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Friday, May 24 2024, 7AM
Good morning, happy Friday, and welcome to The Morning Show with the handsome John Richards! We're so glad you're here!
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It's Bob Dylan's birthday! Nobel Prize winner Robert Zimmerman was born in Duluth, Minnesota on this date in 1941. : www.bobdylan.com
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He'll be at the Gorge on the Outlaw Music Festival Tour (with Willie Nelson) on Saturday, August 10th.
Can you believe it? "Diamond Dogs" is 50 years old today! Bowie's eighth album was released on this date in 1974.
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In "Diamond Dogs," Bowie began to emerge from his successful glam-rock phase, as signposted by his Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane personas.
Although less prominent than his previous characters, Bowie created the eye-patch-sporting Halloween Jack for his Diamond Dogs tours. : faroutmagazine.co.uk
"'Dancer' is the violence that comes from the pounding heart of the dancefloor," said vocalist Joe Talbot, "and rushes through your body and gives you life from music, from love and from you."
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Talbot said of the album TANGK: "I want to make people dance, I want people to feel the love that I need in my life, I want to make people move, I want our music to be infectious again – and I want it to be infectious in a way that makes people feel, not think,"
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This song features backing vocals from LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy and Nancy Whang.
"You've got numbers on your phone of the dead that you can’t delete
And you got life-affirming moments in your past that you can't repeat..."
Here's what James Murphy is singing: genius.com
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The guitar played on this song is a Supro Dual Tone, which James Murphy picked up after being advised to do so by David Bowie.
Watch Bruce Springsteen cover this song as a tribute to Michael Hutchence in Sydney in 2014: www.youtube.com
Blondshell will be performing at Seattle's Day In & Day Out Festival Saturday, July 13th.
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Blondshell’s Sabrina Teitelbaum and Bully’s Alicia Bognanno co-wrote "Docket", which was produced by Yves Rothman. See the official visualizer: www.youtube.com
Fontaines D.C. will be in Seattle, Friday, September 20th, at Showbox SODO! They'll play The Warfield in San Francisco on September 24th.
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Watch them perform "Starburster" on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon earlier this month: www.youtube.com
Sleigh Bells released "Treats" on this date in 2010.
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If this song sounds slightly familiar, it's because it samples multiple elements of “Can You Get To That” by Funkadelic from their 1971 album "Maggot Brain."
Here's that song that Sleigh Bells sampled.
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Funkadelic revamped one of their earlier songs---Parliaments "What You Been Growing"--here.
This wonderful song, celebrating the band's credo of clean living and spiritual health, hit #1 in America on this date in 1975!
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They'll be here in Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena on September 3rd. In the meantime, watch this live version of "Shining Star": www.youtube.com
Go here to purchase "Transcendental outernational funk and psychedelic jazz from mystery L.A.- based collective Sun Atlas.": mocamborecords.bandcamp.com
Good morning John and morning show people!
Today I'M GETTING MARRIED!! My fiancé Adam and I both listen to your show and KEXP every day but Fridays we lay in bed and listen together. KEXP has been the soundtrack to our life together and is the soundtrack to us getting ready. We would love if you guys would play Friday I'm In Love by The Cure.
Thanks for making our days a little special.
Al in tri-cities
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Robert Smith is not known for having a particularly cheerful outlook, which makes an unabashedly optimistic song like “Friday I’m In Love” unique in the Cure’s canon. “‘Friday I’m in Love’ is a dumb pop song, but it’s quite excellent actually, because it’s so absurd,” he said. “It’s so out of character – very optimistic and really out there in happy land. It’s nice to get that counterbalance.”
Ahhh.....the Friday song. Join us for KEXP Day Parties in the Gathering Space before the Pearl Jam shows at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on Tuesday, May 28th and Thursday, May 30th.: www.kexp.org
For "The Nylon Curtain" album, Joel wanted to experiment with different vocal effects, which accounts for an unusual horn-like exclamation on this track, which was made all the more prominent when he made a fortuitous mistake in the studio.
"On 'Pressure,' the noise that sounds like the horn of a French taxicab - that strange, breathless staccato beep - is actually a tape of me singing every note in my repertoire," he explained. "We recorded me singing the notes, and then loaded the tape into an effects gadget called an Emulator. Then, we overdubbed me hollering, 'PRESH-AR!' with the same inflection that a Royal Air Force captain might use to bark out a command like 'TEN-HUT!'"
But here comes the gaffe: "While the master tape was running, I impulsively hit all the buttons on the tape machine to punch out everything but the section with the yelling. Phil [Ramone, producer] was dumbstruck. 'God! What did you do? You erased part of the song!' Phil was right: for that one segment everything stops dead but my voice, but it was just what the track needed."
Aaron Frazer performs at The Independent in San Francisco on September 7th and at Neumos in Seattle on Wednesday, September 11th.
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His new album, "Into the Blue," is out on June 28th. You can pre-order it right here: aaronfrazermusic.bandcamp.com
"Girlfriend" was inspired by Sweet's divorce from his first wife, which occurred during the lead-up to the album's recording.
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That great guitar solo is from Akron, Ohio guitarist Robert Quine. R.I.P., Robert Quine, who died in 2004: www.premierguitar.com
The Black Keys will be performing at September 29th at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA and at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle October 3rd.
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This song was written by The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney with longtime friends Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and Beck.
Here are Jack and Meg, performing this ditty for Tops of the Pops in 20002: www.youtube.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.
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Can you say that again?
Here's a live performance in Wales: www.youtube.com
On their Facebook page, this Seattle band says, "Y'all we have not been keeping our Facebook up to date :0
But actually lots of exciting announcements coming.": www.facebook.com
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You can pre-order their new album, "We Talk to Birds" (including "Loser Sellouts"), due out on July 19th.: fr3aks.bandcamp.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. "Fortunately, they still know how to rage.": pitchfork.com
One of the few Guided by Voices songs penned by someone other than main songwriter Robert Pollard or “classic lineup” guitarist Tobin Sprout, “I Am a Tree” was written by guitarist Doug Gillard originally for his band Gem. Recorded in October 1993, Gem’s version was released as a 12" single in 1996 on Scat Records, GBV’s previous record label. : magnetmagazine.com
It's my due date! If you get a chance, can you play "Gigantic" by the Pixies?
--Megan in Kent
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Best wishes on this momentous occasion, Megan!
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In 1992, Kurt Cobain said: “I wish Kim was allowed to write more songs for the Pixies, because 'Gigantic' is the best Pixies song and Kim wrote it.” - faroutmagazine.co.uk
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KEXP's Cobain 50 podcast dove into how influential this Pixies album was for Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. Check out the episode here: www.kexp.org
The Three O'Clock were the quintessential L.A. Paisley Underground band. Lead singer and bassist Michael Quercio in fact coined the term to describe the set of bands, including the Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Green on Red, and the Bangles, who incorporated the chiming guitars of the Byrds and the Beatles into their pop songs with a psychedelic bent, and the clothes to match.
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Don't miss the video for "Jet Fighter": www.youtube.com
"OK, you’re kind of sexy
But you’re not really special
But I won’t mind
If you take me home..."
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This song sampled the hook from 1968's "The Tra La La Song" by Banana Splits.
"Daylight" was written and performed by Matt and Kim, which consists of vocalist and keyboardist Matt Johnson and drummer Kim Schifino. The music video shows the duo playing the song "Daylight" in crowded, often uncomfortable spaces; in beds, fridges, dumpsters, taxis, etc.: www.youtube.com
Imperial Teen performed "Yoo Hoo" live for KEXP listeners from Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop during SXSW way back in 2012: www.youtube.com
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"Imperial Teen got started in 1992 when Lynn Perko and Roddy Bottum decided to start a band.
The band was made whole when local musicians Will Schwartz and Jone Stebbins joined; the band has stayed together since then....Bottum and Schwartz are also both gay males who’ve never been shy about speaking about their sexuality. Many of Imperial Teen’s songs have lyrics, sung by Bottum and Schwartz, about wearing lipstick and other typically feminine acts, some serious, and some silly. ": peraltacitizen.com
Ultra Vivid Scene was an American alternative rock band, started by Kurt Ralske. Former Nothing But Happiness and Crash guitarist.
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Ralske was born and raised in New York; something of a musical prodigy, he was accepted into the Berklee School of Music in Boston at the age of 16.: www.allmusic.com
Don't you love the great bass line in this song? Here's a live version from London in 2019: www.youtube.com
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"Because he had written the inspirational bass line to the song Wil [Williams] got naming rights to the song, so he called it ‘Homeboy’ after a chapter in the autobiography of Malcom X that he was reading at the time because he thought it was a cool word and quite incongruous for the title of a song from a white English/Scottish/Welsh/Polish indie band, and so I incorporated this into the lyrics. It follows the great quiet- loud-quiet-loud structure of songs like ‘Gigantic’ by The Pixies that we loved..." --Pete Fijalkowski: creation-records.com
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John will be there when James performs at The Moore Theatre in Seattle on Saturday, September 21st.
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In this video interview, British rock band JAMES sit down to talk their newly released album, "Be Opened By The Wonderful", in celebration of their 40th anniversary. The album features a 20-track collection of the band's most loved and rare tracks, re-imagined with a 22-piece orchestra and 8-piece choir.: www.youtube.com
For John in San Francisco, in memory of his mother.
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‘Alive’ was initially a Mother Love Bone song, the band Mike McGready, Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament previously played in before Pearl Jam. It was then called "Dollar Short." Read the story behind this song that begins with heartbreak and becomes a celebration of conquering adversity: faroutmagazine.co.uk
"Loving every minute 'cause you make me feel so alive, alive..."
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Don't miss the costumes as Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore romp in the video for "Alive": www.youtube.com
The band took its name from "Clangers," a British children's television show, in which a Soup Dragon serves green soup to some mouse-like creatures.
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This is the band's version of an old Rolling Stones tune. The band felt free to change the lyrics from the Rolling Stones' original, which was necessary because they didn't have them. Lead singer Sean Dickson sang what he could remember and made up the rest.
Nevertheless, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are the credited songwriters.
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"The Bird" was initially recorded in the studio in 1983 with all instruments by Prince, except guitar, which was performed by Jesse Johnson.
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This version was replaced by a live recording with the full band at the First Avenue on October 4, 1983. Don't miss The Time's performance of "The Bird" from "Purple Rain": tinyurl.com
Lemmy Kilmister preferred Motorhead's cover to the Stones' original. “I thought we beat them,” he told USA Today. “I thought we beat it to death. I mean, I like the Stones’ version, but I like ours better.”
Here's a 1967 performance of this song by Mr. Armstrong: www.youtube.com
The great Armstrong-Metallica segue...
Did you know that Louis Armstrong wrote this song? Wait, that isn't true!
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Watch Metallica perform this song live in Madrid in 2022: www.youtube.com
“Try a Little Tenderness” did not originate with Redding. The song was first recorded in 1932, nine years before Redding was born, by the Ray Noble Orchestra with vocalist Val Rosing. It was
written by Tin Pan Alley pianist and lyricist Harry M. Woods and Jimmy Campbell and Reg Connelly.
On our Sound and Vision podcast, Gregg Deal of Dead Pioneers talks with KEXP's Dusty Henry about growing up as the only native family in his Utah school, starting his first punk band in his 40s, and about the Dead Pioneers’ songs, "Bad Indian" and "We Were Punk First.": www.kexp.org
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Watch the official music video for "Bad Indian": www.youtube.com
"All I want is a Pepsi..."
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The video for this song premiered in 1984 - one of the first by a hardcore band to get significant airplay on MTV - youtu.be
In 2002, former Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins re-recorded this track with Public Enemy's Chuck D for Rise Above: 24 Black Flag Songs to Benefit the West Memphis Three. The benefit album raised money to help fund the legal defence of The West Memphis Three - three men convicted of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas - who many believe to be innocent.
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Here's a tribute to his great hardcore song: www.popmatters.com
Written for the soundtrack of the 1973 film “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” and released as a single two months after the film's premiere, the song was described by Dylan biographer Clinton Heylin as "an exercise in splendid simplicity."
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Happy birthday to Bob Dylan, born on May 24th, 1941.