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Friday, Oct 19 2018, 6AM
Good morning and happy Friday. "If 'A Day in the Life' is about anything, it speaks to the way the daily unfolding of worldly events touches the private fragilities of ordinary people. It’s Ulysses in a pop song, the typical day made unforgettable." Read an Atlantic tribute to this masterpiece: www.theatlantic.com
"As the first song, 'Plainsong' began to play, we were overwhelmed by the strength of the music which poured from the speakers. We listened with rapt attention to the entire song, both of us enthralled by the sheer strength of it. When the song had ended, we realized that there had been lyrics but neither of us was able to recall what they had been about." A student writes about the experience of loving this song: www.jimandellen.org
Arcade Fire’s introduction to the world came by Funeral’s opening track and this first single, which featured a haunting, distant lead guitar, giving the track an ethereal, nostalgic quality that has defined the band's sound ever since. But according to Win Butler, the effect was an accident. During the recording, engineer Howard Bilerman forgot to turn the mic on during Butler's best take.
”He only had the vocal mic on and it was on the other side of the room, and accidentally no one turned it off,” Butler later recalled. “That’s the track that’s on the record. If you really listen to it, it sounds insane, it almost sounds like a broken record.”
In 2013, The National said in an interview, "Our songs are about death--but in really fun ways.":www.theguardian.com
"If someone talked to you..
The way you do to you...
I'd put their teeth through...
Love yourself..." Here are the lyrics to this song that encourages listeners to accept themselves: genius.com
Thanks, Justin, for the request. Watch Ben Harper perform this song live: www.youtube.com
Jeff Buckley was deeply in record company debt when he drowned in Memphis' Wolf River more than 20 years ago. Read this article about "the ethics of a posthumous career":www.theguardian.com
Jose Gonzalez will be at Seattle's Paramount Theatre next year --on Tuesday,
April 2nd, 2019.
Where did Snow Patrol go for seven years? Gary Lightbody battled depression and alcoholism as Snow Patrol wrote their seventh album, "Wildness," released in May of this year. www.bbc.com
Lost Under Heaven will be LIVE on KEXP on Wednesday, October 31st, 2018, at 9:30 AM. LOH will play The High Dive the previous evening, October 30th, 2018.
Simple MInds will be at the Moore Theatre on Sunday, October 28th, 2018. Here's an interview from three days ago with Jim Kerr on "what it takes to be a great live band":www.westword.com
This marvelous talent will "come back" to Seattle on Saturday, February 23rd, 2019, at The Neptune Theatre. Her album, "Remind Me Tomorrow," comes out in January.
The song was inspired in part by an old black and white movie which was sort of a cult classic in Kate's family titled "Night Of The Demon." The movie was about demons who hid waiting in trees - the song's opening line (in a male voice) "It's coming! It's in the trees!" is taken directly from the movie. Read "why I love 'Night of the Demon' (and see the demon's picture):www.bfi.org.uk
This is a terrific cover of the previous Kate Bush song. Watch The Futureheads perform it live: www.youtube.com
The official video was directed by David Mallet. It was filmed in Australia and features an Aboriginal couple who are struggling against Western cultural imperialism. The video was described by Bowie as a "very simple, very direct" statement against racism.: www.youtube.com
Oh, that's why this great song sounds so much like Prince: www.avclub.com Oh, and don't miss the video:www.youtube.com
A tween writes about this positive song: "This is one of the only songs I have heard that is true for almost everyone. Lauryn is singing about how you really can't change life. Life moves very slowly, so you have time to take it all in." www.npr.org
You can have this song for yourself as part of John's most recent Runner Powered Podcast: www.kexp.org
After 18 years, Spanish band Delorean are breaking up. Here's the translated text of their eloquent goodbye: pitchfork.com
Ahhh.....the Friday song. Join KEXP for Mastering the Hustle: Recording on Saturday, October 27th, 2018. Join us in the KEXP Gathering Space as we explore the ins and outs of recording, from working in a professional studio to taking a DIY approach at home.:www.kexp.org
Read a glowing review of "There's Nothing Wrong With Love": pitchfork.com
Watch a live performance by Built to Spill in the KEXP studio in 2015: www.youtube.com
Scottish band We Were Promised Jetpacks just played live at KEXP in early October. Watch for that performance to be posted soon on KEXP's Youtube channel.
Whale were a Swedish alternative rock group active from 1992 to 1999.The music video for "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe", directed by Mark Pellington, won the first MTV Europe Music Award for Best Video in 1994.:www.youtube.com
The human locomotive-themed video was shot by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry. He previously helmed the clips for the Chemical Brothers' "Star Guitar" and "Let Forever Be," and several videos for Bjork, including her debut, "Human Behaviour.": www.youtube.com
Learn more about Shadrach Kabango, the Kenyan-born, Canadian-based bilingual rapper known as Shad and then download this great song for yourself: blog.kexp.org
Neigh! "He was white as a sheet...
And he also made false teeth...": songmeanings.com
Giddy up! Speaking of horses, eyeballs in roses, Beck in black, and dancing children (among other things), peruse the video for "Wow": www.youtube.com
This song was recorded on an eight-track machine with the help of Beck's friend Tom Rothrock, who was starting a label called Bong Load. It was written and recorded in a space of six hours. Beck told Option the story of this song: "Tom had called up and said, 'Hey, I know this guy who does hip-hop beats and stuff. I said, 'Oh yeah, well sometimes I rap between songs and get people from the audience to do the beat-box thing into the mike.' So we went to this guy's house and I played him a few of my folk songs. He seemed pretty all-around unimpressed. Then I started playing this slide guitar part and he started taping it. He put a drum track to it and it was, you know, the 'Loser' riff. I started writing these lyrics to the verse part. When he played it back, I thought, 'Man, I'm the worst rapper in the world – I'm just a loser.' So I started singing, 'I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me.' I'm always kinda putting myself down like that."
Willie Nelson says,“The biggest gun we’ve got is the ballot box.”: www.rollingstone.com
Enjoy these pictures of A Tribe Called Quest (among others) from the new book "Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop.":www.thefader.com
"Gang Starr ended one of the greatest hot streaks in hip-hop with its masterpiece." Intrigued? Read more: www.avclub.com
Fatboy Slim released his second album, "You've Come A Long Way, Baby" on this date in 1998.The video was shot guerrilla-style – that is, on location without obtaining permission from the owners of the property – in front of puzzled onlookers outside a movie theatre in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. In the video, Spike Jonze and a dance group, acting as a flash mob, dance to "Praise You", much to the chagrin of a theatre employee who turns off their portable stereo.: www.youtube.com
There are some fine images of this Australian duo here.:www.gettyimages.com
Read director James Gunn's (Guardians of the Galaxy) love letter to The Replacements: www.pastemagazine.com
Local band Sloucher will be at Neumos next Thursday, October 25th, 2018.
Gird your loins! KEXP's International Clash Day is scheduled for Thursday, February 7th, 2019.
The voice that opens this song with the words, "Come on, let's rock and roll with the Ramones" is Sean Donahue, a disc jockey who worked at radio stations in San Francisco (KSAN) and San Jose (KOME, KSJP). The intro is meant to elicit the sound of a DJ enthusiastically talking up the song at a radio station.
Donahue (real name: Sean Coman) died in a car accident in 2000 at age 45.
Read a biography of this great English punk band and its lead singer, Poly Styrene: www.allmusic.com
From Cologne, Germany, earlier this year, here's L7 live:www.youtube.com
Here's the official website for Al Jourgensen, Ministry, and Surgical Meth Machine: ministryband.com
Watch IDLES performing "Colossus" live in London: www.youtube.com And wait for their powerful KEXP in--studio performance to go up on our Youtube channel.
Go hear KEXP favorites The Joy Formidable at Neumos on Sunday, October 28th, 2018.
There's lots of taxi riding in the video for "Show Me Mary": www.youtube.com
Watch Ride in a live KEXP in-studio performance from September, 2017:www.youtube.com
Here's an interesting biography of "Seattle's lost band":www.loudersound.com
This was Madness' debut album, released on this date in 1979. Happy birthday, "One Step Beyond."
Ska band The Specials performed this song live in Coventry in 1979:www.youtube.com
Go back, back, back to 2007 to catch The English Beat live on KEXP:blog.kexp.org
