We get asked all the time how we find bands and why we choose the ones we do. To be honest, there is no magic to it. I know there are some A&R douchebags out there that will tell you that there is. They claim to have some magic “formula.” Well f’ that, I don’t buy it for a second.
How do we do it? Well, the same way anyone finds new music. Through friends, other bands, the internet, sometimes demos. One word on demos (not that anyone cares): they are so very rarely a good way to tell how a band is. If you can get a label out to one of your shows, you are way better off. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it.
Bart and I [Cory] saw (Stop Worrying and) Love the Bomb play with HOLLYWOOD, White Whale (a Big Neck band from Buffalo), and Music Band (Scott from The Electricutions other band) at the Velvet Lounge a few months back. About two songs into SWALTB’s set, Bart yells in my ear “We are putting out their f’ing 7 inch.” Sometimes you just hear something live, and that’s it.
Since then, they have sent us a bunch of songs they have been working on that are monster punk rock tunes, and we are psyched to be putting out the first EP for a band that is gonna destroy it. Don’t miss SWALTB on Sunday at the Big Neck / Windian Mini-Fest at the Marcatus Art Market in Yards Park (10 Water Street SE, Washington, DC). What time, you ask? If I knew that, I would tell you. This is punk rock, we don’t plan shit like that.
In the band’s words, here is how they got started. Think it shows how much of a community rock-n-roll really is.
Formed somewhere between the Black Cat and Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, DC, (Stop Worrying and) Love the Bomb was born out of breakups. Sal Go’s (guitar/vox) and Mike’s (guitar/vox) old bands (who cares) used to play shows together, so when the two met by chance at a Jay Reatard show in 2008, they talked bands, their respective failed relationships (Sal’s band/Mike’s girlfriend), and the new-found abundance of free time on their hands.
On the walk to get chili dogs after the show, they decided to form a band in the vein of The Reatards, Teengenerate, New Bomb Turks, blah blah blah. Sometimes the results have been in that ballpark, other times the sound is a little different, but it’s the same basic idea; short, fast, meat-and-potatoes punk.
(Stop Worrying and) Love the Bomb | Yellow Black n’ Blue
They soon added Nathan on drums, whose previous experience was indie rock and CCR covers, so punk seemed like a natural progression. When original bass player Thomas left the band to become an LDS missionary, Curt was brought into the fold. Curt plays in lots of bands, and Mike and Sal had been in bands with him. In fact, there’s a good chance that you, too, are bandmates with him.
SWALTB makes sure the set is under 25 minutes, has their debut 7 inch EP coming out in late 2011 on Big Neck Records, and hates when band bios end with some statement about a band’s future plans including “world domination.”
