New Bomb Turks have released ‘Nightmare Scenario – Diamond Edition’ which includes unheard mixes / bonus track / re-mastered by Jim Diamond. All monies from the sales of the album will go to BLM organizations in Columbus, Ohio
Fact check:
• 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).
• Recorded by Jim Diamond at Ghetto Recorders, Detroit, MI, November 3-7, 1999.
• Original mixes by Jim Diamond. Newly re-mastered by Jim Diamond, July 2020.
• Diamond’s production credits include Red Aunts, White Stripes, Clone Defects, The Sights, Bantam Rooster, Nathaniel Mayer, Andre Williams, Dirtbombs, Nikki Corvette, Seger Liberation Army, Baseball Furries, Scat Rag Boosters, Little Killers, The Cynics, Scott Morgan, The Sonics, Sexareenos, Mr. Airplane Man, The Go, The Fells, The Dirtys, Electric Six, Paybacks, Easy Action, Fleshtones, Patsys, Guilty Pleasures, TO NAME A FEW
• Cover design by Henry H. Owings (Chunklet/Five Minute Flyers). Photo by Ewolf
You can grab the ‘Diamond Edition’ on 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 hashthose 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)
