Bomp! Records


Bomp! Records is a Los Angeles-based record label formed in 1974 by fanzine publisher and music historian Greg Shaw and Suzy Shaw.

Magazine

Who Put The Bomp was a rock music fanzine edited and published by Greg Shaw from 1970 to 1979. Its name came from the hit 1961 doo-wop song by Barry Mann, "Who Put the Bomp". Later, the name was shortened to Bomp! Bomp! later morphed into the record label Bomp! Records, headed by Shaw until his death in 2004.

Background

The magazine was a departure from the mainstream and its writing style unique with its own opinion described as almost partisan. The magazine was first published in 1970. It was created by Greg Shaw and his wife. The magazine chronicled bands that Shaw deemed worthy of covering. And he did it passionately. Shaw made it known too that the magazine wasn't going to cater to nostalgia or be an info receptacle for fanatical collectors of obscure out of print records.
A significant amount of writers that wrote for the magazine went on to greater things. Two journalists who had their careers were launched via the magazine were Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus.

Staff

Ken Barnes who wrote articles like "10 Greatest Power Pop Songs" for Best Classic Bands, and other publications such as Fusion and Phonograph Record was once co-editor for the magazine. Jay Kinney who was a key man in the underground comics movement in the late 1960s, served as art director for the magazine.

Greg Shaw

Shaw was one of the first and best-known rock fanzine editors. Active in science fiction fandom as a young man, he became familiar with fanzines. Shaw founded one of the earliest rock fanzines, the mimeographed Mojo Navigator and Rock 'n Roll News in 1966.

Record label history

The label has featured punk, pop, power pop, garage rock, new wave, old school rock, neo-psychedelia among other genres. Its roster has included The Modern Lovers, Iggy & The Stooges, Stiv Bators & The Dead Boys, 20/20, Shoes, Devo, The Weirdos, The Romantics, Spacemen 3, the Germs, SIN 34, Jeff Dahl, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Black Lips.
Greg Shaw died from heart failure at the age of 55 on October 19, 2004. Bomp! Records is headed by his ex-wife, Suzy Shaw.
Suzy Shaw and Mick Farren co-authored Bomp: Saving the World One Record at a Time, published by Ammo Books in 2007. In 2009 Bomp! and Ugly Things published Bomp 2 – Born in the Garage, edited by Suzy Shaw and Mike Stax.

Roster