OHIO Punks in the Garage special – OHIO all 60 minutes (early punk rock, some 60's and proto-punk mixed in and Rock’n’Roll Lisa’s post-1982 Ohio block). If you missed the show live on the radio, below is the link for the show recording as well as the playlist. You can stream this week's episode for FREE in ONE part --
Stream: Punks in the Garage July 12, 2025 (61 mins)
Our show had two features --
-Ohio Special (60 minutes of early punk, proto-punk, 60's garage from Ohio Groups)
-Rock’n’Roll Lisa’s all Ohio post-1982 block
Playlist:
The Customs / Long Gone
electric eels / Agitated
Devo / Uncontrollable Urge
The Pagans / Not Now No Way
Rocket From The Tombs (Official) / Sonic Reducer (live)
Dead Boys™ / Sonic Reducer
Human Beinz / Nobody But Me
THE BIZARROS / Young Girls at Market
Wussy / Happiness Bleeds
The Thangs / Let Me Be
MA HOLOS / Can’t Be Found
New Bomb Turks / Automatic Teller
The Choir / It’s Cold Outside
human switchboard / No!
The Cowboys / Teenage Life
The Alarm Clocks / No Reason to Complain
Hammer Damage / Laugh
Thanks to our Sponsors --
-Feel It Records
-Hail Records & Oddities
Please contact us if your business, organization, or you personally would like to be a Punks in the Garage sponsor. We read your message each show, sponsorships start for as little as $100 for a 12-week run.
-- Rock'n'Roll Joel
Mixcloud (FREE past show archive): https://www.mixcloud.com/Punks_in_the_Garage/
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"Due to circumstances beyond our control, the show at Buffalo Iron Works has been canceled. We’re bummed about it, and we know you are too. Refunds will be issued at the point of purchase. Thanks for your understanding, and we hope to see you at one of our other shows soon!" -- NBT
Two most excellent, longtime friends of NEW BOMB TURKS have graced our upcoming U.S. east coast tour with some mighty posters!
That color-blasted, Jack-in-the-Box bastard up there is the summer 2025 tour poster, done by none other than the great Dirty Donny, he of Metallica and Hellacopters pinball machine art and way more than that. Check out his shit here! We'll have beeeeea-utiful screenprinted copies of these for sale at the shows!
And below here in vainglorious black & white is the poster for our Brooklyn show on August 1 at The Meadows, made by Crypt Records and Cracked Magazine aesthete, Cliff Mott!
So if you haven't already made a solid plan to come see us, do so toot sweet! The tour starts in Detroit on July 25...!
Tour dates, ticket info, and alla that right here!!!
Calling all lovers of trash-action poonk! NEW BOMB TURKS are back at it this year!!!
Firstly, we'll be playing a sure-to-be-sweaty soiree at Alex's Bar in L.A. on Saturday, May 24th -- our first show in La-La-Land since, well, a lady doesn't tell her age.
The very next day we'll be hightailing it to Las Vegas to play a Punk Rock Bowling after-party gig at The Usual Place with the current poster boys/mug shots of Aussie punk, Civic!
Then in late July, we'll be making a noisy rumble through the Rust Belt and East Coast for some dates with Seattle's hard-chargin' bastids, The Drowns! Tour dates below.
So yeah, pull out your calendar, start circling dates, and get those digits working the phone for tix, pal! Hope to see you and 10 friends up front heckling us soon!!!
NEW BOMB TURKS Tour Dates 2025:
SAT 05/24 - Alex's Bar - Long Beach, CA
SUN 05/25 - The Usual Place - Las Vegas, NV, w/ Civic
FRI 07/25 - Magic Stick - Detroit, MI, w/ The Drowns
SAT 07/26 - Beachland Ballroom - Cleveland, OH, w/ The Drowns
MON 07/28 - Buffalo Iron Works - Buffalo, NY, w/ The Drowns
TUE 07/29 - Horseshoe Tavern - Toronto, ON, w/ The Drowns
THU 07/31 - Sonia - Cambridge, MA, w/ The Drowns
FRI 08/01 - The Meadows - Brooklyn, NY, w/ The Drowns
SUN 08/03 - The Crafthouse - Pittsburgh, PA, w/ The Drowns
In case you can't wait for one of our shows to snag a snazzy new NBT tee, check out Bifocal Media for our current getable gear!
History tends to remember some innovations over others — and The Ronettes, in particular, have been remembered as pop singers, with their rock and roll sensibilities railroaded out of their image.
PLUS: My 2012 interview w/ Ronnie Spector!
“It’s time?!” It’s 2018. Anyone who loved the New York Dolls or Ramones by 1980 knew how important the Ronettes were to the liberating swagger of rock’n’roll. Over the waning years of R&R’s lifespan, if you had discounted Ronnie Spector’s voice and the trio’s magic mascara and foot-high bouffants as mere “show” for Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, you probably didn’t actually like rock’n’roll, you probably liked “Rock.” Which is a subtext of this good think piece that went up on NPR today.
The timing of this piece for me personally was bizarre. My lass and I randomly checked out a fine new bookstore in Long Island City on Sunday, and perused a new reprint of Ronnie Spector’s amazing 1990 biography and chatted with the clerk about it a bit. Then yesterday, I found out that the ATM guy at my job, well get this – HE IS RONNIE SPECTOR’S COUSIN!!
He walked in to refill the ATM, and the Ronettes were paying on a Spotify list I’d made. He casually mentioned, “Oh, yeah, the Ronettes there. You know them?” I equally casually responded, “Oh yeah, for sure,” assuming he’d follow up with a simple concurring nod. Instead, he seemed amazed I’d heard of them, and said, “That Ronie, she’s my cousin.” I believed him not only because he’s always a super nice cat, but he seemed genuinely surprised I’d heard of them. And then the stories started to flow! He knew intimate, sometimes sad shit, which I will not divulge, but which convinced this massive Ronettes fan that he was not bullshitting.
So, get these doozies! One time, Phil came to their house to hang out a bit, and walked in with two huge bodyguards. The three of them plopped onto the couch and took up the whole thing and generally freaked out the family gathering. Finally his dad went over to Phil Spector and said, “Hey Phil, can you make some room for other people here.” And Phil and the body guards ended up going downstairs by themselves and sat and waited for Ronnie to leave.
He also mentioned that he’d met Keith Richards a few times. The Ronettes had opened for the Rolling Stones in Europe years ago, and Keith specifically stayed in touch with Ronnie. He said that one Christmas eve when he was like 5, Keith put together the tricycle he got for Christmas the next morning!
Needless to say, I’m gonna try to wrangle a proper interview with the ATM guy, as I’ve got a feeling there are many more where that came from…
In 2012, I was lucky enough to interview Ronnie Spector on the horn, after seeing an her put on an amazing show at City Winery in Manhattan. It was published on the Get Bent site (where I had a recurring article,”Pouring the Red Whine”). I believe I’ve already posted it here in my bog, but that site, and hence the link, is now scrubbed from internet history. But here’s the transcript of my interview with Ronnie Spector, below. May she forever sing…!
Pouring the Red Whine: Ronnie Spector
By Eric Davidson
There is this damning conundrum: Phil Spector is a certifiable nutjob; worse, a murderer! But he discovered and molded Ronnie Spector into, arguably, the dominant metaphorical pop voice of American teenage longing in the 20th century, the century of America’s greatest musical contributions.
Of course, Ronnie Spector doesn’t think of her psychologically and physically brutal pairing with Phil Spector as “metaphorical.” It was hell. But she, unlike so many others have, never relented to half-baked religious conversions, debilitating drug problems, or picking up a knife and doing some killing of her own. Oh, she drank like crazy for a while, sure, but otherwise bade her time, taking solace in the very few friends Phil Spector would let her see, and waiting for another chance to get onto the pop stage…
All of which and more gets covered in Ronnie’s unbelievably entertaining and revealing new revue, “Behind the Beehive,” rolling out for the last time of a summer run at City Winery in New York City tonight. (Ronnie is hoping for more shows or maybe a tour of the show, as each performance so far this summer has sold out.) During the two-hour show, Ronnie – backed by a fine six-piece band led by legendary NYC guitarist, Daniel Rey – tells tales of the good (hit songs, hob-nobbing with celebs) and bad (locked in Phil Spector’s castle in the Hollywood Hills for nearly seven years). All while incredibly rare photos and film clips are projected on either side of the stage. And of course, and most staggeringly, Ronnie sings.
And my god does she sing! You figure Phil’s psychic beatdown and the years alone would’ve shaved off a few octaves. Instead, the moment she sets off into classics like “Walking in the Rain,” “Frosty the Snowman,” and the rest (though Phil still legally bans her from performing “Be My Baby”), her vox exposes nary a hint of the decades that have gone by. If you go, wear a loose shirt, because the goosebumps do not subside for the duration of the show. And through it all, Ronnie radiates her genetic charm and unspoiled teen enthusiasm. Even when she chokes up sometimes, the tears get quickly absorbed by her whiplash cheekbones as she smiles on the way into another story or song.
On the phone with her recently, the glow of her personality was volcanic. I swear you could audibly make out her coy winks through the line.
So Ronnie, how are you?
I’m great! Doing all these great “Behind the Beehive” shows, and getting this great response!
Okay, so I’m sure you get this kind of stuff all the time – “Hey, I met you in Vegas in ‘78, and I gave you a flower, and…” And of course you have no recollection. But I’m going to tell you anyway that I did meet you at a McCarren Pool show a few years ago, and you were there with Billy and Miriam from Norton Records.
Of course! I remember that show. And I talk to Billy and Miriam all the time.
I met you backstage with them, and you gave me a peck on the cheek.
I can’t believe you remember that, Eric!
Are you kidding?! And I have yet to wash that cheek, which is kind of gross when you think about it.
Oh, stop it, or I won’t kiss you again. I don’t want you to not wash your face.
July, 2008; (L-R) Ronnie Spector, Billy Miller, your’s truly, Miriam Linna, Bruce Bennett
Ha. Okay. So how did the “Beyond the Beehive” show come together?
Well, about nine years ago, me and two girls – one played the piano, and one was on guitar – we played a show at a college upstate somewhere. And it kind of turned into what my “Beehive” show is – I started talking a bit more, told some stories, and then I’d sing a little bit. And these college kids were so in awe of my story. And that was the first time I thought I could have a show about my life. However, I didn’t know my life was going to get so hectic. I get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, then there was the murder, and so much has happened. But I started writing a script about my life, I have a journal at home, and I started writing down every little thing… And I’m finally doing it onstage, and it’s amazing it happened. And how the people are responding! I’m like in a trance up there.
How often had you done the show before this City Winery stand this summer?
I had done it once in Collinsville and once in Richfield. But I didn’t have an iPod then, I had a script, turning pages. But I kind of don’t count those, as they were like rehearsals, we were kind of “work-shopping it,” as they say. It was my story before, but now it’s kind of taken on a life of its own. And I’m lovin’ every minute of it!
Do you have a director?
No, I don’t. I’m my own director, because it’s my life, it’s what I went through, it’s my own emotions up there. So I can’t have somebody direct my emotions.
Yeah, I remember seeing your Christmas show a few years back at B.B. King Blues Club in NYC, and for a fun Christmas show, you didn’t hold back emotionally at all. You told some stories then too, a little bit. This show is even more storytelling.
Yes, from when I met the Beatles, and then the Rolling Stones were my opening act, before that at the Apollo, all that. As a matter of fact, and I’m still shaking with joy over this, but yesterday Channel 7 took me up to my old neighborhood up in Spanish Harlem, where I took the Beatles and the Stones; where I really grew up at my grandma’s place. And there was that same swing right there! And I was just bowled over with joy. I’d last been there about seven years ago. But my mom has since passed, and my uncle, and, well everyone I knew in that neighborhood was gone. My mother had seven siblings, so I had all these cousins, a big family. And we always went to grandma’s on Sundays. It was nothing but fun, music, and food! And I loved it! They’d put me up on the coffee table, and I had aunts and uncles and cousins applauding me. And that’s when I thought, “Yeah, I can do this!” Family was my first applause. And that’s where I started to sing, at five years old. And that’s where I started this script.
Yeah, I read your book, Be My Baby, a while ago, and I was thinking that that book came out in like 1989. And by now you’ve had all these things that have happened since. So this show kind of catches people up on your life.
Exactly, that’s what happened. All these other crazy things started happening. Ha, Be My Baby – “How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness!” (laughs) I love that subtitle. So, I know everybody is seeing the madness now [with Phil’s murder], and they’re really into the story. But it’s about a lot of people – Dick Clark, and JFK – we were right there in Texas, on tour with Dick Clark when that happened. So it’s a lot of stories where people gasp!
Can you tell me more about that day Kennedy was shot?
Sure, They have vintage shots in the show where you can see some of this stuff, not just me talking. But what happened was, we were all in Dallas, on the “Dick Clark Caravan of Stars,” it was called. Me, Bobby Vee, Paul & Paula, Little Eva. So the day we got to Dallas, we were supposed to play some huge place in Dallas, and that’s the day he got shot. I went down to the hotel lobby, and I saw people crying and screaming and fainting. I was so young, I thought the world was ending. I ran back to my room, and Dick Clark called and said that JFK was just assassinated, and we’re going to have to cancel the tour. I thought, “Oh god, why me, why now?!” I was very young, so I didn’t get all the politics of it at first. We were just playing rock’n’roll music and having fun fun fun. But it was suddenly very sad…. So we continued it later, but not that night.
Any other memories from that tour?
We had a big beautiful Greyhound bus – though not like today’s buses, all luxury. And the crew had a big bus right behind us. But I remember, on our days off, Dick Clark would find a nightclub and close it for a private party, just for us kids. Cuz we didn’t drink. So we had sodas and sandwiches and whatever we wanted. And I loved him for that. He had every color groups – the Contours, who were black; to Paul & Paula, who were white; to the Ronettes, who were half-breeds. (laughs) And he wouldn’t bother going to clubs that say blacks can’t get in – I never knew about prejudice then. He kind of shielded us from that.
So no drinking at all? Honest?
(laughs) No, never. But I have a story about that. Dick Clark was so strict. Only the performers could come on that tour – no bodyguards, no friends, no one. Every seat on the bus was taken. But he went to my mother and said, “Please, can you come on tour with the girls.” Because we were pretty, and all the guys were after us! So Dick asked my mother to come on tour, which was never done for any other group. So my mother always came along after that, the Rolling Stones tour in England, all of them… My mother went from the Apollo and the Brooklyn Fox to the UK!
So she made sure you weren’t sinning?
Right. We were young, so I just figured that’s what you did – we went from the stage or theater, and go to our hotel room and get ready for bed. Just like I did when I was a little girl. (laughs)
Must’ve been really exciting for your mother too.
Oh yeah! I’d been singing since I was five, so she was in awe that her daughter finally made it. I used to drive my teachers crazy in elementary school. I went there yesterday too – I still have chills. I used to sing in class. I’ll never forget my 5th grade teacher, Mr. Sax. He was a good-looking guy too. He would say, “Veronica, you can’t sing in class!” But the kids were enjoying me. He’d call my parents and tell them I’m disrupting the class! (laughs)
So you’d just break out in song in the middle of class?
Yeah. He would call me up, and I thought he wanted me to sing, so I’d start singing, but he wanted me to do something on the chalkboard or something. (laughs)
So what songs would you have sung when you jumped up in front of class back then?
Oh, I would’ve sung like “Jambalaya on the Bayou.”
(Ronnie proceeded to sing it, and I proceeded to melt into my chair…)
Of course I got all the lyrics wrong, but what do I know, I was five years old! But that’s how it started. Oh, that same teacher, Mr. Sax, after I became famous, he watched my career, and came to most of my shows. And 15 years ago, he finally came backstage to one of my shows. And I asked, “Mr. Sax, how come you didn’t come backstage all those other times?” And he said, “Because I was bald, and I didn’t think you’d recognize me.” (laughs) He died a few years ago, and his sons sent me a letter telling me he passed. He had told his sons about me all those years. So they started going to my shows too.
So when did the Ronettes start happening?
That was usually at my grandmother’s house. We were very young, and we weren’t allowed to go outside. My grandmother was very strict. But we could go out in the hallway and play. It was cool down there – you know, my grandmother couldn’t afford air conditioning or whatever. So we’d go down there in the hallway and sing. And the echo was amazing! And that’s when my aunts would say, “You can really sing, kid.” By 8, 9, 10, I really realized it. Id’ go home and play 45s – Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers mostly. My parents couldn’t afford to send me to music school.
So Frankie Lymon was your music school.
Yeah, are you kidding? He was my whole inspiration!
Yeah, your voice sounds like his. But then again, when you’re a kid, just starting to sing, you can’t help but imitate these singers that you like, not knowing your own voice yet.
Yeah, of course. I think all these people – Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennet, etc. – they had to have someone that they admired, to make them want to do it. That’s what I believe, I may be wrong. You have to have someone you look up to. Like Amy Winehouse wanted to be like me, and I had Frankie Lymon. When I first heard his voice, I didn’t know if he was a boy or girl, I just loved his voice. His voice just pierced me.
When is the first time you saw him perform?
I think it was in Philadelphia, a small theater. The Ronettes had won a dance contest, and Frankie Lymon was in that same show, so we got to see him perform. We got a chance to dance, and then saw him! So later, he was supposed to come to MY 13th birthday party! His brothers came, Howard and Louie, but he didn’t come. I was devastated. But he came to my house two weeks later. I met him, but he was drinking and stuff like that. I don’t really like to talk about that…. He’s one of the reasons I don’t drink or do drugs, because he did all those things. And I‘m trying to keep his magic alive. I’m trying to stay healthy because of all those fans and friends in the business who are no longer here. Even Amy Winehouse, my god! I was in London six months before she died. And she came to my show in London. And she was shy and hiding behind this guy. And when I went into “Back to Black” – her song that I had done – she started crying. Then I started crying. It was amazing. Then she died six months later. I personally was devastated….
The films you project in “Behind the Beehive,” there are amazing color super 8 films of the Ronettes hanging out and dancing at the Peppermint Lounge. I guess all those films and images you show are from you personal collection?
Well guess what, Eric? I have no idea because I never look at those pictures while I’m performing. And even when they were putting them together, I looked at a few, but I’ve never really sat down and looked at all of them. Because if I look at them – especially onstage – I’ll end up wanting to do one of those Ronettes dance routines. Trying to do The Twist in my 60s, when in those pictures I was 16. (laughs)
Usually, all you can find on YouTube or whatever are the old TV show clips of the Ronettes, maybe lip-syncing or whatever, and that’s great. But these seemed like really fun, just hanging around and dancing at clubs and stuff, sporting awesome dresses…
Yeah, I asked Jonathan (Greenfield, Ronnie’s husband and manager), “Do I look good in them?” And he said, “Honey, I wouldn’t have them up there if you didn’t!” So I’m just happy that people are loving it. And you know what else I’m getting out of it, Eric?
What, Ronnie?
Emotion. All this emotional stuff starts building during the show, and I’m letting it out, as if I was at my psychiatrist. (laughs) It’s amazing. I don’t know when I’m going to get emotional, and it’s a different crowd every night, responding to different things, and I love it!
What’s a favorite story from the Peppermint Lounge? I know you tell a few stories in the show about first hanging out there, then getting asked to perform there – the Ronettes kind of made their name there. But are there any other stories you can remember from that place?
I remember Judy Garland stepping on my foot, and not even noticing it. I never forgot that. She was just so unaware, I guess she was drinking and all that. She just kept dancing. They had a thing there called the “spotlight dance.” There’s a picture of me in the show as the spotlight dancer. And what happens is once the spotlight dance is done, then everyone like floods back onto the floor to dance, and that’s when she stepped on my foot. Judy Garland – I couldn’t believe it! I thought, “That’s so great! I can tell the world that Judy Garland stepped on my foot!” And that same thing happened at a club in England too! John Lennon and Paul McCartney were there, Paul was with his girlfriend, that famous actress. Paul never moved the whole night. But John and I danced, and of course there was Judy Garland all stoned out and dancing, and she stepped on my foot again! (laughs) I was hoping it would happen again some other time, third time’s the charm! You know, I was just so in love with Judy Garland.
You didn’t try to go say hi to her?
No no. To me, she was just so… I mean she died so young. Once I saw her sing “Over the Rainbow,” whoa… But what happened to her later, I always wanted to be just the opposite. You know my ex-husband would watch Citizen Kane all the time. He made me watch it all the time, every night practically. In that movie, the girl left him, and she became this drunk. And people would come in and ask her questions about Kane. And I thought, “I am never gonna be like that!” And now my ex is an alcoholic, and I’m on top of the world.
Speaking of survivors, the Rolling Stones are having their 50th Anniversary this year. I know you tell a couple stories about them in your show, but I was wondering what you thought of them musically the very first time you saw them play live.
Yeah, we knew them from way back before they had any big hits. They’d come to America, come over my house, and my mom would feed them. And they slept on my floor. Really nice guys. But finally seeing them play on tour, I wasn’t that impressed, to be honest. It was so different from the American groups – with the long hair, and Mick running around like that. You know, I was used to seeing people like James Brown dance, with real rhythm. Then when I saw Mick I thought, What is that?! (laughs) I hate to talk bad, but I couldn’t understand his rhythm, his legs going all over, and his little butt. But there was no rhythm there. Sorry Mick, but you know I love you Mick!
I interviewed Darlene Love a few years ago, and she was talking about how by the early ‘80s, she was working as a maid in a hotel, hadn’t performed in years, and she wasn’t legally allowed to sing the Phil Spector hits and all that. And one day while she was vacuuming a hotel room, she heard one of her Phil-produced hits on the radio, and it just hit her that she has got to get back into show business. She called her old agent the next day, and within a year, the wheels were in gear for her acting in that first Lethal Weapon movie, and then signing at shows again, etc. And she’s doing great to this day. You talk in the show about how once you got out from under Phil Spector, it had been some years that you were out of the public eye, and you didn’t know how to start getting work again. Did you have a kind of “Ah-ha!” moment like Darlene Love in the hotel room?
Not exactly. I mean, things had changed so much in those seven years that I wasn’t performing. So I just started back on the Oldies but Goodies circuit. I NEVER thought about quitting, ever. See, once you go up a bit in show business, it’s hard to go back down and become a maid. I could never do that.
Do you keep in touch with any of the old girl groups.
I saw Mary Weiss (Shangri-Las) a few years ago in New Orleans, and we bumped into each other at the airport too, and just talked and laughed. I knew Dusty Springfield. But I can only go by the ones I knew back stage and stuff. I might have been on the same label as a lot of those girls, but that doesn’t mean I knew them. Phil kept me away from everybody. For seven years, I didn’t meet or even see anybody. I was held captive out there.
What about the early recording sessions though. There was never a time you got to go out and have a drink with the band after a session?
Oh no, I never went with the guys. Once I started my vocals and Jack Nitzsche (arranger/producer) had my key down, I’d do the vocals, and the band would say like, “Yeah!” They loved my voice, But I’d finish, then I would go back to my hotel. Then I’d come back in later when there was no band. And there was Larry Levine, who was our engineer, and we’d do some more vocals, and some of the background stuff. Darlene Love, or Cher, the Blossoms – they all were background on my records. Cher and I were close friends, so Cher could stay over sometimes. But otherwise, Phil kept me locked up. He controlled everything.
Well, what comes around goes around, because now he’s being controlled.
Isn’t it the truth! Yeah, I think about that too, all the time. It was so hard. After awhile in that mansion, I just stopped talking, I was like a mute. I was afraid to say anything, because he would start yelling. So if I said nothing, he wouldn’t have anything to yell about. So that’s how I had to live the last couple years with him.
So I know, once you got out, you started hanging out with John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen, and you go over a lot of that n the show. But I’ve always wondered how you first met Joey Ramone, and if you knew of punk rock and CBGB and all that…
Yeah. First of all, there’s that place called The Continental, it’s on the corner of 8th Street, I think it’s still there. My husband and manager, Jonathan, had set up that we were supposed to meet Joey there. Well, he was just standing there, and he was so tall, so I just walked up and reached up and tapped him on the back. And he turned around and just yelled, “Ronnie!” and hugged me. So went to this little corner and started talking…. I can’t believe he’s been gone now for like 10 years. When my husband went up to see Joey right around then, he wouldn’t let me come upstairs, because Joey said he didn’t want me to see him in that condition. The last time I saw him, he was at my recording session with Keith Richards, while making that record Last of the Rock Stars (Bad Girl Sounds, 2006). Keith Richards was Joey’s favorite guitar player, and I’m his favorite girl singer. I saw Joey sitting there in the dark room next to where we were recording. And he was sitting there with a look on his face like he was in heaven. And that’s the last time I saw him. That was very close to when he died. All he wanted to see was me and Keith Richards performing together, that was his dream, and he got it.
But like the punk stuff, there was when I met Johnny Thunders. I was playing this gay club in New York, The Continental Baths, and I’m singing all my hits. And I see this little guy in the corner crying his eyes out. So I walked over to him after the set. You know, it was a gay club, so as I walked by, the guys would take off their belts and whip me on the butt. It was great! I had the greatest time there. So anyway, I go up to this little guy, and I say “What’s the matter with you? Why are you crying the whole show?” And he said, “I’m sorry, I just loved every song, I can’t help it, I love your voice so much.” And like 2 days later, he was dead. It blew my mind. It freaked me out. I was thinking, I hope I didn’t cause it! That was the only time I ever met him. And that’s why I sing “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory.” Joey Ramone suggested I should do that song.
That is such a great song.
Isn’t it though? “It doesn’t pay to try. All the smart girls know why.” Right there, the first line says everything.
Nightmare Scenario - Diamond Edition Available NOW! Today (August 7) bandcamp is waiving their 15% cut of download sales. This means more money that we can get directly to Black Queer & Intersectional Collective and Columbus Freedom Fund.
New Bomb Turks release ‘Nightmare Scenario - Diamond Edition’ with unheard mixes, bonus track, & re-mastered by Jim Diamond. All monies to go to Black Lives Matter organizations in Columbus, Ohio.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the release of Nightmare Scenario, New Bomb Turks’ fifth full-length album, third for the Los Angeles based Epitaph Records, and first with drummer Sam Brown (Operators, Divine Fits, RJD2, Gaunt).
Recorded by Jim Diamond at Ghetto Recorders, Detroit, MI, November 3-7, 1999. These are the original mixes by Jim Diamond and have been re-mastered by Jim Diamond July 2020.
Diamond’s production credits include Red Aunts, White Stripes, Clone Defects, The Sights, Bantam Rooster, Nathaniel Mayer, Andre Williams, Dirtbombs, Nikki Corvette, Seger Liberation Army, Baseball Furries, Scat Rag Boosters, Little Killers, The Cynics, Scott Morgan, The Sonics, Los Sexareenos, Mr. Airplane Man, The Go, The Fells, The Dirtys, Electric Six, Paybacks, Easy Action, Fleshtones, Patsys, Guilty Pleasures TO NAME A FEW.
Cover design by Henry H. Owings (Chunklet/Five Minute Flyers). Photo by Ewolf
Available digitally (for now) August 7, 2020 at newbombturks.bandcamp.com
100% of proceeds will be donated to: Black Queer & Intersectional Collective and Columbus Freedom Fund
Press Inquiries: Jo Murray
It was spring, 1999. New Bomb Turks had just returned from their first tour of Australia in a suspended animation. They soon procured ace drumsman, dessert aficionado [not a typo], and all-around great guy, Sam Brown. It suddenly felt like a brand new beast, but they had an album to deliver forthwith, and nary a new song in sight! Nails were chomped to the cuticle, empty beer cans sat in the corner mocking us…
Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes (or at least like a bartender finding another unopened bottle of mezcal at last call), New Bomb Turks soared again. Within four months (May-August 1999), Sam slipped right into the NBT stool, 12 new songs were cooked up easy as fryin’ an egg, and they were back on the road with the Hellacopters to hash those new ones into place.
By the time the band got to Jim Diamond’s Ghetto Recorders studio in Detroit – his rep revving up from production jobs with the curdled cream of that Detroit trash-rock scene (Clone Defects, Detroit Cobras, Dirtbombs, White Stripes, Andre Williams) – New Bomb Turks were piqued like a baby screamin’ for a higher push on a swing set.
Over four days and nights, the band enjoyed their easiest and most fun recording session – the only break being a jaunt over to a bar to see a reunited Real Kids, their first show in years, which floored the band and only added more mezcal to the fire.
Final mixes were left to Jim Diamond, and by the time he forwarded them to the band, overdub ideas had hatched, and about half the record was remixed with local studio wiz, Jeff Graham, in Columbus. A middle ground was eventually found, and what resulted was Nightmare Scenario (Epitaph Records, 2000) – the fifth album in their six album/three compilation catalog, and the one the band believe is their best.
Like every band ever, the years have supplied moments of mixing rumination. So last year, when the band saw the 20th anniversary of Nightmare Scenario right up on their ass, they asked Jim Diamond if he had his original mixes lying around his palatial estate. He found them on a DAT (look it up, kids) tucked underneath a pile of professional recording deck manuals (i.e., old MAD mags). Lo and behold, they were even more ripping and burning and stinging than remembered. There was the 20th birthday idea, screamin’ like a brat!
So here you have the original mixes of Nightmare Scenario that Jim Diamond finished in November 1999, ensconced deep in his legendary, now torn-down Detroit digs. Ain’t saying it’s better than the original, just leaner and meaner. But don’t take our word for it – take yours when you’re screamin’ along too!
-Lance Forth (NBT Biographer), July 2020 Astoria, NY
New Bomb Turks in the hallway of Ghetto Recorders, Detroit, November 1999. Test Polaroid by Ewolf
Thanks to all that came out to our most recent shows. For those who were bummed we ran out of their shirt size you can head over to Bifocal Media for the size you need.
Thanks to all that came out to our most recent shows. For those who were bummed we ran out of their shirt size you can head over to Bifocal Media for the size you need. https://bifocalmedia.com/Bifocal_Media/New_Bomb_Turks_Scanlon_T_shirt.html
