop band, active from 1981 to 1983 and formed by singers Terry Hall, Neville Staple and Lynval Golding after they left the Specials. They released two albums and had seven UK top 20 hits.

Book of Love the final track on the 1986 debut studio album Book of Love, by American synth-pop and electronic band Book of Love. www.bookoflovemusic.com

Hatchie (aka Harriette Pilbeam) wrote this track with Joe Agius and Jorge Elbrecht last year "after we hit up an amazing goth megaclub in Denver on a weeknight. We were inspired to recreate the energy we felt there and experiment with a lyric-free chorus. There aren’t any other songs in our live show that are this punchy, so we wanted to write something angry and powerful." - bit.ly www.hatchie.net

By request! The Moon & Antarctica is the third studio album by American rock band Modest Mouse. The album's title is taken from the opening scene of the 1982 film Blade Runner, where the main character (Rick Deckard) reads a newspaper headlined "Farming the Oceans, the Moon and Antarctica". Modest Mouse is an American rock band formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Washington, and currently based in Portland, Oregon. The founding members were lead singer/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green and bassist Eric Judy. With Green's death in 2022, Brock remains the only active original member of the band. www.modestmouse.com

Good morning John & co! Loving the music this morning. Would you be able to work in Ought's "Beautiful Blue Sky"? Thanks! - Austin in Burlington

This was one of the first U2 songs to condemn US politics. The lyrics were inspired by Bono's trip to Central America in 1985 with Amnesty International. He visited El Salvador, where he stayed with a group of guerillas in the middle of the mountains in the north of the country, which is where he got the idea for this song. "Mothers Of The Disappeared" also came out of that trip. - bit.ly www.u2.com

On a BBC Radio interview, ELO leader Jeff Lynne talked about how he came up with this song after he locked himself away in a Swiss chalet attempting to write ELO's follow-up to A New World Record. "It was dark and misty for two weeks, and I didn't come up with a thing. Suddenly the sun shone and it was, 'Wow, look at those beautiful Alps.' I wrote 'Mr. Blue Sky' and 13 other songs in the next two weeks." - bit.ly