EXPOSING YOU TO MORE NEW MUSIC

NEW BOMB TURKS

Stubble Interview by Ken Zebbyn

Ken: Because you're from Ohio, what bands that we don't know about...I mean we know about Dink out of Ohio...

Eric: Well, I saw the MOODY JETS in here (Stubble) so, ahh, they're pretty fun. They're a local band. They play out a lot.

Jim: There's a band called THE THOMAS JEFFERSON SLAVE APARTMENTS and a punk band out of Cleveland called the TKO's who are pretty cool. This band COBRA VERDI, kind of different but I sort of like them. Gaunt out of Columbus. Ahh, BRANIAC you probably heard of. They're pretty good live, pretty wild. So, There's kind of a lot of bands. It's sort of teetered off. There hasn't been a really great new band in like the last year and a half or so but considering most people think there's nothing in Ohio, there is a lot of bands, a lot of labels.

Ken: If we were to walk in on you guys at home what record would we find on the turntable?

Eric: I got this band THE DUMMIES that came out on Get Hip that's kind of a fun record. I was just listening to that before I left. They're pretty cool. It's kind of like a punk rock thing. For a while I was listening to JOHN SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION, they're new record, when I do the dishes. Last year we bought so many records I haven't even been able to catch up on them. IKE AND TINA LIVE and this other one THE LOST ASS DRAGGERS on Crypt that's pretty fun. It's really good. It sounds like a really really fast RAW CHAINSAWS or something like that. It's a pretty cool record. It's brand new so look for it.

Ken: The review in Rip magazine says how you guys are like frantic and crazy and out of control and how it's your best environment. Do you like being labeled that way?

Jim: Yeah, it's better than boring. I think that's good as long as it's kind of fun too. Just because we play fast a lot of people just assume we're like this really violent hard core band or something but it's more of a fun kind of attitude and sometimes it can be weird if that's all they hear and they just say, ahhh, their work all went by in a blur, and it seems like they don't really listen to it sometimes. I think for us, compared to the bands that are like us, we try to do a little more with the music but a lot of times, with fast music, people just kind of hear it and the beat goes by at first and then they write the review and then maybe two week later when they listen to it some more they hear more stuff. That's cool though. A review's a review as long as they don't say we're pieces of shit. Maybe if Us magazine said we were pieces of shit that's OK.

Ken: When you write your music do you do it together or does one person come in and have an idea? Does it vary by song or what?

Eric: We all sort of write the songs together. Jim or Matt usually have riffs and then we just sort of play them at practice and jam on them a little bit. That's about it. I write pretty much all the lyrics.

Ken: If you weren't touring now what would we find each of you doing?

Jim: You know (masturbation gesture) that sort of thing, as long as it's cheap enough to live so that we don't have to work too much. I do some freelance writing on the side when I can, drink, listen to records, see bands, and work at record stores sometimes.

Ken How did you get on Epitaph and has it been any different for you?

Eric: It hasn't been very different. It's basically; we're still doing the same kind of stuff we did before. I mean we're still playing the same clubs but it's a little busier with the European tour coming up and we've been doing a hell of a lot more interviews than we usually do before a European tour. We haven't been out there for a while too so it's a little more hectic. Some of the shows, there's been a few more people maybe but then, you know. It's about the same. I think they're (Epitaph) kind of starting out slow. They're not trying to be all "Let's push you really hugh" right away because we're really not that kind of band like PENNY WISE or something, you know. They were already kind of hugh. It's been fun. They've been really good. They listen to any problems you have or anything. They always call and see what's going on and let us know what's goin' on with our reviews.

Ken: The music sounds the same, so it's like they're not doing anything on the creative side...

Jim: No! We did this album before we signed with them too so it's not like, you know...

Ken: Oh really. Was it released before you signed?

Eric: No. We recorded it before we actually signed. We sent them the tapes of the stuff we recorded and they said they liked it so...

Ken: Did you meet through playing in bands or were you already friends when you started out?

Jim: I knew Eric from the dorms in college at Ohio state, the #2 ranked football team in the nation and soon to be national champions but...

Ken: Humbly, he says.

Jim: Humbly, of course. And then we met Matt and Bill through this radio station that we worked at, college radio station, and we just kind of hooked up that way.

Ken: What inspired the name NEW BOMB TURKS?

Eric: This movie called The Hollywood Knights with Robert Wahl. It's from the early 80's. It's pretty bad but it's very hilarious.

Ken: Football's pretty big with the band I guess?

Jim: I liked the Browns when they were in town but now I could give two shits about them. I'm a Packers fan now.

Eric: Yeah. When we were in Green Bay, Reverend Norb had a ceremony making Jim an honorary Green Bay fan. He gave him a cheese head and all these little programs and stuff. It was pretty awesome, pretty funny. It was on the cover of their weekend edition of the newspaper and it said like this whole article about "...and after the ceremony, the TURKS will play..." and it was really hilarious. Like it was this really big deal for them.

Ken: That's cool because since we have connections in Milwaukee, stubble gets distributed both here in New England and the other place it goes is Milwaukee so mentioning a little Wisconsin stuff will be good for press.

Jim: We love playing Green Bay. It's one of the most fun towns for us to play. We just always get good crowds and it's a really f**kin' fun town. Speakeasy is a really awesome bar we always go to when we're there, and the Kids Cafe.

Ken: If you had to pick the best invention ever in humanity and the most useless, what would they be?

Eric: The TV. That's the best and the most useless. That's why it's so good. And don't forget triple ripple butt plugs. Not the double ripple but the triple ripple.

Ken: Who helped you the most getting the music career going to where it is now?

Jim: Tim Warren, the guy that ran Crys cause he put out our first few records.

Eric: Pretty much nobody else called to do a whole album early on except him. We didn't even know if we'd do a whole album. We figured we'd do a couple of singles and that's about it. Craig Regala, the guy that started Data Panic Records out of Columbus, put out our first couple of singles. He helped a lot. Again, he asked. We didn't know if anyone in town would want to do a single. And then all the various people who have done stuff with us. And of course now Epitaph Records.

Ken: Any interesting or unusual things happen on the road that you'd care to share with our readers

Eric: Once we played with TEENGENERATE in Green Bay. We were driving around in downtown Green Bay late at night and, well, Jim was driving and he had a bottle of Jim Beam that he was sipping off as he was driving and the Japanese guys were amazed because they thought this was normal American behavior. He was just doing it to party. He wasn't doing it to scare them or anything but it was kind of a cool effect. We don't recommend that to anyone. I mean we're experienced drunk drivers.

Jim: I'm a professional drunk driver so I can get away with things like that.

Ken: In your musical genre who do you admire the most?

Eric: DEVILDOGS. Overall someone like that or COSMIC PSYCOS. Actually, we were just listening to them in the van and they're a good band. Really nice guys. Put out good records. They seem to carry themselves well. If their band doesn't do great they don't get all pissed off about it. They just go home. Do whatever they do at home in Australia. But over all time it's like, we like, you know whatever. The bands you'd think. THE RAMONES.DEAD POLICE. STOOGES. Stuff like that.

Ken: What's your overall goal for this tour? What are you hoping to get out of it?

Jim: To finish it without breaking any legs or anything. Basically we hope that like... With THE QUEERS it's good because we're playing to a lot of kids who maybe haven't seen us before so that would be cool. They bring in a different crowd. We bring in a different crowd for them . So hopefully both bands will get off on that. And then there's like when we get to Europe. We haven't been over there in almost two years so it'll be fun just to see people and see if people are still interested, hopefully they will be, and see how the shows go over there. We just want to bring rock'n'roll to the kids, to the masses. Just to see our friends too. We're going to Europe next week, well Saturday actually, and hopefully people will like the record.

Ken: Who would be the first and last person you would invite to an end of the tour party?

Eric: GG Allen! Well his bones anyway. That would be great. That would make the party. But seriously though, I'd kind of like to invite that Eleanor Mondale on E Entertainment. I don't know why but I find her so cute. She's really hot. Then I'd tell her she can't come to the party unless she does a story about it so that Steve Cometco robot guy can talk about it on that channel.

Jim: The last person would be Jerry from Gaunt, yeah, that's it.

Ken: We like to end every interview with...

Eric: A song and dance number? A chase scene? The spoo shot?

Ken: No! Live ammo. Actually we ask for words of wisdom from the band. Have any?

Jim: As long as there's sex and drugs we can live without the rock'n'roll.

Eric: I don't know? Come to Columbus. Listen to some GHETTO BOYS records. That always helps.