Midnight Bombers Evil Streets Wondertaker OH, HELL YES! A band with a little mud on their shoes, a little blood on their hands and spit on their lips! Punk rock in the tradition of the '80s hardcore explosion. Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Minor Threat. Give me harsh, but understandable vocals and staccato drum smacks! Give me guitars that turn me on and get my blood running! I can only take so much indie rock and pop punk, no matter how good it is. I ache for some head smashing, on the edge of violence, bottle-crashing punk rock! Enter, Midnight Bombers. This album, Evil Streets caught me completely off guard. The eye-catching cover (aviator sunglasses against a black background) made me think, garage rock, and I'm totally cool with that. I expected The Dirtbombs, or maybe Queens of the Stone Age, or Eagles of Death Metal. What I did NOT expect was to be blown across the room and transported back in time to the Reagan years that were ruled by Henry, Ian and Jello. The lyrics don't seem to be as political as those former rulers of the punk world, but the music is right on par with the best of those bands. "Satan's Children" and "Back and Forth;" these songs are so good it's painful! Turn it on, turn it up, and move all of the furniture out of the room or you may just hurt yourself. Midnight Bombers, I love you! Midnight Bombers: www.midnightbombers.com/ Jen Cray

MIDNIGHT BOMBERS - Evil Streets CD 2007 Midnight Bombers - Evil Streets Right off the bat in 2007 I get a masterpiece of hardcore, punk and thrash called Evil Streets. While emo kids will think it's too fast and screamcos too smooth, in reality it's like a run away riot on the verge of total chaos. This reminds me of the hardcore shows I used to see at the Metroplex in Atlanta about 83, it only slows down enough to wipe the sweat clean before slamming back into the pit. In a spot or two they slip some metal in just to stay mean. What makes Evil Streets a great album is that there are NO bad songs, no complete messes of screaming and out of tune drunkeness I've come to expect from 'tha lineage of current hardcore bands, just ass kicking, rougher & faster than a three dollar whore, bombast! The title cut gives a great dictation as to what it does mean, to hit the west coast and come close to losing your ass! 'Cause I've been there baby! "Back and Forth" sums up the hidden animal in us all, and lays down the two step like she ain't lyin', she's satisfying! Midnight Bombers rock the fuckin' house! Great gig posters too! Contact: http://myspace.com/midnightbombers, http://www.wondertaker.com

MIDNIGHT BOMBERS - Evil Streets CD 2007 (Wondertaker) I caught the Midnight Bombers at a local bar a few weeks back and was completely blown away with this bands raw and very intense performance. I was happy to see them interviewed in last months issue and I am even more ecstatic as being able to tell Zero readers what a brilliant fucking record Evil Streets is! Everything from the production to the songs themselves and anything in between is catchy, in your face, and very very punk rock! A notable highlight is the cover of Aggression’s “It Can Happen”, which will be featured on an upcoming tribute to Aggression coming out later this year. This is some really gritty, dirty and very much in your face punk rock that carries with it a very sarcastic attitude ala the Dead Kennedy’s. I personally have not been too on the up and up with punk rock in recent years, however, once in awhile a band pops up out of the woodwork and catches my eyes and ears. Evil Streets not only just caught my ears; it hit me over the head and kicked my ass! - Josh Joesten

Reviewer: Sleaze Grinder “Evil Streets” is full of knife-slashing punk rock, fast n’ mean with a palpable black leather slither to it. Pretty comparable to other San Franpsycho bands like the Grannies and Dirty Power*, the Midnight Bombers offer up scuzzy, howling, garage-wrecking noise for snipers and stalkers. I dug the menacing “Shanghaid” the best, because it sounds like a guy getting pummeled to death. Which is what you fuckin’ get when you’re out on the Evil Streets, baby. *As you might imagine, these being mad bombers and all, their identities are a secret, but I would not be surprised if a Granny or Dirty Power-er was involved

MIDNIGHT BOMBERS - Evil Streets CD 2007 (Wondertaker)) The Midnight Bombers know their punk. Weaving in more straight-laced and textured hard rock with their classic punk sound. Raw melodies mix up with feisty aggression and in-your-face attitude. The music is high energy and totally satisfying for the hardcore fan of punk rock. The group's unibomber image is also a nice touch, mingling nicely with the group's iconoclasm, which resonates from every song. This CD is a big, ballsy fuck-you, which is exactly how it should be. - Kristofer Upjohn

Reviewer: Suburban Voice (click for website) MIDNIGHT BOMBERS-Evil Streets (Wondertaker, CD) Solid punk rock with a brashness and straight-ahead energy. There’s some snakiness in the guitar playing and other twists—such as the PIL-like dubbiness that starts “Satan’s Children.” The more interesting songs have those little wrinkles and it’s all played at a fast pace. The lyrics expose a tortured psyche—introspective and troubled and it’s echoed by the darker shadings in the music. (PO Box 470153, SF, CA 94147-0153, www.wondertaker.com)

MIDNIGHT BOMBERS - S/T EP 2005 (Private) If you conceive of classic hardcore as fast, loud, and abrasive then you'll have to expand your definition to take in the rockin' punk metal of the MIDNIGHT BOMBERS. Yeah, they do faster and louder, but they're also quite melodic, vary their tempo, and even play a guitar solo or two. This short demo, with five songs clocking in under nine minutes, will take you back to the classic days of 80s Reagan core, with nods to MINOR THREAT, BLACK FLAG, and most of all the DEAD KENNEDYS. It's all about walking around the Bay area in the early 80s, bored and pissed off, and what should appear in front of you but a tattered flyer stapled to a telephone pole, advertising a gig by the sickly-named DEAD KENNEDYS! Sick, yes, but humorous too. Of course you go, ready to work off the angst with a bit of a pogo and maybe a lashing of the old ultra-violence, but all you can do is stand there, open-mouthed. Yeah, they're speedy as hell, but there's a surprising melodic sense, and the social satire is dead on. You go back to your roach closet of an apartment a changed man.... If anyone can remind you of those halcyon days two decades and more in the past, its the Midnight Bombers. The lyrics are about paranoia, hatred of work, and mental illness, with a dose of camp thrown in to keep things goofy. We may all be too old for this these days, but so what? Punk n' roll! - Kevin McHugh

V/A Midnight Bombers/Bevelaqua 7" (Rodent Records)

MIDNIGHT BOMBERS play the kind of classic hardcore that gives you a rush and causes you to jump into the pit, all while thinking, "I'm to old for this shit!"

-SJ

V/A Midnight Bombers/Bevelaqua 7" (Rodent Records)

The MIDNIGHT BOMBERS are speedier, no-nonsense punk-core with what some would refer to as attitude. Fun stuff - I'll keep my eyes open for 'em next time I'm in one of the City's stinkier nightspots.

-JH

V/A Midnight Bombers/Bevelaqua 7" (Rodent Records)
The Bombers' 2 tracks, "Work Weak" and "Back & Forth", are fast Minor Threat-ish hardcore with a bit of Jack Saints' punk'n'roll thrown in. Apparently they hate work but love sex, well who doesn't, haha. Not bad. They got a full length album, "Evil Street", out soon. Bevelaqua is almost impossible to describe, sorta like sludgecoredoompunk with double bassdrums; Victims Family meets Melvins? This is some angry shit.

Midnight Bombers
Bevelaqua

-Jens

V/A Death Rattle & Roll Vol. 1 CD (Wundertaker)

Now here's a fuckin' solid punk/rock'n'roll comp of 15 US/Dutch bands each doin' 2 tracks. There's some bloody fine contributions by more known acts like Hydromatics, Nitwitz, Jack Saints and Jack Endino's Earthworm as well as more obscure kickass r'n'r. Oakland's Bottles & Skulls is a bit Zeke sounding, fuckin' lethal! Ain't comes off as a nastier version of Creamers, Motorhome recalls The Weaklings, while Reid Paley differs a bit from the bunch, imagine Mojo Nixon meets Anti-Seen! Midnight Bombers sounds like fine tuned angry mid80s Black Flag. Dirty Power do a stonerrock-ish instru and the wonderful Dwarves-like "Drag You Down". Yeah, there's plenty o' more cool nuggets from the likes of Black Furies and The Grannies, please check out the website for more info on bands. I'm anxiously awaiting vol. 2 of "Death Rattle & Roll" from Wundertaker Records who's set a very standard with this boneshakin' disc.

-Jens

Feb 2005

Midnight Bombers/Bevelaqua split single (Rodent Records) Well, both of these punk rock bands really dig sex. Two of the three songs on this three song 7" are about dancing in the dark. The other song, from Midnight Bombers, is about how mundane working a job is. Yeah, I guess working a job is mundane compared with screwing all the time. The record starts up with a song about what we don't want to do (work with our hands all the time) and then tells us what we do want to spend all of our time doing...

And what the hell is with "Work Weak" by the MIDNIGHT BOMBERS?? I thought it was one of my long lost LPs by THE FREEZE or something like that! That track, along with many others on this comp, scratches my Reagan-era hardcore itch just like the classics.

MIDNIGHT BOMBERS - Demo 2005

All I can think of is NATURAL CAUSE. The vocalist sounds exactly the same! No one will know the reference, but whatever. They even have a weirded out coupla moments just like NC did. They thankfully hold the rap parts though. God, remember the late 80's/early 90's when every band had a rap part or a fucking funk part? That was so annoying. Made the first VISION album nearly unlistenable. Well that and they all had NJ guido mullets and wore varsity jackets and white hi-tops with tight pants pennyrolled over the socks. HAHAHAHA! Ahhh the glory daze! Anyways, back to the tunes before I go into a tangent about the rat tail and the power it held over NJ/NYHC circa 87-92.

This thing is short. All demos should be short. All demos SHOULDN'T come with press releases brah. Sorry, figured I should talk Californian at them. Maybe throw some shorts on to match those frickin "Fast Times" accents they seem to all have. Anyways, this is pretty damn good! I don't quite know how to explain it properly though without disecting it like a frickin frog in 10th grade science class. I didn't get to do that by the way. I was drunk. Long story that ends with my blood on the walls. No shit!

So you got some East Bay Ray geetar with the crunch of the early Epitaph releases minus the lame-o vocals that only worked for BAD RELIGION anyways. It has a lot of TSOL feel to it. Like the quirky stuff on "Weathered Statues". They mention the DWARVES and ZEKE in their press release/scratch paper/napkin/unsoftened toilet paper and brutha they is dead WRONG! Unless you're a tone deaf douche this is nothing like that. I hear not a hint of the DWARVES dryfuck of the MISFITS or ZEKE's dryfucking the DWARVES while blowing MOTÖRHEAD. It's more like that old SNL skit "Goth Talk" or whatever. The FLESHIES are Azreal Abyss and this is his brother Todd but I guess bands like STITCHES/SMOGTOWN are like their dead older brother that used to beat both of their asses. All in all I would rather be listening to the Goddamn! demo or the unreleased Cider stuff or even side two of the new TYRADES ep. But this is still kick ass! I just feel like they have a different idea about how they're coming across. "Symptoms" is a bonafide classic!

- Two Tub Man