Debut albums pulled from the KEXP Music Library
photo by Lisa Shimizu
If you are one of the Morning Faithful or just happened to tune in to the Morning Show with John Richards on either Wednesday or Thursday last week, you heard him play songs from one debut album after another, relying on you listeners to supply him with more unforgettable firsts. The response was some of the most intense he’s ever seen.
The show began on Wednesday like any other, with a mixture of newer and older songs, from R.E.M. and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin to Pela and Editors. Eventually, The Smiths came along. The Smiths, The Shins, Belle & Sebastian -- great songs coming from great first albums. That’s when John got the idea -- and soon came songs from Definitely Maybe, Leisure, The Stone Roses, Psychocandy, and Crocodiles.
Check out the setlists from Wednesday and Thursday. Once you’ve taken a gander, be sure to let us know what your favorite debuts are so John can spin them the next time the madness takes hold of him.
Here’s Wednesday’s setlist, starting at 7 am:
| Time | Artist | Song | Album | |
| 7:02 | DJ Shadow | Midnight In A Perfect World | Endtroducing..... | |
| 7:07 | Portishead | Sour Times | Dummy | |
| 7:11 | Tricky | Ponderosa | Maxinquaye | |
| 7:15 | Massive Attack | Unfinished Sympathy | Blue Lines | |
| 7:20 | Tribe Called Quest | Push It Along | People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm | |
| 7:28 | The Smiths | This Charming Man | The Smiths | |
| 7:31 | The Shins | Know Your Onion | Oh, Inverted World |
DJ comments on R.E.M.’s debut
| 7:33 | Belle & Sebastian | She’s Losing It | Tigermilk | |
| 7:37 | Oasis | Live Forever | Definitely Maybe | |
| 7:41 | Blur | She’s So High | Leisure | |
| 7:46 | The Stone Roses | I Wanna Be Adored | The Stone Roses | |
| 7:51 | The Jesus & Mary Chain | Just Like Honey | Psychocandy | |
| 7:53 | Echo & The Bunnymen | Rescue | Crocodiles | |
| 8:01 | Television | See No Evil | Marquee Moon[Bonus Tracks] | |
| 8:05 | Patti Smith | Gloria | Horses | |
| 8:10 | The Stooges | I Wanna Be Your Dog | The Stooges | |
| 8:14 | The Clash | White Riot | The Clash | |
| 8:18 | U2 | I Will Follow | Boy | |
| 8:21 | Pixies | Levitate Me | Come On Pilgrim | |
| 8:24 | Nirvana | Love Buzz | Bleach | |
| 8:28 | Pearl Jam | Alive | Ten | |
| 8:36 | Pavement | Summer Babe (Winter Version) | Slanted and Enchanted | |
| 8:39 | Liz Phair | Johnny Sunshine | Exile in Guyville | |
| 8:43 | PJ Harvey | Sheela Na Gig | Dry | |
| 8:46 | The Strokes | The Modern Age | Is This It? | |
| 8:52 | Public Enemy | Public Enemy No. 1 | Yo! Bum Rush the Show | |
| 8:56 | The Beastie Boys | Hold It Now, Hit It | Licensed To Ill | |
| 8:59 | Wu-Tang Clan | Shame On A Nuh | Enter The Wu-Tang | |
| 9:02 | Chemical Brothers | Chemical Brothers | Exit Planet Dust | |
| 9:08 | Nine Inch Nails | Head Like A Hole | Pretty Hate Machine | |
| 9:13 | Ministry | Effigy | With Sympathy | |
| 9:17 | The Cure | Grinding Halt | Three Imaginary Boys | |
| 9:19 | Depeche Mode | Just can’t Get Enough | Speak & Spell | |
| 9:27 | Weezer | The World Has Turned And Left Me Here | Weezer | |
| 9:31 | Violent Femmes | Blister In The Sun | Violent Femmes | |
| 9:33 | They Might Be Giants | Don’t Let’s Start | They Might Be Giants | |
| 9:36 | Dead Milkmen | Tiny Town | Big Lizard In My Back Yard | |
| 9:40 | Devo | (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction | Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! | |
| 9:42 | Sex Pistols | Holidays In The Sun | Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols | |
| 9:45 | X | Sex And Dying In High Society | Los Angeles | |
| 9:48 | Smashing Pumpkins | I Am One | Gish | |
| 9:52 | Spoon | Towner | Telephono | |
| 9:55 | Leonard Cohen | So Long Marianne | Songs of Leonard Cohen | |
| 9:59 | Björk | Human Behavior | Debut |
So today I’m here early digging around the MASSIVE KEXP library (which by the way, if you haven’t seen, you have to get a tour of the station and check it out) and I grabbed a bunch of debut releases and starting thinking about some of the great debuts through the years. Started the show with some music, some debuts and some not and then just went to town and went all debut all the time. So much so we ran out of time and decided that we’d continue tomorrow. We are already hard at work on some that we missed and some that we know you’ll love.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 (LISTEN TO THIS SHOW)
And here’s what ended up on Thursday’s playlist:
| Time | Artist | Song | Album | |
| 6:02 | Janes Addiction | I Would For You | Janes Addiction | |
| 6:06 | Jeff Buckley | Hallelujah | Grace | |
| 6:12 | Coldplay | Shiver | Parachutes | |
| 6:19 | Air | Sexy Boy | Moon Safari | |
| 6:24 | Jurassic 5 | Quality Control | Jurassic 5 | |
| 6:31 | Morphine | Good | Good | |
| 6:34 | Catherine Wheel | Black Metallic | Ferment | |
| 6:42 | Interpol | Untitled | Turn On The Bright Lights | |
| 6:46 | Yeah Yeah Yeahs | Rich | Fever To Tell | |
| 6:49 | Blondie | X Offender | Blondie | |
| 6:52 | Elvis Costello | Welcome to the Working Week | My Aim Is True | |
| 6:55 | Uncle Tupelo | Graveyard Shift | No Depression | |
| 7:01 | Johnny Cash | I Walk the Line | Johnny Cash With His Hot and Blue Guitar | |
| 7:02 | Ryan Adams | To Be Young | Heartbreaker | |
| 7:08 | Bob Dylan | In My Time of Dyin’ | Bob Dylan | |
| 7:11 | Nick Drake | River Man | Five Leaves Left | |
| 7:15 | Elliott Smith | Last Call | Roman Candle | |
| 7:20 | Modest Mouse | Dramamine | This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About | |
| 7:28 | De La Soul | The Magic Number | 3 Feet High and Rising | |
| 7:31 | Grand Master Flash | The Message | The Message | |
| 7:38 | Daft Punk | Da Funk | Homework | |
| 7:43 | LCD Soundsystem | Daft Punk Is Playing At My House | LCD Soundsystem[Disc 1] | |
| 7:48 | Gang Of Four | Damaged Goods | Entertainment! | |
| 7:54 | The Jam | In The City | In The City | |
| 7:56 | XTC | This is Pop? | White Music | |
| 7:59 | Joy Division | Disorder | Unknown Pleasures | |
| 8:02 | New Order | Dreams Never End | Movement | |
| 8:08 | Beck | Beercan | Mellow Gold | |
| 8:12 | Talking Heads | Psycho Killer | Talking Heads: 77 | |
| 8:16 | The English Beat | Mirror In The Bathroom | I Just Can’t Stop It | |
| 8:19 | The Specials | Concrete Jungle | Specials | |
| 8:24 | REM | Gardening at Night | Chronic Town | |
| 8:29 | B-52s | Rock Lobster | The B-52s | |
| 8:36 | Morrissey | Everyday Is Like Sunday | Viva Hate | |
| 8:39 | Camper Van Beethoven | Take the Skinheads Bowling | Telephone Free Landslide Victory | |
| 8:42 | Cracker | Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now) | Cracker | |
| 8:46 | Hoodoo Gurus | I Want You Back | Stoneage Romeos | |
| 8:49 | The La’s | I Can’t Sleep | The La’s | |
| 8:54 | Fugazi | Turnover | Repeater | |
| 8:58 | Led Zeppelin | Good Times Bad Times | Led Zeppelin I | |
| 9:00 | Eric B. & Rakim | Paid in Full | Paid in Full | |
| 9:06 | Sugar | Hoover Dam | Copper Blue | |
| 9:11 | Bauhaus | Terror Couple Kill Colonel | In the Flat Field | |
| 9:14 | Dead Kennedys | Holiday In Cambodia | Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables | |
| 9:20 | The Kinks | You Really Got Me | The Kinks | |
| 9:22 | The Sonics | The Witch | Here are the Sonics | |
| 9:25 | The Jimi Hendrix Experience | Fire | The Jimi Hendrix Experience | |
| 9:27 | Rage Against The Machine | Bombtrack | Rage Against The Machine | |
| 9:31 | The Arcade Fire | Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) | Funeral | |
| 9:38 | The Police | So Lonely | Outlandos d’Amour | |
| 9:42 | The Velvet Underground and Nico | I’m Waiting For the Man | The Velvet Underground and Nico | |
| 9:46 | The Beatles | Please Please Me | Please Please Me |
Day 2 of the Debut Album theme continued on Thursday and everyone just loved it. From the opening song of “I Would For You” from the Jane’s Addiction debut live vinyl release to The Kinks, Dylan, Johnny Cash, Tribe Called Quest to the ending with the Beatles’ first release, people were really into the show. I didn’t get to a few, including “Kill em All” from Metallica (which I planned on doing), the Pretenders, and a bunch of others, but it was enough quality to easily fill the 4 hour show. We’ll be getting back to the regular show now but continue to find new and interesting themes to spice up the show whenever we can.
Thursday, June 14, 2007 (LISTEN TO THIS SHOW)
So what did John miss? What would you have picked? What are your favorites? Post your comments here.
One Comment
Awesome idea, I’m sad I missed most of it. Hopefully you’ll revisit this theme at some point in the future. Just another reason to love KEXP.
Here a couple of my picks that I didn’t see on the playlist:
The Who - ‘The Kids are Alright’ from The Who Sings My Generation
Frank Zappa - ‘Hungry Freaks Daddy’ from Freak Out
Captain Beefheart - ‘Sure Nuff N Yes I Do’ from Safe as Milk
Nas - ‘The World is Yours’ (or any other song) from Illmatic
Nick Lowe - ‘I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass’ from Jesus of Cool