New York Waste

Vintage Guitar

Corazine

This second volume Bomp comp is a WEALTH - and I do mean WEALTH - of material. It could take you, like, forever, just to read through all this. Which isn't a knock, man. What this means is that you've got all the reading you want. This book will last you for-freaking-ever! Keep it on your coffee table or on your nightstand - or, if you're like me and the bathroom is your reading sanctuary, keep a copy in there.
Doesn't matter - JUST DO SOME READING IN THIS PUPPY!
The extensive info rolling around Shaw's head and his equally extensive opinions are a testament to the fact that he got - totally GOT - the whole rock fan thing. I mean, really, the whole fandom/fanzine thing was as much about the fanship as the rock itself. You could almost say the rock was just a McGuffin for the fanpower to have something to focus on.
But, of course, that wouldn't be fair, given the power and significance of the rock. Shaw loved - LOVED - the garage rock scene. And "garage rock" is one of those terms that spreads far and wide its net. So much stuff falls into this category and there's just a TON of great tunage on tap for discussion in this book's generous offerings.
Shaw waxes eloquent about the rock, the fan scene, what makes a fanzine a fanzine, what defines fannishness and so much friggin' more.
An enthusiastic publication of enthusiastic writings by one of indie rock's most enthusiastic supporters! Come on, dude, this stuff is from back in the day when fanzines didn't have the internet. SHAW USED MIMEOGRAPH MACHINES AND SUCH!
This is a document of true devotion. Grab it and go for it! - Corazine

Punk Vault

Bomp 2: Born in the Garage collects the best of Greg’s various fanzines, most of which he would produce on his own mimeograph machine in his home. The book starts out with a history of Greg and his various writing endeavors written by various friends and associates who contributed to the many zines Greg produced and wrote for, many of whom became quite famous writers of rock music for much larger publications, those names include Lester Bangs, Lenny Kaye, and Richard Meltzer among others. It then reprints the best of his various zines that pre-date the 1970s punk rock explosion. Those zines include Alligator Wine, Liquid Love, Metanoia, and of course Who Put the Bomp! The zines were true fanzines and contained articles about record labels and various bands including very detailed discographies and record listings as well as various articles about record collecting. It is pretty amazing how much of these tiny little zines were preserved over the years.

The book was compiled by Suzy Shaw, who was married to Greg at the time all these zines were produced and would bail him out when he’d get in things way over his head by taking on a number of tasks including carrying on the label and mail order after Greg’s passing, and Mike Stax who put out a wonderful zine of his own called Ugly Things. The music covered in the various zines compiled here include 60’s garage, Surf, British invasion, girl groups, rockabilly, psychedelia and a little bit of punk rock. There’s a ton you can learn from these various articles and listings and it made me start to compile a list of bands covered here in this book that I want to check out.

The book weighs in at 311 pages and since the pages are jam packed with stuff to read, much of it in small type, it will take you quite some time to read it. There’s lots too look at too as the book also contains many pictures. The chapters are broken down by what zine is being reproduced and are presented in chronological order, which made it pretty easy and interesting to see how Greg’s tastes and interests changed over the years and how either accurate or inaccurate his predictions were.

Overall Bomp 2: Born in the Garage is a wonderful compilation of zines from a time long gone and is as educational as it is entertaining. Any fan of the music covered in this book, or just those of fanzines in general looking for some history would do well to pick up this book, which will give you a lot for your money. - The Punk Vault

Video Watchblog

Three years ago, Suzy Shaw and Mick Farren produced a book called WHO PUT THE BOMP: SAVING THE WORLD ONE RECORD AT A TIME (Ammo Books, 301 pages, $34.95), which collected the cream (or creem) off the top of the late Greg Shaw's seminal rock fanzine WHO PUT THE BOMP (1970-79). To be honest, I still haven't seen that book, so I must imagine its pros and cons from the largely enthusiastic customer reviews at Amazon.com, and some idea of that book is probably necessary to reach a fully accurate assessment of the recently released follow-up volume, BOMP 2: BORN IN THE GARAGE, subtitled "Greg Shaw and the Roots of Rock Fandom 1970-1981," edited by Suzy Shaw and Mike Stax (Bomp & Lit Publishing, 312 pages, $15.95). That said, I found myself completely and utterly absorbed in reading its articles and perusing its discographies, first as a reader and music buff, but foremost as a former fanzine publisher myself.
I don't know how the first BOMP book handled the backstory of the fanzine that, along with Paul Williams' CRAWDADDY!, launched serious rock criticism and inspired the likes of CREEM and ROLLING STONE, but BOMP 2 does a very thorough and self-contained job. The Foreword is by rock reissue producer Alec Palao (you can thank him for the ZOMBIE HEAVEN CD set), which in itself already says something about the fertile impact of WPTB on its readers; he reminisces about his early exposure to photocopies of the zine circulated among friends, which he consulted like "an oracle, where discographies are ancient runes, and the fragments of commentary, pearls of an ancient, knowing wisdom." The introduction by Kinks biographer Jon Savage deals more specifically with WPTB as a product of Greg Shaw (1949-2004), and as a product of its time, a time that also saw the issue of such classics of rock archaeology as the NUGGETS compilation, an album that might have been unthinkable without the audience Shaw had organized. In just a few pages, Savage covers a lot of frontal ground and also subtle subtext, such as how Shaw's enthusiasm was dissipated over time by the fluctuations of what was happening in music in the present tense, as a business and as a mutating beast of the music he loved. Then there's Mike Stax's amazing 12-page overview of Shaw's entire publishing history, including WPTB, the APA zines METANOIA, LIQUID LOVE and ALLIGATOR WINE, and the newsstand-circulated BOMP (including its unpublished 22nd issue).
Ken Barnes follows this with a detailed history of his own long involvement with Shaw and his creation, and other key personalities behind the scenes, capturing perfectly the feel of a time when records were a rare addiction and knowledge of bands like The Velvet Underground or The Seeds was like a secret handshake among a cognoscenti only able to identify itself being cultivated by rallying points like WPTB -- an audience largely recruited from the subcultures of comics and science fiction fanzines. Much of what Barnes writes about Shaw strongly resonated with my own memories of meeting and working with Frederick S. Clarke of CINEFANTASTIQUE, which was in its own way a cinema analogue to what Shaw was doing for rock. Artist William Stout (who also provides a magnificent cover) writes about Shaw's tenebrous involvement in his past life as the artist for some classic bootleg album covers, such as TALES FROM THE WHO. And then Greg's widow, Suzy Shaw, offers her own compelling, frank memoir of Greg and what has happened with the Bomp empire (which went on to include its own record label) since his death. All this accounts for only the first 40 pages of the book, which amply rewards your $16 investment (cheap)!
What constitutes the bulk of the book are scanned pages from WPTB's ten-year history, focusing on material germaine to what Shaw considered the bread and butter of his musical ethos: garage rock: The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Seeds, The Flaming Groovies, The Shangri-Las, The Cryan Shames and Dave Edmunds -- but also curiosities like Shindig, producer Jack Nietsche (Ken Barnes delivers the definitive study of this guy), Dutch rock and Beatles novelties. There's a LOT of information here, perhaps not ideally organized for quick retrieval, but the book certainly projects a world you can get lost in.
As a former fanzine publisher myself, and as someone who used to swap my rags for a great many sf zines, I was especially moved by what this book recaptures of that subculture in terms of its fannish mindset and cartoons (many of them by William Rotsler, who I didn't realize at the time was the director of MANTIS IN LACE, THE GIRL WITH THE HUNGRY EYES and many other genre-tinged sexploitation flicks) -- some of which my experienced eye recognized as having been traced onto mimeograph stencils! That said, for many readers, the most compelling aspect of this retrospective may well be its collection of Shaw's editorials (which chart the growth of his brainchild as well as the scene it helped spawn, and the friction between his quixotic musical sensibilities and what was happening in music at the time) and -- something evidently omitted from the first volume -- samplings from WPTB's legendary letters pages, which includes correspondence from such luminaries (and later luminaries) as John Peel, Lester Bangs, Lenny Kaye, Greil Marcus, Kim Fowley, Richard Meltzer, Ed Ward and Jay Kinney. (Might that letter from Tom Miller on page 160 actually have been written by the future Tom Verlaine?)
Any book that brings back to my nostrils the fragrance of mimeo sheets, typewriter ribbons, staples and fresh vinyl warrants my highest recommendation. I guess I'll be heading off to Amazon for Volume 1. - Tim Lucas / Video Watchblog

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

The Agit Reader

To say that without Bomp! what you are reading now wouldn’t exist, is more than likely an understatement. Though this publication has been preceded by the zine explosion of the ’80s and ’90s, the form largely owes its existence to Bomp! and, more specifically, to one man: Greg Shaw. In these days when public expression is just a few clicks to blogger.com away, it’s hard to remember a time when the printed word wasn’t so readily available. (And perhaps even harder to remember when it actually meant something.) When it took some doing to get one’s point of view out there, those who were doing so for little financial reward really had something to say.

Back in the early ’70s, Shaw toiled away in his home in Fairfax, California on a labor of his love of rock & roll. Setting his and a select handful of compatriots’ opinions to type on a typewriter (Google it, kids) and a hand-cranked mimeograph machine (again, Google it), Shaw created what became the prototype for music zines: Who Put the Bomp. (His history with the form actually dates back further, when he created a Tolkien publication, Entmoot, and a sci-fi and music hybrid Mojo Entmooter in the ’60s.) WPTB was to magazines what Nuggets was to records: an indispensable ground zero for what was becoming known as “punk rock.” This was not the spiked and safety-pinned brand of punk to which we’ve all become so familiar, but rather a wide swath of primitive rock made by garage bands across the USA and abroad that were familiar only to a small, but ever growing, tribe of in-the-knows. For Shaw, who used the term in reviewing Nuggets for Rolling Stone in 1973, “punk” was a word used to endearingly describe a certain breed of rock & roll that could be traced throughout the ’50s and ’60s in unchartered surf bands, backwoods axemen, and uncelebrated foot soldiers of the British Invasion. To him, the Shadows of Knight or the Chocolate Watchband were just as punk as the Ramones.

For those attuned to the sounds Shaw and his band of brothers celebrated, WPTB was a wealth of information. Each issue, they delved deeply into their subject matter, whether it be the Kinks, the Standells, or little labels like Autumn Records. They provided extensive discographies and erudite historical information coupled with astute opinions that separated them from mere archivists. And laced within each sentence was a purity of passion that showed that this work stemmed from a gut-level embrace of the subjects at hand, an appreciation that was neither scholarly or geeky, but almost instinctual.

Indeed, Shaw himself was obsessive, but as a listener and disseminator of information, not a collector. (In a humorous anecdote in her introduction, Greg’s ex-wife and business partner Suzy Shaw tells of how his notoriety for the poor condition of his records and the shoddy packaging he used in his mail order business led to record collectors using "Greg Shaw Minus" as the lowest mark for grading a piece of vinyl’s condition.) His guiding hand and voice could be read in every page of Bomp! (to which WPTB had been shortened by 1976) and his other endeavors, most notably the Bomp record label.

A small portion of Shaw’s legacy can be seen in Bomp! 2: Born in the Garage, the second Bomp! book. Assembled is a selection of his work from 1970–1981, including some of his small run, personal zines, Liquid Love and Metanoia. Even amongst this small portion of the issues of Bomp!, the amount of information is vast, so much so that it would take anyone at least several months to digest it all. Just as enjoyable as the reprinted material, though, are the introductions from long-time contributor Ken Barnes, Suzy Shaw, and Jon Savage. It’s an amazing recounting of a period of time perhaps best-suited for Shaw’s endeavor, but that also needed it most. Sadly, Greg Shaw died in 2004, but fortunately he left behind a legacy that speaks for itself, and which can appreciated in all its pre-blog glory here. -- Stephen Slaybaugh / The Agit Reader

Hartford Advocate

The birth of the fanzine

When Greg Shaw died in 2004, rock fans should have declared a day of mourning, with freak flags flown at half mast. Shaw was the fan's fan, creator of pioneering pre-Rolling Stone rock fanzines like Entmoot, Mojo Navigator and Who Put the Bomp that mixed erudition with enthusiasm and made readers ecstatic to be included inside the sultan of swing's tent.

Shaw's fanzines, and his later record label Bomp! — still in existence — were templates for the 'zine and D.I.Y. revolutions that paralleled the arrival and partly explains the longevity of punk rock. His Bomp fanzine was also undoubtedly the inspiration for reissue labels like Rhino, Sundazed and Norton, and his fanzines were the incubators for great rock critics like Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer, Dave Marsh, Ken Barnes, Billy Altman and Phast Phreddie. That rebellious torch was carried forward in magazines like Creem, Punk, Big Takeover, Razorcake, Roctober, Flipside, etc. In short, Shaw is the one who, as the song goes, put the Bomp in the bomp bah bomp bah bomp.

Bomp2: Born in the Garage (Bomp/UT Publishing), edited by Suzy Shaw (his former wife) and Mike Stax, is the second compilation of the best writing from Shaw's various late, lamented fanzines. The first, Bomp!: Saving the World One Record at a Time (AMMO), was a hefty, handsome hardcover filled to the brim with archival photos, artifacts and contemporary essays that looked back on the times and music that shaped the magazines. Bomp!2 is a more Spartan affair, with pages from the fanzines reprinted as they originally appeared (some typed on an Olivetti and hand-cranked from a mimeo machine). This is not to say that Bomp!2 is any less entertaining or vital than Bomp!1; it may in fact be more useful as a reference tool. You are getting the original sources, my friends, some of which were, prior to these two anthologies, going for hundreds of dollars on eBay. You not only get profiles of bands and firsthand accounts of scenes that shaped them, you get "obsessively detailed" discographies and label listings that you can't get anywhere else. At $15.95, this may be the steal deal of the year in publishing.

Every one of the 312 pages of Bomp!2 contains a highlight, but among the most noteworthy are Ken Barnes' definitive piece on Sky Saxon & the Seeds and Barnes' equally detailed profile of the elusive Jack Nitzsche (this may be the only non-hostile interview the stranger-than-Phil-Spector Nitzsche ever gave); the British Invasion issue, reprinted in its entirety; the issue on California Surf Roots (ditto); and the continuing series on regional music scenes of the 1960s that covers Chicago, San Francisco, Michigan, Sweden (!), and Boston. "Bosstown in the Glory Years" will open (or reopen) some ears; it even contains a section on Connecticut bands like the Wildweeds, Van Dykes, Shags, North Atlantic Invasion Force and a Hartford group that went by two names, the Blue Beats and The # 1. All in all, a noble effort to chronicle scenes that shifted constantly like the blobs inside lava lamps.

Mike Stax, former lead singer of the Loons and an expat-Brit now living in San Diego, contracted the rock fandom disease from Shaw. The latter's obsessions are on ample display in every issue of the former's twice-yearly Ugly Things, subtitled "Wild Sounds from Past Dimensions," each issue of which is book-length and filled with similarly fan-charged chronicles of bands past, the more obscure the better. The latest 225-page issue (Winter 2009), for example, includes articles on the Masters Apprentices, Wildflower ("San Francisco's Lost Band"), loving remembrances of Sky Saxon, and tons of reviews of the greatest reissues, books and DVDs out there.

Stax jumped the shark with The Misunderstood. His 2-issue saga of this proto-psychedelic band swept through three continents and more epiphanies and crack ups than a Kesey acid test. Perhaps seeing the band as embodying the strange days of the 1960s, Stax expanded the story in Like, Misunderstood, a memoir co-written with band member Rick Brown. While the band's psychedelic rock sounds great — their "I Can Take You to the Sun" single is included on nearly every "nuggets"-style reissue — they never attracted the following a band called "America's Yardbirds" deserved. They were sidetracked, for starters, by the Vietnam War, from which Brown was a "stateless fugitive."

Open your ears to a new level of rock fandom by visiting bomp.com and/or ugly-things.com.

Alan Bisbort / Hartford Advocate

Crawdaddy!

Bomp! 2: Born in the Garage
Edited by Suzy Shaw and Mike Stax
(Bomp! / UT Publishing)

Taking its name from the Barry Mann hit of the same name, Who Put the Bomp (later called Bomp!) was one of the earliest rock ‘n’ roll fanzines, run by the late, luminous rock enthusiast Greg Shaw. In its ’70s heyday, the ‘zine was an early outlet for writers like Lester Bangs, Ken Barnes, and Richard Meltzer, taking the obsessive fan approach to both emerging rock artists and bygone underground sensations.

The first Bomp! book, 2007’s Bomp! Saving the World One Record at a Time, was a full-color combination of writing, photographs, interviews, and personal correspondence. To follow this up, the soft cover collection Bomp! 2: Born in the Garage buckles down to focus on the ‘zine’s written content itself. It features 300 pages of black-and-white, full-page reproductions of the magazine’s best material during its 1970-81 run, and alongside Who Put the Bomp and Bomp!, it also features several excerpts from Shaw’s private ‘zines like Metanoia and Liquid Love, originally only circulated among his friends and colleagues. The book also features new articles from Alec Palao, Jon Savage, Mike Stax, Ken Barnes, illustrator William Stout, and Suzy Shaw, Greg’s ex-wife and business partner, who co-edited this collection and provides a moving introduction.

These reproductions are fascinating, especially for the way they show how print music magazines functioned as an early form of social networking—bringing people together who might never otherwise meet, and providing an outlet for those inclined to typewrite complete discographies for their favorite band or label. Along with detailed scene reports, some of the most fascinating stuff here are the readers’ letters in the ‘zine’s “Feedback” section, which range from nerdy clarifications to outpourings of love for bands or particular articles. Although the book features several other great writers, the lion’s share of the writing here is by Greg Shaw himself, documenting his various rock fascinations. Bomp! 2 is a terrific value, providing a very deep overview of an iconic ‘zine and an influential voice in the realm of rock journalism. – Michael Harkin / Crawdaddy!

Musoscribe

The printed fanzine phenomenon was the precursor of today’s blog. While the form got its beginning covering science fiction, by 1970 one of the medium’s most (ultimately) influential outlets was Who Put the Bomp by Greg Shaw. From 1970 to 1981 Shaw wrote and/or edited many issues of WPTB (eventually shortened to Bomp).

While early issues were typed and mimeographed affairs with readership in the mere double digits, later issues were typeset, color productions with circulation in the tens of thousands. And while Shaw’s championing of some styles and groups meant that he was prone to predictions that wouldn’t pan out (the commercial success of powerpop and the mainstream success of the Flamin’ Groovies to name two), the obsessive fandom and attention to detail kept the sprit of rock and roll alive through some lean years.

Now comes the second volume in trade paperback compilations of WPTB material, Bomp 2: Born in the Garage. Edited by Suzy Shaw (ex-wife of the late Shaw and head of Bomp Records) and Mike Stax (editor of Ugly Things). This 330-plus page edition reproduces much of the content in the best quality imaginable.

The homespun charm of the early WPTB issues comes through every bit as clearly as Shaw’s love for rock and roll. Shaw — and his eventual contributors — were writing about groups like the Remains, the Standells and Roky Erickson in the early 1970s. While those artists are all now legendary and oft- and widely-covered, in 1970 nobody but Shaw was writing about them. The garage revival of the 1980s can be traced in part to Shaw’s influence.

A long parade of later-to-be-famous writers wrote for WPTB. Ken Barnes was co-editor for a time, and WPTB included essays and review from Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer, Dave Marsh and many others. Many issues — especially in the zine’s earlier days — were packed full of extensive discographies. Again, nobody else was doing this work in those days.

In addition to the reprints — including many of those hopelessly rare early issues — Born in the Garage also includes an exhaustive chronology of the zine’s development, plus lively and illuminating modern-day essays from Mike Stax, illustrator William Stout, Suzy Shaw, Ken Barnes and others. For anyone who appreciates good writing and/or the lesser-known reaches of rock and roll, Bomp 2: Born in the Garage will make an excellent addition to the bookshelf. Me, I’ve already ordered a copy of the earlier compilation Bomp!: Saving the World One Record at a Time. - Musoscribe : Bill Kop's Music Blog

Examiner L.A.

Once upon a time before there was an internet and bloggers who wrote about rock 'n' roll, the only way fans -- us fans -- could keep up with the news and the times was through the print media -- magazines.
There was, of course, Rolling Stone. But RS, in its move to the mainstream, started to veer away from the real excitement of rock 'n' roll in the '70s. It was left to magazines like Who Put the Bomp (and later Bomp!) to take up the slack.
"Bomp! 2 - Born in the Garage" is a great way to jog memories of the days when a new issue of Who Put the Bomp! was an exciting time.
Bomp's guiding light was the late Greg Shaw, whose love of rock 'n' roll was obvious in the detail in his publications. Bomp was truly his labor of love.
Bomp started out as a typewritten magazine. It wasn't until later that it was actually typeset. I remember my excitement in seeing Vol. 3, No. 1, a full issue devoted to the British Invasion. It was almost an encyclopedia with all the various entries discussing the Beatles and the Swinging Blue Jeans, Wayne Fontana, the Stones, the Dave Clark Five, the Kinks, the Nashville Teens, the Pretty Things, the Downliners Set, the Yardbirds, the Small Faces, the Troggs, the Who and the Easybeats. And those were the more well-known names -- the issue also explored lesser knowns -- the Hep Stars, who included keyboardist Benny Andersson, later of ABBA, the Rockin' Berries, Denny Laine and the Diplomats, the Escorts and more.
The next issue, summer 1974, was even more interesting -- it turned to the American scene. It had articles on the Standells, the Seeds, the Knickerbockers, the Leaves and the Beau Brummels and several pages on the Bay Area rock scene, including the Golliwogs (later Creedence Clearwater Revival), San Jose's Count Five and Syndicate of Sound.
And it just kept getting better. Bomp never published often, but when it did, it was great.
This 300 plus page book features full page reproductions of extensive portions of Who Put the Bomp and Bomp! issues from the '70s. It features vintage writings by such rock scribes as Lenny Kaye, Ken Barnes, Lester Bangs, Richard Meltzer, Dave Marsh and more -- names that inspired yours truly and many others, plus a cover by William Stout, whose vinyl bootleg collectors will remembers as the artist for many releases on the Trademark of Quality label.
All in all, they don't make 'em like Bomp anymore. 'Nuff said about that.
-- Steve Marinucci / Examiner

Read

Before the internet, before ROLLING STONE, before Dylan Lewis's masterful hosting of RECOVERY, there was BOMP! Music nerd Greg Shaw founded the first free music press in the mid sixties in the form of hand-printed A4 zine MOJO NAVIGATOR, which was distributed around San Francisco, the epicentre of everything at the time.

These underground zines morphed into BOMP! - a ‘proper' colour magazine that was still independent as hell. This amazing book catalogues every issue and the birth of rock criticism as we know it, in turn tracing the evolution from 60s psychedelia to 70s glam, punk, new wave and garage rock.

There is the first ever interview with the Doors, in which they discuss the different strains of LSD available at the time. Five pages about the Ramones trying to find good Chinese food in London. And epic, sprawling rants on the colossal significance of the New York Dolls.

Writing like this came before everything was rehashed and cynical, when music actually meant everything. It's an exciting read, passionate and wild.

By Max Olijnyk / Read

Iowa City PL

I recommend this book for anyone interested in the counter-counter-culture, the true under-ground of Rock as it existed from the ’50s through the ’70s. And, yes, Lester Bangs’ "James Taylor Marked for Death" is reprinted, possibly the most important polemic in all of Rock criticism. - Charlie / ICPL

Rich's R'n'R Rants & Raves

After reading this great book, I realized that Bomp has been a part of my life for over 3 decades now – considerably longer than most people that I know! Greg Shaw was a true believer in r’n’r and despite any faults that he might have had, he did his best to bring his visions to the world through his writings and his records. Of course, he was helped by many people along the way, especially his ex-wife, Suzy Shaw, who continues the business to this day.

This book is a collaboration of excerpts from the zines, writings from Greg and other contributors and anecdotes from people involved, including many remembrances from Suzy.

Some of the most interesting segments for me comes at the beginning, with pieces from Greg’s original zine, Mojo Navigator, that he created with collaborator David Harris. I have never seen these and found the pieces written in the mid-60’s to be fascinating bits of r’n’r writing. There is the Grateful Dead talking about Big Brother’s “new singer” (Janis), Big Brother talking about 1st single ("Blindman" & "All is Loneliness"), club gigs in Chicago where no one knew them (maybe their first out of town gig), first recordings, and recording studios, a very long Country Joe & the Fish interview – apparently they were a local fave that never really reached the acclaim of their counterparts - and a cool Doors interview from just after the first record came out but before “Light My Fire” hit, talking about clubs, dances, ballrooms, etc – and drugs, which seemed to be the part that excited Jim the most. Mojo Navigator dissolved and Greg & Suzy left San Francisco, relocated to LA and moved on.

By the 70’s Shaw started Who Put the Bomp zine, along with the Bomp! label. Tales abound about these days and a number of articles are reproduced. Some of the reproductions are a little small and grainy, making it difficult for me to read with my lousy eyes. But, there are tons of super writings - the zine published the legendary “groin thunder” Lester Bangs amphetamine fueled lengthy (and ultra cool) Troggs rant. There are great articles on the Standells, the Runaways, the burgeoning punk scene, a cool bit about the early '70's “New New York” scene, which at the time meant Blue Oyster Cult and the Dolls!

A couple articles on Sky & the Seeds are included, which is especially appropriate as Greg got Sky to come to Shaw’s Cavern Club and sit in with just about every band that appeared there – sometimes whether they wanted him to or not! This is how many of the local scenesters appeared on the 80’s Sky record and how Redd Kross hooked up with him.

A British punk special is something I specifically remember from my pre-LA days, when I was reading any r’n’r zine I could get my hands on. Of course, Greg took up the flag for the new punk bands and there are plenty of articles on Blondie, the Ramones, the local LA bands (several of whom recorded for Bomp) and plenty more.

Also included are the lay outs for the last, “lost” issue #22, which they thought had disappeared. It’s a shame that this never saw the light of day before now.

My favorites sections are definitely Suzy’s recollections and behind the scenes commentaries. She understands and appreciates the importance of the business that she & Greg ran, but she doesn’t try to deify Greg – she brings up as many of his infuriating traits as his endearing ones. But, she is never mean, she is funny and factual and for someone who has been involved peripherally with Bomp at times (mostly through friends), the tales are revelatory at times, bring back memories other times and often just make me laugh!

One of Greg’s most annoying traits for Suzy was his avoidance of all aspects of the business side of the music business. But if not for this “fault”, he might not have helped Lee Joseph start up Dionysus Records in LA, which helped start my “career”, such as it was. While I never recorded for Bomp specifically, I did appear on a compilation or two, as well. Greg always encouraged bands and I will always appreciate his help.

For anyone who is interested in the evolution of r’n’r writing, fanzines and independent labels, this is a terrific read! - Rich's R'n'R Rants & Raves

Record Collector

American indie pioneer

Greg Shaw was a charismatic Brian Jones/Keith Relf lookalike who became a legend of American indie rock. He helped launch San Francisco fanzine Mojo Navigator in 1966, mainly because he knew how to operate a mimeograph – the forerunner of the photocopier. But his musical tastes were less hippie, more garage-rock, as he proved with his next fanzine, Who Put The Bomp!. Launched in 1970, it attracted writers such as Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus, and was an early champion of the New York Dolls, Stooges, Blondie and English punk. Bomp! spawned an LA record shop and a label of the same name, home to Stiv Bators, Iggy Pop, Devo and Plimsouls. As a label, Bomp! became a much-revered stalwart of the US indie scene, even though Shaw’s penchant for power-pop meant that some of the records were more written about than bought.

Along the way the energetic Shaw also edited Phonograph magazine, wrote prolifically, and was an executive with Sire, where he discovered and managed The Flaming Groovies. He died in 2004 and his story is told with self-deprecating good humour by his long-suffering partner Suzy Shaw and Mick Farren, who helps to put it all into context. But what gives the book its piquant flavour are the many facsimile pages from Mojo Navigator and Bomp!, plus great photos. A true time-capsule of the American indie scene in the 60s and 70s, which can be found at www.ammobooks.com.

ISBN 0978607686, 304 pages

Reviewed by Alan Lewis

Record Collector

Terrascopic Rumbles

Something else that has me hitting the superlatives button has got to be ‘Bomp’ (“Saving the world one record at a time”), a hardback supertome that details the pioneering publishing work of the sadly missed Greg Shaw. Edited by Greg’s widow Suzy and our old friend Mick Farren, the reader is taken on a culturally rich, seat of your pants ride through beautiful reproductions of the once renowned (and rarely seen, I might add) ‘Mojo Navigator’ and the more pro layouts found in ‘(Who Put The) Bomp’. This is combined with essential and insightful preambles by Suzy, Mick and Greg (the principles) with secondary pieces from the pens of Brendan Mullen, Peter Case, Lester Bangs, Alan Betrock, ‘The Ig’ and Lenny Kaye! Add to this a truckload of evocative photos (like when “ a Weirdo” met members of The Germs on page 246 for example) and Bomp #22, reproduced on its original paste-up boards, which if you’re a zine-o-phile will know, was never actually issued. Wow. This comes as a glorious and fitting epitaph to one of the founding fathers of the underground music press. Without Greg’s endeavours over the years, I’d guess that this opening splurge on music publications would be considerably smaller or even non-existant. Bomp (the book) is a veritable treasure trove of left-field rock ‘n’ roll history which clearly avoids the chemical tang of coffee-table lit. Check out the publishers on www.ammobooks.com asap! - Terrascope