John Richards

Good morning, and welcome to the first 7th best day of the week of the new year! We are counting down John's top played songs of 2023.. starting with #42. - Regarding the song, "Release" was one of the first songs Eddie wrote with Pearl Jam, and it's one that helped them find common ground. "We were strangers, but we were coming from a similar place," said Vedder.

#41. The Verve's lead singer Richard Ashcroft told Q magazine in 2017 that he considers this to be his favorite song that he's ever written, "because it seems to be able to ignite or connect with an energy every time it's performed, without fail." In another interview with the BBC, he said the song was "inspired by my relationship with my wife, and that sense of when you're beyond the sort of peacock dance that you have early on in a relationship. And you're getting down to the raw nature of yourselves."

#40 on the countdown to John's top played songs of 2023. Stereo Mind Game is Daughter's first album since 2016. It was recorded in various locations across the United Kingdom and the US West Coast. Elena Tonra shared of the new album, "It has been in the making for a long time, pieced together delicately (obsessively maybe) over years, trying to make it as complete as it could ever feel. I think it’s more optimistic than our past records (but it still has my lyrics.. so.. it’s never going to be full sunshine) but I’ve tried to document experiences, thoughts, feelings, conversations and memories from my life, and hope that we’ve turned them into something listenable, something positive." Here is Daughter Live on KEXP back in 2016: www.youtube.com ohdaughter.com

#39. Lead single from Watch Out for the Wolf, the first album Ryan Bingham has produced, performed, and mixed by himself. www.ryanbingham.com

#38. “Born for Loving You” was recorded at the same time as “Vampire Empire,” while the band was embarking on a 2023 tour, which concluded this summer. The singles were recorded in at Teatre de ca l’Eril Studio in Guissona, Spain. The band co-produced “Born for Loving You” with Dom Monks. americansongwriter.com bigthief.net

#37 on John's top songs of last year. This song refers to the biblical story of Samson. Pixies drummer David Lovering once shared, "It's the perfect example of a true Pixies song. It's got the quiet verse and then it goes all-out for the chorus. The way it's structured, it's two opposing layers. I remember when we recorded it, I thought it was the most compelling thing we ever did." bit.ly www.pixiesmusic.com

#36. Watch Geese's Live on KEXP performance from this August's THING Fest here: youtu.be geesebandnyc.bandcamp.com

#35. 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".

#34. If you are just joining us, we are counting down John's top songs of last year. On the release of her debut, Sabrina Teitelbaum said: "It's hard to summarize what this album means to me. I was able to work through so much by writing and singing these songs... I wasn't intending to write an album as much as I was just trying to get relief from an intense and difficult time in my life. My biggest hope is that people can see the album for what it is: there’s no happy ending or 'message,' it's just a window into what it's like when you’re trying to figure out who you are and what you want." www.blondshellmusic.com Here is Blondshell Live on KEXP: www.youtube.com

#33. ill peach is Los Angeles duo Pat Morrissey and Jess Corazza. Speaking on the new single, the duo explain, “‘BLOOM’ might be our only love song. A bittersweet one. It’s about testing the boundaries of a long-distance relationship. How can you love and be with someone if you can’t see them? In the flux of everything that happened these past few years, we saw friends and longtime relationships break up like a ripple effect. But also surprisingly, the ones that had it the hardest around us found love in the ashes, a beginning to an ending. Love can and will navigate anything if you believe it. So ‘BLOOM’ is our anthem to fighting for love.”: www.youtube.com

#32. "International Bright Young Thing" contains a sample of Clyde Stubblefield's work on "Funky Drummer" and a drum sample from The Beatles' "Birthday.

#31. The original version of the track, as well as two remixes of the track, are featured on the Root Down EP from 1994. The song features sample from jazz musician Jimmy Smith's "Root Down (And Get It)".

#30. Strange Ranger (formerly known as Sioux Falls) is an Indie-Rock/Post-Punk band from Montana, then in Portland, now in NYC and Philadelphia. Bandmates Isaac Isaac Eiger and Fred Nixon have been playing music together since high school. strangeranger.bandcamp.com

#29. In the book "Fool the World" (oral history of the Pixies), John Murphy gives some insight on the process of recording the song, and on why this is one of the Pixies songs with the most songwriter credits on it. "On 'Levitate Me,' the chorus at the end where is like, yelling – Charles was asleep, and they did their recording in seventy-two hours of rolling time, freezing cold, so while some people were sleeping they were still working. "Somebody came up with the idea and Dave and Kim were the ones doing the vocals to that while Charles was sleeping, and then when he woke up they played it for him and he was like, 'Oh, that’s cool, let’s keep it.' Charles gave credit to everybody in the world who wrote that song, too. His girlfriend Jean came up with a couple of words, he threw her in as a songwriter credit." (bit.ly)

#28... MARRIAGE! The Bug Club are a three piece from Caldicot, Monmouthshire, Wales. thebugclub.bandcamp.com Watch the band perform this live in Reading in October: www.youtube.com

#27 on the countdown. #1 in our heart. Producer Steve Albini used some unusual recording techniques on "Surfer Rosa" to avoid "the studio sound." He moved recording equipment into the studio bathroom in the hope of achieving a real rather than studio echo on Kim Deal's backing vocals for this and her lead vocals on "Gigantic." Albini later admitted that the record could have been completed in a week were if not for the time wasted experimenting on projects like this.

#25. This song features the vocals of Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser, who wrote this song's lyrics. The song also samples Les McCann's "Sometimes I Cry."

#24. "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was a "last-minute" addition during recording sessions of Songs from the Big Chair (1985). The decision to include the song in the album came after Roland Orzabal played two chords on his acoustic guitar for Hughes. It was recorded in two weeks and added as the final track on the album. The original lyric was "Everybody wants to go to war", which partially contributed to Orzabal's initial indifference towards the song.

#23. The third single from Violator, 1990. When recording the album, the band decided to try a new approach to recording. Alan Wilder said, "Usually we begin the making of a record by having extensive pre-production meetings where we decide what the record will actually sound like, then go into a programming studio. This time we decided to keep all pre-production work to a minimum. We were beginning to have a problem with boredom in that we felt we'd reached a certain level of achievement in doing things a certain way." Martin Gore told NME, "Over the last five years I think we'd perfected a formula; my demos, a month in a programming studio, etc. etc. We decided that our first record of the '90s ought to be different."

#22 on John's top records of 2023! Here is Debby Friday performing "SO HARD TO TELL" live in the KEXP studio last year: www.youtube.com debbyfriday.com

#21. Palehound is coming to The Showbox on Wednesday, April 3rd, 2024!

#20. Chrome is Catherine Wheel's second studio album, released in 1993. In a 2006 interview, Rob Dickinson described "crank" as a British slang term for an odd or eccentric person. When he sings "call me crank," he is referring to how he views himself and that he's comfortable in acknowledging that he's unusual.: bit.ly

#19.. kisses! Here is Slowdive live on KEXP back in 2017: www.youtube.com slowdive.bandcamp.com

#18. If you're just joining us, we are counting down John's top albums of last year! Watch video of Jungle's Live on KEXP performance from last September: www.youtube.com jungle.bandcamp.com

#17. David “Trugoy The Dove” Jolicoeur, American rapper, producer, and one-third of rap trio De La Soul, passed away last February at age 54. Trugoy was also a member of the hip hop collective Native Tongues, and is also widely recognized for his rap in the second verse of the Gorillaz song "Feel Good Inc”, which won De La Soul a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. He is very missed. The whistle you hear in the song is a sample from Otis Redding's classic "Sittin' On (the Dock of the Bay).

#16. When "Age of Consent" debuted live in Blackpool in August 1982, it marked the band's’ first foray into pop music and became a fan favorite.

#15. The Hives performed live in the KEXP gathering place last year! Here they are live on KEXP's broadcast from Doug Fir during MusicfestNW, recording September of 2012: www.youtube.com

#14. Middle Kids Hannah Joy co-wrote the love song "Dramamine" with Tim Fitz, who happens to be her husband. -- See the colorful “Dramamine” video, which Fitz co-directed with Nick Mckk: youtu.be

#13. Garbage's take on Siouxsie And The Banshees' 1985 song “Cities In Dust”. The album cover is from the band’s Record Store Day release, the ‘Witness To Your Love’ EP.

#12.. THE RECORD, debut album of indie supergroup, consisting of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus. It received seven nominations at the Grammy's, including Album of the Year.

#11 on the most played of 2023 countdown, and one of John's all time favorites. Plainsong is the name given for Gregorian chants and other Catholic liturgies. The song is similar to a religious chant, and details a somber conversation happening between two people.

#10. A slow ballad based on piano and guitar, it describes a couple both struggling with addiction and living in Dublin's Ballymun flats; the towers have since become associated with the song. The song was written in the context of the heroin addiction epidemic of Dublin of the 1980s.

#9.. the final track of Hurry Up, We're Dreaming. Now and forever! ilovem83.com

#8. M83's Anthony Gonzalez said in a press release, “I wanted this record to be very impactful live. The idea was to come back with something closer to the energy of Before The Dawn Heals Us. The combination of guitars and synths is always in my music, but it’s maybe more present on this new record than on the previous ones… I wanted to be more present lyrically and vocally even if that was daunting at first. “I thought if I could achieve that, this album will be more personal than those that came before.” www.stereogum.com

#7. ‘Struggler’ is the second studio album by Australian musician Genesis Owusu, released in 2023. The album won Album of the Year, Best Independent Release, and Best Hip Hop/Rap Release at the 2023 ARIA Music Awards, and was nominated for Best Produced Release, Best Engineered Release, and Best Solo Artist. The album was also nominated for the Australian Album of the Year at the 2023 J Awards and the 2023 Australian Music Prize. Here is Genesis Owusu live in the KEXP studio in May 2023: youtu.be

#5. "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

#4. This orchestral version of 'Sometimes' was part of the double album released in 2023 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

#3. Bully will perform at Showbox SoDo on Wednesday, February 28th, 2024. Here is Bully Live on KEXP: www.youtube.com bullythemusic.bandcamp.com

We are at #2 in the countdown of John's top played records of last year. Here is Nation Of Language performing this song in the KEXP Gathering Space last August. - www.youtube.com www.nationoflanguage.com

*Drumroll* ......#1! Happy new year, everyone.