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). Originally recorded by Jim Diamond at Ghetto Recorders, Detroit, MI, November 3-7, 1999 and newly re-mastered by Diamond in July 2020, the album will be available August 7, 2020 at https://newbombturks.bandcamp.com. 100% of proceeds will be donated to: Black Queer & Intersectional Collective (https://bqic.net/) and Columbus Freedom Fund (IG @columbusfreedomfund).
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, July 2020 (Astoria)
Keep your mind open.
[It would be a dream scenario if you subscribed.]
[Thanks to Jo Murray.]
