Left Of The Dial

When I was a scrawny, curious kid trying to wrap my head around punk rock history, I would spend hours milling around a towering dusty house known as Toad Hall, a rambling series of rooms stuffed-to-the-gills with LPs, books, comics, magazines, and related ephemera. Literally a rabbit hole, the place attracted Japanese tourists that maxed out credit cards for rare jazz records found on the under lit second floor. The basement, though, contained a real black vinyl hive: oodles and oodles of loose 45s, most without any more management and organization than a single letter – say S – followed by a confederation of hodgepodge, piled up records. For me, this was Eden, land of the lost and lovelorn, where I first put my grimy hands on Troggs singles. Reading the Bomp collection Part II reminds me of those days, long before the hyper-segmentation of today’s ‘here today gone tomorrow,’ self-conscious alternative music. When garage/psycho teen/frat rock/raw psych music held sway for tiny groups of rock’n’roll insiders, Bomp was the Bible, literally. It was the conduit for news and info on Mexican blasters, British underground electric soulsters like Creation and the much-lauded, stirring Small Faces, a repository for all things Seeds and Standells, and a place where writers like Lester Bangs began to popularize their righteous critiques with zest and vision. Sure, it didn’t quite have the hip downtown writerly sway of Creem, or the interview-rich terrain of Rolling Stone, but it held firm to fanzine roots, kept all matters close to the ground. Where else could one, in 1975, read about the savvy style of Paul Revere and the Raiders, considered has-beens meant for the dustbin? My own sister spun their records alongside Iggy Pop and 999 and never winced. To her, such feisty, interesting music was a continuum, a shifting paradigm from one decade to the next. Nothing lost, just built upon. Bomp has that kind of kindred spirit – Mersey Beat and the Weirdos. Just like Greg Shaw insisted – “in rock’n’roll a good idea is always good.” This compendium is not for the punk subset who think the Sex Pistols were pure original carnage; this issue is for the dudes and gals with bigger ears, who know that punk rock was being spanked and shaken by bands long before, just as early issues of Bomp testify. Punk fills the pages, long before the British adopted day-glo and safety pins. If anything, the sheer pleasure of music is entombed here – not just the original joy of hearing the right tune hit your inner ear, but the sizzling fetish for discourse, the fetish for collecting, the fetish for touching objects: worship-lore and fandom. “Pure now for pop people,” intoned Shaw as well, reminding us that rock’n’roll, in its best form, never tires, always transcends, to meet us in the here and now. - Left Of The Dial

Mass Movement Magazine

A fantastic collection of editorials, articles and discographies from the seminal fanzines Who Put The Bomp and Bomp; lovingly edited by Suzy Shaw (wife of Garage Rock Guru and founder of Bomp Greg) and long time contributor Mike Stax.
The book comprises of articles written between 1970 and 1981 by a variety of contributors including the infamous Lester Bangs and David Meltzer and includes the King of Surf himself Dick Dale, the legend that is Roky Erikson, an in depth analysis of the British Invasion of the 60s and some true underground Garage nuggets such as the Seeds and the Standells. If you’re an obsessive fan of underground rock and roll you will undoubtedly have heard of Bomp, and if, like me, you were too young to have collected these gems when they came out, this collection is all your xmases, birthdays and bar mitzvah’s come at once. Sure some of the Xeroxed articles are hard to read but hell this scene was all about COMMITMENT, so quit your whining and enjoy the Roots of Fandom and indeed fanzines themselves. Articles written about real bands by real fans. What more could you want? What do you mean friends? Forget that nerd. - Ian Pickens / Mass Movement magazine

Steve Says

Bomp! was a fanzine that was originally titled Who Put The Bomp after a 1961 doo-wop hit. The circulation was very small and just 21 issues were published from 1970 until its demise in 1979 (a 22nd was shelved for financial reasons in 1981), but its influence was remarkable.

Bomp! became a bible for fans of garage rock, punk, power pop, British invasion, girl groups, new wave, rockabilly, surf, rock 'n' roll and psychedelia, and the mag featured early work from such notable music writers as Richard Meltzer, Greil Marcus, Dave Marsh and Lester Bangs.

The zine begat Bomp Records, which launched in 1974 and following a hiatus is still going today after releasing music from the likes of the Flamin' Groovies, The Modern Lovers, Iggy Pop, The Plimsouls, Josie Cotton, Dead Boys, Devo, The Romantics, Spacemen 3, The Germs, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Warlocks and Black Lips.

All of this was the brainchild of music fan and collector Greg Shaw, who died in 2004 at age 55. But his business partner and ex-wife Suzy has kept the Bomp label going and edited Bomp! 2 Born In The Garage with music writer Mike Stax, the editor and publisher of Ugly Things magazine.

The 311-page follow-up to Bomp! Saving The World One Record At A Time features retrospective essays from the two editors, cover illustrator William Stout, Jon Savage, Ken Barnes and Alec Palao. But it's the page reproductions from the original magazine, which was originally produced on a mimeograph machine, that are the heart of the book.

Even after it became a glossy magazine, Bomp! still looked somewhat amateurish. But it served its niche readership well by covering big and small-name bands from the '50s and '60s and more current acts that shared their rock 'n' roll spirit.

Flip through the pages and you'll find a Kinks discography and a Troggs article from 1971, a Gene Vincent tribute from 1972, examinations of '60s British rock and American rock 'n' roll television shows from 1973, retrospectives on The Standells and The Seeds from 1974, a history of Michigan rock, a look at Beatles novelties, a discography of California surf instrumentals and a Roky Erickson interview from 1975, a look at Dave Edmunds, the Shangri-Las, Mexican punk rock and '60s Swedish sounds from 1976, and a treatise on the aesthetic of psychedelic music from 1978.

The type is pretty small, so you'll need good eyes or a pair of glasses to read much of the reproduced material. But if you're into any of the aforementioned music genres or artists, you should consider picking this up whether you remember Bomp! or if reading this overview is the first you've heard of it.

The internet has totally changed the way people disseminate information and find out about music, but Bomp! 2 Born In The Garage acts as an interesting time capsule of the way things used to be. - Steve Says

Blurt

OK, listen up kiddies! Back in the dark days before the electron-pushers moved all the even remotely interesting content to websites and blogs, we old folks used to have something known as a "fanzine," kind of like a magazine but usually published by an individual or small group of friends. Grandpa won't bore you all with the lengthy history of these "zines," as we called 'em, but they began circulating back in the 1930s among science-fiction fans, and were instrumental in underwriting the homegrown, hardcore punk rock movement of the '80s once photocopying technology made the damn things ubiquitous.

One of, if not the first, music zine publishers was an elfin rock 'n' roll fanatic by the name of Greg Shaw. A rabid record collector, and a pretty darn good writer for somebody that considered himself an amateur, Shaw brought an insight to his work honed by thousands of hours listening to the right kind of music - '60s-era garage-rock, three-chord punk (think The Seeds, not the Sex Pistols), British Invasion bands, classic soul, and R&B.

Shaw was also nothing if not a prolific publisher of various zines, and little was beyond his bourgeoning publishing empire and seemingly pathological need to put some words in print (an obsession shared by many of us of a similar bent). A familiar figure among science-fiction circles, one of Shaw's earliest publishing efforts was a Lord Of The Rings fanzine, and by the time that he graduated high school he had cranked out over 200 issues of various zines on the trusty mimeograph machine he had bought for just that purpose.

In 1966, however, influenced by the exploding San Francisco Bay area music scene, Shaw began publishing the zine that would arguably launch this entire "music journalism" thing. Mojo-Navigator Rock & Roll News began as a mere two-page mimeographed gossip rag, but quickly grew into a respectable full-color tabloid. Mojo-Navigator served a valuable purpose, documenting a vital music scene and writing the rules for music criticism.

Shaw's friend Jann Wenner would "borrow" heavily in style and substance from Mojo-Navigator when launching Rolling Stone magazine in 1967, and all sorts of out-of-the-mainstream music rags like Creem, Rock Magazine, and others would follow shortly. Meanwhile, Shaw pulled the plug on Mojo-Navigator after a couple of years when it became too big to manage, but this was really just the first step towards creating what would become the writer and publisher's lasting legacy - Bomp! magazine.

All of this, of course, is merely back story, a way of letting you young 'uns know that something IMPORTANT and EXCITING was happening long before your dag-nabbed Internet, and the Jonas Brothers reaching puberty, and all that Perez Hilton-approved rubbish. Greg Shaw moved from SF to LA and around 1970 or so, and with that familiar itch rising up again like the black cat moan that it is, he began publishing a new mimeo zine called Who Put The Bomp.

By this time, mind you, Shaw had become an in-demand rockcrit writing for esteemed publications like Creem and Fusion and others, as well as editing the beloved corporate music zine Phonograph Record Magazine, which was published under the aegis, and with the checkbook of, United Artists Records (yes, sometimes major record labels have gotten it right). Shaw still managed to publish two or three issues of Who Put The Bomp annually during the early-70s, featuring writers like Ken Barnes and the legendary Lester Bangs.

Who Put The Bomp evolved into Bomp! and grew, albeit slowly, throughout the 1970s until it became a full-fledged music magazine on the newsstand alongside relative latecomers like Trouser Press. Exhibiting Shaw's record-collecting interests, Bomp! often included full discographies alongside artist interviews and album reviews, and the one-time fanzine spun off a record label and a successful mail order business, both of which still maintain a healthy existence today.

As for the magazine itself, it became a victim of its own success, growing too large and popular and outgrowing Shaw's fanzine roots, so he pulled the plug on it in 1979. It was a wild ride while it lasted, however, and for those of us who were loyal readers, much of what we knew of British punk, new wave, American power-pop, 1960s garage-rock, and lots of other music came from the pages of Bomp!.

All of which brings us around to the fine tome Bomp! 2 - Born In The Garage (Bomp!/Ugly Things Publishing; www.bomp.com), the second collection of material culled from Greg Shaw's many publications. The first volume, Bomp! Saving The World One Record At A Time, was published in 2007, edited by Mick Farren and overseen by Shaw's ex-wife Suzy. A beautiful hardback collection, it included reproductions of pages from Mojo-Navigator Rock & Roll News and Who Put The Bomp mixed in with a lot of photos and commentary and such, all laid out rather artfully edgy, a design befitting a coffee table book meant to be seen and admired, but seldom read.

For Bomp! 2, Suzy Shaw has enlisted the help of editor Mike Stax, publisher of the obviously Bomp!-influenced music zine Ugly Things. The differences between this second, paperback collection and the abovementioned hardback tome are like those between a favorite indie-label rock album and a slick, overproduced major label release. Befitting its garage-rock roots, the pages of Bomp! 2 are untarnished by artifice and pretension, instead presenting pages and articles from Shaw's various zines in all their lo-fi glory! This is a book meant to be pored over, read and re-read until the wheels fall off.

The core of the book is, naturally, bits and pieces of issues of Who Put The Bomp and the wealth of material that Shaw published during the zine's tenure. Guided by the acronym "R.I.A.W.O.L." (rock is a way of life), Shaw offered commentary on favored bands, often assisted by readers like future Patti Smith Band guitarist and rock historian Lenny Kaye, and many others. Bomp! 2 also includes segments of zines like Shaw's personalized Karnis Bottle's Metanoia and zines within zines like Liquid Love and Alligator Wine.

The importance of Bomp! was in its early, prescient musical coverage of artists now considered as important touchstones in the evolution of rock music. Shaw was the consummate fan, and his writing brims over with enthusiasm, while long-time contributor Ken Barnes offers a perspective and insight in his contributions that is too often missing from his more recent work for the USA Today newspaper.

Folks like Dave Marsh, Nick Tosches, Greil Marcus, Richard Meltzer, and Lester Bangs - the first generation of honest-to-god rock critics - often wrote interesting and sometimes lengthy letters that appeared in the zine's "Feedback" section, while articles like "Ahead of his Time: Gene Vincent's Influence in Rock & Roll" and "The British Invasion," featuring bands like the Pretty Things, the Dave Clark Five, and the Nashville Teens, helped readers get a handle on the music in this pre-Internet era.

As the fanzine evolved into a bona-fide music magazine, Who Put The Bomp expanded its coverage of bands like the Kinks, the Standells, Sky Saxon & the Seeds, the Easybeats, the Flamin' Groovies (who Shaw briefly managed during this time), and many others, all of which can be found in Bomp! 2. Articles providing comprehensive overviews of city-specific "scenes" in places like San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, and Boston not only offered invaluable glimpses into young local bands (many of which would go "national"), but were also accompanied by lengthy discographies. Surf music (Dick Dale, etc), "Girl Groups" (The Shangri-Las), power-pop (Dwight Twilley), even Abba and Mexican punk music were all grist for Shaw and company's diverse and far-reaching musical tastes.

The many bands covered by the publication are timeless, and Greg Shaw's biggest strengths were his recognition of talents that were often unheralded at the time, and his unyielding belief in the music. Shaw was never trying to sell ads on his blog, nor was he angling for an appearance on a reality TV show. He never lost sight of the music he revered, collected, and fretted over for decades. This unbridled passion infects both his writing and that of his contributors through the years which, freed from the expectations of their journalistic "day jobs" at typical music magazines and newspapers, allowed them to pursue their own musical passions in Bomp!

Bottom line: if you care a whit about rock 'n' roll music prior to 1980, Bomp! 2 belongs on your bookshelf. This is vital, exciting music writing for the rock 'n' roll fan in all of us, and hopefully a modest success for Bomp! 2 will lead to the publication of a third book offering more great stuff from the Greg Shaw archives.

Note: A word should be said about Suzy Shaw, Greg's ex-wife and long-time friend and the person responsible for keeping the Bomp! legacy alive. Suzy took the reins of Greg's early record mail order business when he lost interest in the late-‘60s, and it has been her commitment and business sense that supported the magazine, and kept the Bomp! family of record labels and the accompanying mail order business going strong all these years. If not for Ms. Shaw, Bomp! zine might have been lost to the ages. Thanks, Suzy!

Blurt

Frankenstein Sound System

“…You ain’t fat, you ain’t nothin’.” – Weird Al -

All right. Lemme explain this quote and it’s relevance to this article. Nowadays to be a nerd is not only acceptable, it’s something to aspire to. It means now to be an extreme enthusiast about something. Movie nerds, comic nerds, tech nerds and lots, lots of music nerds. Cats who know, or think they know a lot about a subject. In this age of rampant half-assery, devotion to something, anything is laudable. Fine. Only most of these cats are straight fronting. Fronting about being nerds. They ain’t fat they ain’t nothing. I just like saying that.

What I mean by this is that I recently got finished attempting to finish Bomp!’s biblical “Born In The Garage”. Edited by Suzy Shaw, present head of Bomp! and Mike Stax, some cat who I don’t know. This book is the realest of real deals where music nerdship is concerned.

It is 300 and 11 pages long. Dense, dense text of Rock and Roll research. Would you like to know more about Swedish bands attempting to sound like they were from Liverpool in the mid to late ‘60’s? Want to track down some Mexican garage band? Wanna read some guy from Garfield, New Jersey’s 35 year gone impassioned plea for old Decca singles? You can read all that and more here.

Anybody who ever wrote for Greg Shaw’s Bomp! zine between the years of 1970-1981 is reprinted here, in the creepy original mimeographed text. This is so thorough it is damn near unreadable. It spans the rockabilly revival through to garage rock experimentation to the birth of punk and everything in between. All of it written by fans, people like like Mr. Shaw himself, Lester Bangs, Ken Barnes and a nameless horde of vinyl buyers. Now, let me get back to the point I made earlier. Bomp! The Fanzine was conceived way before the intertubes, all of this business, every painfully researched, borderline autistic bit of fandom was dug up in record shops from here to Tijuana, banged out on typewriters and then rolled out on those machines in blue ink that we used to take quizzes in back in grammar school days. Think you’re clever cuz you know when Kajagoogoo put out their first single? Think you’re devoted cause you ordered The Arcades Fire’s Japanese singles? Think your deep cause you wrote your thesis on The Donna’s debut album? Fuck you. In them old days people drank harder, loved harder and nerded harder, without a router in sight suckas. You ain’t fat, You ain’t nothin’. - Frankenstein Sound System