John Richards

We could all use a little help from some friends some days. This track is sung by Ringo Starr's alter ego Billy Shears.

John Lennon's cover of "Stand By Me", from Rock 'n' Roll, his sixth studio album, which was released in 1975.

The extraordinary Tammi Terrell died just before her 25th birthday of brain cancer. Although Marvin Gaye's relationship with her was platonic, it's said that he never got over her death.: www.smoothradio.com

Were all on the Friendship Train this morning! Watch this song live on Soul Train: www.youtube.com

Catch the transfer over to the Groovy Train! The farm remix this 1990 Terry Farley track as the first single from The Farm's debut album Spartacus (1991). "Groovy Train" featured on the influential 1990 Madchester compilation album Happy Daze . www.discogs.com

James Murphy was asked why he felt this song struck a chord with people. He replied: "I don't know. It's sad-ish and people are old. I was purposefully trying to chase a feeling I got from Joy Division's 'Transmission,' which starts off so gentle, and becomes so f--king overwhelming. By the time he's going, 'Dance, dance, dance to the radio!' your head's exploding." lcdsoundsystem.com

Depeche Mode will be in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena on November 26th. Memento Mori, the name of the new Depeche Mode record, is Latin for 'remember that you [have to] die', and is an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death. www.depechemode.com

Lead single for IDLES upcoming fifth album TANGK, out February 16th 2023. This track is a collaboration with LCD Soundsystem and is produced by Kenny Beats. idlesband.bandcamp.com

Another dancin' song! From Seattle group the Murder City Devils' Empty Bottles, Broken Hearts. Produced by Seattle legend Jack Endino.

When in doubt dance! Read KEXP's tribute to this incredibly influential musician: www.kexp.org -- Check out Eddie Van Halen's isolated guitar track for "Dance the Night Away": faroutmagazine.co.uk

When there's a new Beatles song out you gotta play it twice! Watch the 12-minute documentary of the creation of this song here www.youtube.com == Together and apart, The Beatles have always had a talent for the unexpected. And now, 2023 brings one of the most anticipated releases of their long and endlessly eventful history. “Now And Then” is the last Beatles song – written and sung by John Lennon, developed, and worked on by Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and now finally finished by Paul and Ringo over four decades later.

INXS's third album, Shabooh Shoobah, developed after the band decided in early 1982 to record a new song, "The One Thing", at their own expense, with Mark Opitz at Paradise Studios. The song turned out so well that band hired Opitz to produce three more songs. The name "Shabooh Shoobah" is an onomatopoeia of a rhythm in the song "Spy of Love".

Los Angeles is the debut album from this goth super group, out November 3rd. The group is comprised of Cure drummer Lol Tolhurst, ex-Siouxsie and the Banshees drummer Budgie, and producer Jacknife Lee. The album will also feature guests such as The Edge and IDLES' Mark Bowen. loltolhurst.com

This is a cover. It was originally released by 13th Floor Elevators on their 1967 album "Easter Everywhere." For comparison's sake, here's a link to the original: www.youtube.com

Tested in front of audiences at their live shows in the spring of 2023, "The Trenchcoat Museum" is a stand-alone single from Leeds’ finest post-punkers Yard Act. Billed as an "advert or trailer" for their upcoming sophomore album by frontman James Smith (although it won’t be included on its tracklist when it arrives), it's another fine piece of scabrous lyricism, with a remix by none other than Arthur Baker on the flip! tinyurl.com Yard Act performed live in the KEXP studio in 2022. Watch the performance here: tinyurl.com

This song from Cake's second studio album was written by Greg Brown, who was the band's guitarist until 1998. It remains Cake's most popular song. "He's going the distance... He's going for speed... She's all alone In her time of need..." Here's the official video for "The Distance": youtu.be

This song (and its namesake EP) was named and written for Racer X, the mysterious masked rival and secret brother of Speed Racer. From the liner notes: The guy was just plain cool, see. He was Rex, Speed Racer’s brother, but nobody knew it. It was a big secret. Really big. Speed Racer was a pansy-ass wimp next to Racer-X. Speed, spying, machinery, little beads of sweat — he had it all. He was hooked on the excitement. Hooked on the speed. Hooked.

Mackenzie Scott's new album, "What an Enormous Room," will be out in January. She will be here in Seattle at Neumos on Tuesday, March 26th, 2024. -- The first single off the album is “Collect,” which Scott says “is about justice being served,” adding it’s “the rage song I’ve been trying to write for years!” Watch the video by Dani Okon here: www.youtube.com

Alison Goldfrapp, the lead vocalist of the English electronic music duo Goldfrapp came out when she shared with fans her relationship with film editor Lisa Gunning. She is one of the most admired and interesting singers in the electronic music world. www.nyx-hotels.com == This song was inspired by a newspaper article about experiments in which scientists stimulated rats' brains so that the rats would feel joy when following commands, and also by “more human aspects of machines, sex and control.” www.goldfrapp.com

"The Weight" sampled South Bronx's 1980 song, "The Big Throwdown." -- Their new book, "Paused in Cosmic Reflection" - the definitive story of The Chemical Brothers, told in the voices of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, with contributions from friends & collaborators - was released on October 26. geni.us www.thechemicalbrothers.com

The Stereo MCs are a British alternative hip-hop/electronic dance group founded by vocalist Rob Birch and Nick "The Head" Hallam in the mid-'80s. -- This track samples a bass drum beat and snare beat from Jimmy "Bo" Horne's 1978 tune "Let Me (Let Me Be Your Lover)." Rob Birch looped the sample and created the bass groove that holds "Connected" together. -- Don't miss this live performance from 1994: www.youtube.com

KEXP would like to send you and a friend to see Jose Gonzalez at the Moore on November 8th, an all ages event. Text JOSE to 206-903-KEXP (5397) for your chance to win.

This orchestral version of 'Sometimes' is part of the double album released earlier this year in celebration of James's 40th Anniversary! The album is a collection of some of James’ most loved and rare tracks, reimagined with a 22 piece orchestra and eight piece choir. - wearejames.com

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

Prince admitted the success of the film and its music was overwhelming. "In some ways Purple Rain scared me," he noted in The Observer. "It's my albatross and it'll be hanging around my neck as long as I'm making music."

New from Kurt Vile! Full EP due out November 17th! -- www.kurtvile.com

From the 1998 Electro-Shock Blues album. Much of the album focuses on the death of front man Mark Oliver "E" Everett's sister Elizabeth and his mother's lung cancer.

'Into the Wild' is the debut solo studio album by Eddie Vedder, released in 2007. The album is based on his contributions to the soundtrack 'Into the Wild.' The songs for the soundtrack were recorded in 2007 at Studio X in Seattle. Watch the music video for "Hard Sun": youtu.be

“And we’re all so sick and tired of seeing things as they are,” he aches, “The horses are just horses and their manes aren’t full of fire, and the fields are just fields and there ain’t no Lord.” "Ghosteen" was Nick Cave's first album written entirely after the death of his son Arthur in 2015. At the album's end, Cave reprises the Buddhist tale of Kisa Gotami, a heartbroken mother combing each house in a village for a mustard seed with which to save her child, the Buddha’s proviso being that the seeds had to come from houses where there had not been a death. She can’t find a single one. No one is untouched by loss. And this album finds Cave comforted by the universality of suffering, and the succour of those who gathered around him. “For we are not alone it seems, so many riders in the sky,” Cave observes.

"For three days in December 1969, the Stones stopped into Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama and managed to lay down three songs, one of which was “Wild Horses.” The composition of this plaintive ballad was begun by Keith Richards, whose first child was born in August 1969, causing Keith regret about going out on the road and leaving the boy behind.... He then handed the song off to his songwriting partner-in-crime Mick Jagger to complete the verses. And that’s when the track took a turn away from Marlon, the name of Richards’ little boy, and perhaps veered toward Marianne, as in Faithfull, Jagger’s on-again, off-again lover of that era...." American Songwriter discusses this song in depth: americansongwriter.com

This was first released by Gram Parsons' Flying Burrito Brothers in 1970. The Stones' version was written in 1969. This is also the prom song from Buffy the Vampire Slayer! After receiving the “Class Protector” award from her class, Angel surprises Buffy at prom, and we get a slow dance: youtu.be