“Five Songs” is a new series where we ask former and current college radio DJs to give us a list of five songs that they feel best represents the chosen topic. For this first post, Michael Millard, director of 35000 Watts: The Story of College Radio, chooses five songs that remind him of his first ever DJ shift at KTXT-FM, Texas Tech University.
On April 5, 1993 in Lubbock, Texas, 40,000 fans gathered at Jones Stadium to welcome home the Women’s Basketball National Champions, the Texas Tech Lady Raiders. Virtually every student at Texas Tech was there, with one exception: me.
At the time, I was at the bottom of the KTXT-FM substitute DJ list, and as a freshman, there wasn’t a lot of opportunities to get a shift thrown my way. But luckily for me, everyone wanted to be a part of that historic championship celebration…and someone had to keep the station on the air. When I got the call, I jumped at the chance.
Over time, I’ve noticed that there are a few songs that always bring me back to that first night in the DJ booth. It is entirely possible I didn’t actually play some (or maybe even any) of these songs that first shift, but in my memory, I did. Either way, I thought it would be interesting to ask college radio alumni from across the country and from all eras of college radio what songs take them back to those first days of stepping into the DJ booth. To kick things off, these are the songs transport me to the spring semester of my freshman year at KTXT.
Soul Asylum – Black Gold
An underrated and sometimes forgotten band, Soul Asylum were college radio staples when their sixth studio album, Grave Dancer’s Union, was released. This album, however, would catapult them from campus radio stations to international stardom, selling over 3 million copies in the US alone. While much of that success can be attributed to the massive hit “Runaway Train”, the song that first broke on college radio (and the one that still sticks in my brain) is “Black Gold”.
Belly – Feed the Tree
Tanya Donelly was already college rock royalty when she formed her third band, Belly, in Rhode Island with Fred Abong and brothers Tom and Chris Gorman. Her first two bands, Throwing Muses and The Breeders, were formed in the thriving Boston indie/alternative scene and both were massive successes on college radio. In the spring of 1993, I was not yet hip enough to know any of those bands, but I remember loving this song from the very first listen and it sill takes me back to the DJ booth.
King Missile – Martin Scorsese
While bands like Belly and Throwing Muses are generally considered “quintessential” college radio bands (and rightfully so), King Missile falls in that same category, but in a different sort of way. While in an ideal world, a song like “Feed the Tree” could and should be a mainstream smash, it isn’t really too likely that there is a world where King Missile is hanging platinum albums on their walls. They are often described as “avant-garde”, which is really just a fancy way of saying “really weird” and “made for college radio”. They are best known for “Detachable Penis” (and believe me, you should check it out if you aren’t familiar), but my first exposure to King Missile as actually their loving ode to director Martin Scorsese.
Screaming Trees – Nearly Lost You
In the fall of 1992, Cameron Crowe’s film Singles, a loving portrait of Seattle at the dawn of the grunge era, was released, along with a soundtrack that was packed with Seattle bands (along with Paul Westerberg and the Smashing Pumpkins). One of the biggest beneficiaries was Screaming Trees, a band that was fantastic but languished in the shadow of Pearl Jam, Nirvana and Soundgarden. They contributed “Nearly Lost You” to the cause, giving themselves much more (well-deserved) exposure than they had been able to attract thus far.
Ween – Push th’ Little Daisies
What can you say about Ween? In the spring of 1993, when I encountered them for the first time, they had recently released their third studio album (and major label debut, which sounds impossible now) Pure Guava. After playing “Push th’ Little Daisies”, it was perfectly clear to me that there was an entire world of music out there that had been hidden to me. Unlike King Missile, Ween is generally not regarded as “avant-garde”, even though their music is easily as weird. I think “eclectic” is probably the most common description, which is fair.