Croix de Bombast: Transmission 15, 2013 February 6

It was our quinceañera, and we were wearing our prettiest dress. The Durutti Column's "LC," side two this time [plus a little extra!] served as our "Physical Evidence" for the week. There were two visits to the "Listening Parlour," as usual. Life was good. On the show, I did have what I've been thinking of as a "Cokie Roberts moment," for lack of a better reference. You can figure out what that is by listening. I can't do all your homework for you. But it does prompt me to discuss how the sausage is made. Most radio stations that play music, especially those that have done so for decades, have music libraries. While never an absolute necessity, even in the pre-digital era--hosts could always bring in their own records--a library is a tremendous resource. One thing a library makes possible, or at least easy, is the "request." You call up the station, ask the host if s/he can play something, and it probably happens. Unless your chosen piece of music isn't in the library. Or the host is being a douche. Another, somewhat related, thing a library makes possible is improvisation. You are playing a piece of music on the air and a sudden whim strikes you, or you suddenly sense a connection to another piece of music that you hadn't considered until this moment--you can pull that record or cd from the library and play it. [The bad thing a library makes possible is laziness, to which I was certainly prone in my past life. When you reach a certain level of experience and expertise, you can get cocky, and feel that you don't need to think very hard about what you are doing. You don't "plan" your show in any meaningful sense of the word, and you just stroll into the station, like a rock star, 2 minutes before air time, lacking only a satin jacket and a suspicious case of the sniffles to complete the sorry picture.] Anyway, at WRFI we don't have a music library to speak of. We do have maybe 30 or so CDs, with Putumayo compilations being of particular interest to somebody--but nothing that would make BOMBAST possible even as a one-time thing. So the show, haphazard as it sometimes sounds, is "planned," and I do have to "bring in" music to play. Now. Some of it is tangible stuff from my personal collection, or that of Lady Catharsis, and some of it is, let us say, "acquired" from "places." But--let's just use a recent example--Factory Benelux, let us say, does not freely send us new records and cds on the off chance that we, a low-power FM station in the middle of nowhere, might play them. [Believe it or not, in the hard-copy-only era, this was a thing that would happen, and it was wonderful, oh my god.] That is our hard truth for the week. Sorry if I have shattered any illusions. But like I said at the outset, I'm all grown up now, and so are you. If not, don't worry, the Easter Bunny is coming in about 7 weeks. BOMBAST playlist, 2013 February 6, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.

1. Fai Baba: "Sail Away" [A Tree in a Field]
2. Fanga and Maalem Abdallah Guinea: "Gnawi" [Strut]
3. Rone: "King of Batoofam" [Infine]
4. Lee Hazlewood: "We All Make the Flowers Grow" [LHI] / "Listening Parlour"
5. Swindle: "Forest Funk" [Deep Medi Musik]
6. Christiaan Virant: "Monkey Mind" [CVMK]
7. Starkey: "Command" [Civil Music]
8. Kiki Gyan: "Sexy Dancer" [Soundway]
9. Abba: "Voulez-Vous" [Polar]
10. The Durutti Column: "Never Known" [Factory Benelux] / "Physical Evidence"
11. The Durutti Column: "The Act Committed" [Factory Benelux] / "Physical Evidence"
12. The Durutti Column: "Detail for Paul" [Factory Benelux] / "Physical Evidence"
13. The Durutti Column: "The Missing Boy" [Factory Benelux] / "Physical Evidence"
14. The Durutti Column: "The Sweet Cheat Gone" [Factory Benelux] / "Physical Evidence"
15. Mark Lanegan: "Stay" [Sub Pop] / "Listening Parlour"
16. Emilia Amper: "Vals fran Valsebo" [Bis]
17. The Ordinaires: "Kashmir" [One Little Indian]
18. Pinkie Maclure: "Horns Off" [One Little Indian]
19. Ham: "Voulez Vous" [One Little Indian]
20. Sam Willis: "Foxglissandro" [Half Machine]
21. Dakota Suite: "Lumen" [Glitterhouse]

Next time: Lady Catharsis, live! Enjoy. --kid catharsis