4,992Shows
249,891Spins
Monday, Mar 4 2019, 6AM
It's hard to believe that Robert Smith was only 30-years old when this album was released. It was The Cure's 8th studio album. The sound of the album was a shock to the band's American label Elektra Records. Smith recalled "they thought I was being 'wilfully obscure', which was an actual quote from the letter [Smith received from Elektra]. Ever since then I realized that record companies don't have a (bleeping) clue what The Cure does and what The Cure means."
Check out their amazing in-studio performance on the morning show last June.
www.youtube.com
Strand of Oaks will be at Neumos APR 26 and will also be featured on our new show Sound and Vision. Check it out now on the archive at kexp.org.
From the new 20th anniversary Q Magazine, U2's Bono listed this song as one of six songs released between 1986-2006 that he wished he'd written.
Here's the full list:
Bob Dylan & Sam Shepherd – “Brownsville Girl”
Massive Attack – “Unfinished Sympathy”
Oasis – “Live Forever”
Gavin Friday – “The Last Song I’ll Ever Sing”
The Verve – “Lucky Man”
Emm Gryner – “Almighty Love”
Verve singer Richard Ashcroft has a number of live dates planned in the UK. Check `em out here. richardashcroft.com
The Church are now extending their Starfish 30th anniversary tour into 2019, coming back to North America this spring. Dates kick off April 11 in Ferndale, MI and run through May 12 in Sonoma, CA. There’s a new NYC area show as well: Jersey City’s White Eagle Hall on April 16. For more info: www.thechurchband.net
Jen from Wye Oak wrote on Facebook: "This song was made in an attempt to work a little differently. It came from a pretty desperate place—physically and emotionally exhausted, I had pretty much given up on myself. When I feel really bad and don’t know what else to do, mindless, repetitive work helps me—so I started cleaning. Sweeping up the needles of the Christmas tree we had left to die in the corner of our house, I started singing to it about my problems. Embarrassing, yes. But it also felt okay. So I wrote this song in my head, carelessly, trying not to force it to become anything in particular. And in that way I rediscovered the process of making something out of nothing."
Our pal Hatchie will be at Neumos Friday, April 12th and was on the midday show last year. www.youtube.com
This one is for Courtney who writes: "mourning missing out on tickets for The National's "special" short tour in April so I would love to hear something by The National today. Maybe something from Boxer to celebrate the release of the Coffee and Flowers podcast." For more info on the podcast, check it out via twitter at @coffee_flowers_
RIP Keith Flint of the Prodigy who reportedly took his own life at the age of 49 this weekend. If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs immediate help, call the toll-free, 24-hour hotline of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255)
Crisis Text line - Text “TALK” to 741-741
Trevor Project (LGBT) 1-866-488-7386
suicidepreventionlifeline.org
The Troubleneck Brothers were a hip hop group from New York City. The group never released an official studio album, but released three singles and an album sampler. Three music videos were made for songs by the group. The Troubleneck Brothers disassembled sometime after 1994.
Although most members of the group never released any additional material, a few went on to have successful careers in the music industry. Steven "Blunt" Samuel co-founded hip hop website SOHH in 1996. Moetown released three singles in the late 1990s under the stage name Mo' Money. K. "Stepchild" Edwards changed his stage name to Nance Nickels and released the album Situations & Circumstances in 2003, and produced songs for Nine and Philly's Most Wanted.
Handsome Boy Modeling School is a collaborative project between hip hop producers Dan the Automator and Prince Paul. The collaboration originally lasted from 1999 to 2006 and resulted in two albums, featuring a vast cast of guest rappers, singers, comedians and DJs. They were also very, and I mean VERY, handsome.
Why an Electric Lady Land session? James Murphy writes: "there's a thing we do, or have done historically, where while on tour and in fine fettle as a unit, we go into a studio and just record ourselves live playing a bunch of the stuff we'd been playing on tour for a while, and maybe a cover song. it started with us playing radio sessions at various radio stations, and we often really liked these recordings, as they're quite different than the records, and then we wound up doing the london sessions in 2010, which we released as a record. so this is one of those.
we recorded this last year at electric lady studios in new york--the big room downstairs--and it was exciting, actually. it's a good sounding room with a lot of history. hell, lennon and bowie made "fame" there, which was the first 7" record i (james) bought back in something like 1976."
Ever wondered what this song would sound like on 1930's instrumentation? Well look no longer as Orkestra Obsolete made your dream come true in 2016: www.youtube.com
This song sampled Contains samples of 3 songs
Art of Noise's Close (To the Edit)
by Art of Noise (1984)
S.O.S. by The Breeders (1993) and
Ten City's Devotion (The Voice of Paradise Mix) (1989)
Sampled in The Prodigy's "Firestarter." Who knew? Not us until a few minutes ago.
Sampled in The Prodigy's "Firestarter." The video for this song is very, very cool and weird: www.youtube.com
Ten City (derived from intensity) was a Chicago, Illinois-based R&B and house-music act that enjoyed a number of club hits and Urban radio hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was one of the first exponents of deep house. This song was sampled by The Prodigy in "Firestarter."
Wesley Eisold says "I was in my head a little too much and not feeling productive and had a nice talk with Mark Lanegan about being too much in the head and it was inspiring enough to produce this song." The lesson? When feeling down, talk to Mark Lanegan, because, well, he's Mark Lanegan, brother.
They just announced a US tour with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. For more info, www.noelgallagher.com
This song features the amazing Juliana Hatfield on bass guitar, backup vocals.
Owen is going to Michael's studio today to interview him, and breakdown one of his songs for our new show Sound and Vision. You should checkout the KEXP.org archive to listen to the show.
"Golden Brown" was released as a 7" single in December 1981 in the United States and in January 1982 in the United Kingdom, on Liberty. It was the second single released from the band's sixth album La folie. It peaked at No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart, the band's highest ever placing in that chart. Singer Hugh Cornwell says 'Golden Brown' works on two levels. It's about heroin and also about a girl."
The packaging for the CD single follows a theme similar to the song: rat poison. The front cover features a box of said poison, the back shows a picture of a dead and decomposing rodent, and the CD itself has a rat superimposed onto it. The theme of rat poison ties into the music, as the official remix of the song is dubbed “Rat Poison”. "Poison" reached number-one in Finland and was a top five hit in Norway. The song also reached #24 in Sweden, and #23 in Switzerland. It did not chart in the U.S. because U.S. commercial blows.
Moby credited Experience with changing his perception about dance albums; previously he felt that "dance albums had always failed [...] because they didn't work over the full length of the record. Mostly they were singles collections which was exactly what I didn't want to do," and noted that Experience "impressed me because they'd managed to create a full listening experience which encompassed various styles. This was the kind of vision I had for my [unmade] debut album."
Of the forthcoming album James Kenneth Chapman, aka Maps says, “I wanted to push everything to the limit with this record and explore new territory for Maps,” he says in a statement. “The orchestral instrumentation and addition of other musicians and singers played a huge part in finding the purer and more human emotion I was searching for. I learnt the violin as I was growing up, so I’m glad it finally came in useful!”
See Prodigy two songs below. :) This song is based upon a traditional folk song called "Lord, I Want to Be a Christian" which was # 7 on KEXPs list of top songs in 1907.
Of this song, Star Slinger explains "This spoken word song condenses quotes from a very helpful book I read last year. I guess the book itself could be perceived as self-help nonsense on the surface but under the hood it is sage practical advise from a guy who had it all and lost it all...in any set of circumstances that you have options. The biggest option you have at any time is to Choose Yourself. Ie, to change your mindset from one where people & objects dictate your life (overly emotional) to one where you see things for what they are and you are in control (stoic mentality). You’re calling the shots because now you see things for what they are."
The band is breaking news on their site; their working on new stuff: "The joy we were getting out of playing the old songs seemed to naturally lead us onto working on new material, so we’re becoming immersed in that as we speak. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we have something new for you guys to hear.We’re also planning some shows for later this year and beyond. We’ll have news on that front over the coming months.
Can’t wait to see you all. We’ve missed you."
Here's a great performance of this amazing song on KEXP...which we are told is a jazz station out of Eugene, Oregon. www.youtube.com
RIP Keith Flint and thank you for such great art.