March 31, 1997
The Go Lounge is in the midst of a live music "revival" (of sorts). After some down time, and renovations to the air-conditioning system and the stage, the club has featured live music every weekend since February.
On the weekend of March 21 and 22 "the Go" featured two stylistically antithetical bands - The Hate Bombs on Friday night and Obliterati on Saturday night - that share a common goal: to have "mucho fun!"
It's all about having fun at a Hate Bombs show - no posing, no strained existential angst - just four guys having a real good time doing (1960's-tinged) garage punk. The four guys: Dave Ewing, the frontman on guitar, vocals and mod haircut who has perfected that Ready, Steady, Go! headbob; Ken "the kiss of hops" Chiodini on drums, primal vocals, and Schlitz beer; Mick Crowley on guitar, vocals, and the meanest-cheesiest Acetone organ in Florida; and Scott Sugiuchi, a Kyle MacLachlan doppelganger who has perfected that "faux-disaffected-stare at the ceiling look" on bass.
The Hate Bombs - once, at a cocktail party, Ken's wife claimed a pair of catty women were lobbing "invisible hatebombs" at her - play a slew of retro-rock originals influenced by Billy Childish (Thee Headcoats, Thee Milkshakes, Pop Rivitz, et al.), The Sonics, The Squires, Pretty Things, and lesser-known 1960's fuzz-rock ephemera. The Hatebombs also play some inspired covers such as "Diamond Head" by The Ventures and "Your Love" by The Trogs, but they are truly good original songwriters and musicians.
The four guys split songwriting duties. The songwriter usually sings his own songs, with the notable exception of Scott, who writes music and lyrics for the other members of the band, but is too busy devising the group's choreography to sing. What moves! Imagine The Spinners involved in a head-on collision with The Fleshtones in a sort of "right side of a good thing" aesthetic.
The Hate Bombs performed most of the songs from their forthcoming 17-song CD, Here Comes Treble (360 Twist Records). They kept the audience "fruggin' and twisting" through two sets of lo-fi pop wonders like "Know About You" and "She's No Good," which sounded like stories of unrequited teenage love. And Carl Douglas (of "Kung Fu Fighting" fame) wishes he could have come up with a song as kitschy as "One Inch Punch," about one of Bruce Lee's most famous Kung Fu chops. The Hate Bombs also performed older (Speed-O-Meter Records) audience favorites like "Safe Harbor" and "She's The Girl."
They also have some truly great stories to tell about driving Billy Childish around Denver and hanging out with Peter Zaremba of The Fleshtones and Art Chantry of Estrus Records fame. In the future, The Hate Bombs would also like to do a "bowling night," according to Dave, "where everybody comes out and bowls and drinks a lot and listens to rock and roll." But I think Scott summed up The Hate Bombs' experience best: "Above all, above money, above technique, and above anything else, we like to have a good time."
The perfect garage punk ethos.
Read about Obliterati.
Ray Gunn Virus
A.k.a.: Ray Gunn Virus; Mr. Ray Gunn Virus, Sir; Shinygodhead; J. Alvarez;
sometimes even old plain Jorge (go ahead say whore-hey) never mind George
will do.
Stuff he like to do someday: Make a living out of writing "junk and stuff"
and going places and seeing things ...
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