Unruly Boys Who Will Not Grow Up Must Be Taken in Hand: Transmission 206, 2015 May 22

"It's Morrissey's birthday," I think I said; "I have to do something." Not that he will notice or anything, but this lapsed Catholic is still big on observances. I did not seek out this opportunity; this is not a regularly scheduled "alpha" program but some bonus airtime that fell into my lap. I can think of nothing more diametrically opposed to "Conference of the Birds" than a shoddy-sounding indie rock bootleg, but to quote another Manchester icon "life just bounces."

This show happened a week after an aborted late-night Friday program, one on which I was going to "observe" the birthday of Andrew Eldritch, someone else whose records I listened to quite a bit 30 years ago. Guilt is the other thing I'm still really into, but again I'm guessing he won't have noticed either that it was going to happen or that it didn't. "Friend of Bombast" Jeremy got me hooked on SoM records and they were a powerful addiction for a while. I think "Body Electric" was my favorite--"too much contact and no more feeling." Yep. Has Morrissey ever written a line equal to that? [Okay, okay, dozens.] [Shut up.]

Another thing, in response to a question that no one asked, is that I remember going to see The Smiths in concert with a half-dozen of my closest friends, and that Sisters of Mercy were the soundtrack to my sitting alone in a darkened dorm room as friendships fell away. Whose music is "miserablist?" Maybe that's not fair, but it is what it is. I've written about The Smiths before--they were terrific, I will not argue it, and if you don't like my tapes or my rites, you can move along, there's another program coming soon.

BOMBAST playlist, 2015 May 22, 2100-2300:

1. "The Only Son" | Nightingales | Mind Over Matter | Louder than War
2. "Intrigue in Tangiers" | The Chameleons | John Peel Sessions | Blue Apple
3. "Stereotypes" / "Stereotypes Part 2" | The Specials | More Specials | Chrysalis | "Listening Parlour"
   
4. "No One Is Looking at U" | Nicolas Jaar | Nymphs II | Other People
5. "Oh" | Ste Spandex | LBL002 | LBL
6. "I Am Made To Greet Each Guest with a Limp-Wristed Handshake" | Exploring Jezebel | On a Business Trip to London | Blackest Ever Black
7. "Nightbird" | The Fabulous Three | The Best of the Fabulous Three | Truth & Soul
8. "Yes" | WhoMadeWho | Ember EP | Get Physical
9. "Wait for Me" | Fontarrian | VLV | Antime
10. "Backroom" | Earl Zinger & Don Rogall | In the Backroom | Stag-O-Lee
11. "Ramshackle" | Blind Idiot God | Before Ever After | Indivisible
12. "Still Ill (live in Oxford, 18 March 1985)" | The Smiths | bootleg cassette | not on label | "Physical Evidence"
    
13. "Object 10" | The Notwist | Messier Objects | Alien Transistor
14. "Clear Chanel" | Heatsick | Re-Engineering | PAN
15. "Soledad" | Jah Wobble's Invaders Of The Heart | Redux - Anthology 1978-2015 | 30 Hertz - Cherry Red
16. "Camphor" | Future 3 | With & Without | Morr
17. "The Process - 1983 Demo" | Section 25 | From the Hip [30th anniversary edition] | Factory Benelux
18. "Halma" | Dave DK | Val Maira | Kompakt
19. "All This And More" | The Wedding Present | George Best [reissue] | Edsel
20. "Hide Away" | The Sentinals | Big Surf! | Rumble
21. "Miserable Lie (live in Oxford, 18 March 1985)" | The Smiths | bootleg cassette | not on label | "Physical Evidence"
22. "Better Lies" | Family Fodder | Schizophrenia Party (The Director's Cut) | Staubgold
23. "Sonne" | Rival Consoles | Odyssey / Sonne | Erased Tapes
24. "Paedophile" | Thee Headcoats | The Good Times Are Killing Me | M'Lady's
25. "Barbarism Begins at Home" / "You've Got Everything Now (live in Oxford, 18 March 1985)" | The Smiths | bootleg cassette | not on label | "Physical Evidence"

next time: long-lost tapes are big these days. Enjoy the music! --kid catharsis