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music program on WRFI Community Radio, 88.1 FM Ithaca / 91.9 FM Watkins Glen
Episodes
Wednesday Apr 17, 2013
Wednesday Apr 17, 2013
In the blink of an eye, we transition from a "very special" Bombast to a very regular Bombast. With Prince Far-I safely ensconced in the Hall of Legends, we turn to "new" music. However, we grapple with an old problem.
When we left off, the airplay computer was refusing to reboot. This meant that I might have to remain in the studio, indefinitely, until someone came to take over, which, on Saturday night, might be "not at all." Shades of "ironic punishment"--five months ago, I was really desperate to get on the radio, wasn't I?
You will be delighted to know that I have been doing some math and would like to share it with you. At the old station, I was on the air from roughly the beginning of April, 1987 until roughly the beginning of January, 1993--let's say 300-305 weeks. Airtime "shifts" at the station were 3 hours instead of 2. I never missed a show, except for maybe 3 or 4 times that I can think of (vacations and such). And I subbed a lot and took up available time during term breaks. You see where this is going, right? It's not inconceivable that I did upwards of 1000 hours on-air, and I couldn't get on air enough for my liking.
The difference between then and now, as I like to consider it, is that now I have "standards." I'll give you a second to stop chortling. You back? Okay, good. Anyway, two hours a week is normally plenty of time to fill these days; it is better to have "overflow" and leave the one or two people who actually want more wanting more.
But it is hard to run a radio station, you guys. Every day at WRFI there is some kind of existential clusterfuffle. Will the transmitter go down? Will one of our hosts go off the rails? Will we lose the guest network in-studio, or remote desktop access, or both? Will the Pacifica webstream fail us? When is the user guide going to be finished? Can you be present for a very important meeting that happens in two hours but wasn't even a figment of anyone's imagination until five minutes ago? And so on. It got to the point this week that I was starting to forget about why I got into this in the first place, and then some free airtime appeared in front of me, and it looked like extra scoops of ice cream.
Of course what had to happen is that the airplay computer would go down, and that the culprit would be one of, oh, about 2400 different file systems on the hard drive. This occupied about the last 40 minutes of the previous show and the first 80 or so of this one, until yours truly made a barely-informed guess that somehow managed to work. So we live to fight another day.
The one real triumph of this particular broadcast is that a new, irregular, and unofficial segment, "Bombast vs. iTunes," gets off the ground, with round one going to me. Any day I can run "Physical Evidence" and play new music at the same time is a good day. Round Two is already underway, and we should have the results April 27. Won't you please tune in.
BOMBAST playlist, 2013 April 13, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.:
- Dub Spencer & Trance Hill: "Im Westen Nichts Neues" [Echo Beach]
- Colomach: "Ottoto Shamoleda" [Soundway]
- John Cameron: "Swamp Fever" [Strut]
- Johnny Pearson: "Assault Course" [Strut]
- Alan Hawkshaw: "Senior Thump" [Strut]
- Omar and the String-Poppers: "My Baby Don't Breathe" [BBE]
- The Phantom: "Love Me" [BBE]
- The Night Raiders: "Cottonpickin'" [BBE]
- The Scarlets: "Stampede" [BBE]
- Flea Bops: Ronnie, Preston, Wendy and Lance: "Good Time Woman" [BBE]
- Wayne Walker: "All I Can Do Is Cry" [BBE]
- 50 Foot Wave: "Radiant Addict" [Not On Label] / "Listening Parlour"
- The Feeling of Love: "I Could Be Better Than You But I Don't Wanna Change" [Born Bad]
- British Sea Power: "K-Hole" [Rough Trade]
- Rocketnumbernine / Four Tet: "Roseland" [Text] / "Physical Evidence"
- No Joy: "Hare Tarot Lies" [Mexican Summer]
- Lapalux: "Straight Over My Head" [Brainfeeder]
- Keith Mansfield: "Incidental Backcloth No. 3" [Strut]
- Alan Parker: "Unlimited Love" [Strut]
- William Farley / Dennis Bovell: "Reggae Train" [Strut]
- Wareika Hill Sounds: "Free the People" [Honest Jon's]
- Rocketnumbernine / Four Tet: "Metropolis" [Text] / "Physical Evidence"
- RxGibbs: "Contact" [Cascine]
- Tom Waits: "Hoist That Rag" [Anti-] / "Listening Parlour"
- Wire: "Eels Sang" [Pinkflag]
- Big "T" Tyler: "Sadie Green" [BBE]
- The Recalls: "Nobody's Guy" [BBE]
- Link Wray and his Wray Men: "Run Chicken Run" [BBE]
- McKinley Mitchell: "Rock Everybody Rock" [BBE]
- Corky Jones: "Hot Dog" [BBE]
- The Imps: "That'll Get It" [BBE]
- Errors: "The Village" [Mojo Magazine]
- Les Fils du Calvaire: "Femme d'affaires" [Because Music]
- Kinski: "Let Me Take You Through My Thought Process" [Kill Rock Stars]
Monday Apr 15, 2013
Monday Apr 15, 2013
Welcome welcome welcome to the Hall of Legends. It has been a while since the doors have opened, but the committee has finally reconvened to induct the Hall's fifth member: Spanish Town's own Michael James Williams, a.k.a. King Cry Cry, best known as Prince Far-I. He joins The Fall, Stereolab, Billy Childish, and Coil in the sparsely populated Hall.
Prince Far-I's life was cut short under senseless circumstances on September 15, 1983. Since it has been a nice round number of years since then, I considered holding off until the "anniversary," but went ahead and did it now for a few reasons. One, no one knows what the future holds for any of us, least of all for Bombast, so I figured we might as well fire off this salvo light this candle while we are still on the air. Second, since I don't really share Prince Far-I's belief in "eternal life" and think instead that we only get one a finite chance at this thing, I don't think deaths are anything to commemorate [although there are exceptions]. It is much better to celebrate lives, which can be done whenever. Third, some free airtime opened up, which allowed me to take a scenic detour from the relentless, willful progress of the show, whose mission is indecipherable sometimes even to me.
I don't remember when I encountered my first Prince Far-I recording or even what it was. I am pretty sure that it was either Free From Sin or one of the Singers & Players records, and it had to be sometime in the mid-1980s. I guess it doesn't matter, aside from illustrating that this music and I go way back. I have been trying to figure out why exactly that is--most likely because there are few cases in which a voice is so well-suited to the material, and even fewer cases where apparent hard-liners like Prince Far-I seem like they would be such cool people with whom to chill.
Metaphysics are reggae's weak point and the elephant in the room when it comes to appreciating this music. I have very little to say on the topic, other than that I bracket them off when I listen, just as when I visit Notre Dame cathedral I bracket off all the bad things that have probably happened inside. I very much consider these tunes cathedrals of dub [well, technically, they are "versions," to continue our lesson in nomenclature from the program, but whatever]; while Linton Kwesi Johnson termed himself a "dub poet," surely Prince Far-I got there first, and as he reminds us, "first is first and second is nothing." [That's a bit unfair to LKJ, who, far from "nothing," is a possible Hall candidate although pretty well-appreciated.] Getting back to the business of spirituality, I do appreciate that Prince Far-I truly seems a "man of the book" and a willful obsessive after my own heart. Far from dropping the occasional "chant to Jah" just to maintain his Rasta cred before launching into more important topics like motorcycles, loose women, and collie, as some of his deejay colleagues have a tendency to do, he really seems to mean what he says.
And yet when he does take detours, what charm and hilarity he exhibits. "Quante Jubila," "Autobiography," "Water the Garden," and "Bedward the Flying Preacher" are four of my favorite tunes, by anybody, period--one of my personal criteria for measuring a song's greatness is how ridiculous and/or terrible an imagined cover version would sound. Don't even bother--these, and many others from today's program, should be left to stand alone.
Technical note--some crazy stuff began to happen in the studio during the "Physical Evidence" segment--our airplay computer, on which we depend for automated programming that keeps us in compliance when we can't have a live human being at the controls, failed during an otherwise routine reboot. As I scrambled to fix the problem, frantically sending out texts and emails, the show got a bit...sloppy. I won't spoil it with words; just listen and enjoy. "What you hear is what you hear."
BOMBAST playlist, 2013 April 13, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. :
- Singers & Players: "Autobiography" [On-U Sound]
- Prince Far-I: "Reggae Music" [Trojan]
- Suns of Arqa: "Brujo Magic" / "83 Struggle" [Arka Sound]
- Prince Far-I: "Wish I Have a Wing" [Frontline / Virgin]
- Prince Far-I: "Coming In from the Rock" [Trojan]
- Prince Far-I: "Free from Sin" [Trojan]
- Prince Far-I: "Foggy Road" [Frontline / Virgin]
- Prince Far-I: "Shuffle and Deal" [Blood and Fire]
- Prince Far-I: "When the King Comes on Earth" [Pressure Sounds]
- Prince Far-I: "Commandment of Drugs" [Frontline / Virgin]
- Singers & Players: "Water the Garden" [On-U Sound]
- Prince Far-I: "The Lord's Prayer" [Carib Gems] / "Physical Evidence"
- Prince Far-I: "Psalm 87" [Carib Gems] / "Physical Evidence"
- Prince Far-I: "Psalm 24" [Carib Gems] / "Physical Evidence"
- Prince Far-I: "Psalm 48" [Carib Gems] / "Physical Evidence"
- Prince Far-I: "Psalm 49" [Carib Gems] / "Physical Evidence"
- Prince Far-I: "Farmyard" [Virgin]
- Singers & Players: "Quante Jubila" [On-U Sound]
- Prince Far-I: "African Queen" [Kingdom]
- Prince Far-I: "The Big Fight" [Joe Gibbs]
- Singers & Players: "Bedward the Flying Preacher" [On-U Sound]
- Prince Far-I: "Give I Strength" [Trojan]
- Suns of Arqa: "What You Gonna Do on the Judgment Day" [Arka Sound]
Monday Apr 08, 2013
Monday Apr 08, 2013
Bombast commemorates the opening of the "Now Scream" exhibit at Cornell's Kroch library with a selection of old-school tunes for the hip-hop / breakdance crowd. I don't think many people were listening, as it was a dazzling sunny day, much more suitable for outdoor diversions. This was appropriate enough; my memories of this music always involve sunshine, and there almost literally always was.
What is interesting to me about these old recordings is that seldom, perhaps never, has such playful, innocuous music inspired a cultural firestorm like the one we witnessed in the early days of hip-hop and electronic dance music. I suppose the injection of Rastafari into reggae in the early 1970s must have troubled the "barber" contingent in Jamaica, and somewhere there must be an East Indian pensioner in England who wishes that bhangra had never come to be. But I struggle to recall anything else along these lines.
Looking back [he said, as if all this were not clear at the time it was happening], there were three 
major reasons for this "controversy," all of which revealed significant blind spots and biases on the part of the people doing the complaining. The first, and most easily dismissed, was the popularization of drum machines, which were widely thought capable of killing music. In fact Tom Petty said pretty much this exact thing to Roger Linn in the 1970s, as if the Traveling Wilburys would not prove more toxic than anything the engineers at Roland could ever dream up.
The second was the issue of "talent." "These guys," the argument went [and, save for Roxanne Shanté, Sha Rock, and a couple of other ladies, it was mostly guys], "aren't even singing." As if the world needed more Michael McDonalds and fewer Melle Mels. Let's not forget that the demographic that wanted to hear singing instead of rapping, and "real instruments" instead of 808s and turntables, was busy making Styx a chart-topping act, as well as certifying the creatively-titled Asia by Asia as the album of the year. Choices don't get much more stark, and even in the trivial context of popular music there is plenty of standing room on the wrong side of history.
Finally, and of course, there was the affinity between rap and disco, helped along by the session-hack knockoffs of Chic, Blondie, et. al., which served as the backing for many an early rap single. In fairness to the cultural Luddites, the disco era had not even ended when rap, the newest hedonistic club music made by African-Americans, began to make its commercial breakthrough--so it was easy to swap the common refrain, "disco sucks," for "rap sucks." What was "wrong" about disco, however--its formulae, functionality, and generic anonymity--was completely turned inside out by rap.* The new music was grassroots, multi-purposed [should we dance to it or focus on the lyrics? the answer: YES], and intensely personal. Sadly, it is similarly easy to swap "they all look the same to me" for "all these songs sound the same." We are talking about American culture, where nothing is ever not about race. Events like "Disco Demolition Night" require more than aesthetic revulsion to get off the ground.
It's easy to forget how segregated the experience of pop music was 30 years ago. Columbia / Epic had to threaten to withdraw Culture Club videos in order to force MTV to play Michael Jackson. This has to be one of the strangest things that have ever happened--how could it not have been the other way around?--except, that, oh yeah, it was the United States in the early 1980s, and the "Midwestern" audience MTV targeted apparently really did want "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" and not "Billie Jean."
The sort of arguments in which one could engage back then were scary, in that they tended to reveal more about the people doing the arguing than about the subject of the argument, and also fun, in the way that arguments always are when one side is always comically, haplessly wrong. Ironically, the very technologies that were making hip-hop and electro possible, and moving them forward, would later help ensure that this was the last time anyone would feel so strongly about music. As much as I love these records, I feel like we have lost something, but when I say things like this I am probably just channeling Ned Ludd myself.
BOMBAST playlist, 2013 April 6, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
- Grandmaster Flash: "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel" [Mojo Magazine]
- Jimmy Spicer: "Money (Dollar Bill Y'all)" [BGP] / "Physical Evidence"
- Mr. Magic: "Magic's Message (There Has To Be a Better Way)" [BGP] / "Physical Evidence"
- The Art of Noise: "battle" / "Beat Box" [ZTT]
- Funky Four Plus One More: "Rapping and Rocking the House" [BGP] / "Physical Evidence"
- Trickeration: "Rap, Bounce, Rockskate" [BGP] / "Physical Evidence"
- Time Zone: "World Destruction (Industrial Remix)" [Celluloid]
- The Egyptian Lover: "Egypt, Egypt" [Egyptian Empire]
- Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five: "Super Rappin' No 1" [BGP] / "Physical Evidence"
- Twilight 22: "Electric Kingdom" [Street Sounds]
- Cybotron: "Clear" [Street Sounds]
- Hashim: "Al-Naafiysh (The Soul)" [Street Sounds]
- Captain Rock: "Return of Captain Rock" [Street Sounds]
- Time Zone: "Wild Style" [Street Sounds]
- The Incredible Body Mechanix: "B Boy Your Best" / "Bonus Beat" [Mirage]
- Herbie Hancock: "Mega-Mix" [Columbia]
Monday Apr 01, 2013
Monday Apr 01, 2013
This week, Little Marcy serenades us as we try to settle into our Saturday afternoon slot. Forgive me--the sun was out on this particular day, and like every other local who hasn't caught a glimpse of Helios for four months, I was distracted almost to the point of incompetence. Musically speaking--there aren't many songs about Easter, specifically, but there are a ton of rock songs about sin. Indeed, where would we be without this topic? So, we wind up playing a bunch of newly-released tunes we probably would have played anyway. Just Bombast bein' Bombast.
And then there is the Jesus and Mary Chain, who, ironically, have nothing to do with religion, unless your objects of worship are black leather, hollowbody guitars, and the Shin-Ei FY-2 "Companion Fuzz" pedal [and why not?]. Now that I think of it, they did once offer a hypothesis on the true identity of a certain spiritual icon, which seems legit enough, but I digress. "Some Candy Talking," this week's entry in the "Physical Evidence" parade, is one of those singles that was slated to conquer the world but didn't, for whatever reason. Its seeming irrelevance to on-demand internet music providers is their loss but our gain.
As I suggest during the broadcast, this is a transitional record for the JAMC. Wee Bobby Gillespie had left for pastures that were not yet greener but were certainly other. The less said about early Primal Scream, the better--check out that band's anthologies, even they seem to agree--but has he ever done well. Here at BOMBAST we played some of the Scream early on, when our legs were still wobbly, and yet again on the Night of Three Roky Erickson Songs, so we cannot feign indifference. But we have also played "Judas" by the Wake, which shows Wee Bobby Gillespie to be an unremarkable bass player, and a cursory listen to Psychocandy or any of the JAMC's early singles will reveal him to be an unremarkable drummer as well. He has turned out to be a frontman and fanboy with excellent taste, and there are worse things to be.
But how perfect his Moe Tucker stylings were for this group, and how wonderfully chaotic those records sound on account of them. The "3 dudes and a drum machine" version of JAMC was destined never to stack up. To channel Rick Pitino, "Upside Down" was not about to walk though that door, folks, and "Never Understand" was not about to walk through that door. They were quite game on this single, though, doing the absolute minimum with their digital metronome and giving us a taste of their "old selves" on the B-side "Hit"--this particular song is partly how I choose to remember them, having seen the "3 dudes and a drum machine" incarnation live in 1987 and thinking it was a delicious, surprisingly visceral mess.
Speaking of drum machines, if you have listened to BOMBAST at all you know we love them. We will have plenty more to say about this next week, when we play strictly old-school hip-hop and electro to recognize the "Now Scream" exhibit at Cornell's Kroch Library. As they say..."CAN'T WAIT!"
BOMBAST playlist, 2013 March 30, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
- Onward Chariots: "Opening / This Is My Confession I" [Skipping Stones]
- Dub Spencer & Trance Hill: "Ethiopian Dub (live)" [Echo Beach]
- Family Atlantica: "Myths and Proverbs" [Soundway]
- Deux: "Dance With Me" [Minimal Wave]
- Kraftwerk: "Numbers / Computer World 2" [EMI]
- The Jesus and Mary Chain: "Some Candy Talking" [Blanco Y Negro] / "Physical Evidence"
- Gary War: "Zontag" [Care in the Community]
- Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: "This Hustling World" [Academy LPs]
- Little Marcy: "Climb, Climb Up Sunshine Mountain" [Zondervan] / "Listening Parlour"
- Wild Billy Childish and the Spartan Dreggs: "Garden of Gethsemane" [Damaged Goods]
- Heavy Hawaii: "Airborne Kawasaki" [Art Fag]
- Witch: "Blood Donor" [Now-Again]
- Jerusalem in My Heart: "3anzah Jarbanah" [Constellation]
- The Jesus and Mary Chain: "Taste of Cindy (acoustic)" [Blanco Y Negro / 1972] / "Physical Evidence"
- Mogwai: "This Messiah Needs Watching" [Rock Action]
- In the Nursery: "Third Movement" [ITN Corporation]
- The Jesus and Mary Chain: "Hit" [Blanco Y Negro / 1972] / "Physical Evidence"
- Tarwater: "We All Stand" [Mojo Magazine]
- Carmen Villain: "Lifeissin" [Smalltown Supersound]
- Onward Chariots: "This Is My Confession II" [Skipping Stones]
- Hollis Brown: "Walk on Water" [Alive Naturalsound]
- Scott & Charlene's Wedding: "I Wanna Die" [Critical Heights]
- U Roy: "Deck of Cards" [Clocktower]
- Ash Pool: "Death Has No Mother" [Hospital Productions]
- Le Carousel: "My Saviour" [Phil Kieran Records]
- Akitsa: "Arraché A La Mort, Forcé A Vivre Et Mourir Encore" [Hospital Productions]
- Little Marcy: "When Mr. Satan Knocks at My Heart's Door" [Zondervan] / "Listening Parlour"
- Ergo Phizmiz: "It's a Sin" [Care in the Community]
- The Jesus and Mary Chain: "Psychocandy" [Blanco Y Negro / 1972] / "Physical Evidence"
- Onward Chariots: "Confession III" [Skipping Stones]
Monday Mar 25, 2013
Monday Mar 25, 2013
Our first Saturday program is in the books. By "the books" I mean "the big intangible book of everything that ever happened." Another place where the program "is" happens to be this blog post, right here. Or your RSS feed. Or your iTunes window. You do know that you can subscribe to the BOMBAST phenomenon by these means, right? Okay, good.
Anyway, we just pre-empted four hours of pre-recorded, syndicated Saturday programming for live DJs. We did this without notice. Not only did the world not end, but we didn't receive angry phone calls or emails from anyone. This means either: that people have been really anxious for this to happen; that the syndicated shows were truly awful; that I and the DJ who preceded me were just excellent enough not to prompt complaints; or that nobody was listening. [It couldn't literally have been nobody, since someone did call in and claim free movie passes, but still.] It is a process.
On this podcast, you get to hear The Lions' excellent cover of Van Halen's "Jamie's Crying" without hearing the Emergency Alert System test that we received, without warning, and that went out on air during the song. That is the magic of the Internet, and signal routing, at work. The "special event" we wound up broadcasting live Sunday night, by the way, was an Amy Goodman appearance at a local school. We threw that together with an iPhone app on-site and a laptop connection in the studio. If you heard that...you're welcome? Feel free to pitch in some funds so we can get some legit gear.
I did use the word "awesome" at least twice, and I played the wrong track on the Zimbabwe Frontline record. I chalk this up to general giddiness, from not having to stay on the air past my bedtime.
BOMBAST playlist, 2013 March 23, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
- The Lions: "Jamie's Crying" [Stone's Throw]
- Les Sins: "Prelims" [Jiaolong]
- Thomas Mapfumo: "Pidigori" [Earthworks / Virgin] / "Physical Evidence"
- Carmen Villain: "Two Towns" [Smalltown Supersound]
- Pickwick: "The Round" [self-released]
- Syclops: "Jump Bugs" [Running Back]
- We Scare Nightmares: "Work Until You Die" [self-released]
- Joe Jackson Band: "Mad At You" [A & M] / "Listening Parlour"
- Witch: "Little Clown" [Now-Again]
- Fort Romeau: "Love (Dub)" [Spectral Sound]
- Susan Mapfumo & The Black Salutarys: "Dzvoko" [Earthworks / Virgin] / "Physical Evidence"
- L'AS: "Zaikedelic" [Box Clever]
- Frank Agrario: "Labyrinth Disko" [Internasjonal Spesial]
- Robson Banda and The New Black Eagles: "Nyimbo Yakwasu" [Earthworks / Virgin] / "Physical Evidence"
- Scott & Charlene's Wedding: "Hazy Morning" [Critical Heights]
- Joe Jackson: "You're My Meat" [A & M] / "Listening Parlour"
- The Golden Filter: "Age of Consent" [Mojo Magazine]
- Pan-Pot: "Kepler" [Mobilee]
- Jonah Moyo and Devera Ngwena: "Taxi Driver" [Earthworks / Virgin] / "Physical Evidence"
- Butane: "We Long to Move the Stars to Pity" [Sci-Tec]
Friday Mar 22, 2013
Friday Mar 22, 2013
In part 2 of their Hall of Legends induction, Coil provide a soundtrack for the Spring Equinox. A "stealth" tribute* continues. I almost mislead listeners into thinking the late R. L. Burnside once played guitar in the Cocteau Twins--or maybe it was that Robin Guthrie was a foul-mouthed Mississippi blues curmudgeon, and not a foul-mouthed Scottish post-punk curmudgeon. In other words, it is a typical week of arbitrary, dogged self-indulgence.
I realized while the show was airing that I would have very little to say about it, Ellen Allien having fried my brain each time I heard her new piece. Hopefully you emerge from the experience more intact. The odds favor it.
The big news is that, for a couple of reasons, the BOMBAST phenomenon is moving to Saturday afternoon. While the obsolescence of our "hump night" poster [just visit the facebook page and scroll down] saddens us, we see this move as a positive thing. In the pre-internet era of WRFI, we think there are probably more listeners at that time, and we are trying to minimize our "canned" programming on the weekends. I am still trying to figure out what this contingent of listeners will hear, since I feel a decent percentage of what I play is "nocturnal" music, but it will come, and if it doesn't, I will force it.
Hopefully the "extra" show makes up for "legendary lost program" #19. I spend my time looking for little signs that its disappearance won't haunt me for life. Thank you for humoring me.
BOMBAST playlist, 2013 March 20, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.
- Karl Bartos: "Atomium" [Bureau B]
- New Order: "Confusion (Rough Mix)" [Factory] / "Listening Parlour"
- The Dur-Dur Band: "Amiina Awdaay" [Awesome Tapes from Africa]
- Coil: "Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull (Part 1) [Eskaton] / "Physical Evidence"
- Dump: "Ode to Shaggs' Own Thing" [Morr Music]
- Robin Guthrie: "Circus Circus" [Darla]
- R. L. Burnside: "See What My Buddy Done" [Fat Possum]
- Blancmange: "22339" [London / Sire] / "Listening Parlour"
- Tape Deck Mountain: "Kellies" [Lefse]
- Zombie Zombie: "The Beach" [Mojo Magazine]
- Coil: "Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull (Part 2)" [Eskaton] / "Physical Evidence"
- Ellen Allien: "LISm" [BPitch Control]
- Le Carousel: "Winter Months" [Phil Kieran Records]
Thursday Mar 14, 2013
Thursday Mar 14, 2013
Normal service resumes.
Every week is a bit of a rollercoaster with regard to the new releases. I feel things are awesome, then not good enough, then awesome again, and so on. In the end, I don't really know until I actually play the music, in sequence, on the radio program. So far it has been working out.
In addition to joining the WRFI board of directors, I have started writing again, for money.* A local newsletter** has asked me to write an advice column. Apparently, people really care what I think.*** I've cut-and-pasted the first installment for you, and it will serve as this week's accompanying text.
"Dear Kid Catharsis,
I just broke up with my boyfriend. It was a 'serious' long-term relationship, and we were/are both vinyl junkies. Now I am stuck with all this music. Some of it he gave to me, and some of it reminds me of him. Should I get rid of it even if I like the tunes? P.S. this is pretty obscure stuff, not of interest to many."
Dear Reader,
There is a school of thought that says you should dispose of all such reminders, but I failed out of that school. In my experience, burning stuff, or melting it, is messy, tedious, and bad for your lungs. Smashing stuff is cathartic at first [see what I did there?], but offers diminishing returns [and don't forget to wear goggles].
You could wait for a temperate, overcast day without rain and leave a box of records marked "free" out on the curb. Or you could use the Salvation Army as your personal landfill [what else are those bigots good for?]. But good music deserves a good home. You don't want just anyone taking ownership of your love-detritus.
"What if I sold it," you ask? How do you want this to go? Are you up for a post-breakup garage sale? Do you actually think Craigslist is good for anything except reading the "missed connections" page? Do you want the dudes at the used record store to pay you 25 cents on the dollar for what they will charge for your music? Having thus converted your serious relationship into pocket change, what will you do next?**** Treat yourself to lunch, maybe? Enjoy the most Tragic Samosas of a Lifetime. I hope they are worth it.
This is what you do. You keep records if you like them, no matter what they "mean." You will need them 20 years from now. If you love music, you know this.
In the late 1980s I was madly in love with this girl, and the whole thing was obviously doomed. We were ill-suited to each other, and we both made our concessions in an attempt to prolong what was never anything more than an infatuation. I pretended to be more ambitious than I apparently was, and she, Eurythmics/Style Council/Everything But The Girl fan that she was, pretended to appreciate underground music.
One night we were in a record store--probably this one--and she happened to find "Ultramarine" by A Primary Industry before I spotted it. In keeping with her side of our unspoken bargain, she was going to buy it. I tried really hard not to appear as jealous and sad as I was, but there are reasons people wind up as performance theorists and not actors. Anyway, we really loved each other at this point; she knew I needed this album more than she did, and "allowed" me to buy it and own it. It was the best thing for both of us--what on earth would she be doing with this record now?
When I hear this record, I inevitably remember how I came to possess it. My girlfriend and I did mean, stupid things to each other in our relationship's inevitable death-spiral, so the memories aren't fun. But it's delusional to think that Angry Mom Records, or somebody, is going to wave a magic wand to make these memories disappear AND give me $2 or $3 for my trouble. I'm keeping the damn thing because I enjoy the songs. Why I should have to endure the personal trauma AND lose the record escapes me.
You are probably thinking, "how horrible this Kid Catharsis is--he cares about records more than feelings and people." Well--okay, I have no answer for that. Jean-Paul Sartre would remind you at this point that there's a reason you sought my advice, and not someone else's. You're welcome!
- Reso: "Check 1,2 (Emperor Remix)" [Civil Music]
- Benoit Pioulard: "Florid' [Kranky]
- Youth Lagoon: "Mute" [Fat Possum]
- Will Saul and October: "Light Sleeper (Michael Mayer Remix)" [Aus Music]
- Grandmaster and Melle Mel: "White Lines" [Sugar Hill] / "Listening Parlour"
- Biosphere: "Blue Monday" [Mojo Magazine]
- Hollis Brown: "Doghouse Blues" [Alive Naturalsound]
- Family Atlantica: "Manicero" [Soundway]
- A Primary Industry: "Sans Orange" [Sweatbox] / "Physical Evidence"
- A Primary Industry: "Cicatrice" [Sweatbox] / "Physical Evidence"
- The Men: "Half Angel Half-Light" [Sacred Bones]
- Bill Baird: "Sailing" [Pau Wau]
- Tom Jones: "Without Love" [Polydor / Universal] / "Listening Parlour"
- Javelin: "Garth Hudson" [Luaka Bop]
- John Talabot: "El Oeste" [Permanent Vacation]
- Burial: "Rough Sleeper" [Hyperdub]
- A Primary Industry: "Silesia" [Sweatbox] / "Physical Evidence"
- A Primary Industry: "Rose Madder" [Sweatbox] / "Physical Evidence"
- Geiom: "Glesprin" [Frijsfo Beats]
- Superhuman Happiness: "Hands" [Royal Potato Family]
- Vietnam: "I Promise...Things Are Gonna Get Better" [Mexican Summer]
Monday Mar 04, 2013
Monday Mar 04, 2013
No one has volunteered for an uncompensated, unaccredited Bombast internship, which--I apologize--must be as shocking to you as it is to me. Still we press on. Since I last wrote, we reached an equilibrium in which, clearly, at least one show was prepared. So here it is. Somehow this week became all about neo-psychedelia and space-rock, but there are worse things around which a show could coalesce. How serendipitous that The Legendary Pink Dots and Acid Mothers Temple should have new releases out at the same time that reissues of both Pop Will Eat Itself and Hawkwind, playing "Orgone Accumulator," pass through their window of currency.
I gather from your silence that I must not have explained that phrase, "window of currency." It is one of those heretofore-unspoken "rules" I follow, and which I've stopped documenting because it just angers Lady Catharsis. Anyway, "back at the old grey school," there were three "content guidelines" to which every DJ at the otherwise free-form station was expected to adhere. I need hardly say that one was, "no obscenity" [except during the "safe times," when those existed, and what obnoxious fun was then had].
The second rule concerned the stylistic territory of your show. Let us say that you applied to do a gospel-music program and were given a Sunday-morning spot, and the station advertised the show accordingly. Let us then imagine that somewhere along the line you discovered that what you really liked best was the DC hardcore scene [you know, the part of it that wasn't gospel-related], and began playing that instead. You would eventually be summoned to the Music Director's desk for a chat.
[This is one reason why I feel good about the current shows, and remorseful about the "old days"--I painted myself into a corner back then, and it was not such a great period for what I was playing. If only I hadn't been so far ahead of my time!]
Anyway, rule #3 pertained to the "currents." The records and CDs that campus mail would deliver by wheelbarrow were received by the Music Director [how long before WRFI gets one of these?], accepted or relegated to coaster/frisbee status, dated, and placed in the "current" bins, where they would sit for 90 days before moving to the permanent library. The current releases were to comprise at least 30% of our music programming.
The Music Director reviewed every DJ's playlists [which we filed primarily to satisfy FCC requirements], not every week but more or less once per academic term, to assess our adherence to this rule. It mattered, and should have. The "current" policy was one of "our" best principles, as it represents the overlap of entertainment and information. That 30% figure could and should have been higher.
One of my colleagues at the time hosted a program that played current records, exclusively, as its only organizational concept. Young Master Catharsis looked askance at this, but YMC was a pedantic douche who fetishized aesthetic uniformity and production values. Now that I am just a pedantic douche who doesn't much care, I grasp the brilliant simplicity of this idea. Such a show moves forward, perpetually, without conscious effort.
Now, if I could just minimize effort and pedantry [INTERNS! I am telling you. Especially if they are willing to ask the tough questions, like, "Who cares about Sucking Chest Wound?"], I could arrive within shouting distance of perfection. If I could just stop making such willful programming choices, and stop conceptualizing so damn much, BOMBAST would achieve perpetual-awesomeness-in-motion. For now we have to settle for "as much current music as I can fit around my own crazy impulses."
Clouding this picture is the phenomenon of reissues, which were not so numerous in the Old Days. Does a reissue constitute something old or something new? The display racks of nearly every independent record store I have visited [large sample size there] would indicate the latter, not that commerce is a reliable guide. It feels a bit like "cheating," but at whose expense? I see The Kidz walking around in their music t-shirts--The Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, Joy Division, etc.--and reflect that no college students in the 1980s sported Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby tees, which would have been the equivalent of today's pop-culture nostalgia.
In light of this, what would my hypothetical young Interns demand that I play, if not the likes of U Roy and Hawkwind? [I know, I know, "Mumford and Sons"--but, let us be frank, such interests would rule out a second interview.] Or, for that matter, tonight's wonderful [but not presently reissued] piece of "Physical Evidence?" As I say on air, no one needs me to share the new My Bloody Valentine. But, since someone decided that we have reached the end of history, I figured that we could fold the past into the present without much complaint, and remind ourselves that the MBV story is: not just about post-rock, but also about rock; not just about taking 22 years to release an album that sounds pretty much like the last one, but also about moments of spontaneous greatness not to be reprised.
Oh--[hey Jezebel, I am friendly and available]--and it is also not just about Kevin Shields, who gets all the interviews, but Bilinda Butcher as well, the second guitarist / vocalist and secret weapon, heard here in the first recordings the band made after she joined. This is the moment MBV became what we now know them to be, whatever that is. Before they nearly bankrupted Creation Records while making Loveless--setting off a chain of events that finally gave us Oasis--and by the way, for the sake of truth in advertising, should they not have stayed with "Lazy Records?"--the band had occupied the space where the Jesus and Mary Chain used to live, and made it better. Strawberry Wine and Ecstasy are special achievements, records that are at once breezy and hard, childlike and sophisticated. "Never say goodbye as we chase the clouds away"--chills and happy tears, simultaneously.
Technical notes: signal levels were a bit all-over-the-place, but get better as the show progresses. Other than that, it was a night without errors! "Striving for excellence in content and technique"--it is part of our mission.
BOMBAST playlist, 2013 February 27, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.
- The Legendary Pink Dots: "Immaculate Conception" [Rustblade]
- My Bloody Valentine: "Never Say Goodbye" [Lazy] / "Physical Evidence"
- Pop Will Eat Itself: "Orgone Accumulator" [Optic Nerve]
- John Talabot: "Destiny (feat. Pional)" [Permanent Vacation]
- Ramones: "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement" [Sire] / "Listening Parlour"
- Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: "Adwoa" [Academy LPs]
- My Bloody Valentine: "The Things I Miss" [Lazy] / "Physical Evidence"
- U Roy: "Come on Deh" [Clocktower]
- Greg Foat Group: "Have Spacesuit Will Travel Part 2" [Jazzman]
- Hawkwind: "Orgone Accumulator" [EMI]
- King Missile: "She Had Nothing" [Shimmy-Disc] / "Listening Parlour"
- Ergo Phizmiz: "Fingerwings" [Care in the Community]
- Philip Gorbachev: "Where Is Rony Douglas?" [Comeme]
- Smersh: "Herman" [Dark Entries]
- Sucking Chest Wound: "Who Shot the Pope?" [DOVentertainment]
- Seawash: "Revolution" [Delsin]
- My Bloody Valentine: "(Please) Lose Yourself in Me" [Lazy] / "Physical Evidence"
- Acid Mothers Temple / Melting Paraiso U.F.O.: "OM Riff from the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Part 1" [Riot Season]
- Ulrich Schnauss: "Her and the Sea" [Scripted Realities]
- My Bloody Valentine: "Clair" [Lazy] / "Physical Evidence"
- The Legendary Pink Dots: "Immaculate Conclusion" [Rustblade]
Monday Feb 25, 2013
Monday Feb 25, 2013
Kid Catharsis flies solo once again, dropping humanitarian-aid packages in the form of excellent tunes for the people. It is a quietly awesome show, without much incident--few mishaps, and no angry callers. We should note that Eric Random doesn't get as much love from listeners as The Breeders, but it was ever thus.
I often feel, with scant reason, as though BOMBAST could go completely off the rails any given week. I remind myself often, "you've had [fill in number here--currently 17] shows, and that's good, no matter what happens." It is good. I can't say that I have 17 cassettes of the old programs from long ago, or that they would sound as varied and interesting as these programs have. When I say that the reasons for these elegiac musings are "scant," I mean: I have only heard positive things about the show, and the "updating" of WRFI's live schedule is happening at a pace that would make a glacier laugh, if glaciers could laugh.
The creeping doubt must be caused by workflow issues. As I write this, for example, I don't know whether the number of future shows I have planned is "zero" or "three," but am certain it is not "one" or "two." Does that make sense? Of course not. I have no idea how the Great Ones do it, but it was ever thus.
Certainly the Great Professionals had/have "producers," but, like the Prime Mover, I apparently produce myself. One live host on WRFI has interns, which initially strike me as a good idea, until I consider that these fresh-faced youngsters earn "academic credit" at a local institution of "higher learning." HA HA I AM NOT GOING DOWN THAT PATH. "FTS," as the kids say. Still, I could exploit the hell out of some youthful enthusiasm, because I never know how this show is going to come together each week until somehow it does.
If I might channel Oprah momentarily, a thing I "know for sure" is that "Physical Evidence" is my port in the storm. The next few installments are set, with a good mix of un-assimilated treasures from epochal bands and woefully under-appreciated salvos from bands known only to "the 500."
Which brings us to Eric Random, percussionist to the stars. IIRC I first saw him credited on a Cabaret Voltaire B-side, which seems as plausible as anything else. Pick up any early-80s record by an avant-funk-industrial band from the North of England, and there he seems to be. We can only hope he got paid up front, because I would think the royalties from these records, and his own, probably finance a rice bowl or two every month. It is not justice; it is simply life. Nevertheless Time-Splice is unique and multi-faceted, and well worth the extended time tonight's program gives it. I previously assumed, given his connection to CV and that this LP appears on the Doublevision label, that Random recorded this at Western Works--it has that same unusual, late-night ambiance that suffuses all of the great Cabs records--but have discovered that it was instead recorded at a place used by Eric Clapton and Take That! The apparent lesson is that style conquers all. By the way, how the hell have we produced 17 broadcasts without playing Cabaret Voltaire?! This is what interns would be good for--saving me from yelling at myself.
BOMBAST playlist, 2013 February 20, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.
- Massive Attack: "Be Thankful for What You've Got" [Wild Bunch / Virgin]
- Night Plane: "Gold Soundz" [Soul Clap]
- Pavement: "Two States (Live at Brixton Academy) [Matador]
- The Fall: "Nate Will Not Return" [Cherry Red / MVD]
- X: "True Love Part 2" [Elektra / Rhino] / "Listening Parlour"
- Tony Allen: "Asiko Revisited" [Comet]
- Steve Hauschildt: "Accelerated Yearning" [Kranky]
- Dominik Eulberg: "Die Blaue Sekunde" [Traum]
- Savage Republic: "For Eva / Anatolia" [Les Temps Modernes]
- The Born Losers: "Angels Never Die (Dirge)" [Mean Disposition]
- Wild Billy Childish and the Spartan Dreggs: "Lemonade Stand" [Damaged Goods]
- Eric Random and the Bedlamites: "Second Sight" [Doublevision] / "Physical Evidence"
- Eric Random and the Bedlamites: "No-Man-Trash" [Doublevision] / "Physical Evidence"
- Eric Random and the Bedlamites: "Father Can't Yell" [Doublevision] / "Physical Evidence"
- Eric Random and the Bedlamites: "Himalaya Sun (Setting)" [Doublevision] / "Physical Evidence"
- Chico Mann: "His Favorite Thing" [Soundway]
- Religious Girls: "Charity (Old Arc Remix)" [Alien Transistor]
- Bessie Smith: "Faraway Blues" [Columbia / Legacy] / "Listening Parlour"
- Stereolab: "Brakhage" [1972]
- Jessica Kenney and Eyvind Kang: "Ordered Pairs II" [Ideologic Organ]
- Brian Eno and David Byrne: "Regiment" [Sire]
- Bunny Clarke: "Be Thankful" [Attack]
- The Upsetters: "Dubbing in the Back Seat" [Attack]
- Starkey: "Distant Star" [Civil Music]
Friday Feb 15, 2013
Friday Feb 15, 2013
Consider this program a belated seasonal gift. This past Wednesday was actually "World Radio Day," whatever vagueness that was designed to accomplish. But that doesn't pay the bills at Hallmark. As we all know, without necessarily wanting to, it was tantalizingly close to the Feast of Saint Valentine. Lady Catharsis joined me for a night of "love" songs, and Catharsis Junior [who now tells us she wants to be called "Dragon Girl" for radio purposes] sat in a corner and kicked [due to martial-arts aspirations, not anger] until my microphone broke.
I leave it to those who are qualified to decide these things whether the ensuing two hours constitute "High" or "Low" comedy. There are numerous mishaps that a half-trained monkey could avoid, such as the "Listening Parlour" music running halfway through a subsequent song or two, "Bombast" fading back in during Billy Bragg, CDs not being loaded properly, and on and on. But some fancy words are also spoken, although it seems I slipped an "anybunny" in there somewhere. I am relieved to hear that, as it does with other disturbances, my brain is doing its best to shield me from any awareness of Diana Krall's existence.
Lady Catharsis threw down the gauntlet with this week's selections, so with "Physical Evidence" I dropped the number 1 and called for a fastball. In choosing releases for this feature, I am occasionally surprised by what slips through the cracks and doesn't find its way to the Amazon .mp3 store, or whatever. I feel like many of my favorite records are of interest only to about 500 people, and I would expect those to remain meatspace exclusives, but it is odd for a band that seemingly Any Sensible Person would like not to have all of its music assimilated.
The Breeders began as an "indie supergroup," or at least that was the perception. The three major contributors--Kim Deal, Tanya Donnelly, and Josephine Wiggs--still played "second banana" in other bands [Pixies, Throwing Muses, and The Perfect Disaster, respectively], and "Pod" ostensibly demonstrated what it would sound like for them to take charge. Never mind that it was Kim Deal's band, and that once again Donnelly and Wiggs were supporting players, or that none of them played drums on this album that was seemingly about little more than drum sound. It was a thing. It garnered substantial interest for what was effectively a side project, mostly because Pixies were huge, and Deal, having supplanted Kim Gordon as Indie Chick #1, was seeing her vocal ambitions crushed by Black Francis--or at least that was the popular " wisdom."
Two years on, things had changed. The Perfect Disaster had broken up. Donnelly had left Throwing Muses. Pixies, apparently, were simply playing out their contract as U2's "support act." And out came "Safari." The Breeders now sound like the musicians consider the band a day job, and not a moment too soon, given the circumstances. This EP is not the most concentrated distillation of the Breeders' essence [but we've all heard "Cannonball" about 5 million times by now], nor is it the most raucous thing they recorded, but it is much too good, and too pertinent for this evening, to pass up. A special bonus for internet listeners--you don't have to suffer through the 26 seconds of dead air between the first and second track, which occurred because I left the cd player in "single" mode instead of putting it into "continuous." Enjoy these minor touch-ups while you can. If we continue down this slippery slope, within a couple of months all the talking breaks will be auto-tuned or something.
A coincidental overlap involving The Breeders and Elvis Costello is that both "Safari" and "What Do I Do Now?" appeared in that "obscure" series of compilations that I referred to, the star-crossed but outstanding Volume series. There were only 17 issues of this CD-sized magazine spread out over 5 years, but every "issue" was brimming with humor, passion, and great music. Also, every cover featured a lovely fish , and this series must also receive the credit for unleashing Mindless Drug Hoover on the world. I have reservations about including these in the "Physical Evidence" series, because I am confident that many of the individual tracks have made it to the legal on-demand Internet sites, although they were exclusives at the time. I'm too lazy to do the research that would disprove this. Ask anybody. But the mastermind and dreamer behind this series, Rob Deacon, may he rest in peace, had previously managed the also-terrific Sweatbox label, which had released a few LP + magazine trial runs. We will hear from them very soon.
BOMBAST playlist, 2013 February 13, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.
- Billy Bragg: "This Guitar Says Sorry" [Go! Discs / Elektra] / "Listening Parlour"
- Linton Kwesi Johnson: "Loraine" [Mango / Island]
- Lou Reed / John Cale: "Nobody but You" [Sire / Warner] / "Listening Parlour"
- Scotty: "Draw Your Brakes" [Mango]
- New Order: "Temptation" [Factory / Rhino] / "Listening Parlour"
- Kiki Gyan: "Loving You" [Soundway]
- Johnny Cash / June Carter: "If I Were a Carpenter" [Columbia] / "Listening Parlour"
- Dennis Brown: "Impossible" [Heartbeat]
- Pixies: "Cactus" [4AD / Elektra] / "Listening Parlour"
- Prince Far I: "You I Love and Not Another" [Joe Gibbs]
- Massive Attack: "One Love" [Wild Bunch / Virgin]
- The Breeders: "Do You Love Me Now?" [4AD / Elektra] / "Physical Evidence"
- The Breeders: "Don't Call Home" [4AD / Elektra] / "Physical Evidence"
- The Breeders: "Safari" [4AD / Elektra] / "Physical Evidence"
- The Breeders: "So Sad About Us" [4AD / Elektra] / "Physical Evidence"
- Eurythmics: "Love Is a Stranger" [RCA] / "Listening Parlour"
- Alton Ellis: "Can I Change My Mind" [Heartbeat]
- Elvis Costello: "What Do I Do Now?" [Volume] / "Listening Parlour"
- The Paragons: "Danger in Your Eyes" [Heartbeat]
- American Music Club: "The Dead Part of You" [Alias] / "Listening Parlour"
- Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: "Toffie" [Academy LPs]
- Bob Mould: "New #1" [Creation / Ryko] / "Listening Parlour"
- Jah Stitch: "Greedy Girl" [Blood and Fire]
- The Velvet Underground: "I'm Sticking With You" [Verve] / "Listening Parlour"