The Smiths

Morrissey mentioned


Excerpt:

In fact, Sameshima is now so at ease with his cruising self that he has a tattoo of a glory hole – openings punched in the walls of toilet cubicles, allowing the men on either side to have sex with each other. (He also did a series of photographs of them, called Erdbeermund.) The artist is more ambivalent about another tattoo that reads “How Soon is Now” in homage to the Smiths, given Morrissey’s recent politics. “Johnny Marr is still OK,” he says. “And he co-wrote How Soon Is Now. Well, that’s how I justify it.”

Louder Than Bombs is on Kevin Griffin's list of Albums he can't live without, for Spin - https://www.spin.com/2024/03/5-albums-i-cant-live-without-kevin-griffin-of-better-than-ezra/?

4. Louder Than Bombs, The Smiths
This was a compilation from one of my all-time favorite bands. Morrisey’s [sic] voice and lyrics… Johnny Marr’s sublime guitar work…oh my it’s heaven!

Couple of bits from the latest Record Collector #556 (April, 2024):

The Smiths
(Rough Trade, 1984)

"William is a massive Smiths fan. I wasn't a fan then and I'm not a fan now. It used to drive me mad because I couldn't find anyone back then who didn't like The Smiths. I don't get them at all. They leave me completely cold."



Small bit on a record shop too:

FWD.

By Neil Crossley.

“Every time I opened a music paper it said, ‘Johnny Marr – jingle jangle’. I'd just had enough”: How The Smiths defied expectations on their final album, Strangeways, Here We Come.

Excerpt:

"Delve back through rock and pop history and it’s often the most unlikely unions that create the most innovative and exhilarating music. Such was the case with Steven Patrick Morrissey and John Martin Maher, the former a writer, vocalist and visionary, who turned Mancunian mundanity into exquisite paeans of desire and disaffection; and the latter, a streetwise guitarist whose dazzling style and technique were matched by melodic prowess."

---

Backloaded: The Smiths’s Self-Titled Debut Album Turns 40

In hindsight, the band's debut plays like an inverse of their final album.

---

Why The Smiths' 1984 debut is their most underrated album

Morrissey, Marr and co's first LP lives in the shadow of The Queen Is Dead, but it's a strong statement of intent.

---

Via @BookishBoy:

This One Is Different Because It’s Us: The Smiths at 40

On this day in 1984, four Manchester boys put out an album that would change the destiny of rock and pop music forever.

[URL...

Forty years ago, The Smiths released their now-iconic self-titled debut album. Mark Beaumont speaks to drummer Mike Joyce about the trouble bubbling behind the scenes, the controversies it stirred, and how it came to inspire and define an indie rock explosion.


Regards,
FWD.

The Smiths’ popularity keeps growing and growing. For the first time they have reached 15 million monthly listeners on Spotify ánd made their top 500 artists which deserves a special mention on Spotify’s platform.