Growing up, I spent a lot of time in my room listening to music. Even when I entered high school and my social circle expanded, I much prefered spending time with my favorite bands, and discovering new artists. During a phase that pretty much has continued on through the majority of adult life I've been enamored with music from the UK. Radiohead. Elvis Costello. Depeche Mode. The Cure. The Smiths. XTC. The Specials. The English Beat. I could go on forever. I was so into The Cure in high school, I even joined a "Cure" cover band. We were called Oed's Cat. "Oed" being "Ed," the older brother of our guitar player. The "O" came about after reading Oedipus Rex. God we were lame. One day after practice the guitar player and I were in a discussion about distinct playing styles and guitar tones and how important were they to the overall success of a band. I told you, were were lame. So I explained how much I loved Johnny Marr of The Smiths. What an amazing player. I remarked how I thought he had a "shimmery" sound. Like when the sun catches your eye and everything goes all haywire for a second. Shimmery. My friend didn't really like my analogy. He said the term couldn't be applied to guitar technique. "Shimmery? Sounds kinda artsy-fartsy to me." Years later, I met Johnny Marr when he was playing with Neil Finn and the tour stopped at 4th & B in San Diego. I told him the story. He laughed and told me that he had used the same term to describe his playing when The Smiths were first starting out in Manchester. And he basically got the same response that I did. Except that it came from the lead singer of his band. Morrissey. Go figure. Please enjoy today's Smith's/Morrissey influenced downloads courtesy of my man Benny:

The Smiths: Louder Than Bombs

The Smiths: Meat Is Murder

The Smiths: The Queen Is Dead

The Smiths: Rank

The Smiths: The Smiths

The Smiths: Strangeways Here We Come

Morrissey: Kill Uncle

Morrissey: Viva Hate

Morrissey: Vauxhall & I

Morrissey: Your Arsenal

Morrissey: You Are The Quarry