John Richards

Good morning, happy (albeit rainy) Friday, and welcome to The Morning Show with the ineffable John Richards! Thanks so much for being here! -- Did you know that this band is probably named after a soft drink? Gold Spot was one of the three brands of carbonated soft drink started in India by Parle Bisleri under the initiative of its founder Ramesh Chauhan in 1977 after the exit of Coca-Cola from the Indian market. Goldspot is an American band founded by singer-songwriter and television and film composer Siddhartha Khosla.:www.goldspot.net

This song was originally written by Terry Hall and was recorded by The Specials in 1981. -- R.I.P., Terry Hall, who died last December at the age of 63: www.nytimes.com

There seems to be a "week" theme here.... Blur frontman Damon Albarn provided vocals on "Saturday Come Slow." Adrian Utley, the chief guitarist in fellow Bristol band, Portishead, contributed to "Saturday Come Slow" as a session guitarist on the track.

Not on Sunday! Foals will be at Climate Pledge Arena on MONDAY, July 24th! -- Watch the official music video for "Sunday": www.youtube.com

“Sunday Bloody Sunday” was the opening track to U2’s third album, "War." Kicking off with Larry Mullen, Jr.’s militaristic drumbeat, the song moved away from the echo-laden guitar the band had used on their first two albums. Instead, the guitar notes were icy and had a brittle feel to them. The accompaniment of Irish violinist Steve Wickman helped to connect the track to traditional Irish music. The Bloody Sunday mentioned in the song called back to the 1972 incident in Derry where British soldiers fired on a crowd of protesters, killing 14 of them. Bono directed his anger in the lyrics to the loss of life in general, rather than pointing fingers. With lyrics like, “And the battle’s just begun/There’s many lost, but tell me who has won/Trenches dug within our hearts/And mothers, children, brothers, sisters torn apart,” Bono conveyed the sadness and anger over such a loss of life.": bit.ly

The lyrics were written by the group's guitarist/lead singer Bernard Sumner, who copped to being (along with the rest of the band) under the influence of LSD while making the song. He wrote, for example, "Those who came before me...Lived through their vocations...From the past until completion...They will turn away no more..." Here are the complete lyrics: www.azlyrics.com -- The title is not mentioned in the lyrics, which is true of many New Order songs. The band took the song's name from an illustration in the Kurt Vonnegut book "Breakfast Of Champions," which Stephen Morris was reading. One of its illustrations read: "Goodbye Blue Monday," referring to the invention of the washing machine improving housewives' lives.

The Pogues formed in 1982 and were initially fronted by Shane MacGowan. This was their first album after MacGowan left the band in 1991 due to drinking problems. It features Spider Stacy as the new vocalist.

"It's when everything is just right...." Watch the live performance: www.youtube.com

Hailing from Cambridge MA, the self proclaimed "low rock" group Morphine were a dynamic part of the 90's alt-rock movement. The trios' distinctive combination of saxophone, double bass and drums merged with the vocal stylings of lead singer Mark Sandman to create a truly original sound. -- Mark Sandman died of a heart attack during a performance in Italy in 1999. He was 47 years old.: www.nytimes.com

"What Day Is It?" is a song by Brak. It is track #15 from the album Space Ghost's Musical Bar-B-Que that was released in 1997.

Ahhh.....the Friday song. (At last, Henry!) Did you know that there's an official video for this song? Well, there is!: www.youtube.com

This is The Clash's great cover of the 1968 song from The Equals. This song was cited by some critics in reviews of the Sandinista! album as the most Clash-sounding song on the album - with the irony being that it's a cover! -- Here are The Equals performing Police On My Back in 1967: www.youtube.com

"I think we wrote this when we were trying to write the title song for "Help!" because there was at one time the thought of calling the film 'Eight Arms To Hold You.'" --John Lennon -- Here are those four "mop tops" performing "Eight Days a Week" at Shea Stadium: www.youtube.com

"Before he started LCD—before he fell in love with dance records and became synonymous with hipster house and house party disco—Murphy was in bands in his 20s, like Pony and Speed King, doing the punk thing. He was an engineer who had OCD and knew how to play a bunch of instruments. And, according to the Rapture’s Luke Jenner, he hated dance music. In Lizzy Goodman’s grimy oral history of the ‘00s in New York, "Meet Me in the Bathroom," Jenner says, “James Murphy didn’t like two things: He didn’t like Bob Dylan, and he didn’t like disco.” Enjoy this great article about "Losing My Edge": www.insomniac.com

This song samples vocals/lyrics from three sources---"Hey Ya" by OutKast, "Don't Cha"by Pussycat Dolls (featuring Busta Rhymes), and "Sounds of Wickedness" by TZANT (featuring ODC MC).

Comprised of vocalist/guitarist Clint Mansell, keyboardist Adam Mole, drummer Graham Crabb, and bassist Richard March, PWEI began their existence as a Buzzcocks-influenced indie guitar band, and issued their self-produced debut EP, The Poppies Say Grrr, in 1986. Here's a biography: www.allmusic.com -- The sample in which a male voice is heard yelling "Can you dig it?" several times and the female voice at the beginning of the track saying "Let's get down to it, boppers..." were taken from the cult classic 1979 U.S. action film The Warriors. The song also samples "Black is Black" by Belle Epoque and Faith No More's "We Care a Lot."

Did you hear anything familiar? Faith No More's "We Care a Lot" was sampled in the previous song, PWEI's "Can U Dig It?" -- There's a small child in the video for this song!: www.youtube.com

This song features on Black Flag's influential debut studio album, "Damaged." This album was ranked at #340 on Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. -- While Black Flag never achieved commercial success in the traditional sense, they have earned numerous accolades, including being named the 45th greatest punk band of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. The band’s lineup has undergone many changes throughout their career, but their most famous incarnation included vocalist Henry Rollins, guitarist Greg Ginn, bassist Chuck Dukowski, and drummer Bill Stevenson.

Speaking of testosterone poisoning... "The song is a perfect indictment of the sort of sweaty, brittle masculinity that tends toward overcompensation.": pitchfork.com -- You may want to see the video: www.youtube.com

Gooooooooood rainy morning! Because it's May in Seattle. Request? Dry the Rain, from the Beta Band? #cliché and ok about it. Plus, it's just a great song Have the best day, and I appreciate all of you KEXP peeps. -- John Richards or Rob Gordon: ""I will now sell five copies of 'The Three EPs' by The Beta Band..." Watch that clip from "High Fidelity": www.youtube.com

"I can sing it to the sky There's a risk it won't reply If I could change it, man, I would And I won't screw it up this time... Here are the lyrics: genius.com -- James Kenneth Chapman, known professionally as Maps, is an English record producer, songwriter and remixer. "We Can Create," nominated for the Mercury Prize, was his debut album.: thisismaps.com

Good morning John! If you could fit in some Beirut, I'd love to hear some on this Friday morning. --Adam in Richland -- The song's vocal hook is underpinned by an electric organ figure. It arose from a re-recording Sata Fe native Zach Condon was making of the Gulag Orkestar track "Scenic World," that he was making for the soundtrack to Alma Har'el's documentary Bombay Beach. He explained: "I visited my parents for Christmas and was recording this old organ I still have in my bedroom there. I thought it sounded awesome and that I should use it for something else. So I started the chord progression (to 'Santa Fe') there and finished it in Albuquerque."

Good morning! Listening in Pittsburgh, PA. Would you play Broken Social Scene's "Anthem for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl?" My BF and I listen to KEXP all day and if he hears the song he is 100% going to know I requested it. Thanks everyone. John -- It's true, BF! John from Pittsburgh requested it! -- Emily Haines of Metric fame takes the haunting vocal lead in this song. The “Anthems” of the title is a subtle reference to the original incarnation of BSS when it was known just as KC Accidental. KC’s only two EPs were also “anthems”: Captured Anthems for An Empty Bathtub and Anthems for the Could’ve Bin Pills.

Chic's Nile Rodgers was in charge of production for this song. His funk influences can be heard throughout the single - for example, the tempo and the use of The Borneo Horns brass section, He also played guitar on the track. -- The band were at something of a crossroads before "Notorious," having lost two members, and they credit Rodgers with revitalizing their career. During a 1986 performance, Duran Duran's frontman Simon Le Bon introduced Rodgers, saying: "This band went through a difficult time and it might not have made it if it weren't for this gentleman."

The Cure will be at Climate Pledge Arena on Thursday, June 1st! -- Robert Smith said that "A Forest" was inspired by his experience of getting lost in the forest as a boy. "I try to capture that feeling of extreme fear I was being taken by and how - maybe in other ways - this type of unpleasant feeling can still be felt by anyone," he explained. -- This song is behind a famous incident. At the 1981 Werchter Festival in Belgium, The Cure were on before Robert Palmer and were just finishing their set. Robert Palmer, apparently getting a little pushy, tried to have his road crew hurry The Cure off the stage. Robert Smith responded by sassily informing the crowd that they couldn't play anymore, then played an extra-long 9-minute version of "A Forest." Bass player Simon Gallup put a stamp on the performance by shouting "F--k Robert Palmer" to a cheering crowd!

Always crushing it in the AM John! Thanks so much! Any chance you could squeeze in some CCFX for Charlie and me today? Brooke and Charlie in Mount Vernon -- Isn't Mary Jane Dunphe's voice great? Olympia, WA supertrio CCFX gave their first live radio performance at KEXP on The Morning Show in 2018. It included the wonderful "The One to Wait.": www.youtube.com --- Here's Owen's interview with the group: www.kexp.org

This one's for Lisa!! -- This is Garbage's cover of the Siouxsie and the Banshees 1986 song (It was first released as a single in 1985). Here's the official video for the Garbage version: www.youtube.com

This was just released for Record Store Day as part of a new EP called "Witness To Your Love." The record backed Garbage’s 2008 rarity “Witness To Your Love” with three previously unreleased tracks: a pair of originals called “Blue Betty” and “Adam And Eve,” both culled from the sessions for 2021’s No Gods, No Masters, and this cover of Siouxsie and the Banshees' “Cities In Dust.”

"Come on, pilgrim, you know he loves you..." -- Watch Pixies perform this one live: www.youtube.com

John, It is my 46th birthday weekend and I want to take the skinheads bowling. ---Jason Songwriter David Lowery said, "I never thought that 'Take the Skinheads Bowling' would become a hit. If someone had traveled from the future and told me we would have a hit on our first album I would not have picked this song as being the hit. Not in a million years. Why? We regarded 'Take The Skinheads Bowling' as just a weird non-sensical song. The lyrics were purposely structured so that it would be devoid of meaning. Each subsequent line would undermine any sort of meaning established by the last line. It was the early 80′s and all our peers were writing songs that were full of meaning. It was our way of rebelling. BTW this is the most important fact about this song. We wanted the words to lack any coherent meaning. There is no story or deeper insight that I can give you about this song."

Cheekface will be LIVE on KEXP on Tuesday, May 16th, at 3:00 p.m. They will be at Barboza that evening. -- Cheekface have posted a Twitter thread breaking down this entire third album! Of this track, they write: "the opening percussion loop is echo firing a staple gun five times, then hitting a stainless steel ash tray with a drum key." Check out the entire thread here: bit.ly

Trio was a German band also known as ZAM in Europe, formed in the town of Großenkneten in 1979. The band is most known for the 1982 song "Da Da Da." Watch Trio performing "Sunday You Need Love...": www.youtube.com

The Rentals were a side project of Matt Sharp & Patrick Wilson of Weezer. The "P" in the title is Paulina Porizkova, the wife of The Cars guitarist Ric Ocasek, who produced the first Weezer album, known as The Blue Album. She said that no one had ever written a song about her, so Matt Sharp wrote this one.

It stands for Other People's ....hmmm. Want to read the lyrics?: genius.com -- Naughty by Nature is comprised of the rappers Treach and Vinnie, and DJ Kay Gee. Treach, who was 20 when this came out, wrote the lyrics and was lead rapper on O.P.P. This song heavily sampled The Jackson 5's "ABC."

My brother and his wife are in Seattle (from their home in Michigan) for a wedding this weekend. Good to know that Seattle is showing them its normal weather today. Would love to hear some Wussy. Thanks. --Tom in Cincinnati -- John selected this great song from Cincinnati band Wussy as a free KEXP Song of the Day: www.kexp.org -- John Erhardt, guitarist and pedal steel player for Wussy, passed away on May 4th, 2020 at the age of 58. Read KEXP's tribute to John: kexp.org

R.E.M. was opening for the Human League at the Palace Theater in Los Angeles on June 11, 1983, when they got word of downpours in the South Central region of Georgia. The band is from Athens, Georgia, which is located in this area, so they tried to call their families and friends to make sure they were OK, but the phones were out because of the torrential rain. The band wrote "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)" in response to this incident. -- R.E.M. performed it on Austin City Limits: www.youtube.com

Thank you also for creating a musical community… Indeed, a musical family, both locally and globally that has helped me through some of my darkest times… As indeed, it has for many. The magical four words I hear from the radio have often been all I need to hear to get through the day… “You are not alone.” So, here I am …approaching my 50th year on this planet, and I find that the best way to navigate a world rife with chaos, violence, greed, etc. is to stick to three simple things: Be nice. Be grateful. Listen to the music. I guess that’s my long way of saying a sincere thank you to you both and the whole KEXP family. --Matt -- That's Clare Grogan with those distinctive vocals. Here's the official video: www.youtube.com

For Shannon in Houston, who's going to YYY's on Sunday! -- Frontwoman Karen O said with a grin: "I figured if we were going to write a dance song it should be about heads bouncing on the floor and murder and slaughter." -- Here's a link to the official music video, directed by British comedian Richard Ayoade: www.youtube.com

Born and raised Capitol Hill - been living in Portland for the last 7 years - driving up to Seattle for the weekend - is it bad that I'm a little giddy that it's raining? If I had a request it would be the Seattle symphony doing river of deceit 🥰---Tanya --- The late and beloved Chris Cornell (Soundgarden) stepped in for Layne Staley's (Alice in Chains, Mad Season) vocals on this live performance. Watch the video of this phenomenal performance here: www.youtube.com

Happy Bandcamp Friday! Bandcamp is waiving their revenue share today to help support independent artists. Follow along here on the playlist for links to the artists' Bandcamp pages. Yves Tumor will play an all-ages show at the Showbox SoDo on Saturday, May 20th! Their new album came out in March: yves-tumor.bandcamp.com