radiobombast

We Are Having the Pleasure of Being Slowly Nowhere: Transmission 22, 2013 March 23

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.

1. The Lions: "Jamie's Crying" [Stone's Throw]
2. Les Sins: "Prelims" [Jiaolong]
3. Thomas Mapfumo: "Pidigori" [Earthworks / Virgin] / "Physical Evidence"
4. Carmen Villain: "Two Towns" [Smalltown Supersound]
5. Pickwick: "The Round" [self-released]
6. Syclops: "Jump Bugs" [Running Back]
7. We Scare Nightmares: "Work Until You Die" [self-released]
8. Joe Jackson Band: "Mad At You" [A & M] / "Listening Parlour"
9. Witch: "Little Clown" [Now-Again]
10. Fort Romeau: "Love (Dub)" [Spectral Sound]
11. Susan Mapfumo & The Black Salutarys: "Dzvoko" [Earthworks / Virgin] / "Physical Evidence"
12. L'AS: "Zaikedelic" [Box Clever]
13. Frank Agrario: "Labyrinth Disko" [Internasjonal Spesial]
14. Robson Banda and The New Black Eagles: "Nyimbo Yakwasu" [Earthworks / Virgin] / "Physical Evidence"
15. Scott & Charlene's Wedding: "Hazy Morning" [Critical Heights]
16. Joe Jackson: "You're My Meat" [A & M] / "Listening Parlour"
17. The Golden Filter: "Age of Consent" [Mojo Magazine]
18. Pan-Pot: "Kepler" [Mobilee]
19. Jonah Moyo and Devera Ngwena: "Taxi Driver" [Earthworks / Virgin] / "Physical Evidence"
20. Butane: "We Long to Move the Stars to Pity" [Sci-Tec]

next week: ventriloquism. Enjoy the music! --kid catharsis

An Unquiet Skull: Transmission 21, 2013 March 20

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.

1. Karl Bartos: "Atomium" [Bureau B]
2. New Order: "Confusion (Rough Mix)" [Factory] / "Listening Parlour"
3. The Dur-Dur Band: "Amiina Awdaay" [Awesome Tapes from Africa]
4. Coil: "Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull (Part 1) [Eskaton] / "Physical Evidence"
5. Dump: "Ode to Shaggs' Own Thing" [Morr Music]
6. Robin Guthrie: "Circus Circus" [Darla]
7. R. L. Burnside: "See What My Buddy Done" [Fat Possum]
8. Blancmange: "22339" [London / Sire] / "Listening Parlour"
9. Tape Deck Mountain: "Kellies" [Lefse]
10. Zombie Zombie: "The Beach" [Mojo Magazine]
11. Coil: "Moon's Milk or Under an Unquiet Skull (Part 2)" [Eskaton] / "Physical Evidence"
12. Ellen Allien: "LISm" [BPitch Control]
13. Le Carousel: "Winter Months" [Phil Kieran Records]

* not that stealthy.

Smoke-filled Rooms and Mint-flavored Lounges: Transmission 20, 2013 March 13

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! 

So what was I saying? Oh yeah, keep your stuff or you will regret it later. BOOM. Minimum word count reached. Cha-ching, I'm hungry for samosas. You take care! --kid catharsis BOMBAST playlist, 2013 March 13, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.

1. Reso: "Check 1,2 (Emperor Remix)" [Civil Music]
2. Benoit Pioulard: "Florid' [Kranky]
3. Youth Lagoon: "Mute" [Fat Possum]
4. Will Saul and October: "Light Sleeper (Michael Mayer Remix)" [Aus Music]
5. Grandmaster and Melle Mel: "White Lines" [Sugar Hill] / "Listening Parlour"
6. Biosphere: "Blue Monday" [Mojo Magazine]
7. Hollis Brown: "Doghouse Blues" [Alive Naturalsound]
8. Family Atlantica: "Manicero" [Soundway]
9. A Primary Industry: "Sans Orange" [Sweatbox] / "Physical Evidence"
10. A Primary Industry: "Cicatrice" [Sweatbox] / "Physical Evidence"
11. The Men: "Half Angel Half-Light" [Sacred Bones]
12. Bill Baird: "Sailing" [Pau Wau]
13. Tom Jones: "Without Love" [Polydor / Universal] / "Listening Parlour"
14. Javelin: "Garth Hudson" [Luaka Bop]
15. John Talabot: "El Oeste" [Permanent Vacation]
16. Burial: "Rough Sleeper" [Hyperdub]
17. A Primary Industry: "Silesia" [Sweatbox] / "Physical Evidence"
18. A Primary Industry: "Rose Madder" [Sweatbox] / "Physical Evidence"
19. Geiom: "Glesprin" [Frijsfo Beats]
20. Superhuman Happiness: "Hands" [Royal Potato Family]
21. Vietnam: "I Promise...Things Are Gonna Get Better" [Mexican Summer]

* Monopoly money. ** Self-Absorbed Depressive's Weekly, issued only in my mind. *** No, they do not. ****You give your money to St. Baldrick's Foundation, that is what you do.

Back Brain Stimulator: Transmission 18, 2013 February 27

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.

1. The Legendary Pink Dots: "Immaculate Conception" [Rustblade]
2. My Bloody Valentine: "Never Say Goodbye" [Lazy] / "Physical Evidence"
3. Pop Will Eat Itself: "Orgone Accumulator" [Optic Nerve]
4. John Talabot: "Destiny (feat. Pional)" [Permanent Vacation]
5. Ramones: "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement" [Sire] / "Listening Parlour"
6. Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: "Adwoa" [Academy LPs]
7. My Bloody Valentine: "The Things I Miss" [Lazy] / "Physical Evidence"
8. U Roy: "Come on Deh" [Clocktower]
9. Greg Foat Group: "Have Spacesuit Will Travel Part 2" [Jazzman]
10. Hawkwind: "Orgone Accumulator" [EMI]
11. King Missile: "She Had Nothing" [Shimmy-Disc] / "Listening Parlour"
12. Ergo Phizmiz: "Fingerwings" [Care in the Community]
13. Philip Gorbachev: "Where Is Rony Douglas?" [Comeme]
14. Smersh: "Herman" [Dark Entries]
15. Sucking Chest Wound: "Who Shot the Pope?" [DOVentertainment]
16. Seawash: "Revolution" [Delsin]
17. My Bloody Valentine: "(Please) Lose Yourself in Me" [Lazy] / "Physical Evidence"
18. Acid Mothers Temple / Melting Paraiso U.F.O.: "OM Riff from the Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Part 1" [Riot Season]
19. Ulrich Schnauss: "Her and the Sea" [Scripted Realities]
20. My Bloody Valentine: "Clair" [Lazy] / "Physical Evidence"
21. The Legendary Pink Dots: "Immaculate Conclusion" [Rustblade]

Next time: chansons. Enjoy the music! --kid catharsis

So Damn Many Things: Transmission 17, 2013 February 20

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.

1. Massive Attack: "Be Thankful for What You've Got" [Wild Bunch / Virgin]
2. Night Plane: "Gold Soundz" [Soul Clap]
3. Pavement: "Two States (Live at Brixton Academy) [Matador]
4. The Fall: "Nate Will Not Return" [Cherry Red / MVD]
5. X: "True Love Part 2" [Elektra / Rhino] / "Listening Parlour"
6. Tony Allen: "Asiko Revisited" [Comet]
7. Steve Hauschildt: "Accelerated Yearning" [Kranky]
8. Dominik Eulberg: "Die Blaue Sekunde" [Traum]
9. Savage Republic: "For Eva / Anatolia" [Les Temps Modernes]
10. The Born Losers: "Angels Never Die (Dirge)" [Mean Disposition]
11. Wild Billy Childish and the Spartan Dreggs: "Lemonade Stand" [Damaged Goods]
12. Eric Random and the Bedlamites: "Second Sight" [Doublevision] / "Physical Evidence"
13. Eric Random and the Bedlamites: "No-Man-Trash" [Doublevision] / "Physical Evidence"
14. Eric Random and the Bedlamites: "Father Can't Yell" [Doublevision] / "Physical Evidence"
15. Eric Random and the Bedlamites: "Himalaya Sun (Setting)" [Doublevision] / "Physical Evidence"
16. Chico Mann: "His Favorite Thing" [Soundway]
17. Religious Girls: "Charity (Old Arc Remix)" [Alien Transistor]
18. Bessie Smith: "Faraway Blues" [Columbia / Legacy] / "Listening Parlour"
19. Stereolab: "Brakhage" [1972]
20. Jessica Kenney and Eyvind Kang: "Ordered Pairs II" [Ideologic Organ]
21. Brian Eno and David Byrne: "Regiment" [Sire]
22. Bunny Clarke: "Be Thankful" [Attack]
23. The Upsetters: "Dubbing in the Back Seat" [Attack]
24. Starkey: "Distant Star" [Civil Music]

Next time: a hastily-made classic. Enjoy the music! --kid catharsis

Head-Bobbing and Chills: Transmission 16, 2013 February 13

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.

1. Billy Bragg: "This Guitar Says Sorry" [Go! Discs / Elektra] / "Listening Parlour"
2. Linton Kwesi Johnson: "Loraine" [Mango / Island]
3. Lou Reed / John Cale: "Nobody but You" [Sire / Warner] / "Listening Parlour"
4. Scotty: "Draw Your Brakes" [Mango]
5. New Order: "Temptation" [Factory / Rhino] / "Listening Parlour"
6. Kiki Gyan: "Loving You" [Soundway]
7. Johnny Cash / June Carter: "If I Were a Carpenter" [Columbia] / "Listening Parlour"
8. Dennis Brown: "Impossible" [Heartbeat]
9. Pixies: "Cactus" [4AD / Elektra] / "Listening Parlour"
10. Prince Far I: "You I Love and Not Another" [Joe Gibbs]
11. Massive Attack: "One Love" [Wild Bunch / Virgin]
12. The Breeders: "Do You Love Me Now?" [4AD / Elektra] / "Physical Evidence"
13. The Breeders: "Don't Call Home" [4AD / Elektra] / "Physical Evidence"
14. The Breeders: "Safari" [4AD / Elektra] / "Physical Evidence"
15. The Breeders: "So Sad About Us" [4AD / Elektra] / "Physical Evidence"
16. Eurythmics: "Love Is a Stranger" [RCA] / "Listening Parlour"
17. Alton Ellis: "Can I Change My Mind" [Heartbeat]
18. Elvis Costello: "What Do I Do Now?" [Volume] / "Listening Parlour"
19. The Paragons: "Danger in Your Eyes" [Heartbeat]
20. American Music Club: "The Dead Part of You" [Alias] / "Listening Parlour"
21. Gyedu-Blay Ambolley: "Toffie" [Academy LPs]
22. Bob Mould: "New #1" [Creation / Ryko] / "Listening Parlour"
23. Jah Stitch: "Greedy Girl" [Blood and Fire]
24. The Velvet Underground: "I'm Sticking With You" [Verve] / "Listening Parlour"

next week: the usual trail mix. Enjoy the music! --dragon girl's dad

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

Physical Evidence: Transmission 14, 2013 January 30

[ORIGINALLY POSTED 2013 January 31] [UPDATE: images, audio added 2013 February 4] It was a night of reissues and revisions.  I finally wrangled Catharsis Junior into "the studio" and coaxed a new program introduction out of her, as well as an opening to the newly rechristened "Physical Evidence" feature.  And "Factory Benelux" [in quotes because I suspect it is merely invoked rather than revived] weighs in with an assortment of post-punk classics retrieved from the memory hole. Working out my "issues" through these posts is something from which I will try to take a break this week.  Fear not; old habits die hard, and the odds favor a relapse.  But for this week the program can speak for itself. I would rather talk about other stuff, and give you some links and pictures. A cloud of melancholy seems to hang over Factory Benelux, not simply because of the challenging, alienated sounds they released, but because of their rumored status as the "graveyard" for those recordings that didn't "make the cut" at Factory HQ in Manchester.  Whether this was true, and how consistently it was true, is strangely difficult to nail down.  And also its loose connection with the last days of Joy Division and the sordid demise of Ian Curtis, what with FBN being the result of an "arrangement" between Factory and Les Disques du Crépuscule, a label co-managed by Annik Honoré, the exotic Belgian diplomat--perhaps the only one of her kind--who was Ian Curtis's mistress. It is a good week for melancholy, as our local weather has turned from a peaceful, photogenic deep freeze into a turgid "wintry mix" of rain and ice. And there is something strangely contemporary about these 30-year old records--not just that their under-exposure prevents them from evoking a specific past but also that I hear these sounds reflected in many current releases. Frank Brinkhuis and James Nice have tirelessly kept the torch lit in the Internet era, publishing histories, images, and discographies, and most importantly reissuing the music.  One good use of this site is that I can exploit it to make the "calls to action" WRFI's license prohibits us from making on air, so I call on you to at least investigate. Your curiosity will be rewarded. Often overlooked but central to the history in its own way is the work of Vini Reilly, a.k.a. The Durutti Column, whose "L.C." serves as this week's "Slipped Disc" piece of "Physical Evidence." I suspect that seldom will a brand new [re-] release also qualify for the "Physical Evidence" feature, since it is meant to celebrate music that doesn't appear in cyberspace, so we already have a special occasion on our hands. And then there are the tunes. The Durutti Column is a shoe-in for the Bombast Hall of Legends, although the Committee has been out to lunch of late. The time will come for a full induction. For now, the "Lack of Appreciation" clause underwrites all of tonight's bother. Somehow "L.C." has slipped in and out of print, and online and off, several times over the years. Were it not for things like systemic poverty, sex slavery, and drone-bombings, we might figuratively call something like this a "crime." Let's just think of it as a "puzzlement." This is a special record, containing as it does the bubbly "Jacqueline," which would have made a decent single, and the haunting "Never Known," perhaps the seven minutes without which one's experience of The Durutti Column could never be complete [but that is for next week]. Without any context, "L.C." is a great listen. But context matters. It matters that this record is the dreaded sophomore effort and not the revelatory debut. It matters that it features a goofy painting harmless watercolor on the cover instead of sandpaper. It matters that Martin Hannett doesn't occupy the producer's chair.  It matters that Reilly doesn't team up with Donald Johnson from A Certain Ratio and chooses a drummer from a parody-rock band instead. By just about any measure, "L.C." is much "less cool" than "The Return of the Durutti Column." Reilly even sings on the record, something Factory would try [and fail] to stop him from doing again. So "L.C." is a defiant album, which makes this the perfect time for a reissue. Right now we don't know if any more new material from the Durutti Column will ever emerge. There have been rumors, but it seems more appropriate just to hope that Reilly can one day get back to living a normal life, after a series of strokes he has suffered since 2010, and do basic things like use his left hand. By the way, on a not-unrelated note, the actual significance of "L.C." is a bit of Italian slang: "Lotta Continua" [The Struggle Continues]. Reilly's financial troubles, brought on by his health issues, have been fairly well documented--much to his humiliation. Since I'm all about "calls to action" right now, why not consider adding this to your collection? It is less an act of charity than a gift to yourself. Go ahead. You deserve it. BOMBAST playlist, 2013 January 30, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.

1. The Names: "Nightshift" [Factory Benelux / Les Temps Modernes]
2. Crispy Ambulance: "Concorde Square" [Factory Benelux / Les Temps Modernes]
3. Dominik Eulberg: "Als Er Den Gleißenden Rand Seines Schattens Sah" [Traum]
4. Emilia Amper: "Polska Fra Hoffsmyran" [Bis]
5. Other Lives: "Take Us Alive" [TBD]
6. Pere Ubu: "Musicians are Scum" [Fire]
7. Blurt: "Get" [Factory Benelux / Les Temps Modernes]
8. Steve Moore: "Feel the Difference" [Dangerous Age]
9. Debruit: "Zef (Fulgeance Remix)" [Civil Music]
10. Happy Mondays: "Hallelujah (Club Mix)" [Factory / Elektra] ***"Listening Parlour"
11. John Talabot: "Last Land (Kenton Slash Demon Remix)" [Permanent Vacation]
12. The Durutti Column: "Sketch for Dawn (1)" [Factory Benelux / Les Temps Modernes] ***"Physical Evidence"
13. The Durutti Column: "Portrait for Frazer" [Factory Benelux / Les Temps Modernes] ***"Physical Evidence"
14. The Durutti Column: "Jacqueline" [Factory Benelux / Les Temps Modernes] ***"Physical Evidence"
15. The Durutti Column: "Messidor" [Factory Benelux / Les Temps Modernes] ***"Physical Evidence"
16. The Durutti Column: "Sketch for Dawn (2)" [Factory Benelux / Les Temps Modernes] ***"Physical Evidence"
17. Ohio Players: "Skin Tight" [Mercury]
18. Soundgarden: "Fopp" [A & M]
19. Born Losers: "Funnel of Love" [Mean Disposition]
20. Mogwai: "Soup" [Rock Action]
21. The Wake: "Judas" [Factory Benelux / Les Temps Modernes]
22. Leslie Winer: "John Says" [The Wormhole]
23. Wooden Wand: "Outsider Blues" [Fire]
24. Sugar: "Man on the Moon" [Creation / Rykodisc] ***"Listening Parlour"

next time: Side 2. Enjoy the music! --kid catharsis

Slipped Discs: Transmission 13, 2013 January 23

[UPDATED 2013 Feb. 01, 6:05 a. m.] Josh Dolan co-hosts and acquaints us with the first three albums by The Slackers, taking some time out for Pixies and second-wave ska.  More importantly, he pitches for a fundraising event, the "ABC Cafe for a Day," which wound up raising $2500 for Gardens 4 Humanity.  No time is a bad time to contribute to this worthy cause, so if you missed it, "leave wringing of hands."  And, as I wrote on the show's Facebook page, if you don't live in the area, you can always find a similar initiative close to home and support that. This reminds me of something I've been meaning to announce.  If you live in the listening area and have a non-profit or charitable event that you would like to promote, please contact me or the station and we will try--try--to get you on the air.  We still don't have as much live programming as we would like, but we do have a small handful of programs on which you might promote this or that community endeavor.  Get in touch via this website, or the Bombast Facebook page, or the WRFI Facebook page, or by emailing info@ithacaradio.org.  I would assume, since you're here at this website, reading my prose, that there might be some overlap in a Venn diagram illustrating your taste in music and mine.  So perhaps, if you wind up on this program, you could "pull a Josh" and provide music as well as talk.  Anything to break up the Cathartic monotony.  LET'S LIGHT THIS CANDLE. Anyway, so yeah, podcast-site storage problems notwithstanding [UPDATE--I THINK I MIGHT HAVE FIGURED A WAY AROUND THESE, POSSIBLY NO PROBLEMS HERE, EXPLANATION SOON], there was indeed a program last Wednesday--just no Internet evidence of it yet, save for this playlist right here.  [UPDATE--NO, THAT'S NOT TRUE, SCROLL DOWN FOR AUDIO, THERE IS YOUR EVIDENCE, HOLMES.] Aside from learning about the inner lives of restaurant staff, and that "collie" can mean something other than a breed of dog, we experienced a couple of other novel things on the broadcast.  Lady Catharsis, in what I openly suspect is a gradual takeover bid, gets three segments on the night, all devoted to the same band.  And I kick off a feature I've been meaning to run, called "Slipped Discs"--tentatively.  So tentatively, in fact, that I can already tell you it won't really be called that. I've been thinking about the issue of "currency" lately, and about this lecture given by Billy Bragg late last year, and about this other lecture [part of the same series] given by Pete Townshend in 2011.  I conceived of Bombast as a "new music" show, and am happily committed to that.  I have discussed elsewhere on this website the idea that this program will try to exist in the moment, not look backward, and allow the continual onslaught of new releases to push the broadcast where it needs to go each week--it certainly beats dead-end nostalgia. The downside of this approach, from the standpoint of radio, is that the new music is available to everyone, for free, legally or illegally--it's already out there somewhere, and listeners don't particularly need me [or any other host] to provide access to it. It is true, as Bragg contends, that the breadth and idiosyncrasy of a presenter's taste can open windows for the listener that "Spotify Radio" and its similarly dreary counterparts are not likely to open, but it is equally true that you can automatically create value for listeners by playing what they cannot easily find and hear.  And that means, in most cases of recorded music, venturing into the past, when a given release didn't appear immediately on iTunes, or get leaked to the Internet beforehand, or come with a free download code. If I might go all "Uncle Catharsis" for a moment, and invite you to sit on my knee so that I can tell you a story about the way things were--back in the olden days, when there were only four television networks and we were still using rotary phones, owning recorded music meant committing to the possession of a physical object.  We now call something like this a "hard copy."  Back in the day there was no need for this term, because there were no "soft" copies--a third-generation audio cassette was no more physically disposable than the "original." And that, to me, throws light upon a shortcoming of contemporary music--not its content, but its delivery.  To paraphrase Hitchens, that which can be obtained without sacrifice can be jettisoned without sacrifice.  Okay, that was a really loose paraphrasing, but the point is that the availability and disposability of the digital file changes our relationship with music. A 12-inch piece of vinyl that you don't happen to like is not easily discarded--so not easily, in fact, that sheer laziness might just induce you to keep it around long enough for it to start growing on you, as many now-treasured recordings have done with me.  The .mp3 doesn't stand a chance.  Also, it's possible to own so many digital files, and so many isolated files removed from their original contexts, that you can "shuffle" yourself into a life of endless, shallow novelty, never experiencing a complicated structure of individual expression carried out over the course of a "long-player." Listening experiences like this one are rare and perverse today--much to Lady Catharsis's delight [one of "three bands she can't stand," apparently] but not to mine. On a similar note, Townshend wonders aloud how and where this album or this one could be heard in their entirety if released today. An unfortunate "trickle-up" effect is the likely result--knowing that no one will listen sequentially or all the way through, you simply stop making such recordings. These things, and the fact that many quality releases, even from the CD era [how odd that that now feels like a past-tense expression], have been overlooked in the Pandorization of Everything, lead me to think that Bombast could and should regularly embody my conviction that hard copies are beautiful things. Hop down now--because my leg hurts, and things were getting awkward between us--and let me show you this gem of a recording that inaugurates the "Slipped Discs" feature--"Jah Shaka Presents Dub Masters Volume 1," courtesy of Mango Records [UK].  We have been waiting 24 years for a Volume 2. I'm beginning to suspect it's not forthcoming. This record and I have been through a lot together--finding it in NYC while on a visit from home in California, I actually flew it back on the plane with me, and it has since endured several changes of residence, not to mention an apartment flood in the late 1990s that damaged about 1/3 of my collection at the time. Even without such bonding experiences to endear it to me, this is a killer LP--it's easy in 2013 not to know or remember how massive Jah Shaka was before dancehall and robo-reggae took over, what with his back catalogue barely touched by the on-demand music services, so this LP is valuable evidence of a great talent, and perfect on this skank-heavy evening. So most weeks I will endeavor to program something like this--let us say, 15 to 20 minutes' worth [the length of an EP, or an LP side, roughly speaking] of a release that exists only in "meatspace."  At least I didn't come up with a feature name incorporating that term.  You're welcome. BOMBAST playlist, 2013 January 23, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.

1. Rites of Spring: "End on End" [Dischord]
2. Wailing Souls: "Very Well (Dub)" [Mango UK / Digikiller] ***"Slipped Disc"
3. Unrest: "Imperial" [Teen Beat]
4. The Specials: "A Message to You Rudy" [Chrysalis]
5. The Slackers: "Rude & Reckless" [Hellcat]
6. Junior Murvin: "Police and Thieves" [Island]
7. The Velvet Underground: "Stephanie Says" [Verve] ***"Listening Parlour"
8. The Evens: "Wanted Criminals" [Dischord]
9. Human Cargo: "Carry Us Beyond" [Mango UK] ***"Slipped Disc"
10. The Slackers: "You Must Be Good" [Hellcat]
11. The Selecter: "Johnny Too Bad" [Castle]
12. The [English] Beat: "Jackpot" [Go-Feet / London]
13. The Velvet Underground: "Lisa Says" [Verve] ***"Listening Parlour"
14. Darkstar: "Timeaway" [Warp]
15. Pixies: "Build High" [4AD]
16. Pixies: "Evil Hearted You" [4AD]
17. The Slackers: "No Love" [Hellcat]
18. The Selecter: "My Sweet Collie" [Castle]
19. Girls Against Boys: "Jamie" [Slate / Adult Swim]
20. Aswad: "Mossman Skank" [Mango UK] ***"Slipped Disc"
21. The Specials: "Too Hot" [Chrysalis]
22. The Slackers: "Wasted Days" [Hellcat]
23. The Velvet Underground: "Candy Says" [Verve] ***"Listening Parlour"

next time: I strongly recommend the happy pills. --kid catharsis

“A Work of (Pretty Close to) Genius”: Transmission 12, 2013 January 16

If I should ever do a "perfect" show, meaning one in which factual errors and malapropisms don't spill out of my mouth, and in which every track I play is the intended one, properly cued, I will be at a loss for a "topic" of weekly commentary. As you might guess, that hasn't happened yet. I will let you listen to this week's episode and see what happens, as I do realize I give too much away in these notes of apology. My tribute to John Peel was intended as a one-time thing back in December, not an ongoing weekly genuflection, but "fortune presents gifts not according to the book." Hey--if I might make a request--and I might--if you're visiting this page but don't happen to be a "friend" of the show on Facebook, would you consider "liking" us? We're vain that way. Also, there's this, which is well worth "liking" too. You could also, oh, I don't know, write a "comment" to someone telling them how much you like the show, or something like that. The past two weeks have blended together somewhat, with repeat appearances by Konkoma, Chico Mann, Debruit, Kelpe, et. al.  What can I say?  These are terrific records.  "Grail overfloweth." Konkoma, in particular, is generating much positive feedback. Nevertheless, in what seems to be an ongoing dialectic of style, the electronica's been predominant lately, and I've flown solo for three weeks in a row, which, amazingly, hasn't happened before on WRFI. To address these myriad issues we hope to have a co-host next week, so stay tuned, literally. BOMBAST playlist, 2013 January 16, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.

1. Lapalux: "Forgetting and Learning Again" [Brainfeeder]
2. Magit Cacoon: "Show Up Show Down (LaFleur Remix)" [Whatpeopleplay]
3. Felipe Venegas: "Sueno Lucido" [Cadenza]
4. SCNTST: "Rhythm Sticks" [Boysnoize]
5. Joy Division: "Warsaw" [London Records Japan]
6. Fun Boy Three / Bananarama: "It Ain't What You Do" [Chrysalis] ***"Listening Parlour"
7. DeRobert and the Half-Truths: "Nashville Country Bump" [G.E.D. Soul]
8. Kelpe: "City" [Svetlana Industries]
9. Debruit: "Cri (Kelpe Remix)" [Civil Music]
10. Konkoma: "Sibashaya Woza" [Soundway]
11. Other Lives: "Dead Can" [TBD]
12. Dan Friel: "Exoskeleton" [Thrill Jockey]
13. Kumbia Queers: "Tropikalipsis" [Comfortzone]
14. Terakaft: "Awa Adounia" [World Village]
15. Joanna Newsom: "Emily" [Drag City] ***"Listening Parlour"
16. The Perfect Disaster: "Where Will You Go With Me" [Fire]
17. Moreno and L'Orch First Moja-One: "Aoko (Danger Girl)" [Stern's]
18. Konkoma: "Sibashaya Woza (Chico Mann Remix)" [Soundway]
19. Chico Mann: "Dilo Como Yo - Te Estan Llamando" [Soundway]
20. Monokle: "Swan (Daisuke Tanabe Remix)" [Ki]
21. Godspeed You Black Emperor!: "Strung Like Lights at Thee Printemps Erable" [Constellation]
22. Boris Noiz: "Aurora" [Yellow Machines]

next week: more talking, probably, but less of it by me--kid catharsis