Seks Bomba Press and Quotes

Billboard Magazine
Operation B.O.M.B.A
Operation B.O.M.B.A
Press Index:
Billboard
Reverb Central
Pipeline
Metroland
Lollipop
Ink 19

Billboard FLAG WAVING: The members of the Boston band Seks Bomba once advertised their sound as "avant cheese." And that's pretty much what you get on the group's debut album, due May 18 from YaYa Records, the new imprint operated by the aforementioned Michael Neustadt.

We found ourselves captivated by Seks Bomba from the first track of the album, the surfoid instrumental "Jet City." But the quintet has more going for it than just some strong surf moves: There are elements of rockabilly in the twangy guitar work of George Hall and Chris Cote, more than a soupçon of neo-lounge in the keyboard stylings of Lori Perkins, and a strange backdated zest in Cote's polyester-pop vocals on numbers like "The Right Track (Baby)" and "Bright Lights And You, Girl."

The album also features droll but deadpan readings of Burt Bacharach and Hal David's "Do You Know The Way To San Jose?," Lalo Schiffrin's "The Cat," and Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer's "It Had Better Be Tonight."

Given the groups unusual genetic cross-breeding, Seks Bomba has played on a variety of gigs. For a while, we were playing on a lot of surf bills," Hall says. The group has also been paired with Rockabilly artists like Ronnie Dawson and has done its share of lounge-music duty, though some martini-sippers may not always get the picture. "It was like, we would get up and we would rock," Hall says.

"The idea has always been to keep things stylistically open-ended," Hall notes. "People [in the band] come from wildy divergent backgrounds, and I tend to be a kind of a filter...We're all into all kinds of crazy albums."

Seks Bomba is also very apparently into movies: Track titles include such mythical film fare as "Theme From 'To Kill 89,'" "Theme From 'Mondo Edgar,'" and "Main Title And Love Theme From 'Satan's Shriners.'" (We have to catch up with that last flick at the drive-in.)

Hall--who cites Dick Hyman's "The Man From O.R.G.A.N." as a prime influence--explains, "There are a lot of instro bands out there...What Itry to do is make it a soundtrack thing--to serve some kind of a mental picture."

Seks Bomba has deep roots in the Boston music turf: Hall holds down a day job in the promotion department at Rounder Records in Cambridge, while Cote, a former partner in Rounder's Upstart Records imprint, does double duty as a member of the hard-rock fop unit the Upper Crust.

Together nearly four years, Seks Bomba--which also features drummer Brett Campbell and bassist Matt Silbert--continues to play semi-regular gigs at Boston's Lizard Lounge. Hall says he likes the joint because the group gets to play more than one set a night: "The second set gets a little chancey, indicative of beverages consumed."

The band will celebrate the release of its album with a June 18 gig at the Linwood in Boston. Seks Bomba will be paired at that gig with Auto 66, a combo featuring longtime Beantown writer Tris Lozaw.