New Bomb Turks

Nightmare Scenario (Epitaph)
by Jon Sarre

God love clowns like these! Ten years of crackin’ wise in the face of commercial oblivion and not lettin’ it phase ’em as they hit the road and go off the road and go back to workaday, or whatever, ’til ya hear from ’em again. Five records down and still the New Bomb Turks got no concessions to give to anything but whatever their muse happens to be at the moment. They’re one of the great rock bands workin’ these days, straight up, record-wise as well as live (tho’ on disc ya miss singer Eric Davidson doin’ his Springsteen-as-Court-Jester thing).

Nightmare Scenario is pretty much the Turks standard demento-madsterpiece showcase they’ve been doin’ since ’92’s Destroy Oh Boy: a dozen pointed four-chord screamers fueled by Jim Weber’s needle-sharp leads (as screechingly primal as anything on Black Flag’s Damaged) and Davidson’s sneerin’ pearls of barbed wit’n’wisdom (and near-miraculous control of breath and breadth), nailed down by bass player Matt Reber & new guy drummer Sam Brown (late of Columbus, Ohio colleagues, Gaunt), just so the other two don’t trip over danglin’ chords or participles. Nah, it ain’t some kinda great leap forward (into the pit, orchestra or otherwise), but the Turks can make the same record and transcend irrelevancy (and irreverency, too). They’re chumps ya can count on, double entendres plus four chords equal a new New Bomb Turks disc every time.
(2798 Sunset Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90026)