One name that has come up repeatedly in these 40-odd posts is Greg Shaw, a widely respected music historian and the founder of Bomp! Records – which also includes the labels AIP Records, Voxx Records, Total Energy Records, and Alive Naturalsound Records (usually just called Alive Records) – and their associated Bomp! mailorder music service. It would not surprise me at all if I haven’t mentioned Greg Shaw in a third of these UARB articles. In addition, more than a few of the Under-Appreciated Rock Bands have released albums or EP’s on one of the Bomp!-affiliated labels. If I also included the albums on non-Bomp labels that I ordered through the Bomp! mailorder service, close to half of the UARB’s and UARA’s would likely have a Bomp! connection.
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(What? Stuff, the compilation album that introduced me to the UARB for July 2010, the Eyes, released in 1998 on Bomp! Records)
Many of the seminal bands in these rock movements released albums on the Bomp!, Voxx, Alive or Total Energy labels; most of them are not household names by any means, but they are recognized by those in the know as being important bands that shaped the history of rock and roll. Some of these better-known bands and artists are the Romantics, the Modern Lovers, the Dead Boys (and Stiv Bators individually), the Plimsouls (and Peter Case individually), the Beat (and Paul Collins individually), the Stooges (and Iggy Pop individually), Devo, Nikki Sudden, the Black Keys, and Soledad Brothers.
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Greg Shaw died too young in 2004, but his legacy lives on to this day. Greg Shaw and his wife Suzy Shaw eventually divorced, but she and her current husband Patrick Boissel continue to operate Bomp! Records. Boissel is actually the founder of their most active label, Alive Records and previously operated Marilyn Records in the 1990’s. Bomp! Records celebrates its 40th anniversary next year and advertises itself as the oldest independent record company in the nation.
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(Ear-Piercing Punk, the compilation album that introduced me to the UARB for April 2011, Bohemian Vendetta, released clandestinely in 1979 by Bomp! Records on Trash Records)
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(Album by the UARB for December 2012, the Invisible Eyes, released on November 22, 2005 on Bomp! Records)
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(Retrospective album by the UARB for December 2010, the Poppees, released on April 20, 2010 on Bomp! Records)
(May 2013)
