...“We were driving in Topanga Canyon,” Clint recalls, “listening to the Smiths, and I was like, I’d love to get a cover band together.”

But he only jokingly contemplated going through with it. “Then I was like, fuck it!” he says. “So I booked that gig at the Joint without us even having a practice yet.”

Like professor Stein, Clint cites Shakespeare and the great masters as precedents, adding the old saw “Good poets borrow, great poets steal” for good measure. “Just because one band writes songs, why can’t another band play those songs?”

Good question.

Then again, why can’t a band play its own songs? Clint’s way ahead of me. “We’re not a tribute band per se. I’m not dressing as Morrissey, hell no! I want to turn Louder Than Bombs into the Bombs, and people aren’t going to notice. After the shows, people came up to me and said, ‘I really like your songs!’ And I said, [beat] ‘Thank you!’”