where were you in 1992?

July 12, 2010 1:03 PM

Eric Davidson, lead singer of the New Bomb Turks, has written a book exploring a much-overlooked and oft-imitated genre that he dubs Gunk Punk. We Never Learn came out June 1st 2010.

More interviews with Eric at Chunklet and Totally Crushed Out.
Pics from the book(NSFW)
Vice has accompanying interviews with Billy Childish, the Mummies, and Steve Sherman of the Beguiled.

Finally some New Bomb Turks videos, arguably the best example of the scene, to give you some idea of what we're talking about here.
Live on a Monday
The Look Alive Jive
Girl You're On My Mind
Sucker Punch
Spanish Fly By Night
Loose (Stooges)
Tatooed Apathetic Boys
Hammerless Nail
Born Toulouse-Lautrec
Job
Mr. Suit (Wire)

posted by Potomac Avenue (15 comments total)

Saw them and the Oblivians and the Chrome Cranks and Gaunt and other scene staples a ton between '95 and '98 in Philly and Chicago. The last time I saw them they opened for the Hellacopters at Coney Island High at NYC and totally blew the Hellacopters off the stage, the Hellacopters (who always sucked) were just sad and boring by comparison, I walked out after a couple songs.
posted by The Straightener at 1:24 PM on July 12, 2010

Ooooh. You just missed Columbus Music Co-op’s annual Parking Lot Blowout with new Bomb Turks, Scrawl and Gibson Brothers this Saturday. Legends all.

Sadly, I missed this weekend too but I was around a bit in the day. No one ever cares, but I was at Jerry Wick's first ever live show, before Gaunt.
posted by putzface_dickman at 1:27 PM on July 12, 2010

(i care, Gaunt was one of my favorite bands)
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:47 PM on July 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Gaunt never got the kudos they deserved.
posted by josher71 at 1:47 PM on July 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Glad to see this on here. New Bomb Turks and Gaunt were some of my earliest concert experiences. At the time, I had no idea that people knew who they were outside of the Columbus outer-belt.

Saw the Turks play several weeks ago after Davidson's book signing in Brooklyn. They killed.
posted by tiger yang at 1:59 PM on July 12, 2010

Glad to know these guys are still rocking it. I admit to punk snobbery what, ten years ago now?, fifteen? when they went to Epitaph (Bad Religion, gah!) because obviously, Crypt had cred, but in hindsight it was an obvious move, and Scared Straight is a bad ass record (even with that trumpet-laden Stones number). I remember seeing them somewhere in eastern Canada just before that record came out and being amazed at their frenzy... and the crowd's delight when Davidson snatched some fratboy's ballcap and shoved it down his pants, daring the kid to grab it back. Good times.

Will track down later release that I've neglected (sorry lads) and snatch up this book. Need to find my Bloodstains/Killed By Death records too.
posted by Chichibio at 2:49 PM on July 12, 2010

releaSES durr drunk on cock
posted by Chichibio at 2:50 PM on July 12, 2010

The Gunk Punk link made me wish I kept all my back issues of MRR and Ben Is Dead.
posted by sourwookie at 3:03 PM on July 12, 2010

i wish you had those too. I've been trying to make a Reverend Norb post since joined metafilter but there just isnt enough extant.

So much great writing from the zine era gone gone gone.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:17 PM on July 12, 2010

Ha! I found a Ben Is Dead copy on one of my shelves! But it's only one of the "Retro" issues though.

I noticed only a couple of the bands had an email in their ads and one of the labels listed a website. Different times.
posted by sourwookie at 3:23 PM on July 12, 2010

Great Post. I was lucky enough to be at that Parking Lot Blowout this past weekend with an old friend. We've been going to concerts together for over 20 years, but there's something special about a New Bomb Turks Show, and that hasn't changed over the years. Eric is always great at encouraging "audience participation."
posted by Otis at 4:03 PM on July 12, 2010

I'm only familiar with the old Newbomb Turk's performance....
posted by umberto at 7:41 PM on July 12, 2010

This book sounds great and all but WTH gunk rock? That name sucks. Garage punk has worked perfectly fine the last 30 years or so, why the need to change it now?
posted by stinkycheese at 12:11 PM on July 13, 2010

I gotta agree with stinkycheese. From what I gather above Davidson coined this name for the book, but is there any other recorded usage? I always went with garage (revival), especially all the Estrus bands and anything to do with Billy Childish and those that championed that dirty four track mono sound (where are my Big Neck Baseball Furies 7 inches?)

Despite the dumb name, I'm still gonna read this here book.
posted by Chichibio at 3:59 PM on July 13, 2010

Yeah, I can't figure this stupId made-up name for what was just good time rock back in the day, either. Loved all those bands and might like the book. But as said, it was all just garage punk, same as it ever was.

Monomen rule.
posted by 3.2.3 at 6:08 PM on July 13, 2010