John Richards

#486 Best Opening Track: "It Could Be Sunshine" by Love and Rockets -- "Express" is the second studio album by English alternative rock band Love and Rockets. Here's a tribute to this classic: vaguevisages.com

#486 Best Opening Track: "Silver" by Echo & The Bunnymen --

#484 Best Opening Track: "Little Fluffy Clouds" by The Orb -- This track includes clips of Rickie Lee Jones recalling picturesque images of her childhood... they originated from an interview disc that was issued with some promotional boxed copies of Jones' album "Flying Cowboys"

#483 Best Opening Track -- "Spirits in the Material World" is the opening track for The Police's 1981 album "Ghost in the Machine." This song is based on the writings of Hungarian author and philosopher Arthur Koestler. Sting enjoyed Koestler's work, and the album Ghost In The Machine is named after one of his books. Koestler believed that outside influences could destroy our spirit and restrict our thinking. The "spirits" and "ghosts" Koestler wrote about were the innate higher functions that often get lost in the "machine" created by governments and corporations.

#482 Best Opening Track

Follow-up track to "Theme from Flood", the #482 Best Opening Track -- The band's John Flansburgh joined KEXP's Emily Fox to talk about the band's over 40-year career and latest album 'BOOK': www.kexp.org

#481 Best Opening Track -- Watch Captain Kirk perform this Pulp cover on the Tonight Show, with the help of Joe Jackson and the Ben Folds Five: www.dailymotion.com

#480 Best Opening Track -- Brill Bruisers is the sixth studio album by Canadian indie rock band the New Pornographers, released in 2014. - www.thenewpornographers.com --- The New Pornographers performed live in the KEXP studio in 2014 - www.youtube.com --- Celebrating the music of 2014 & 50 years of KEXP! - www.kexp.org

#479 Best Opening Track -- Second and final album by the British band fronted by Roland Gift. Portions of this album were recorded at Prince's Paisley Park, including this track.

#478 Best Opening Track -- 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. The song was produced by Phil Spector in an attempt to increase The Ramone's commercial success and mainstream appeal.

#477 Best Opening Track -- "Born of Frustration" was James' first single in America. - wearejames.com

#476 Best Opening Track -- Robyn Hitchcock founded the band in 1976 in Cambridge, England as Dennis and the Experts, morphing into The Soft Boys. Hitchcock, of course, wrote "I Wanna Destroy You." --- Watch him performing live in the KEXP studio in 2017: www.youtube.com

#475 Best Opening Track -- Meat Is Murder is The Smiths' second studio album. It became the band's only album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart, and stayed there for 13 weeks.

#474 Best Opening Track -- The whole thing can’t have taken us much more than 10 minutes. I certainly never thought: “This is going to be a massive hit.” --songwriter Stan Cullimore -- Read how The Housemartins made "Happy Hour": www.theguardian.com

#473 Best Opening Track -- This is the first song from The Jam's second album, released just six months after "In the City." The speed and urgency with which the two albums were made is a testament to the energy coursing through the United Kingdom at the time. 1977 was, after all, punk’s year zero.: faroutmagazine.co.uk

#472 Best Opening Track -- Opening track to 1984, the sixth studio album by Van Halen, released in 1984.

Following track to "1984", the #472 Best Opening Track -- The synth which Van Halen used in “Jump” is an Oberheim OB-Xa. This machine uses polyphonic, substractive synthesis to generate its sounds. (Whew!) Go here to learn about the sound design of the signature riff in this tune: medium.com -- Then, take a break from your study by watching the official video for "Jump": www.youtube.com

#471 Best Opening Track -- Third album from the LA band, first with Henry Rollins as lead singer. Their record label had a distribution deal with MCA Records who refused to distribute the album after the label's president, Al Bergamo, objected to its lyrical content. The band personally visited the pressing plant and applied a sticker over the MCA logo with Bergamo’s quote, "As a parent ... I found it an anti-parent record."

#470 Best Opening Track -- released off of "Damned Damned Damned" in 1977!

#469 Best Opening Track -- Inspired by a text from Taylor! Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie was Live on KEXP in 2022. Watch the video here: www.youtube.com deathcabforcutie.bandcamp.com

#468 Best Opening Track -- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's most recent Live on KEXP performance was in 2018. youtu.be You can also enjoy audio from their 2006 Live on KEXP full concert where they played twelve songs! www.youtube.com

#466 Best Opening Track -- This song was written for the movie "The Crow." James O'Barr, who created The Crow and draws the comic, is a big fan of The Cure and listened to them a lot formulating the movie. He was thrilled when Robert Smith of The Cure agreed to write an original song for the film.

#467 Best Opening Track -- Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses will perform at Seattle's St. Mark's Cathedral October 26! KEXP's Rachel Stevens spoke to Kristin Hersh about her book "Seeing Sideways: A Memoir of Music and Motherhood", and what it's like to tour with four boys and navigate an industry she hates in order to do what she loves. You can find the interview for Sound & Vision's "Apparently" mini-series: kexp.org

#466 Best Opening Track -- This song was written for the movie "The Crow." James O'Barr, who created The Crow and draws the comic, is a big fan of The Cure and listened to them a lot formulating the movie. He was thrilled when Robert Smith of The Cure agreed to write an original song for the film.

#465 Best opening track

#463 Best Opening Track -- Soundgarden was a rock band formed in Seattle, Washington in 1984 by singer and drummer Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Superunknown is the fourth studio album by Soundgarden, released in 1994.

#462 Best Opening Tracks -- Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne explained the meaning of this rather prescient anthem in the band's bio Staring At Sound: The True Story Of Oklahoma's Fabulous Flaming Lips: "Not to say that I could peer into the future and see it coming, but there was some vague notion of whatever the Internet was pointing towards, where you're sitting in your own house and you're connected to everything around the world, all your friends and all the things you really like, in your own little space and time." -- The girls in the video are played by Wayne's then-wife Michelle, drummer Steven Drozd's girlfriend Becky Stokesberry, and the band's friend Emma Rolls.: www.youtube.com

#461 Best Opening Track -- Get this, Prolonging the Magic was given a parental advisory sticker not because of profanity but for Satanic-themed lyrics. I totally see it - this is such a scary song!