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.