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...
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]
next week: when I aim for fire [?!], I never miss. Enjoy the music! --kid catharsis
