And welcome back to 35,000 Watts, the podcast. My name is Michael Millard. I’m here with Keith Porterfield and Scott Mobley, and we are three ex college radio DJs and executive staffers. We do this podcast because we love talking about college radio music, college radio stuff, and today is no exception. The subject today, however, is new.
We’re gonna talk about debut albums. So, college radio artists and some of the the best are our favorite debut albums as the subject. I’m gonna jump right into it with My Choice, which is actually an artist. I wouldn’t necessarily say I was, like, a huge fan of this person. I I love their music, but if if you ask me, you know, maybe my top favorite artist, I wouldn’t necessarily say Elvis Costello, who who is my choice for debut album.
But My Aim is True is the album that came out in 1977. And and, really, there were two reasons I chose this. One was that my my first choice was Devo’s debut album because I’m a huge Devo fan, and and I think they have an amazing debut album. But we actually just talked about Devo on the last episode talking about covers and their cover of I Can’t Get No Satisfaction. So I didn’t wanna talk about Devo twice in a row.
And Elvis Costello is was actually signed to the same record label that Devo was signed to in The UK. So Devo was on a on Warner Brothers in The United States, but their music was just was distributed in The UK by Stiff Records, who also worked with artists like Nick Lowe and the Damned and and several other college radio favorites. So that kinda led me to Elvis Costello. The other reason I chose this album is, to me, it’s one of those albums, one of those artists where he just comes out like fully formed. Like this, if you listen to this album, it’s not like I wouldn’t say it’s like a hint of what’s to come.
Like, you can get a really good idea of what Elvis Costello is all about. Like, it is a blueprint for a lot of what he’s gonna do in the future. Not that he didn’t, you know, grow and not that he didn’t end up doing a lot of of really wildly varied things, but I feel like, honestly with the song working, welcome to the working week, which is the lead off song on this album. I think within ten seconds, you’ve already got like a really solid idea of who he is, what he sounds like. And it’s all good as far as I’m concerned.
Like, I love it, but it really is just like immediately out of the box. It is unmistakably Elvis Costello. The entire album is that way. And so that to me, I think, makes a great debut album when the artist just comes out fully formed and and you know right away what they’re capable of. I chose this without I chose this and then did research.
And I guess now that I’ve looked into it and now that I’ve done the research, this is widely regarded as one of the greatest debut albums of all time in terms of rock and roll. So I wasn’t really going out on a limb by selecting this, but I honestly didn’t know that at the time when I made the selection of my head of like, okay. I think I wanna do Elvis Costello. To me, it was just, again, this idea that, you know, he’d been around for four or five years before this, just kinda doing live shows around The UK, and he had a kind of couple different names and he a couple different styles that he was playing with. But really, this was the first time, obviously, the first time that he was able to go into a studio and record and put all his thoughts and ideas into a form like this.
And it just, again, it feels fully formed. It feels like he knew exactly what he was, exactly what he wanted to do. And I would say he’s an artist that doesn’t really stray super far from from the format, you know, from a lot of his career. Again, there are, like, side projects that he’s done with other artists. I mean, he’s an actor.
He’s he you know, I don’t wanna pigeonhole him and say he’s like a one trick pony, but if you listen to Elvis Costello or most of his, I guess, best known work is is really under Elvis Costello and the attractions, which is the band that he brings on with the for his next album and will work with for the next decade or so, he’s, you know, he’s got a style. If you hear the a song by him, you’re gonna pretty much immediately identify it as an Elvis Costello song. And inside of that framework though, there’s just super catchy songs. There’s love songs. There’s rock that, you know, he’s been credited with being like a progenitor of punk, which is you know, it’s not as obvious as listening to, like, a band like the Sex Pistols or Wire in terms of, like, oh, yeah.
That’s punk. I think if you listen to Elvis Costello, you’re gonna hear and Scottie kinda mentioned this right before we started recording. You’re gonna hear a little country. You’re gonna hear a little rockabilly for sure. There’s there’s a lot going on inside of that framework.
But again, when you hear an Elvis Costello song, you definitely know right away. Okay. That’s Elvis Costello. Looking at this album, you know, more specifically. So it was critically acclaimed kind of right out of the box, but it didn’t necessarily do super well commercially, definitely like the single.
So there were three singles on this initially. One of which is Allison, which is one of the greatest, like one of the greatest songs ever recorded as far as I’m concerned. That song definitely is in, like, one of my top, top, top tier type songs. But also, Less Than Zero was actually the first single, then Allison, The Age is One of Where and I Won’t Shoot. Now watching the detectives is now on this album, but it actually wasn’t on the original release of the album.
That’s the only single that ended up making it onto the charts and kind of it it really is what started to bring him into the mainstream. It took a while for this album to to catch fire, and it was really his next album with the attractions that it had that has, like, Pump It Up and Radio Radio and all these kind of iconic, songs that you’ll remember, and that’s where I think he started probably getting more airplay, more notice. And in The USA in particular, I would say that’s probably when college radio really latched onto him and also started started playing a lot of that. But in retrospect, if you go back and listen to My Aim is True, man. Yeah.
Allison, the two songs I mentioned that were singles, The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes and Less Than Zero, great tracks. I love the opening. The opening one is one of those just like minute and a half bangers, great lyrics, just super catchy. Not really a bad song on on the album. You definitely hear on mystery dance, for example, you can kinda hear where he got his his Elvis moniker.
He went into recording this album not known as Elvis Costello. He’d used different names, and I think he was currently recording or currently playing around The UK, I should say, as DP Costello. And it was while recording this album that he got the name Elvis and ended up becoming Elvis Costello. I think if you listen to Mystery Dance, you’ll probably get a pretty good idea of why he got that that name. But, yeah, really solid.
Some the country rock kind of infused music, I think, comes from the fact that he recorded this with a backing band that was a country rock band from The United States. They weren’t actually credited on the album, oddly enough. The name of it is escaping me, Clover. So a lot of the the country rock kind of infused backing that you hear on the album is because he actually did, in fact, record this with a backing band that was suggested by Stiff Records, the label. The name of the band was Clover, and they were a country rock outfit from The US who happened to be recording in The UK at the same time.
And he got with them, worked out these arrangements in, like, a day or two, which is amazing. When you hear how good this album is and how tight the arrangements are, I’m sure it gets better, I think, when he works with the attractions, and I think they end up, you know, having a working relationship that that brings out more in the music. But the fact that he basically met these guys and and was able to knock this out, like, in a week essentially is kind of amazing. But it does give the the songs, I think, a different flavor than maybe it would have otherwise if he’d worked with a different backing band. So that I found kind of interesting that, you know, it came together that way.
And the addition of watching the detectives, which so that was recorded kind of just a few months after this album came out. It ended up being a hit. So then it it got added to The US release and now any subsequent releases. If you add that song in, then it really makes this, I think, even more impressive debut because that that song has I mean, it’s kinda reggae, obviously, but kinda ska in a way. And it adds kind of another flavor to the album and and it shows you even more of what he’s capable of and kind of the different things that he can do.
Again, inside of a framework that to me feels not limiting, but he it’s not like he’s just going out in all these different directions and trying all these things. He’s he’s got a vibe. He goes with it. And inside of that, he just knocks him out of the park. I mean, his albums are generally really consistent, you know, through through the eighties and into the nineties.
But to me, it’s impressive that a debut album is this consistent, this influential, and and just this listenable front to back. Curious. My impression is that you guys hadn’t really listened to this one front to back, so I’m curious to hear what you guys thought about it. Yeah. So I have a sort of an interesting relationship with Elvis Costello in that this era of his work, like, the the late seventies, early eighties is really when I should have fallen in love with this guy.
Like, it’s right up my alley, and I just never heard this stuff. And I was trying to think about why. And, I think I’d I think I’d know why. This era of British new wave, you know, there were three artists that popped in my mind originally. Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, Jackson, and Graham Parker were the three that that popped in my mind.
All three of those guys in the late seventies were recording music like this. And then in the early eighties, they kinda went I don’t know if it’s a different direction or the the singles they were picking or what. But the first thing I ever heard from Elvis Costello, this is the early days of MTV, was every day I write the book. And, like, for Joe Jackson, it was, you know, stepping out, whatever that song was. You know?
I thought that’s what these guys did, was these mellow, you know, sort of, almost lounge singer esque type songs, and they did for that era, but I had no idea what they were doing before that. And this this would have been something that I adored. You know? The the American version of this is you had, like, the New York scene, you had your punk bands. You had the Ramones and the Dead Boys and those bands.
But then you had this second tier that was doing sort of this new what they called new wave was basically like a lighter form of punk, and those are bands like Television and the b fifty twos and Blondie and stuff like that. You know? Even Devo kinda falls into that a little bit. And, you know, that stuff I adored. So I don’t know why the British version of it never got to me, but it didn’t.
So I really kind of grew up and and got well into adulthood just thinking Elvis Costello was this this pop singer that just really didn’t do much for me. And going back and listening to this, I had never heard this album, in its entirety. I’d heard the singles or at least I’d I know I had heard Welcome to the Workweek and Watching the Detectives and Allison. I I I knew those three songs when I turned it on, But I was blown away by how how great this album is in the sense that it’s so like you said, Michael, it’s it’s wildly diverse musically. You know, there’s a song like no dancing is obviously a doo wop song.
And then you have, you know, blame it on Kane, which is like a country slash r and b thing. There’s a song, in the second half of it called pay it back that sounds like it could easily be on Billy Joel’s Glass Houses, like, you know, which is three, four years after this, obviously. So maybe the influence goes the other way. But Elvis Costello has always been one of those artists that kinda wears his influences on his sleeve. You know?
He’s he’s never been quiet about the fact that he loves all this different kind of music. And, like, recently well, I say recently. It was probably twenty years ago now. He sort of had a little partnership with Burt Bacharach and and stuff like that. So he’s he’s always been very open about, like, all this musical influence that he has, and you hear just about every bit of it on this record.
But what I really like about it is even though it has all these different influences and stuff, like you said, it’s an Elvis Costello record. It sounds like him. And it has his sort of, which was typical of this time, that sort of, you know, snotty British, you know, working class dude sound. And it’s very signature, but yet it pulls from all this other stuff. I also love to be sort of raw quality of this.
You know? There is a band on it, but it doesn’t sound overproduced at all. It’s almost underproduced, but in a good way. It’s it’s very raw. It’s very it sounds very much like maybe these songs are recorded with the whole band playing at once in one take, you know, just kind of almost like a garage band sort of sound.
But I yeah. I was really blown away by this. I there wasn’t a song on it I didn’t like. I was sort of mad at myself for not finding it sooner, and I I I really got a kick out of this one. This is I understand why this is so, beloved in in the world of music and especially as debut albums go.
This is this is a a damn fine one. So, yeah, good good choice. This was an excellent album and a nice surprise for me. Yeah. I hadn’t heard this one either.
This was my first time with this, and I enjoyed it. I I thought it was good. Few episodes back, we were talking about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and I mentioned how I liked them as a singles band, but their albums are a little much. Unfortunately for me, Elvis Costello is kind of the same way. I like Elvis Costello.
I like his songs, but an entire album of Elvis Costello is a little much for me. This one, I didn’t really have that much problem with that. It’s it’s shorter. It’s only about thirty five minutes long, so it wasn’t, you know, didn’t stay around long enough to wear out its welcome or anything. And it’s got some great stuff on it.
I really like the one two punch to open the album of Welcome to the Working Week and Miracle Man. Those two back to back, I thought was a great album opening, combo. Allison, of course, is a great song. You mentioned the other ones, some of the other ones I liked as well. The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes and Less Than Zero.
I was also a really big fan of Waiting for the End of the World, which was the final song on the album until they attacked, watching the detectives on the end of it. That one I liked a whole lot as well. So a lot of good stuff on this. And then watching the detectives is probably my all time favorite Elvis Costello song, so there was a lot to like about this. And I and I did.
I I enjoyed this album quite a bit. I still it it didn’t make me a bigger Elvis Costello fan than I was before going in. He’s just one of those guys that I think is is great for a song or two, but listening to a a lot of Elvis Costello is is just not really up my alley. But I did I did enjoy it. I really did.
And it’s funny. You several years back, I was, on the iTunes music store just cherry picking some Elvis Costello songs. And I was, you know, multiple choices going through there. And I I kept thinking, man, he’s got that one killer song with a, girl that’s a girl’s name. What what is that?
What is oh, and I saw Allison. Oh, there it is. It’s Allison. So I bought Allison. I bought you know, downloaded it.
Later on, I’m listening, to all my Elvis Costello songs that I just purchased, and Allison comes on, and I realized that the song I was thinking about was Veronica, not Allison. So, but Allison was still a great song, and I’m glad I got it. I did later go back and get Veronica because that was well, and I really wanted. So I ended up with Alex in my collection by accident. But, man, it was a happy accident.
It’s a good one. So, yeah. Yeah. I liked this. I liked pretty much all the songs on it.
There wasn’t really anything bad on it. Like I said, it didn’t really make me a bolder Elvis Costello fan than I was before, but it’s a good album and a solid, totally solid debut album, you know, to come onto the scene, like you said before, this fully formed, and with this many good songs ready to go, quite the accomplishment and, you know, shows through the career that he had moving forward. But, yeah, I enjoyed it too. I thought this was a really good one. I too love Veronica.
That was actually that was, I think, probably my introduction to Elvis Costello except for songs that maybe I had heard in passing or, like, in a movie or something. So I I probably knew who Elvis Costello was before their Veronica came out, which I think was 1990 on spike, but that was one that it actually got some airplay on MTV. And, you know, that I would have been in high school at that time. So that was kind of the first time I really knew who Elvis Costello was. And I really liked that song, but it wasn’t until I worked at KZ XT that I started, you know, learning a little bit more of the back catalog.
And and really, it was relatively recently that I would say that I kind of became a fan and started digging even deeper into the catalog. And I and I will say that I I do think the next couple albums from him are are are even better. The next one is is this called this year’s model, and it’s his first with the attractions. And, again, they’ll go on to to work together for most of the eighties. And I think I think he benefits from from having, like, a set backing band who are more involved in the entire process.
You know, like I said, with this album that we’re talking about, my Aim is True, he, you know, had the songs. They were already written. He knew exactly what he wanted to do, and he and he he really truly just had this kind of band come in. And and in just a few days, learn the parts, figure it out, and and help him record the album. So I I do think that a deeper relationship with his band helped to bring out even more in his music, and so you will find that in the next couple albums.
But that doesn’t in any way, in my opinion, diminish this one. You know? It it shows that he was capable of the songwriting and the diversity, and he knew exactly who he was and what he wanted to do right out of the box. And I I think he just continues to improve on that. And his collaborations with the attractions and and different producers helps that.
But but, yeah, if you haven’t heard it, if if you’re not an Elvis Costello fan, give this one, and I would say go ahead and give this year’s model, the next album, a a listen. This year’s model has Pump It Up and Radio Radio, which are just absolutely two fantastic unbelievably great college radio iconic type songs and just rockers. Both of them are just like flat out rockers. So listen to them both. But but, yeah, in terms of debut albums, this my aim is true.
Definitely. I think one of the top ones. Alright. That’s mine. And we’ve got we’re gonna jump ahead to the nineties now, I think, for, Keith’s choice.
Yeah. Mine for this, I, chose the first Foo Fighters album. Great one. One of my favorites from that era. You know, it’s easy nowadays, you know, to kinda see Dave Grohl as kind of a an elder statesman of rock.
I mean, you know, he’s been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, done things recorded songs with Paul McCartney. I mean, you know, he is kind of that guy now. He’s kind of the old, you know, like I said, elder statesman of rock, the, that other, you know, younger artists wanna work with and look up to and that kind of thing. But back, you know, at this point, you know, he was chiefly known at this point still as the drummer for Nirvana. This album came out in 1995, and I remember at the time, you know, that that we got it at the radio station.
I was still there. It was during my time as station manager, like, getting this album and and kinda thinking, you know, oh, well, you know, that’s cute. The drummer from Nirvana wants to be the front man of his own band, and so, you know, that’s, we’ll see see how he does. And and sure enough, what a great album, you know, it was really incredible. But a little backstory on this one, you know, after, Kurt Cobain had killed himself and Nirvana dissolved and all that, apparently, Dave Grohl got really depressed over the whole thing, which is understandable.
You know? You lose not only a bandmate, but also a friend. But it was kinda questioning whether or not he wanted to continue on with having a music career, you know. And he first got back into into playing, doing some work with Mike Watt. At one point, he ends up playing drums with Tom Petty for a little bit.
Actually, got offered the job of being Tom Petty’s drummer. And then, you know, Tom Petty, found out you know, offered him the job, but then found out that he was at that time also still working on some solo stuff too. And, actually, you know, I don’t know that he rescinded the invitation, but encouraged him rather than taking the job to go ahead and work on his own stuff. So, you know, if Tom Petty had been a little bit more of a, selfish guy and he said, well, no. No.
No. No. Just I want you to be my drummer. You know, we might not ever have gotten the Foo Fighters, but he actually, pushed, Dave Grohl to continue working on his own stuff. So, you know, that’s the sessions that ended up becoming this album.
This was album was done within the course of one week. He’d and Dave Grohl plays every instrument on it. He did the entire thing himself, wrote all the songs, recorded it all. He had a engineer named Barrett Jones that helped him out, but there’s only one, song on this album that’s got another player. Everything else on it is actually played by Dave Grohl, and we’ll we’ll get to that one here in just a second.
So, you know, this album, you know, it comes out, and the first song on it is is called This Is A Call. There’s no better way to start this album or even this career than with this song. Like, this is the announcement that Dave Grohl has started a new band, and it actually really rocks, and it’s, you know, be it’s gonna be good. You know, this is something that you can get behind. This is one of my favorite Foo Fighters songs.
I I still to this day, I love this song. I think it’s a great album opener. Yeah. Just a just a perfect, opener to the album. Great song.
And like I said, kind of the the clarion call, you know, sound the trumpet. We’re here. We’re coming. This is what we’re gonna do. You know?
But after that, the next song on there is I’ll Stick Around. And And as you guys know, I’m a fan of kind of the eighties style new wave, like, melodic bass parts. And this song has got a really great bass part to it, that in the in the verse that I really, really like. And it actually kinda brings me to my one of my two complaints about this album, which are are minor. The the recording level on this album, the recording is is not great.
It doesn’t have a whole lot of low end to it. It’s a little bit of a thin sounding record. I know it got reissued in 02/2003, but I don’t think it’s ever been remastered. And I know the version of it I have has not been remastered. To me, this is an album that could seriously stand going in and getting remastered and having the the low end brought out a little bit.
I would love to hear the the groovy bass part in This Is a Call, or excuse me, in I’ll Stick Around, done, you know, just a little bit, a little more forward in the mix and a little louder and all that, and I think that that kinda, is a problem with this entire album, is that it’s it’s just got a little bit of a thin sound to it, because of the production. But that really doesn’t take away from it. The songs are still great. After Oste Grand Concave So Guilting Thrill, right off the bat, you’ve got three of their best singles right there. I mean, kind of, you know, the the rock drops away a little bit.
It’s more kind of a jingle pop song, but it’s a great, great song, great lyric. He wrote it as a love song for his wife at the time. And this one was also chiefly known, or, you know, one of the reasons it’s well known is because of the video for it. And if you guys remember the video, this is the one where it’s, a spoof on the old Muntos commercials. And so they’ve got the role of Nootz that they, you know, they keep popping and then getting into funny situations with, and the the rapper on it says Foothos.
So it’s been a bunch of takeoff on the Nootos commercials, and it was a big video. It got a lot of play on on MTV, and probably, you know, to my mind, I think probably helped their career, you know, because this was a a pretty big album. It was pretty big on on college radio for sure. And it was a pretty big album in general. It got to number 23 on the Billboard two hundred.
But I really think that this album or this song and the video for it being in heavy rotation because you once you’ve seen this video, you know, it’s it’s funny. The facial expressions, you know, when they pop the moons and they look at the camera are great. Pat Smurrer, in particular, has a couple of really great, moments, facial expressions in there that are just hilarious. So if you haven’t seen this video, check it out because it’s it’s funny in its own right, and also the song is just great. But all kinds of good songs on this one aside from those three that opened it up.
Floaty, is on here, and that’s one of my favorites of all time by the Foo Fighters. Probably my favorite song on this album and one that I think makes really good use of the quiet loud dynamic. As you guys know by now, I’m a big fan of that. But, yeah, there’s, it was the kind of the more quiet acoustic strummed verse part, and there’s a little guitar, kind of bridged before it gets into the really rocking chorus that just absolutely works for me. So that’s a good one.
And that does kinda actually bring to my second complaint about this album, which, again, is a minor one. This album is kinda front loaded for me. Like, five of the six best songs on this album, in my opinion, are on the first half of this album. The back half of it is good. It’s got good stuff on it.
Oh, George is a good song. For all the cows is a pretty good song. Exhausted is a good song. But really, the only standout track on the back end of this album for me is called ecstatic. And it’s also the one that has different the one song that’s got someone who’s not, Dave Grohl playing on it.
Greg Dooley of the Afghan Wigs actually plays the guitar part on this song. And, apparently, he was just in the studio and watching Dave Grohl run back and forth, you know, play drums and then run-in to play a guitar part and then run play the bass part. And finally, at a certain point, Dave Grohl just hands him the guitar and basically says make yourself useful. And so, we get Greg Dooley playing a guitar on this one song. But, yeah, that to me, Ecstatic is really the only kind of, you know, really standout track on the on the backside of this album, you know, so it is pretty heavily front loaded, but but that’s gonna be my plate.
Even, you know, the the backside of it, it still has some really good stuff on it. And the last track, which I mentioned before is called Exhausted, I think is a really good one. It’s a just kind of a nice slower guitar drummer that, that just works really well. So, yeah, a really, really good album that launched their career. And, of course, like I said, you know, Big Roll then ends up, becoming the the master of the Foo Fighters and the guy that’s in the rock and roll hall of fame and all, you know, his career being what it was.
But, but it had to start somewhere, and that was this album. And I think it’s a a really excellent debut album. Couple of other things I did wanna mention about it that I thought were kinda interesting. It got nominated for best alternative music album at the Grammys the next year in 1996. It did not win.
The album that beat it for best alternative music album that year was the Unplugged album by Nirvana. So the last bit of Nirvana, the girl’s swan song with Nirvana actually beats out his, his first album with his new band to become, you know, or to get the the Grammy award that year. But this album also got a lot of, clean outside of that. It was second on the Rolling Stone list of best albums of ’95 and appeared in a lot of top 10 less this year that year. So a gold album, and like I said, launched a career that would end up making Dave Grohl kind of one of the the big names in rock and roll, moving forward.
And, yeah, I you know, I don’t have a whole lot else to say about it other than this has always been my favorite Foo Fighters album. Still is to this day. And if somehow you’ve never heard it, run out right now and listen to it. It’s one of the best rock and roll albums from the nineties that you’re ever gonna hear. Great one.
Yeah. I was, skeptical when this album came out because I was I was also not I guess I I was either still at KTXC or I just left, but I certainly was, you know, really tuned into music at the time and and knew obviously the story of of everything that was going on. And and I guess if you’ve listened to this podcast, you kind of maybe have gotten the impression that I wasn’t a huge Nirvana fan. It’s not that I didn’t like them, but I wasn’t as Nirvana fan. It’s not that I didn’t like them, but I wasn’t as big a fan of them as a lot of people were.
So I had that moment, like you said, of, like, oh, that’s that’s cute. The the drummer is gonna do this because, I mean, so hard to go back in time and and remember that, Dave Grohl was not Dave Grohl, capital d, capital g. Like, he was not the man he is now. Like, he was kinda well known. He was obviously in, you know, this this huge band, but Kurt Cobain was was the not just the face of the band, but, I mean, he essentially was Nirvana.
It was it was very much his band. And so I while you may have known the name Dave Grohl or kinda known who he was, I don’t think anybody suspected that he could write a song, that he could play guitar, that he could record an entire album by himself. I’m sure they didn’t you know, that was all very much kinda a curve ball. It’s fantastic. Like, it’s a really, really good album.
I think you hit on the same complaints that I think I have about it, which is, a, the production quality is not great. It is incredibly thin, I think is a good way. Like, you put it exactly right. It’s it’s thin. It doesn’t have just the full sound of a well produced album.
And I think maybe his confidence in his vocals wasn’t quite there yet, so he tends to bury his voice a little bit in the mix more than than you would want and certainly more than in future Foo Fighters albums, which have fantastic production. And he’s very upfront with the vocal performances. And he’s he’s a great singer and especially when he’s, like, really, really powering into a song and and, like, getting the grit and grind of his voice into it. Like, monkey wrench comes to mind where he’s just I would love to hear a song like I’ll stick around or rerecord it or remastered at least. You know, I I’m sure there are live versions of of it that you can listen to where you get some of that.
But I would love to hear, like, a studio version now with with his confidence and and his ability with his voice to do what he does because it’s not quite there yet on this album. And the other complaint, I think, is also correct. I, my note was that, yeah, he did a really good job of sequencing the album because he chose almost exactly the order that I would put these songs in one through 12 or one through yeah. One through 12. It’s it’s almost sequenced in the order that I like the song.
So I think he was aware that it is front loaded and that he had five or six really, really good songs and then five or six pretty good songs. No terrible songs on this album, which is always, I think, impressive with any album, but especially a debut album where there’s not, like, a lot of filler. I wouldn’t say I’m crazy about a couple of the ones in the back end, but not anything that just falls on its face. Like, this is a call. I’ll stick around.
Big me, alone and easy target. And then I would say floaty. I’m not as quite as big a fan of good grief. So five out of the first six, I think, are as good as anything that was coming out in 1995 that stand up against any of the other grunge albums or alternative albums that were coming out around that time, except in production quality. Again, I will give it that asterisk because I it is it’s just unfortunate that it’s not a little better because I think it does lose just because, you know, listening to some of their next few albums, you know how good that band can sound fleshed out.
Now, again, he played all the instruments, but, I mean, knowing kind of what his arrangements are like and knowing what his songwriting is, you do feel like he could go back and and make this a fuller sounding album, and it would be even better. But that aside, very impressive debut album. And I think given the situation he was in, it was almost like he was in a no win situation put it putting this album out, and he just won people over by it being great. That helps. You know, it’s a good album, and so he didn’t have that criticism to have to deal with.
He’s a very personable, very likable guy, and I think that starts to come out as he, you know, starts to promote this album. And then you hit on this too. The big me video, I think, did if you weren’t already on board with Foo Fighters, and he certainly, I think, picked up a bigger audience with big me, but also just being super likable to to win people over to just, you know, you wanted to root for this guy. I think, if you didn’t already, that that video helped kinda solidify that in your head of, like, yeah. These guys, you know, they’re he’s ready to move on.
He’s and now you’ve seen, like, he’s found this new band and now they’re gonna go forward and do great things and and that’s exactly what they do. So, yeah, a a great choice for a a good debut album and a a really interesting story, you know, behind it. He’s not this artist that’s coming out of nowhere. He’s an artist that’s dealing with, like, a huge, huge loss in his life and in his career. And he ends up creating this album and and launches possibly an even bigger career, with Foo Fighters.
So, yeah, what a cool story and and a great album. You know, as much as I love being, confrontational, I’m gonna continue this group hug here because I kinda I kinda agree with you guys, and you and you both made a lot of the points and things I wanted to make. But the the thing with this was, you know, when it came out and and like you said, we we know now what we know about Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters and all that stuff. But when this came out, you know, anytime something like this happens where a band, an iconic band like Nirvana, you know, falls apart, And one of their members says, okay. Well, here’s my new band.
There’s a ton of scrutiny on that. This this album had to be great. There was no other option than for it to be great, and thank god it is. But I think what people don’t remember, and I I think you mentioned this, Michael, is that this lovey, upbeat, fun rock star, Dave Grohl, that we have now, we did not have him when this album came out. He was the drummer for Nirvana.
He was the guy in the back whose hair was flying around and sticks flying everywhere and, you know, making lots of noise with that band. He was not this guy. So we didn’t know that when we turned this album on that that’s what we were getting, you know, and you really do hear it in in here, you know, now retrospect being what it is, you can hear that he is announcing, you know, like you said, with this is the call. And and this whole album really, he’s announcing, okay. This is what I’m gonna do now.
It’s not that. It’s not Nirvana. It’s me, and I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna do my own thing. And he does it very well. He kicks the door open.
And this band has, you know, become as iconic as Nirvana, I think, or, you know, at least, you know, in the same ballpark because of him, because of his personality and his his rock star tendencies or whatever. I you know, I mentioned this on the we were talking about the Chili Peppers before. I saw them on this tour opening for the red hot chili peppers, and they blew the chili peppers off the stage, which I’m sure a lot of people disagree with that. I don’t think that’s very hard to do. It was there was just this moment where the the person I was with and and and I both went like, wow.
This guy is a rock star. Like, this is we did not know this was out there. We did not know that was him. And, you know, he he owned that arena with you know, at the time, I think was one single was out, you know, and he was obviously who he was, but we we didn’t know that he was gonna be that guy. And it was just I was just so blown away by them and how much different they were from Nirvana, but how great they were on their own and and doing their own thing.
So, yeah, I, and again, agree that the album is not very well produced. It kind of has that tinny that that this was relatively common in this time. You know, this sort of not a lot of low end, too much high end. It was pretty common in the rock music in the early nineties. I’m not sure why.
But, yeah, this needs to be remastered. And then the other thing I’ll agree with is that I, of the songs that weren’t big singles on this, I would go with floaty as as the one that really caught my ears. So, yeah, I’m kind of in agreement with you guys on everything. But, yeah, if you if you haven’t heard this album in its entirety, I would recommend it. It’s it’s not terribly long.
It’s a ton of fun, and it’s if you like the songs you know, if you like the the, you know, the three big singles or or, you know, maybe four, there’s something else on here for you too. There’s these are all pretty good songs. Although, I will agree with maybe the diminishing returns. It is a little front loaded, but but, there’s nothing bad on the second half of this album. It just doesn’t quite hold up to the first three or four songs.
But, yeah, this is a good choice. This is, an album that was a pleasant surprise when it came out. And now that we know what the Foo Fighters would go on to do and and how big they would become, it’s it’s kind of an interesting, peek into that that window. Michael, you mentioned the, vocals on this being a little further down in the mix, and you you were right. He actually, at the time, was pretty, you know, not unsure of himself about his singing.
And so a lot of the vocals were multitracked to try to make them sound a little thicker, and there were some effects put on there, especially floaty. You can hear the effects on it a little bit. Just try to enhance his vocals on that. But not only was he not overly confident about his vocals, he wasn’t overly confident about the entire project. I mean, there were only a handful of copies, pressed originally, and then it it kinda got on the radar of some record executives, and that’s when, you know, they got he got his his big contract, with Capitol Records, and then ended up, you know, getting the album really, you know, produced and released widely.
But, yeah, for for such a great album and for a guy that would end up becoming a kind of a, you know, a big deal in in rock and roll, yeah. At first, he was pretty unsure of himself. Unsure of not only his quality of singing, but the what he had put together and and needed a little validation at first, you know, before he actually became Dave Grohl, rock and roll star. You know? Which is it’s so hard to believe in retrospect because, I mean, he is almost like the iconic rock star.
He is the rock star. Bodies. Yeah. You know? In an era where rock and roll is is dying and dying fast, he is the rock star we have right now.
He is it. Yeah. Exactly. And he does it well. And he he seems, by all accounts, to be a a reasonably nice guy as well.
So I think that’s a big part of the Foo Fighters appeal is they seem like a group of guys you could go have a beer with, you know, and they’re they’d be totally laid back and cool, whatever. I always thought that was part of their charm was that and in contrast to Nirvana who were sort of known as being the angry young man and whatever, you know, and and a little more confrontational. The Foo Fighters just have this, hey, man. Come on. Check out this music we’re making.
You know, that that kind of vibe that I think has really carried their career. But they still rock really, really hard. Yeah. And they’re also Yeah. PS, a great rock and roll band.
But, you know, I think their personality has a lot to do with their popularity smarter man, I’d have done this in chronological order, but I’m not. So we’re gonna jump back to the eighties with Scott’s pick. Okay. So I am I am doing for my debut album, the lion and the cobra by Sinead O’Connor. So I am sure there are some people out there that probably heard me just say that and went, wait.
That’s not a college radio artist. That’s not an alternative artist. But I assure you that she was when especially when this album came out and well into her second album, maybe even beyond that according to what Keith told me earlier. Sinead O’Connor, whatever you think about her or her personality or her politics or whatever you think about her. She certainly had a persona outside of the music that I think maybe rubbed some people the wrong way.
I don’t think there is any denying that this woman had what might be the most incredible voice that ever stepped in front of a microphone. This album highlights that better than anything else she ever did. So back up a little bit. She is, you know, I obviously from Ireland. She had some mild success before this.
You know, she was in some bands and kind of, you know, working with some other people. And, apparently, everywhere she went, every band she worked for, people were like, what can we do with this voice? Like, this woman has an incredible voice. We just don’t know what to do with it. So she was in a band here, a band there, whatever.
So she gets her first little brush with fame. I wanna say it’s ’85 is she gets hired to cowrite and perform a song with the edge from you two. The song is called Heroin. It was from a movie called Captive, which I assume is a very UK movie because I’ve never heard of it or seen it or anything like that. I have heard the song, although I didn’t know until just recently that it was the first thing she ever recorded professionally.
I heard it much later, like, on a greatest hits album or something, and it’s a fantastic song. But, anyway, on the strength of that song being a mild hit, she records the lion and the cobra, which she wrote, almost every song on, at least cowrote most of them. She plays a lot of the instruments on it, what there are of instruments, and and I’ll sort of get to that. This album is just a announcement to the world that this is a voice to be reckoned with. This is something that you are you are going to be emotionally moved by this whether you want to be or not.
She is powerful and emotional, and it’s all done with her singing voice. The music on this album is almost not there. It’s it’s so minimal, and there are there’s exceptions to that, obviously. But the songs that I truly love on this album are the ones where it’s really just focused on her singing, and the music becomes sort of secondary. So the album comes out in 1987.
The first single they choose to release off of this album is Troy. Now I’m gonna say that Troy is my favorite song on this album. It is also my favorite Sinead O’Connor song. Every time I’ve heard someone say, oh, Sinead O’Connor, I mean, yeah, you know, nothing compares to you. I I it’s okay.
Whatever. I play them that song to show them what she is capable of. All of that said, I would never have chosen that to release as a single off this album. It is long. It is extremely minimal.
It takes a long time to get where it’s going. It starts with almost forty five seconds of silence. Like, it’s just like this one lone string playing, and she’s singing or singing quietly over it. It’s just not a radio song or a single song. So, of course, it gets no traction.
It it doesn’t go anywhere. The second single is Mandinka, which probably should have been the first single. Single. And although it’s not my favorite song on this album, it’s a much more accessible song. It’s got a it’s got a beat and a band on it, and it’s funky and catchy.
And and it does, at least, you know, in parts of it sort of highlight her voice. So you sort of get a feel of what she can do vocally. And then and that song gets a little traction, not a whole lot. Then I want your hands on me is released as a single one. That’s the one that finally gets some traction.
It’s a hit in The US. It’s a big hit in The UK. It’s rereleased version with, MC Lyte rapping on it, which is actually a pretty good a pretty good remix of it. So I just think, you know, this album, if you’re one of those people that that says, you know, Sinead O’Connor, maybe not for me. I I I didn’t really love the the big singles off the album after this.
And just to throw it out there, the album that follows this is I do not want what I haven’t got. It’s a 7,000,000 selling monster of an album. Nothing compares to you is probably one of the biggest singles of this era. And I love that album, and it’s great. But if you think that that’s what she did or anything after that, especially when she goes really mellow, I would encourage you to go back and listen to this album because I really think this is as close to a pure look at what she is capable of that we we ever got.
And over the years, she got a little more polished, a little more produced, starts to tone down some of the the rage and anger in her voice, And it’s still a beautiful voice, and there’s still beautiful songs out there. And then and there’s nothing wrong with what she did after this. But this is what I love about her. The things she does on this album, I just think are unbelievable. And I I’ve heard this album a million times.
It gets to me every time. And I also think that the reason this is an important album is the nineties, shortly after this, we saw a big wave of, for lack of a better term, the the angry female singer, your PJ Harvies, your Tory Amuses, your, you know, the sort of, you know, women doing this type of music. I don’t think any of them ever did it as good as this album. And for that reason, I never really loved that music that much because I it never got to this. And so I really think that if she had perpetuated this, if she had kept doing this type of music, I think she would have had a more enduring career than she did.
I think the decision to sort of tone it back is what got her lost in a sea of those sounds. And she kind of became one of those singers rather than the unique and and, I believe, iconic singer that she was. So I know you guys weren’t that familiar with this score yet. I’m really curious to hear what you thought of it. It.
So that’s my pick for, debut album. That’s The Lion and the Cobra by Sinead O’Connor. I have a lot of feelings. I have a lot of feelings about this album. I’ll try to to distill them down.
My first note, which you already started hitting on is, if you like Tory Amos, PJ Harvey, I have Bjork I told Bjork. Casey Bonham, if you still wanna start digging. And any let’s just say if you went to a Lilith fair, let’s just say that. You need to go back and listen to this album because this is the queen of all of that. Like, this trumps all of that.
And if those women didn’t get their inspiration from this album, they got it from someone else who did, I think. Like, I I don’t know exactly the timelines of all those people’s careers. There’s a little overlap there. But if if those women weren’t paying their respects to this album and Sinead O’Connor, they should have been because I I do think this is probably the best of that that genre, which doesn’t exactly have a name and and angry women probably isn’t a good one to give to it. No.
It’s not. I just I That’s kind of the vibe. Figure out what to call it. Yeah. I mean, that’s it she is angry and she is a woman and that vibe, it does run through a lot of Tori Amos’ music and a lot of PJ Harvey.
Like, that is a vibe. I don’t know if it has a better name than that. The one song I was familiar with was Mandinka. I think it’s probably one of my least favorite songs on the album, but I can see why they did it as a single. I was a % shocked by I want your hands on me.
I wasn’t familiar with that song and did not expect it’s a it’s a very sexy, like, song, like, for lack of a better word. It’s it’s just that’s just it is. It’s it’s a very sexy song. Amazing. Overall, the the crisis that this this album put me in or the thoughts that were going through my head after I listened to it were I was thinking about a painting by Gustav Klimt, and it’s called The Kiss.
And I for reasons that I won’t go into it here, I had an opportunity to stare at that album, that that painting or a poster of that painting a lot at a at a certain point in my life. And it’s really well done, and I can appreciate the artistry of it. I I can even appreciate the beauty of it, and I can, a % see why people love that painting, but I don’t particularly like that painting. I don’t particularly want that poster in my room. So I was going through this process of of really spending, like, an inordinate amount of time, like, thinking through, can you appreciate something and even think it’s beautiful without liking it as such?
And and what do those words even mean? You know what I mean? Like, because I I don’t know that I’m gonna listen to this album a lot, and I don’t know any more than I listen to Tori Amos or PJ Harvey or any of those other artists that we mentioned. If you ask me if I liked the album, it’s it’s like yes and no. You know what I mean?
Like, it’s beautiful. Her voice is amazing. The songwriting is light years beyond, you know, a lot of what was especially in 1987. I mean, come on. Like, how many albums like this were coming out in 1987?
Lyrically, on point in in a variety of ways, if if the song what is it? Drink before the war isn’t as relevant today as it was in ’87. I don’t know what is. And like I said, the I want your hands on me is is sexy and fun in in a way. And, like, there’s there’s a lot going on on this album that’s that I appreciate, and and find quite beautiful at times.
And and, man, there is no denying her voice. But, again, do I do I love it? Do I wanna listen to it over and over again? I I can’t say that I do, and I I I was really struggling to kinda put my finger on why that is and and what that is the same way that I would struggle to explain why I think the kiss is a beautiful painting, and and I appreciate the artistry of it. But I, again, I I really don’t want that poster hanging in my room.
So that’s where I’m at with this album. It’s I appreciate the artistry of it. I think it’s beautiful, but I I don’t want it hanging in my room, and and that’s kinda where I landed. That’s really interesting. Yeah.
Just a really interesting take on this album. I had never heard it either. I had heard Mandinka, and Mandinka is a killer song. I don’t know how you guys are not are not reading this one as one of the highest ones on the album because this is easily my favorite song on this album. But I liked it.
I liked everything else on it. I liked Jackie a lot. I liked just like you said it would be a lot. I liked, I Wanna Be I Want Your Hands On Me a lot. Just, Call Me Joe is a great song.
Yeah. Lots of lots of great songs on this album. It was not exactly what I was expecting. You know, I I thought, you know, having heard only Mandinka, I thought I might be getting nine or 10 Mandinkas, and it it’s not really that. Although there, you know, is some other upbeat stuff on there.
But yeah. Yeah. And and, you know, I’m actually kinda in the same boat. I did enjoy this album. I thought it was really good.
Am I gonna run out and buy it and put it into heavy rotation? No. I’m not. It’s just not the kind of thing I listen to on a regular basis, but I did really enjoy it. And, you know, we talked a little bit about her voice and, you know, kinda where her career went in the choices she made with the kind of music she made after that.
And and I agree that, you know, had she continued to kinda make music like this, I mean, there’s there’s an alternate universe out there where Chanel O’Connor is considered one of the greatest female vocalist in rock history. I guarantee it, you know. Maybe not in exactly the same way as, say, like Stevie Nicks or or Nancy Wilson, but definitely kind of like in a Janis Joplin way where she her the uniqueness of her voice, and the way it works with what she does, vaults her, you know, into kind of the upper, pantheon of of all time female rock vocalists. That world exists out there somewhere. It was not our world, unfortunately.
And and, you know, why her creating exactly the way it did and why she kinda changed her her style and went more mellow, you know, I don’t know and and maybe we’ll never know. But like I said, I I think there was a career choice in there somewhere out there that that goes another way, and she becomes one that we’re talking about as one of the all time great female rock vocalists for sure. But, yeah, this is a good album. I would highly recommend checking it out, you know, even if it ends up being something like it was for me or it’s not something I wanna listen to a lot, I’m glad I did listen to it, and it was not something that I was really expecting, you know, to what I got when I did listen to it, and I think it’s good. It’s really good.
Great choice for this. I will say that I I I don’t think I I wanna say anything bad about Mandinka. I wasn’t trying to say anything bad about it. Sorry. It’s a jam.
And and it’s a and and and then on this album, particularly, it’s a necessary jam. If if this was if this was nine, ten songs that all sounded like Jackie or Troy, it it would get old, I think. It needs to have the it needs to have Mandinka and I Want Your Hands on Me, and it needs to have those songs that kinda kick it back up a notch, whatever. As far as, you know, her voice becoming this iconic thing, and I agree with you that it would have. We’ve talked about this before.
Sometimes your biggest hit is your biggest downfall, and I think nothing compares to you is is why. That song people may not remember this, but that song was everywhere when it came out. It was huge, and it was it was iconic. And she became this sort of unwilling pop star, you know, that she didn’t wanna be. But I think that, you know, people wanted to hear her do well, one of two things.
Either people wanted to hear her do more of that, or she thought people wanted to hear her do more of that. Because everything she does after it kind of mellows out and becomes a little more a little a little less this album and a little more of, you know, just straight up singing. I think what needed to happen with her is what happened with Bjork, meaning that a lot of producers heard Bjork sing and went, I can work with this. I can make this something. And you get things like it’s oh, so quiet, which is just a a masterpiece of a song.
Nobody really did that with Shane O’Connor. They kinda let her do her thing, and her thing got mellower and mellower and and sadder and sadder and less like this. And so I think that’s kinda where that went south. You know? And she also I mean, this woman had a horrible life.
I I don’t I hear so much pain in these songs, and I think it’s legitimate. You mentioned, I I wanted I didn’t mention didn’t mention this song earlier, and I wanted to. It’s, just like you said it would be, which is this great little acoustic guitar and her voice. And somehow with just those two things, it becomes this just angry, rampant, you know, aggressive song where there’s really not much going on except her voice. And that’s that’s a really good one too.
But, yeah, I I think, you know, she’s one of those artists that she’s either for you or she’s not. And I I can I can totally appreciate the fact that you guys are saying, this is a great album? I’m just not gonna pop it on very much. That’s a totally fair and reasonable reaction to have to this album. It’s not for everybody.
It is different, and it’s it kinda requires a little little nuance to get comfortable with. It it’s very jarring when you first hear it because it’s so different. And like you said, this came out in 1987. There was nothing close to this at that time. This this had to be revolutionary to the people that heard it at that time.
I didn’t hear it until the second album came out. But I would say to people that maybe only know her from I do not want what I haven’t got, which is also a fantastic album. It’s it’s the fact that the the hits on that album led her down the wrong path, but that album has moments like this on it. Namely, like I would say if you’re a fan of that album and you like the last day of our acquaintance, you will like this album. It’s it’s more like that than nothing compares to you.
So for people out there that maybe have never heard this, I would say get at least give it a try. It may not be for you. It may not be something you’re gonna fall in love with like I did, but, it’s it’s definitely worth listening to and, really a great snapshot of what I think is one of the the best voices that ever that ever graced us with their presence. Yeah. Definitely don’t let anything I say dissuade you from listening to this album because it is it’s probably better maybe than I’m I think I like it more maybe than I initially am am sounding like I did.
I I think it’s bookended by my favorite songs, Jackie and Just Call Me Joe, I think are my my two favorites, which is interesting because it’s very it’s very rare that an album, like, starts and ends with my favorite songs. But I I kinda, like, checked off just like you said it would be and and Troy as my other two songs that I think really are standouts. Also, just as an aside, just like you said, it would be kinda begs the question if if Prince saw that and said, oh, she likes to use single letters to represent words. Maybe I could maybe I have a song I could throw her. I actually think she stole that from Prince, but, she was a huge Prince fan.
And, yeah, it There’s gotta be, some sort of a She she kinda took that idea from this. But, yeah, you’re right. Maybe he did go, well, I’ve got this other song that does that. Yeah. She’s okay with that.
I’m glad I asked. So I’ll I’ll throw out there real quick. You know, if you’re wondering if this is for you or whatever, the the song that opens this album, Jackie, which is one of its best moments, listen to that. Give yourself that three minutes. If you like that song, you’re gonna like the rest of this album.
It’s very, indicative of what’s coming after it. Yeah. I think it gives you a good idea what you’re gonna get. So you can find out pretty quick if this is gonna be for you or not. I’ve you know, Jackie’s a great place to start.
So We’ve talked a little bit about, you know, mentioning points about her cover of nothing compares to you. Her cover blows his version of that song completely out of the water. I I know it got played a lot and maybe nobody ever wants to hear it again and all that kind of thing, but man, her cover of Nothing Compares to You is one of the prettiest songs you’re ever going to hear, one of the best vocal performances you’re ever going to hear. And so I feel like we’re kinda sliding that off a little bit, but we shouldn’t. I know it got played a lot, and I know everybody probably has heard it a million times, but, man, alive, is that a great song.
I don’t wanna take anything away from Nothing Compares to You. I just think that I think the success of that song is what maybe sealed the deal on us never getting an album like this again. That’s that’s really all all I’m saying with that. Nothing Compares to You is a beautiful song, and she took what was a very generic sort of prince for all the wonderful amazing songs that I wrote. This ain’t one of them, but what she did with it is incredible.
There she found the emotion in that song that really wasn’t there in the original version at all. It it becomes this this painful, sad sort of, you know, ballad about lost love, and and that is all because of her voice that she does all of that with her voice. There’s nothing overproduced in that song. There’s nothing overly done about it. It’s all just her.
And, you know, you guys probably remember the video too. It was basically just a close-up of her face for the entire duration of the song. It works so well. So, yeah, I I don’t wanna take I don’t wanna take anything away from that song. I don’t wanna take anything away from I do not want what I haven’t got as an album.
It is as good as this one. It just I think the success of Nothing Compares to You is why we never got another album like this from Sinead O’Connor, which is That’s entirely true. Yeah. Definitely like a textbook example of taking, like you said, a pretty straightforward generic song. If you’ve heard Prince’s version, it falls flat in retrospect.
I think if you didn’t have the Sinead O’Connor version of it, you’d be it would have been just a, you know, another one of his hundreds of songs that that he did. I don’t I don’t know that it would have been anything special, but you said it, man. She found the emotion and, in that song and then brought it out in a way that I’m not sure any other artist possibly could have. But it it really like, if you were teaching a class on how to how to take a song and find the heart of a song and use your performance to enhance it and bring the emotion out, that’s the one. I mean, that’s it.
Point to like, that should be page one of that book. What’s interesting about that is that in that song that she is not doing anything remarkable vocally as far as there’s none of those growls. There’s none of those that rage she gets that you hear all over this album. It’s not there. It’s a very straightforward vocal performance, but her voice is just so freaking great that it carries that song through and finds the emotion in it that, you know, the Prince version definitely doesn’t have.
Alright, folks. If you haven’t heard these albums, I think we can all three despite what any any negativity you might have heard, I think all three of us sign off on all three of these being well worth your time to check out. Sometimes we, you know, we choose albums that are relatively popular and you’ve you’ve probably already heard before, but maybe, you know, maybe a couple of these have fallen through the hoops. Even even the Foo Fighters debut album, it it may be to the point where people, you know, haven’t gone back and listened to some of their early stuff, especially if you’re, like, a younger listener. So they’re all three definitely worth, like, a full front to back listen.
I think I think you’ll get a lot out of it. And maybe find an artist, you know, if you if you’re not an Elvis Costello fan, if you’re not a singer O’Connor fan or Foo Fighters fan, you might find a new a new band that or a new artist that you can latch onto and then check out their later work as well. All all of them went on to have, you know, some pretty good pretty good careers after these debut albums, so check it out. What else we got? We got a documentary film called 35,000 Watts, the story of college radio that is out right now on Amazon Prime and Google Play.
We would love for you to go and watch that and check it out. If you have the time, we’d appreciate it. It’s about college radio and all the the history and culture of college radio, and and we talk to people like Mark Mothersbaugh and Joey Santiago. So we’d love for you to go check it out. And if you do, maybe give us a rating and a review while you’re there.
We’d appreciate it. Thanks for tuning in to this episode, and thanks to Scott and Keith for joining me. We’ll talk to you next time on 35,000 Watts, the podcast.