The Boomtown Rats “The Fine Art of Surfacing” released 40 years ago today, October 9th, 1979 (at least I’m pretty sure it was – Wikipedia’s date of June 2nd 1979 is most definitely incorrect as virtually every other website says October). Post-punk/new wave with a heavy dose of organ and sneer, The Fine Art of Surfacing was Boomtown Rats’ third album and it went to #7 on the UK charts. The record has the Rats most famous track, “I Don’t Like Mondays,” which went to #1 in the UK and to #73 in the US as the lead single from the album. It received pretty decent airplay on US radio stations, though not so much in San Diego as the subject of the song was a 1979 school shooting that occurred in that city by Brenda Ann Spencer, who gave the reason for her violence as “I don’t like Mondays.” That song is a classic, but also great are “Someone’s Looking at You” (#4 UK), a song about Bob Geldof’s burgeoning infamy with political activism; “Diamond Smiles” (#13 UK), a track about suicide; and the spacey new wave song “Wind Chill Factor (Minus Zero).” Our version of The Fine Art of Surfacing seems to be an original as it has hidden tracks – Side A is a bunch of creepy laughing that goes through the run-out groove and Side B has a weird voice saying “That concluded episode three. We will return…” with then a door or something closing.