Hey Suburbia / Radiation (2025)
If you know me, you know that I think Bum is one of the greatest bands of all time. Their album, Wanna Smash Sensation ranks among my very favorites ever and I spent years and years hunting down their various singles, EPs and other releases. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the same labels that reissued Wanna Smash Sensation in 2022 have come back with Kidd Bitz (& Glazed Rookies), a Bum singles and rarities compilation.
I'll start off with a minor quibble and that's the fact that this isn't an exhaustively complete compilation of Bum material. Admittedly, I'm one of those guys that wants every song, note and fart that a band cranks out to be part of these type of things and while this one has a lot of great on it, it's not everything. Some of it, I understand. A lot of the 7" A sides in Bum's catalog are tracks that were on Wanna Smash Sensation, so we probably don't need those. But there are others that aren't here and ones that are here that confuse me a bit, such as three of the eight songs from the Make It Or Break It 12". Regardless, it's not as complete as I'd maybe want it to be (likely spanning a double LP), but there's a metric ton of great songs on here.
A word of warning, when you first put this LP on, the fidelity of the original 7" versions of "A Promise is a Promise" and "Wedding Day" is not the greatest. It's also not the greatest on the actual original 7", so it's a source limitation, not a problem with the LP. Once you hit the third song, everything sounds bright, full and delightful. This compilation collects outstanding Bum songs from the At The Well 7", the Mrs. Rock and Roll 7", split 7"s with Innerface and Pingu, the aforementioned 12" and several compilation tracks. Spanning their entire existence you get Bum originals and five covers (They did a good amount of covers in their time).
As a maniac record collector, I did have all of these songs on singles and compilations before, but what no one had heard before this LP came out were the three previously unreleased songs. "1983" is a home recording by Rob Nesbitt from 1993 that is a good song and a nice way to close out side one of the record. The other two "Everything I Say Is Wrong" and "You, Down Again" are full band, killer Bum tunes that would have been a crime to leave shelved for all of eternity. It's really nice to be able to hear these two gems and for me, that's reason enough to pick this up.
Let's be honest though, even if I had every single song on here, I'd buy this. Of course there's the insane record collector thing creeping in again, but there's also the fact that it is really nice to be able to listen to all of these songs without having to go pull out nine different records or the old mix tapes I use to make to get at them. It's an essential addition to my record shelf and it just makes me greedy for more Bum songs. They should make some more of those...
