Expression Experts: Transmission 474, 2019 July 6

"Sometimes it gets ragged," I say to Lady Catharsis in the introduction. Whatever I might have thought I meant in the moment, listening back it sounds like I was critiquing the shows that she co-hosts. Surely, deep down, I was doing that. I critique all of my shows, as a glance at this website will tell you, but I could have been more appreciative. On this night I didn't have the energy.

As advertised, it was "an awful Saturday evening at the end of an awful, awful week." We both sounded tired; the prospect of a 500th Bombast episode, which I raise, doesn't seem to excite me. It was really hot out, and we were in the middle of moving house. More importantly, as I think back, things were falling apart at the "theory camp" I was coordinating. One group of students had accused another group of racial incitement; our director, normally afloat in a frictionless, conflict-free world of contemplation, touched down to earth briefly enough to completely overreact and exacerbate the problem. Things got so bad that we couldn't even enjoy our annual lakeside barbecue (incidentally, the reason why I didn't make a radio appearance three nights prior to this) without inflammatory incidents.

tl;dr: Lady Catharsis and I thought that maybe we could just chill for a couple of hours in the studio, but because everything is affected by everything, we were wrong.

The program did have its moments. Playing Throwing Muses after R. L. Burnside was a good choice, and the Eurythmics > Afriqua > A Certain Ratio "mini-set" was fairly sublime. One of the biggest running tensions in this program is that I have a non-repetition "policy" and yet I could happily play "Knife Slits Water" every week. To think: other people tell me that they hold back a lot! Please note that Lady Catharsis gives A Certain Ratio high praise in this episode and I am glad there is a permanent record of it.

I felt I had to play Dr. Phibes, "artsy fade-in" and all, because of the ludicrous wait I had to endure for that record. "JD," whom I refer to in the voice-over, was the Discogs seller who (finally) shipped the record to me after he, um, got shingles? I don't want to be someone who trivializes suffering, but at the same time maybe I need to be someone who owns my problems? Never having had shingles I (a) can't think about it without visualizing the Terry Bradshaw commercials and (b) don't know how it might affect your ability to think about basic life stuff. Anyway, that is why I hope JD feels better and why that record made it into a very quiet last 40 minutes or so of this transmission, before a terrible Nick Cave segue finishes off the evening in proper fashion.

 

BOMBAST playlist, 2019 July 6, 2000-2200:

1. "Por Encima" | M.A.K.U SoundSystem | 5 Fuegos | PEACE & RHYTHM
2. "Meca" | Levis Vercky`s | Angola Soundtrack 2 - Hypnosis, Distortion & Other Innovations 1969 - 1978 | Analog Africa
3. "Soggy Tongues" | Vic Chesnutt | West of Rome | New West
4. "Can't Hold Out Much Longer" | Little Walter | His Best - The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection | Chess
5. "2 Brothers" / "Snake Drive" | R.L. Burnside | A Ass Pocket of Whiskey | Fat Possum
6. "Mercury" | Throwing Muses | Throwing Muses | 4AD
7. "Happy Nightmare Baby" | Opal | Happy Nightmare Baby | SST
8. "Got to Give It Up" | The Dirtbombs | Ulltraglide In Black | In The Red
9. "The Law Must Change" | Keith Mlevhu | The Bad Will Die | Strawberry Rain
10. "Aqua" | Eurythmics | Touch | RCA
11. "Vibrations" | Afriqua | Prophette | Cure Music
12. "Knife Slits Water" | A Certain Ratio | Sextet | Factory Benelux
13. "Black Sheets of Rain" | Bob Mould | Black Sheets of Rain | Virgin
14. "When Push Comes To Shove" / "Dovetail" | Dr. Phibes & The House Of Wax Equations | Whirlpool | 50 Seel Street
15. "Spermwhale Trip Over" / "The Sun Falls Into the Sea" / "The Madonna Is With Child" / "Spanish Quay (3)" | A.R. Kane | Sixty Nine | One Little Indian
16. "New Morning" | Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | Live Seeds | Mute

It's all about what I wish would happen

https://www.facebook.com/radiobombast?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/KidCatharsis