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Friday, May 17 2024, 7AM
Good morning, world! It's Friday and it's The Morning Show with John Richards! We're so glad you're here!
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Happy birthday! On this date in 2010, LCD Soundsystem released "This Is Happening." On this date in 2024, LCD Soundsystem plays the second of four Seattle Shows, Thursday-Sunday, May 16-19, at The Paramount Theatre.
Happy birthday to Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, born May 17th, 1961 in Dore, Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland. "Eithne" is pronounced "Enya," so she goes with that spelling to avoid confusion.
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The title of the song is an allusion both to Orinoco Studios (now Miloco Studios), where it was recorded, and to the river of the same name.
The music video for this song was nominated for a Grammy. Watch it here: www.youtube.com
From Enya to Nine Inch Nails... it's one birthday after another...
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Trent Reznor, birthday boy, was born on this date in 1965. Read John's 2017 exclusive interview with Trent Reznor: www.kexp.org
"Soundclash' was the debut album from English electronic band Renegade Soundwave. Formed in London during the late '80s, the trio was composed of Gary Asquith, Danny Briottet and Carl Bonnie.
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Here's a 2019 interview with Gary Asquith about the band: louderthanwar.com
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This song sampled multiple elements of Mandrill's "Two Sisters of Mystery."
In 1990, the people of Arizona voted against instituting Martin Luther King Jr Day as a federal holiday, angering civil rights activists and black people in general across the world, both terms that would accurately describe Chuck D.
Read more from Public Enemy about this song here: www.spin.com
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The title of this track is a reference to Isaac Hayes' 1969 soul cover of the 1965 song “By the Time I Get to Phoenix." Public Enemy enjoyed Hayes' music, and sampled his track “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic” for their 1989 release "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos."
Mandrill's "Two Sisters of Mystery" was sampled by Public Enemy in "By The Time I Get to Arizona."
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This Brooklyn funk/soul band that formed in 1968 has been sampled in songs from Johnny D, Public Enemy, Beck, DJ Shadow, and The Avalanches, just to name a few.
Here's a biography of the band: www.wefunkradio.com
Wow, The Gap Band dropped "Gap Band IV" on this date in 1982.
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Named after Greenwood, Archer, and Pine, streets in the Tulsa neighborhood where they grew up, The Gap Band was comprised of multi-instrumentalist brothers Ronnie, Charlie, and Robert Wilson. The brothers grew up performing in their father's Pentecostal church in Tulsa. Their mother was the church's pianist, and the boys sang every Sunday before their father's sermon. Ronnie, the oldest, started a group when he was fourteen and eventually recruited his younger brothers to play in the band,
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That's Charlie Wilson on lead vocals on this terrific song about "dropping the bomb of love."
"See' the digital mix of this song: www.youtube.com
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Joe Strummer was disheartened in 1991 when this song (along with “Killing An Arab” by The Cure) was being misinterpreted as anti-Arab anthems during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq.
"Hyperdrama" is Justice's (Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay) first album in eight years, Here's a New York Times feature on the album: www.nytimes.com
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Learn more about Eritrea-born, Amsterdam-raised vocalist RIMON: www.allmusic.com
Khruangbin will be at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, August 14th-16th.
Ahhh.....the Friday song. Oh My Goth, KEXP is celebrating World Goth Day on Wednesday, May 22nd. Check out the lineup here: www.kexp.org
"Nonetheless" is Pet Shop Boys' fifteenth studio album.
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" [Neil] Tennant’s simple-sounding vocals tell stories of loneliness, longing and love, elevated by bumping electronic beats and orchestral harmonies in this bittersweet masterpiece. [Chris] Lowe’s synthesizer skills bring each track to life, as always, and the dichotomy between heart-wrenching lyrics and dance-inducing instrumentals is a poignant reflection of human emotion.": apnews.com
"I'm right over here
Why can't you see me? Oh
I'm giving it my all
But I'm not the girl you're takin' home, ooh
I keep dancing on my own...": genius.com
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Here's an NPR tribute to this incredible anthem: www.npr.org
Watch Boyfriend (with big curlers in her hair) join Galactic for this brief live performance of "Dance at My Funeral.": www.youtube.com
A.R. Rahman is an Indian composer whose extensive body of work for film and stage earned him the nickname “the Mozart of Madras.” He planned the Grammy award-winning score for this movie in two months and recorded it in 20 days. : www.britannica.com
"Hip Hop Dancer's Theme" by DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince sampled Bob James's "Take Me to the Mardi Gras".
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Want to hear the original?: www.youtube.com
M/A/R/R/S was a one-off collaboration between members of A.R. Kane (Alex and Rudi Kane) and Colourbox (Martin and Steve Young), both veteran 4AD artists. They took their name from the four collaborator's initials plus that of label boss Ivo Watts-Russell, who suggested they get together. Those four are the credited songwriters on the track. This song is made up of about 250 samples!
Bob James is a prolific, best-selling, Grammy-winning composer, arranger, producer, and pianist. Alongside Grover Washington, Jr., he is among the creators of smooth and contemporary jazz, seamlessly gathering genres from bop to pop, classical, and R&B.: www.allmusic.com
"Datarock Datarock" is the debut album from (You are right!) Norwegian band Datarock. The band is known for wearing red jumpsuits.
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They are clothed appropriately in the video, filmed in Paris: www.youtube.com
“I was just thinking ‘bout work the dancefloor.” At first listen, it seems grammatically incorrect (is she talking about “work the dancefloor” as a concept, the function of a DJ to get people moving in a crowd?). But as she turns the phrase over and over in her mouth, the obliqueness eventually disappears, like the slippery moment in the club when you stop thinking about the beats and just start letting the sounds flow through your body.: pitchfork.com
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London-based artist Georgia performed this song live for KEXP listeners in 2021. See that entire session: www.youtube.com
The video is a day in a life filmed in four minutes. It was filmed in Sweden, New York and Las Vegas using time-lapse photography. The shoot took 14 days. Madonna had the idea for doing the closing nightclub scene. It won the 1998 Grammy for Best Music Video Short Form and the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.: www.youtube.com
"Stigmata" was witten by frontman Al Jourgensen. In his 2013 autobiography, Jourgensen wrote that although "Stigmata" is one of Ministry's most popular songs, he hates it for being "too simplistic" and for its use of sampled rather than actual guitars. He wrote "Stigmata" at the last minute after realizing he needed another song to complete the album.
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See the video version of this ditty: www.youtube.com
"Sinew exploding from chrome hooves
Where we're going, we don't need glue
Can he run in a tutu?
He looks a little long in the gold tooth..."
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See IDLES performing "Gift Horse" live on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon recently: www.youtube.com
Les Savy Fav is playing Seattle's Day In Day Out Festival on Saturday, July 13th.
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"OUI, LSF" is the art-punk band's first new release since 2010: pitchfork.com
Happy birthday to Josh Homme, born on May 17th, 1973.
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That's Dave Grohl playing drums on this first single from QOTSA's sixth studio album.
New York band Swans are an experimental rock band formed in 1982 by Michael Gira..
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Gira said that this track was about a deranged person that realizes that they can spread their evil across the world.
Words we thought we would never say...The The are back with a new album.,..and they are coming to the U.S. to play shows. The album is called Ensoulment, their first studio album of new songs in a quarter century, and it's out on September 6th. With it comes this new song, “Cognitive Dissident.”
10-17 New York, NY - Beacon Theatre
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11-02 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre
11-03 Portland, OR - Roseland Theater
11-04 Vancouver, British Columbia - Orpheum
11-07 Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
Arab Strap are a Scottish indie rock band whose core members are Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton.
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Here's a review of their eighth album, "I'm totally fine with it don't give a fuck anymore": www.popmatters.com
Good morning from Britney and the five Williams kids on the road! We’d love to hear Trench Coat Museum along the way, if you can work it in. Thanks for the road trip soundtrack!
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Yard act will play The Independent in SF on June 4th, Mississippi Studios in Portland on June 6th, and Seattle's Crocodile on Saturday, June 8th.
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Yard Act performed live in the KEXP studio in 2022. Watch the performance here: tinyurl.com
The track title is a reference to “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” by Paul Simon. The song itself is about then New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s revival and ruthless enforcement of the 1926 Cabaret Law and how it seriously impacted the dance scene there. The law wasn’t repealed until 2017 (after the term of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is mentioned in the song as well).: www.vice.com
In an interview, James Murphy summed up the genesis of Losing My Edge:
“When I was DJing, playing Can, Liquid Liquid, ESG, all that kind of stuff, I became kind of cool for a moment, which was a total anomaly. And when I heard other DJs playing similar music I was like: ‘F**k! I’m out of a job! These are my records!’ But it was like someone had crept into my brain and said all these words that I hate. Did I make the records? Did I f**k! So, I started becoming horrified by my own attitude. I had this moment of glory though. People would use me to DJ just to get them cool. They’d be like: ‘It’s the cool rock disco guy’, and this was really weird. And to be honest I was afraid that this new found coolness was going to go away and that’s where 'Losing My Edge' comes from.”: medium.com
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LCD Soundsytem is playing here in Seattle at The Paramount Theatre for four nights, Thursday-Sunday, May 16th-19th.
Yes, you can shout "Leonard Bernstein"!!!
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www.azlyrics.com
The Bug Club is Welsh duo Tilly Harris (Bass, Vocals) and Sam Willmett (Vocals, Guitar). Their first offering for the Sub Pop label is “Quality Pints,” a track that deals with the pressing concerns of any conscientious touring outfit, taking to heart the rule of the three R’s as penned by renowned fellow pints fan Mark E Smith of The Fall: repetition, repetition, repetition. If it’s that important, which it is, it’s worth saying again.
Unlike much of their earlier work, Beastie Boys didn't use any samples in "Sabotage." By this time, they were creating tracks mostly from live instruments, as sampling was getting expensive and played out.
This song came about during one of their many jam sessions when MCA [Adam Yauch] came up with an arresting bassline. Mike D added that double-beat drum break, Ad-Rock put in some guitar, and they had that punchy open. It didn't take them long to put the rest of the track together, which they called "Chris Rock" because an engineer in the studio named Chris liked it.
"Toughter Than Leather" was released on this date in 1988!
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"Mary, Mary" sampled The Monkees' 1966 "Mary, Mary" & John Davis and the Monster Orchestra's 1976 "I Can't Stop. "
Michael Nesmith wrote this song before he joined The Monkees. It was first recorded by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band on their East-West album on Elektra in 1966. In Glenn Baker's Monkeemania book, it states that the president of Elektra actually caught some flap once the Monkees' version came out because people couldn't believe that a Monkee actually wrote it.
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R.I.P., Michael Nesmith, "the quiet Monkee," who died in 2021 at age 78: www.nytimes.com
Recognize those drums? Caesars sampled The Monkees' "Mary, Mary."
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This was the first hit for The Caesars, who are known as The Caesar's Palace in their native country of Sweden, and Twelve Caesars throughout the rest of Scandinavia. However due to copyrights from Caesars Palace Casino, they are known as The Caesars throughout the rest of the world.
There's a convertible, wild Hawaiian shirts, ....and a rocket... in the video for "Saturn 5": www.youtube.com
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"What really inspired the song was seeing the rocket. Saturn 5 is a space rocket, the rocket that launched all the Apollo missions. Last year I went to see it in Houston. It was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. And on the way home, I wrote the song."
In this interview, keyboardist Clint Boon reveals the secrets behind "Devil Hopping": devorahostrov.blogspot.com
The band's name is an acronym for "F**k It Dawg, Life's A Risk."
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Fans are drunk and having fun as FIDLAR plays in the video for "West Coast": www.youtube.com