Suburban Voice Interviews New Bomb Turks
This is an unbelievable band. If you've
read this 'zine the last few years, you already
know that's how I feel and if you've heard
the records or seen them live, then you know
it's the goddamned truth. What separates
the New Bomb Turks from most of the cur-
rent crop of punk rock bands is their rever-
ence for past punk and mischievous musical
forms - hell-raising rockabilly, garage snot,
classic punk and even some mainstream pop
stylings. They're obvious music FANS above
all, and their enthusiasm comes through their
playing and songwriting. The discography
is endless - a non-stop stream of 7" releases,
an EP ("Drunk On Cock") and two full-
length albums ("Destroy Oh-Boy!" and "In-
formation Highway Revisited"). This inter-
view was done quite awhile back (before the
second album came out), in the office at the
Middle East, with vocalist Eric Davidson
and bassist Matt Reber. Bill Randt (drums)
and Jim Weber (guitar) round out the Columbus,
OH four-piece...
SV: What did that incredible review in MRR
do for you guys?
Eric: It was good, it was neat and all that. It
was a nice review because it was informed. It
seemed like he knew what he was talking
about, what he liked about our band and
that's cool and that's impressive, but then if
you get thrown in with the MRR sort of
bands, then everybody thinks you're a
hardcore band. I'm sure everybody reads
that magazine, but you get lumped in sometimes.
But there's nothing wrong with that. If
they like the music, that's great and I
appreciate that. And that review came out
before the album came out, so it helped.
Matt: It got Jim some blow jobs. (laughter)
SV: Then there was a write-up awhile back in
CMT about the Columbus, OH "scene." First
of all, is there a Columbus "scene" and,
second, did A&R people all of a sudden start
descending on the city?
Eric: Oh, you wouldn't believe. Boy, just
money flying in Columbus, OH, just like it
always has. No...I would say there's more of
a scene there than Dayton, which is the trendy
one to talk about now but, at the same time,
there's great record stores, there's a couple of
good bars and there's cheap beer and there's
always an influx of new students, young
people. But, for the most part, it's like any
city. It comes and goes.
Matt: I think if you took all the good bands
from Ohio, you could probably have a scene
the size of Boston or Seattle. If you take
Guided By Voices, the Breeders, who don't
really count because they just moved to
Dayton, Brainiac and Afghan Whigs,
Prisonshake, Cobra Verde, My Dad Is Dead.
But if you take that and the Columbus bands,
such as Gaunt and Greenhorn.
SV: Ohio's always had a lot of good bands,
back to the Pagans and Rocket From The Tombs.
Eric: Ohio's fine, we're not putting down
Ohio, necessarily, but for sheer masses of
people - there's more people in NY, there's
more people in Boston, there's more people,
in Seattle. When people say, "oh, there's a
scene in San Diego," it's like, when hasn't
there been a scene in California? There's
always tons of bands, there. It's hype. It's
somebody looking for the next big thing.
Matt: It's taking a scene which is going to
exist, normally, anywhere, and when you
focus on a scene because one band's really
good, a lot of bands will get signed from that
area. The Breeders are good. Guided By
Voices are awesome and Brainiac has gotten
some good reviews, but, besides that,
Dayton really doesn't...
Eric: I know people that live there. They say
it sucks, there aren't any record stores.
Matt: Bob from Guided By Voices says there's
no scene in Dayton.
Eric: And those guys have been around.
SV: It's just something people have to hype
up, I guess.
Matt: There's always going to be a Boston
scene, there's always going to be a New York
scene, there's always going to be a Seattle
scene.
SV: Well, considering you guys are fairly
young, yet have such a classic punk rock
sound, how did you guys get into that stuff?
Matt: Nothing better to do. I think that
explains it.
Eric: Well, actually, when we all met...we
like a lot of different types of music and it just
turned out that I had never been in a band, so
I kind of went into it blind. Bill and Matt have
been in bands together, but they had different
kinds of influences and had maybe never
played in a band like that, before. Jim was in
a kind of a party band in high school, so
when you throw people together like that,
who are a little bit inexperienced and maybe
still just learning their instruments - except
Bill - a lot of the times, the best punk rock
bands play, if you listen closely, there's
different kinds of music in there. The Saints,
and even the Dead Boys were a little glammy.
The Clash had a little bit of roots rock going
and even reggae. All these bands had different
stuff. The Saints had the Stones thing.
SV: And the soul thing. The second album
("Eternally Yours") is one of the greatest
punk albums, ever.
Eric: The first two records and even part of
the third one and that EP, too. ("The Saints,"
"Prehistoric Sounds," "Paralytic Tonight")
and it's just I think those bands, they had
those influences - like the Ramones always
said they liked those 50s and 60s one-hit
wonder bands and stuff, because they liked
the fun, short songs. Now it's like punk has
a sort of definition of short and fast, but
it doesn't have to be that way.
SV: Yeah. I mean, today, everything has to
be separated into all these sub-genres or
whatever and, back then, all these bands had
different influences, many things going on
and that's what made them so unique.
Eric: Well, they wanted to update something
they hadn't heard in awhile. It was nice
about that band we saw tonight, Showcase
Showdown. I haven't seen a youngband play
stuff that sounded like either Dead
Kennedys or 1980s new wave stuff in awhile
and it was kind of fun to see that. Play it
earnest and have a good time. I haven't seen
that in awhile and that's what punk bands
were like, probably in the late 70s. If you
hadn't heard good rockabilly in awhile,
besides Sha-Na-Na and all those revival bands,
it probably sounded kind of exciting to hear
the Ramones. That's what's exciting - you
update different sounds that you like. I don't
know if we do that very consciously (oh, I
would say they do, but they do it quite well!-AL)
but you just end up doing it.
Matt: If you like hardcore, there's a million
bands you can listen to. And they all the
sound the same and you can have a huge
record collection just based around
hardcore.
SV: Everything's so narrow focused these days.
Matt: The thing is that there's so much more than
there was in '77. If you look through Punk magazine
from '77, they covered a lot of things. They covered
Cheap Trick...
SV: Dictators.
Matt: Power-pop, and they even had Stones interviews.
SV: Trouser Press used to do the same thing.
Eric: And then there had to be the canon after that,
what was cool and what wasn't. And all those kids who
grew up in the 80s, even if they totally hate that and
make fun of yuppies, if you grew up in the 80s, you
can't help categorize things. It was totally a decade of
what was cool, what was in, what was popular because
everything was so economical. Everything was based on
what's selling and what's in, so kids today have such a
definition mindset. When I started seeing shows, kids
would literally talk about when somebody didn't have a
Champion sweatshirt there, for awhile. It was like the
Gorilla Biscuits thing and it was like, what are you
talking about?! That's so schtick.
SV: I'm looking at the crowd tonight and I don't see
a lot of the people I see at the hardcore shows.
Eric: Good!
SV: I agree...
Eric: I mean I like if young kids come. That's
cool and if they think we're fast like a hardcore
band, and enjoy it...
Matt: And college kids. I love the fact that we
appeal to "indy rock" kids or whatever.
SV: Slackers (makes noises)
Matt: Slackers, you know, whatever. There
were slackers in the 60s, there were slackers
in the 50s, 40s, slackers is just a marketing
term.
Eric: We were talking about that. When is
there a decade when people in their 20s
weren't finding work and didn't know what
they were going to do with their lives?
SV: So why is it all of a sudden getting this
attention?
Eric: It's 'cause they can sell stuff with it. A
large amount of people in their 20s will be
spending money when they finally get jobs
in their 30s.
Matt: They find new things to market or
whatever. Like the whole alternative thing -
it's not alternative.
SV: Alternative to what?
Matt: Even college radio - within the last
five years, college radio has become such a
thing where there's stations that can decide
to do whatever they want, but they're still
buying into the major label stuff. They might
as well be programmed like any other station.
SV: Well, the college radio up here is awesome.
I was down in Florida, last year, and they
kept playing the same few songs and it
was the same songs off the record, like they'd
play one song off the U2 record, one song off
the Nirvana record.
Matt: Whatever, that's Florida, that's a party
state, it's a little more mainstream and really
right wing.
Eric: What you were saying about hardcore
kids, too. They're a little more serious and I
was just talking to someone tonight, a woman
out here that I know, and we were talking
about how kids have more definition of what
hardcore is and they might hear that we're
fast and the record sounds a little serious, it's
a little earnest sounding, if you've never
heard us before and when they see us and
we're kind of goofing and having a good
time and actually enjoying ourselves, it's not
their idea of what that is. But I think that's a
good thing, because I've always enjoyed the
bands that surprise you. Like the Beastie
Boys might do something that sounds like
funk or a punk rock thing or sounds like
something else and you have Prince, who's
all over the scale and the Stones, even if they
did a dumb disco song, it was an okay dumb
disco song and if they wanted to do it, they
did it, because they enjoyed playing it, and
that's how it should be. Even when we were
coming up with songs for this record, I tried
to keep in mind, if like, "are people going to
like it," you just have to say well, if we like
playing it, if it's fun, then you should just
play it, because that's how you started to
come up with songs, in the first place. You
didn't worry if someone was going to like it.
You just played it. So now maybe you think
about it more, if you want to be serious about
it.
Matt: I didn't think anyone would like the
"Destroy Oh-Boy" record.
Eric: I figured, for sure, it would be stacked
in the back of Used Kids Records in Columbus
and they'd be putting them out in the dollar bins,
every couple of months. That's what I figured. And
I would've been happy. But all of us, most of the
bands, the common thing is that they usually aren't
afraid to play something they like. You may not like
every solo Iggy Pop record or every Clash song but
I really honestly feel those bands did what they
wanted to do.
SV: Oh yeah. I mean, I was listening to the
Clash box set, yesterday, and all the different
styles...
Eric: Those songs aren't perfect.
SV: They went a little off the wall with "Sandinista."
Eric: Whatever, if they want to do that. I
don't really like REM, anymore, but, sadly
enough, I honestly believe they're doing what
they want to do. That's cool for them. They
have more than enough audience to worry
about them. I don't enjoy them anymore, but
if that's what they want to do, I respect them.
But then with the Replacements, when "Don't
Tell A Soul" came out, I honestly thought
they were trying to get a hit.
SV: Yeah.
Eric: Because, the next album, I thought the
songs were a little better and the production
actually might have been cheesy, but then,
who cares? As long as bands are doing what
they want to do, kids shouldn't have such a
definite idea about what they like. 'Cause
half those kids that are into hardcore and
make sure they buy the right pants and
everything - two years later, they're doing
acid and listening to the Grateful Dead. They
should just enjoy what they enjoy.
Matt: And not try to be so tough. The last
thing the world needs is more tough people.
SV: The element that's missing from punk
rock and hardcore a lot of times is fun.
Having a good fucking time.
Matt: Yeah. If you really want to be revolutionary
and cause waves in this society, it's not by being
some hard-ass, who's a vegan and all this kind of
shit. When you're having fun, if people see you
having fun and they don't want you to have fun,
then that's like fucking the society, right there.
To have fun nd have a good time and be carefree
and not be serious is a form of revolution and
it's the most powerful form of revolution.
SV: Yeah. I always thought punk rock was about
anti-authoritarianism and thishardcore thing...
Matt: ...is falling into authoritarian rules.
SV: Exactly. It's rules. It's rigid, it's structured.
Matt: You have to have a tribal tattoo. Like
that kind of bullshit. If you want to get a
tattoo, get a tattoo, but don't take yourself so
seriously, or you're just going to end up like
your fucking dad.
Eric: And you can be serious and you should
be aware of things. There's a difference between
being aware and making sure you're not dicking
yourself or other people over and being just a
fucking germanic geek who's following every
command.
Matt: Yeah, that's a perfect word.
Eric: We all grew up in and around Cleveland
in the mid-8Os and there were a lot of bands
that played different sorts of things.
SV: Death Of Samantha.
Eric: Death Of Samantha sounded like a mix
between Roxy Music and the Stooges. Who
cares that neither of those bands were being
cited at the time. Then you had the Mice,
who were a little bit Jam, a little bit Beatles,
whatever. When the Beatles came over, when
people think how serious the Beatles were,
musicians, learning how to use studios, blah-
blah-blah - and I like the Beatles, I don't love
them - but when they came over, they were
goofy, they were funny, silly, really fucked
with interviewers.
SV: Times were different. There was no rock
press. They were dealing with the mainstream press.
Eric: There wasn't such an ideal of what
popular music is supposed to be and what
rock is supposed to be. They were able to
play the blues thing, which they probably
got flack for, being a white version of the
blues, then they got flack for maybe wanting
America and turning away from the English.
They got all kinds of flack but, in the end,
who cares. They enjoyed their lives. Most
kids these days, kind of come and maybe
they've got really bad family problems. I
don't know - maybe we're all lucky, maybe
we're relatively well-adjusted and we can sit
here and say this...
This stuff was printed in Suburban Voice #36.
You can contact the zine at the following address:
Suburban Voice
PO Box 2746
Lynn, MA 01903-2746
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