7#[YQQQU}   xK k*] Young Turks The New Bomb Turks rock n roll over punk Who: New Bomb Turks When: Sat., June 24, 8 p.m. Where: Mercury Theatre How much: $5 by Shelly Ridenour As gross as it sounds, it just seems, well, right that Eric Davidson would spend the first few minutes of our interstate phone interview hacking and struggling to clear his throat, unable to speak through the phlegm clogging his trachea. In the past couple of years since his band New Bomb Turks first wrapped the indie scene around its little finger, writers have described his singing style as snot-caked and miles-wide bile, and even said he howls like hes pissing Ouzo and gasoline. Hell, the guy is known for his phlegm. What you dont expect is the absolute gentleman who finally says, Excuse me, really, Im so sorry. But then again, the New Bomb Turks are sort of a punk rock anomaly, full of contradictions and impossible to pin down. The very word punk isnt even a comfortable fit for these guys and their sonorous sting. Yeah, it's punk in that it has raunchy guitars and an attitude and it sounds best played really loud, Davidson figures. But people tend to have very personal views and opinions of what punk is, and we may not always fall into that. And, true, they dont neatly fall into any of the punk rock pigeonholes. Stripped of sugar-coated na-na choruses and punker-than-thou P.C. ethics, slathered in spit, nihilistic sweat and a defiantly snotty attitude, New Bomb Turks are not hardcore or popcore or retrocore. But just about every awed review or fanzine interview with the Turks you can get your hands on is gonna call them punk. Those fans fell for it. The Turks have set up a trick question, and the nasty, rip-roaring guitars, supersonic demolition speed and the crass caterwaul that seem so punk are actually the backbone of great-balls-of-fire rock n roll. I think were definitely rock n roll, Davidson concurs, and I guess punk is the spawn of that. A look through the liner notes for Information Highway Revisited (Crypt), the Turks third full-length scorcher, reveals this gem: All that radio shit is based on the premise that the Beatles invented rock n roll. Bullshit! They destroyed R&R by sugar-coating, over-structuralising and pop-ifying what had been a primal, raw, simplistic, gutteral [sic] beast. Never mind the Fab Four; Davidson and Co. have decidedly different views on the true masterminds behind rock n roll. Real rock n roll came from Jerry Lee Lewis and the Sonics and Iggy and the Stooges, he exclaims, working himself into an excited frenzy at the very thought of his forefathers. And, man, Little Richard. I mean, he's the greatest. So many contradictions wrapped up in one. He sings sex and he sings gospel music, hes always been so gender-bending yet hes also a preacher, he wears those crazy suits and dances around that piano ... and hes not exactly what youd call modest. Little Richard shaped rock n roll as much as anyone else I can think of. You can hear that seminal influence in every single crash-and-burn riff, and in the way Davidson throws out lines like Im sick of family, Im sick of friends; Im sick of women, Im sick of men with all the howling vitriol of a coyote spurned. And though the production techniques have a certain spit-shine, Scotch tape, off-the-cuff vibe to them, this is not what you would ever call lo-fi. "Full-fi" is more like it. The liner notes also flip a big finger at another sacred cow of the music industry, the cant-live-with-it-cant-live-without-it monster known as MTV. Classic-rock radio and MTV is the worst shit you can ever subject yourself to. But, Eric, is it my AM-addled imagination, or have I in fact seen the New Bomb Turks pop up on late-night MTV? Yes, its true, there is a video for Girl Can Help It, and we get hassled a lot about it, too, Davidson demurs. The thing is, most of MTV programming is crap, but every once in a while youll find something that surprises you. Our videos only been on there maybe two or three times, but if some kid discovers us via MTV, who am I to complain? Of course, there are some New Bomb Turks ditties you never expect to see played out on the small screen, like Davidsons nod to one of his big-screen heroes, Orson Welles. Actually, the song [Brother Orson Welles] doesnt really have anything to do with the man, Davidson reveals. It just came from me sitting around trying to come up with song titles. Its a pun, brother or son. Okay, so maybe its a bad pun. I guess most people dont get that out of it. No matter. With New Bomb Turks, what you get is what you hear ... whether you get it or not. uv LABEL LETTERLWDBNMSWD RbW P` ()XYZ[^ @@ 7Kg~fP t\)YZ[ʻŤ !| hl !!! !!!! !| hl !| hl !| hl   [[[ I[PU^ [ HH(FG(HH(d'@"=/R@H-:LaserWriter 8 EE CAP'N DAVE CAP'N DAVE