BOB - The Discography

Here are their four albums:

Complex Organism Blues (Half Baked Records, 1994)

Rounded At The Free End (Half Baked Records, 1995)


Sonic Hedges (Bullshi’vic, 1997)


Pendulum (Bullshi’vic, 1998?)
Here is their original demo:

Parle Bri Wah Cassette (1992)
Here is some live stuff:

Live at WREK 1993-01-12

Live at WREK 1993-11-23

Live at WREK 1995-02-28


Live at Tongue Bath 1995-02-29

And lastly, here are some singles and comp tracks:

BOB - Singles and Comp Tracks
And their origins:
1-4: from the Peel Session 7"
5-7: from the Atomic Cafe 7"
8-10: from the Refuel Compilation
11-12: from the Compatibility of Dissonance Compilation
13: from the Quadruple Felony 7"
Update: Brad sent me the Bob tracks from their split 7" with Gas*o*lene, so I have uploaded them to the Singles and Comp Tracks file. You can now download 15 bonus BOB studio tracks!

BOB, the art-rock/postpunk/whatever band from Atlanta in the 1990's was one of the great underrated gems of our time, check out my previous BOB posts here and here. It was great that they were so prolific and provided us with so much material to digest, I'm glad that it can be available here for everyone to enjoy. I also did an email interview with their guitarist/singer Rich Hudson, and have included it here:

Rich Hudson Interview (BF = me, RH = Rich Hudson)
RH: First, James, I enjoyed listening to your interview on the program "Following Your Passions". It's great what you've done with Beyond Failure, archiving a lot of obscure, if forgotten, Atlanta music in the 80s and 90s. It was exciting to be a part of the Atlanta scene in those pre-Internet days. There was camaraderie as well as friendly competition amongst the bands. We supported and inspired each other.

BF: Bob to me was the best of the strictly “local” band from the 1990’s, in the sense that you were like a local secret that nobody outside Atlanta knew about, but should have. I believe all of your albums and singles were on local Atlanta labels, including Amy Potter’s Half Baked Records, etc. Was there ever any label interest outside of Atlanta, or out of town interest in Bob’s music in general? What kind of touring did you do as a band? Can you remember some of the more interesting bands and venues you encountered on the road? Friends made? Friends lost?
RH: Thank you for the complement! It really means a lot. I can say on behalf of all Bob band mates over the years, we're grateful for any interest in our music. It was a passion, at times an obsession. Any money earned, as you can imagine it wasn't much, went back into the band for recording, t-shirts, stickers.

There was some label interest. One Atlanta label had offered us a yearly allowance to go out on the road. Although the money may've sounded good, it wouldn't have covered our obligations at home much less the tour van we were expected to buy with it. That was in 1994 after Complex Organism Blues came out. In 97 an indie label based in NYC took a liking to us after a gig in Providence, RI, but we never worked out a deal. Last 2 albums were on our own non-label "Bullshi'vic Rekkids". Amy Potter was great about not interfering in her bands' artistic freedom. I remember when she first saw us at the Third Street Pub (through the tunnel from Georgia Tech). She was the general manager at WREK and she liked us! That was a big deal to me. WREK was my favorite station. She was a big part of the local Atlanta scene in the 90s aside from being a genuinely warm hearted lady.

We did at least 6 week-long tours up the east coast to Boston. We didn't have enough vacation time from our day jobs to go on a longer tour. It was more practical for us to play in the same cities several times to try to establish contacts and a following than to go on an extensive national tour. Eric bought a Ford Econoline van. I heard you say one of your bands drove the same thing. Fortunately, we didn't have too many break downs. It was before cell phones, so somebody had to walk to a phone booth.

Early Bob was Eric Ingram (drums), me (guit/voc) and Ted Grauch (bass). We had a gig in Wilmington, NC, way the hell out there on the coast; a long drive from Atlanta. We opened for "The Leaving Trains". They were a 4 piece from California. This was around 1993. They had been touring through the bible belt and not having a good go of it; the singer was in drag. Cross-dressing wasn't as widely accepted in the south at that time! By the time they got to Wilmington they were down to a 2 piece. The bass player and 2nd guitarist quit somewhere around Birmingham. I remember when we pulled up to the club. There was the singer, a masculine dude, probably 6 foot +, standing at a phone booth in a black evening dress telling their record company that 1/2 the band quit. What really became a big inspiration for me when Ted quit Bob, was that the 2 piece Leaving Trains played their asses off. I mean, they could've easily said to hell with it and ended their tour right there. But they didn't. They persevered. When Ted quit, Eric and I played as a 2 piece for about 9 months. We even made a bass player silhouette out of cardboard that joined us on stage at the Masquerade. It was an important experience.

Venues: CBGB's. One time we (Ray on bass) went on after Unsane and The Cows. Wow, we thought, this is a big crowd. Before we could set up almost everyone left! Not good to go on after well-known bands in NY. People in NY always have some place to be. If you're not on their radar, they have no time for ya. We played CBGB's another time and a Van Halen-like band went on after us. The singer even had a wireless mic so he could annoy the 15 or so people in the audience. It might've been that night that Ray wreaked havoc on a urinal when the club reneged on the $50 guarantee. One of my favorite Bob moments was when we opened for Ben Folds Five in Raleigh, NC. A big crowd of college kids were all up by the stage waiting for our first song, probably assuming that we sounded similar, or at least, complimentary to Ben Folds. Obviously, we didn't. We opened with "Who is Sharon Tate?". "Killing makes me cum....Living makes me sick"....[Eric hits the toms] I release a bloody scream. The audience backs off a respectful 15, 20 feet! Surprisingly, several endured our set before the more conventional stylings of Ben Folds. We were friends with "Bright" from Boston. I've often listened to their albums. They were classified as kraut-rock. Layers of effected guitar and melodies, simple percussion. Great blokes! They put us up several times. "Plug Spark Sanjay" out of Hoboken, NJ, also great people. "Sau" from Richmond, VA. They were metal with a minimal brass section. The singer/bassist was a whiney Mick Jagger. Good band if you can get a copy of their first disc.

BF: Your sound went through many twists and turns from your very first singles (e.g. The Peel Sessions and Atomic Café) to your last album Pendulum. What were your influences during all these periods in your band’s history? How would you characterize your progression from the beginning to the end? Did you have any coherent vision for your band as the years went on?
RH: Early on, SST Records, The Minutemen, Sonic Youth. Fugazi was also influential, but not so much for me. We liked pop music, art school Velvet Underground, Jesus Lizard. Later, we attended "Table of the Elements" festival during Freaknick in Atlanta. That was amazing. It directly influenced the song "Fist Embodied Duck" and probably most of "Rounded at the Free End". It was in an art gallery off Peachtree Rd in Buckhead. Keiji Haino did a solo performance. The audience was silent and respectful when Haino took the stage. Haino was dressed in black, had sun glasses and a rock star attitude. He poses before the microphone, silent. Anticipation builds. Then he unleashes a series of unintelligible spastic screams. It was funny, especially because no one in the artsy crowd dared laugh. He then proceeds to play the guitar which sounds like a jet engine for about 30 minutes. AMM, Faust and Tony Conrad all performed as well as 3/4 of Sonic Youth. I never thought about song writing the same way after Table of the Elements, thus, the guitar chord drone for most of "Fist Embodied Duck" inspired by Tony Conrad's extensive drone pieces.

We progressed from a minimalist pseudo punk band to an arena-rock-dance-collective that never performed in an arena! I mean, on Pendulum, we had 3 guest stars, one of whom was Sicily Simpson (great back up singer). In terms of sound, the songs were meant to be as big as the E Street Band. However, Bob music would always have a gamey underground smell that wreaked of artistic freedom! Bruce Springsteen was a tenderloin, Bob was a north american diving duck. Eric and I once had a short lived band called North American Diving Duck (NADD) before the Bob days.

There was no coherent vision. The Bob sound changed with the personality of each bass player. We were more punk with Ted, still developing as song writers. With Ray, it was a mixture of free-form improv, aggression and melody. Katt was about grooves, dance and entertainment, sometimes a circus. Eric and I were open to seeing how the sound could develop. Mostly, we were all great friends. Creating music together was our God experience. Other people turn to religion, some people end up in prison. We were in a band. It was the controlled release of energy.

BF: Your albums seem to have a lot of experimental interludes, unnamed tracks, random bits and pieces to make the album an entire listening experience, and not just a collection of hit singles. Was this a conscious effort on your part, or is there a motive behind how you assembled and sequenced your albums? Are there any bands you drew inspiration from in putting together these records?
RH: We did take time to consider all tracks and song order. For example, there is 33 seconds of silence between "Who is Sharon Tate?" and the untitled 17th track on Complex Organism Blues (known as "Atomic Cafe"). The 33 seconds was Ray's idea to honor local band King Kill 33. We divided the 20 minute song Animal Speak into 7 different tracks. The purpose was to disorient the listener when they put the disc on random play. I remember tuning to WREK a few years after the release and hearing one segment of "Animal Speak". It was an odd experience because I thought: I like that, sounds familiar, who is it? Then the DJ identified it as Bob. It surprised me in a good way. I can't say that we drew inspiration from anyone when putting these records together. I'm sure subconsciously we did, but it was more about intuition: if it sounded good we went with it.

BF: You are also one of the only bands that I can remember that has been able to successfully use vocal effects, bullhorns, etc. in your music. In my experience, vocal effects can be used as a trick to mask any shortcomings of the singer, however you were able to add it as a textural element in the songs and not use it as a “crutch”. Can you tell us more about your strategies for vocals?
RH: I always, always wanted the vocal to be compelling. I was also self conscious about my voice. I wished I could sing like Bono or Ozzy! Back in 1987 Eric and I worked on a song called "Ingrid Receives a Hickey". We recorded it on Eric's 4 track tape machine. On playback I didn't like the vocal, but I liked the tune. Trying another take I cupped my hands over my mouth which resulted in a canned mid range sound. The affected voice was more fun to listen to. Every song had different demands. Vocal effects were trial and error. "You can't shine shit" as Jeff Bakos (Bakos Amp Works) would say. If the song is lousy no amount of effects will make it good. To this day I could still go back and remix some Bob songs because I was unhappy with a vocal level or delivery.

BF: What made you decide to ultimately end the band in 2000?
RH: Eric's departure. When Eric left, Bob was essentially kaput. Eric and I had played together in various bands since 1986. We worked really well together. He understandably had enough of using his vacation time to go on the road. Our momentum had slowed. There wasn't much local interest in Bob anymore plus the song writing process became agonizing. "Pendulum" was a strong Bob effort, but we never got around to promoting it. Katt and I tried to continue Bob with our friend Mike Koenig (Lesbian Afternoon). We did a set at Dottie's dressed up like pirates. We were midget pirates so we played on our knees. Bob was over!

BF: Lilburn is usually associated in my generation with the hardcore scene that developed there during the same time you were an active band (e.g. Act of Faith, Crisis Under Control, etc.). Did you go to high school or were otherwise friends with the other bands in town?
RH: We lived in Lilburn. None of us went to school there or knew the music scene. We were a part of the Atlanta/Athens scenes. We never gigged in Lilburn. I do remember seeing Black Flag written in chalk on the street. I thought there must be some cool hardcore element about.

BF: What was your songwriting process? Did you jam out songs as a writing mechanism or was there a true composer in the group?
RH: We collaborated on every song, so it involved a lot of jamming. A lot of times I would bring in an idea on guitar with a vocal melody to start the process. We'd try it out at practice and if it stuck it might turn into a Bob song. "Pope is" was a guitar riff that I was addicted to. Eric and Ted came up with beautiful drum and bass parts for it. Ted did a guitar overdub with feedback during the middle section on the Peel Sessions EP: gave me goosebumps. "Pope is" was unlike any of our previous songs in that it was based on an ascending riff rather than a more conventional chord progression. It was liberating: for early Bob it was a leap away from punk. "Foam" was one of my favorites. Again, it started with a guitar riff. I wasn't getting anywhere with it. Ray took it over, wrote the words, vocal melody, bass line. Eric banged on a pizza tray for the tinny sound in the quiet parts while I played with the volume pot and a delay pedal to make the guitar sound more like a keyboard. Ray's vocal was passionate. Eric had an uptempo percussion part that would turn into "Leather King". He was in a car accident once, wrote a poem that would become the words for "Raise Electric". "Pizza Christ" was part of a spontaneous jam that Eric captured on his 4 track. "Animal Speak" was structured for the first few minutes then devolved into free form improvisation with our friend Keith Lee making use of an old electric fan. You can hear the grinding metallic sound he got in the last 3 minutes over Ray's looping bass pulse. We had plenty of jams with Katt playing bass or sax, working out rhythms. Katt brought in the bass line and vocal melody for "Sexy". The process went faster if someone brought in an idea and allowed us to jam it out. Free improv was hit or miss. There's a story behind every song.

BF: How many bass players did you ultimately have? Why do some bands cycle through one instrument over others? Did you ever assemble a quartet or something larger? The Bob orchestra?
RH: Bob had 3 bassists: Ted Grauch, Ray Surinck and Katt Gass. As for instrument choice, Ted played bass with us, but guitar with The Go Figures (from Athens), the band he ultimately left us for. Ray played bass; wasn't interested in guitar. Katt played bass, saxophone and liked to sing. Eric loved the drums and sometimes played trumpet. I liked both guitar and keyboard. I imagine bands cycle through instruments to try something new. For me, I played guitar for so many years that I was glad to try keyboard.

For our last album "Pendulum" Bob was basically a quartet/orchestra. Sicily Simpson sang back up on most of the tunes. We had a guy named Harold who played percussion with Eric on "Meteors in Twilight". Diana Obscura played cello on "Disco Murder". For some live shows, Katt invited her brother Ward and her friend Gigi to be "the Bob dancers". It's zany to think about how un-punk we became. Our first gig with Katt was at the Masquerade with Heinous Bienfang and several other local bands for a Kiss cover night. We dressed up as clowns and played "I Was Made For Loving You", Kiss's disco hit. With Katt, Bob was a twisted dance pop band with subversive song lyrics and strange compositions. It was fun, though, more popular in Boston, Mass or Charleston, WV than Atlanta/Athens.

BF: Venue-wise, it seems that you guys were open to playing more places than the other bands of your scene, and that is how I got to see you at places like The Somber Reptile and Homage Cafe, etc. Did you consciously decide to stick your neck out there in Atlanta and take some risks with the shows and lineups that you played?
RH: I don't remember any limitations on where we'd play if we could get a gig. We didn't feel like we had anything to lose, so I wouldn't say there was any risk involved. I liked The Somber Reptile. Qui Que (however you spell his name) was good to us. Somber Reptile was where Eric and I played as a duo during a 1993 WREK benefit. I have good memories of those times. That was the first time that we performed the song "Nasty". It was very minimal without the bass or Ray's back up vocal.

BF: What is everyone in the band doing now? Are you going to start an art-rock band in Switzerland anytime soon?
RH: Ted is married, has a young daughter, lives somewhere near Philadelphia. He occasionally gigs with Heinous Bienfang if they have a reunion. Ray Surinck lives with his wife in New Orleans. He's been playing in local New Orleans bands for years. He had a punk band called Poop du Jour, plays in War Amps nowadays. He mostly plays bass, but sometimes drums, from what I understand.

Katt Gass is married, has a daughter, lives in East Atlanta. She played in a couple of Atlanta bands after Bob's demise. One was called Casionova. Her husband, Billy, plays guitar and I know they had a band together. She still screams like an infidel getting tortured by a radical muslim. I was tuned into Live at WREK a few years ago. This hard rock band was playing. The singer was screaming. I know that scream. Sure as hell it was Katt!

Eric Ingram is married, has a son, also lives in East Atlanta. I know he's interested in electronic music these days. I think he sometimes jams with people on drums. He hasn't been in a band since Bob. He's very busy with work and his family. Eric and I played together for close to 14 years. We had a great run!

After Bob I played with Brian Cook, one of Pineal Ventana's first bassists. We were an Athens duo. We put out 2 full length CDs "Geographic Tongue" and "Apocalypse Wow!". We called the duo "Black Love". I did a solo album called "Hey Ri'h" around 2006. I'm a married artist living in Switzerland. I have my keyboard over here, learn R&B and standards from piano books. I've heard some pretty good musik over hier. Not into starting a band right now, too time consuming. Too busy trying to see if I have a career as a visual artist.

Here is a sketch Rich did of Ray Surinck, Bob's 2nd bassplayer.

I would like to thank Rich Hudson so much for his patience as I put together (and put off) this post so many times, and Michael Koenig (late era member of Bob and playing in Lesbian Afternoon) for all of the more obscure recordings posted. Here is his Youtube channel, where you can see some Bob clips as well as tons of other stuff.

Chocolate Kiss - The Studio Recordings

Here are the albums for download:

Chocolate Kiss - Onethrutwelve (1998)

Chocolate Kiss - Les Boom Boom (1999)

Chocolate Kiss - Set Yourself On Fire (2001)

Chocolate Kiss - No Funeral (2002)

Chocolate Kiss ended on July 4, 2002 when Bob Medina, one of our two rhythm guitarists moved away to San Diego and started a new life. He is now moving to Alexandria (that's Egypt, not Virginia) and decided to pay his Atlanta friends a visit. I thought we might get together and run through some of the old songs for fun, but a show was somehow approved by our gracious friends at the E.A.R.L. to have the Chocokiss play again in a live setting. So now, almost exactly seven years after our last show we have a show, this time with Gold Standard, which is Lee Corum's new band (The Strange Death of Silas Deene, Chapterhall, Some Soviet Station, Copa Vance, Home of the Wildcats, Lay Down Mains, etc.), as well as Small Reactions, who are a like-minded local band to complete the set. Since all of our albums are either in a dollar bin somewhere or in a landfill, I thought it would be good to post all of our recorded music in one place for those that might be interested.

Album One: Onethrutwelve (1998)

I already have written an overview of this album in a previous post, but these were the first twelve songs we wrote as a quartet (guitar/guitar/drums/vocals, shun the bass), and recorded them with Andy LeMaster (Now It's Overhead, Bright Eyes) at Chase Park Transduction in Athens.

Album Two: Les Boom Boom (1999)

This was recorded in early 1999 by Ed Rawls at the Living Room studio, which was called Red Lab at the time. I remember writing these songs in my parent's basement before I graduated from college and was able to get a "normal" job outside of the movie theater. Bob did all of the artwork for this release, using woodcuts which would become a fixture of his artwork for the next several years and making a different design for each song, as you will see below. The name "Les Boom Boom" has no meaning, we are just attracted to nonsensical phrases and this one clicked. The first album is also called the Orange album, and then this is called the Blue album.

Here is the rest of the artwork:

Kip made some promotional posters for the release, which was our first on Moodswing Records including Kip Thomas as a contributor to the label:

Album Three: Set Yourself On Fire (2001)

Also known as "The Red Album", this was our attempt at making a real studio album, but in the end it suffered from some fundamental flaws and was not so well received out there in the scene. It was recorded with Brooks Meeks from The Close at his new studio in the West End warehouses, and were basically his guinea pigs so he could get the studio set up and work out all the bugs. We had complete freedom to take as long as we wanted getting the recording perfect, and in the process we overanalyzed and took out all of the sharp edges that make recordings exciting and interesting (at least in my opinion). Our takes are as perfect as they could have been given our musical ability at the time, and we spent endless hours mixing, remixing and remixing everything, and the album suffered from this obsessive approach. It was also the most "low-fi" studio we had recorded in, as it was essentially Brooks' home studio, but the recording was free so how can you complain? I still love the album, as I love all our albums, but I think the end result would have been better had we taken an approach like we did for the next album, No Funeral. Once again, the name Set Yourself On Fire has no meaning, but was just a funny phrase we liked when thinking of names. Also, we had so many problems with figuring out how to sequence the songs for this album, so in the end we just put them in the order they were written by the band. So if you listen to the album, you can hear the band make their way through a year's worth of writing songs, including our cover of The Logical Song as an extra treat. Reviewers of the album thought the cover song was essentially meaningless, as we did not change the arrangement or tone of the song, but I have been a fan of the Breakfast in America album for years, and Magnolia had been released the year before, which really sealed the deal for us as a cover song. And we like the song itself as it is, so why make some sort of lame pop punk version or try to change what we like about it?

Here is the artwork for the album, which had a cover done by the amazing Rich Jacobs, who is a friend of Bob and has done album covers for The Black Heart Procession, Three Mile Pilot, etc. Bob did the inside drawings, such as the duck on fire and the fire extinguisher on fire, still makes me laugh:

Kip also made a promotional poster for this album:


Album Four: No Funeral (2002)

This was our last album, the Green album, which sounds most like a "real" band than any of our previous releases. We recruited Matt's old friend Cade Lewis, who played with Matt in Venosity back in high school to be our bassplayer, and he fit right in with the band musically and personally. I wish we had him from the beginning, as by the time Cade joined us, we were already starting to wind down as a band and Bob was beginning his descent into insanity which resulted in his move to San Diego. I got the name "No Funeral" from an episode of the Simpsons where Moe the bartender is about to commit suicide by sticking his head in an oven, and on his back is a piece of paper with the words "No Funeral" written, and I thought it was a good name for a band's final album. We recorded the album at Zero Return Studios with another friend of Bob's named Steve Revitt, who has produced albums by The Liars, Jon Spencer, Black Dice and was an engineer on the Beastie Boys "Hello Nasty" album as well as Tito Puente albums and countless others. We did essentially the opposite of what was done on the Red Album, and just recorded the album in two days and gave him the tapes to manipulate and mix at his own studio in NY. He really produced the album, completely manipulating tracks and even deleting some parts just to make it sound the way he wanted. I might not have agreed with all of his changes, but I think the end result was our best album overall, and would recommend this approach to anyone out there. If you want to make an interesting album, just give someone with good taste the basic tracks and let him run with it.

Bob Medina did the artwork in woodcuts the same as Les Boom Boom, but started to introduce his Day of the Dead style, which he still works in today:

Quadruple Felony!

Here’s the Download: Quadruple Felony

I can remember coming across this single in every record store whenever flipping through the 7”s, and it eventually took on an iconic status for me as a part of this scene that existed in Atlanta from the early to mid nineties. These bands were the local music elders from where I stood, even though they were probably only three to five years older than us at the time, but our circles rarely crossed. While we were playing all ages venues like the Somber Reptile or the Liquid Bean, they were playing more “adult” clubs like the Point and later Dottie’s, and many others that I can’t remember at the moment. There are many stories to be told, and I'm starting to get in touch with some of the people from this scene (e.g. Kim from Pineal Ventana, Rick from Whiskey Dick/Howling Fantods, etc.). Hopefully they can chime in on these releases, and maybe even do some guest posts someday.

Kim from Pineal Ventana forwarded me a link to Amy Potter's history of Half Baked Records, which includes this paragraph about the Quadruple Felony single. "Around the fall of '94, BOB, Pineal Ventana, Tweezer, and Suzybeat all approached me about doing a theme record together. I said cool! We would get together at the El Azteca Mexican Restaurant on Ponce de Leon (affectionately nicknamed the "Punk-rock ass-kicker" for their incredibly strong margaritas) and talk about the record. We were a motley crowd, infamously known by the wait staff. We would flip tortillas across the table at each other (with salsa on them). This would make a huge mess, annoying the wait staff and the customers. The first couple of meetings, we got absolutely nothing done but drunkenness. The taking of the promotional photos was quite fun. We took a ton of us in front of the El Azteca when an ambulance had just pulled up in front. We all could never agree on a theme or artwork. In fact, I think some of the bands are still pissed at one another because of the artwork. It took until March of '95 to actually get a record pressed. The theme was about four different crimes: a bank robbery (Suzybeat), serial murder (Tweezer), child molestation (Pineal Ventana), and Vietnam War crimes (BOB). The release party was held for the 4-song 7-inch entitled Quadruple Felonyat Dottie's on March 8, 1995. We then booked a 2-day tour to North Carolina with everyone except Suzybeat participating. Our first stop was Wilmington, NC at the Bourgeois Pig. Pineal Ventana had this huge bag of popcorn and threw it on BOB during their set. It was hilarious. Our next stop was the Turtle Club in Greensboro. The club did little or no publicity and plus it was spring break - no one showed. We didn't let that bring us down. We had our own show. Everyone was drunker than hell. We found a Barney doll in the parking lot, ripped its insides and voice box out, and would wear it on our heads during the show. The voice box was also found singing in many songs. Travis of Pineal Ventana also subbed in for Timmy of Tweezer during Tweezer's set and no one noticed. It was one of the funniest times that I can remember about my label. A few weeks later I went with BOB on tour to Florida, New Orleans and Texas. I loved touring with my bands; it was something I didn't get to do that much since I had a full time job."

For this single, we have another song by BOB represented, as well as some nice contributions from Suzy-Beat, Pineal Ventana and Tweezer. The Tweezer song here may be my favorite of theirs as a band, but I will be posting more from them soon. Pineal Ventana were legendary from this time, truly a very vital and exciting Atlanta band. I would like to get Kim to help me with a Pineal Ventana post someday, but I haven't had any luck yet. Until then, there is plenty of footage on Youtube to watch. Of course there will be more from Tweezer in the future, who have a lot to share and were definitely underrated from my perspective, but I would especially like to get more by The Suzy-Beat. I remember them having at least a single out back in the day, but if anyone has any recordings by them, please send them my way.

Here is back cover of the single, including the classic picture of everyone at El Azteca on Ponce. Thanks to Half Baked Records for another great release.

The Early Works of BOB

Here is the download: Bob - The Early Years

1-3: From Refuel Compilation
4-6: From Self-Titled 7"
7-21: From Complex Organism Blues CD

Bob was an enigmatic and mystifying band in Atlanta. I never knew the guys, and only saw them a few times, but they had a habit of popping up in strange places. I remember the Go-Steadys playing with them once at the Somber Reptile in 1992 or 1993, and as you could imagine they were not so well received by the teenage ska fans. Later Car vs. Driver played with them, Pineal Ventana and Dribbling Hermits at the Homage Coffee House for a WREK benefit in 1994, which rocked but was also when I stabbed myself in the eye with a drumstick and couldn't see. I got to see them other places and times and really enjoyed it. Their bassplayer was so damn tall, and I remember their drummer having back problems and eventually had to play standing up. Also, their guitarist played a beat up Stratocaster with a Fender Twin that had a great psychedelic paint job that was really cool from my kid perspective. Later, I remember they got a lady in the band to play bass/percussion, and played some kind of weird dance music, which I wasn't so into. They were certainly very creative and making music that I couldn't really process or grasp so well at the time, but I liked it. I remember some of these songs so well, like "Nasty" and "Pope Is" as art-rock anthems from my school days. I have included in this post what I believe is their first 7" along with their songs on the Refuel compilation and the Complex Organism Blues CD, which was one of the first CDs I ever purchased. I heard the CD after this one was really good, but I never ended up getting it. I hope you enjoy what I have included, and please leave comments and info on Bob so I can get more of their story.

Here is the artwork to the Complex Organism Blues CD:


Here is their page for the Refuel Athens/Atlanta compilation:


The back cover of the self-titled 7":

Mr. Bob in SoCal - Cabron! and the Mexican Shoe Thief

Here is the album for download: Cabron! Mexican Shoe Thief

Chocolate Kiss played our last show on July 4, 2002, and Bob moved soon afterwards to San Diego in time to start teaching for the upcoming 2002-2003 school year. He is an elementary school art teacher, which is only one of the thousands of professions he has had over the years, and something I know he really enjoys. I got a message from him recently that due to budget cuts he will most likely be layed off from the educational workforce out there, so I hope the best for him and Ana. For the 4-5 years that Chocolate Kiss was together, I think he liked playing our indie rock stuff, but if he could join an old-school punk/hardcore band, he would have been in old-man heaven. Well, when he moved out west, he immediately started playing with various bands and settled into this group of guys here and started Cabron!, which is probably the band he always dreamed of playing guitar for. They seem to be doing very well for themselves out there, playing regularly in SoCal and Mexico, but no plans to come East anytime soon. Bob tells me that they play in Tijuana a lot, and it's like going to a show in the US 20 years ago. Kids in Black Flag shirts, stolen power for the amps and PA being run from one extension cord down the street, completely random bands playing together, good times. They are recording some new music right about now, but here is their original release as well as liner notes, etc. for your enjoyment.

They also have a myspace page (of course). Here it is - CabronSD. You can demand that they come to Atlanta and play - I placed my vote.

BOB odds and ends aka Brad Post #10

Is this thing on?  Around 1993 my friends and I picked up copies of Bob’s excellent debut 7”.  We were shocked and amazed to see their contact info being listed as Lilburn.  We were in Lilburn and couldn’t believe that these guys were making this kind of music a few mere miles from us.  I had a friend in Augusta named Bobby Padgett who wanted to start a fanzine with me.  Sadly I do not have a copy of it nor do I remember what the hell it was even called.  I contacted Bob’s drummer Eric about interviewing them for our new ‘zine.  He gladly obliged and invited me over to watch them practice at his house and conduct the interview there.  I brought my pals Billy Nation (seen in the pics!) and Andrew Croke (Decayed Jesus / Gai Jin) with me, along with my trusty tape recorder (wish I still had the recording).  I snapped a few shots and asked them some standard questions.  The only part I remember is Rich said that his inspirations were disco and K.C. & the Sunshine Band.  We struck up an acquaintanceship and I later booked a few Ten Two Four shows with them.  Enjoy!

Cabron - Mexican Camel Tow

Here is the download: Cabron - Mexican Camel Tow

Cabron is/was the band that Mr. Bob-Rob Medina started in San Diego after leaving Atlanta and Chocolate Kiss behind in 2002. They kind of started out as some old guys playing the music of their childhood, but since have turned into quite a respectable Socal punk-hardcore band. They would regularly play with every classic punk band in the area (I believe their last show was with the Germs), and also venture south of the border to play punk shows in Tijuana and elsewhere. From what Bob tells me, playing a punk show in Tijuana is like going into a timewarp to hardcore from the early 80's. Playing bombed out spaces plugging everything into one extension cord running down the street, full circle pits, dudes with liberty spikes, etc. Sounds pretty unreal. Here is their latest recording, and you can find their earlier album/demo here.

Bob has since moved with his wife Ana to Alexandria, Egypt and continues his day job as a teacher, although I hope he can join up with some Egyptian punkers and start a band there. He keeps a great blog about his experiences called Camels and Tacos, which I would recommend checking out every so often as it gives you some perspective on being an expatriate in an Arab country, which can be quite interesting.

BOB - The Complete Live at WREK Session

Here is the download - BOB Live at WREK

This is the complete recording of the Live at WREK session BOB did on November 23rd, 1993. Several of these songs appeared later on the Complex Organism Blues album. This session was recorded off The Underground Recordings show, which airs on Tuesday nights at 7:00 PM on WREK 91.1 FM and re-broadcasts some of the great Live at WREK sessions from years past. If you look at their archive, you can see what they have re-broadcast since 2003, and it is quite a list. However, you have to be diligent as they only keep the content available for one week, and I have missed several sessions because I wasn't checking the archive often enough.