Don't Confuse Motion With Progress

After a decade and a half of thinking The New Bomb Turks "Scared Straight" CD wasn't worth the 2 cents' worth of plastic it was pressed on, I've started to change my mind a bit -- one of the unfortunate by-products of me now having a CD player in my upgradeable hoopty as well as plenty of time to listen to extra bullshit like this stuff. I've generally thought that the first couple of Turks LPs were two of the finest records ever made by man, while anything else they put out afterwards was pretty much nothing but crap meant for nose-pickers who read Gearhead and really liked the Hellacopters, but this one (their first for Epitaff) is actually NOT THAT BAD. Although, I still think it's funny that they added horns to some of the songs (as well as some boogie-woogie piano), which is something that apparently every band is told to do to-- even decent songwriters like The Replacements and Tommy Keene-- in order to make their stuff sound more commercially accessible. You'd think that shit like hair metal and '70s acid rock would've killed off horn sections as a paying gig forever, but no, instead of falling out of favor, that supposedly low-profile trombone player is actually smirking to himself on the sidelines, cashing hefty checks from Brett Gurewitz while waiting for Aerosmith to bring him in for their next hit single.




New Bomb Turks -

"Hammerless Nail"

"Professional Againster"

"Cultural Elite Sign-Up Sheet"

"Jukebox Lean"

I'm Left To My Own Devices

Out of the million New Bomb Turks singles that I own, here's one of them. That's what I do here, keep giving you a bunch of scratchy New Bomb Turks mp3's that you probably already have on the "Pissing Out the Poison" CD anyway. Actually, the sleeve design for this one is pretty neat, including one of the coolest band photos ever. That guy (Jay Brown) took a whole ton of good NBT photos, all at the same place it seems. By the way, absolutely no one I knew was calling this "gunk punk" back then, you're not getting me to fall for that one.




New Bomb Turks -

"Polyester Thinking Cap"

"Got No Proof"

I Feel Like I'm Flat On My Back Again

No decent record collection could've made it through the 90's unscathed without a few New Bomb Turks singles, so here's one of the better ones-- though really, they were all pretty good, it wasn't until they jumped to Epitaph that shit started to go downhill... anyway, "Summer Romance" is one of my favorite New Bomb Turks cover attempts (behind "Just Head" and "Mr. Suit" and "Ejection" and okay, well whatever), and "I'm Weak" is one of their solid mid-tempo stompers-- y'know, like "Taller Order" or "The Anal Swipe"-- and I like those ones, too.




New Bomb Turks -

(these files are now listen-only)

"I'm Weak"

"Summer Romance"

Damn Your Fucken Work

Almost nothing can touch the earth-churning power of the first two New Bomb Turks LPs, but some of the early NBT singles from that era bring a somewhat different lo-fi racket-- almost as if they were trying out to be The Mummies or something, while still pounding holes in the floor like a motherfucker.

"Youngblood", the b-side here (and a Headcoats cover), is on the "Pissing Out The Poison" CD but "Bottle Island"* isn't, so grab it while the grabbin's good.

*which is a TJSA cover. There, I mentioned it




New Bomb Turks -

"Bottle Island"

"Youngblood"

(both of these files are now listen-only)

Why Can't I Keep My Big Fuckin' Mouth Shut

Once I thought about it, I knew I had to post this single next, seeing as "Last Lost Fight" has practically the same line in it as the Lazy Cowgirls song in the last post. Unfortunately, my copy has a bite taken out of it so that the outermost grooves are kinda crunchy; because of that, I'm using the version of "Last Lost Fight" from the "Pissing Out The Poison" CD. "Trying To Get By" is the vinyl rip, though, since it's not on the CD. It's still a bit crunchy, but once the short little bass intro ends and the guitars kick in you'll hardly notice. It won't break your iPod, dude, it's punk rock.

The note that I found inside the sleeve has me thinking that I bought this from Vital Music; it probably seems odd now to look back at when buying some Rip Offs vinyl was an average everyday purchase, instead of dropping big bucks on eBay. (I did eventually get the LP and all the singles back then, in case you're wondering.) I blotted out the "suspicious thing" that Tom and I were talking about because I think it's funnier that way.




New Bomb Turks -

"Trying To Get By"

"Last Lost Fight"

(these files are now listen-only)

Gotta Gotta Sinking Feeling

My favorite New Bomb Turks song, from one of my all-time favorite albums, "Information Highway Revisited". Since this is from the Rev. Norb picture disc it probably won't sound as good as the LP pressing, so just keep playing it louder and louder until you don't notice. Kinda like sticking cheap beer in the freezer before you drink it.

The flip side, "Feel It", is a Motorcycle Boy cover. Motorcycle Boy were some poofy-haired L.A. band, which means they were probably pretty gay.




New Bomb Turks -

"Gotta Gotta Sinking Feeling"

"Feel It"

(these files are now listen-only)

I Hate Your Fucking Mess

In their time the New Bomb Turks churned the earth better than any band alive, so it's funny to hear them cover the Anti-Nowhere League, one of the worst punk bands ever.

With all due respect to Scandinavian death metal, the Entombed song is almost five minutes long and really drags. Jeezus fuck, guys-- Minor Threat, ever hear of them?




New Bomb Turks -

"I Hate People"

(this file is now listen-only)