Hot Blood Bombers

Hot Blood Bombers
take it on the road and sweat it out
By Brad Simm
The
Canmore Hotel, affectionately known as “The Ho�, is tailor made for
rock ‘n’ roll. Built in the early 1900s, the old wood structure fills
with townies, ski hill rats and wayward tourists feverishly watching
the hockey game on the pull down screen at the end of a long barroom
that looks like it was last refurnished in 1952. AC/DC, Sabbath and
Lynyrd Skynard bleed over from where a couple pool tables are tucked
away in a different corner of the bar. Good looking waitresses wear
short black skirts and either come from small town Ontario or proudly
brandish working-class, French-Canadian accents. While Canmore has its
share of fine-dining and fancy condos, The Ho is where sno-boarders
gulp down Kokanees and rub elbows with drywallers swirling their rye on
the rocks.

The witching hour begins at 11 pm when the big
screen rolls up, the black stage lights up with red, yellow and blue,
and guitar amps get switched on.
Herb “Daddy Long Legs� Exner,
takes his position sitting up behind an enormous kick drum flanked by a
wall of amplifiers. To his right, guitar Dave David cranks it testing
his rig, while Shane Grass, stage left, does the same punching out a
couple of bass notes. Tuned and ready to go, the Hot Blood Bombers
launch into the opener and romp through a solid 45 minutes of
sprawlin’, trobbin’, fuzzed-out, garage punk soul taken straight from
The Cramps, The Jam, early R&B Who and the Motor City Five. The
Bombers sweat it out old school, pumping fresh blood and fight for
their right... the dance floor is packed, bouncing with bodies.

Regina
is a long, long way from way anywhere, especially rock ‘n’ roll ground
zero. Formed by Exner and David at the end of high school, the band was
first christened The Explosives in 2004- a decent band name, giving
ooomph to the idea of heat and energy erupting out of an isolated town
out on the prairie floor. Finding out that there was a band that
already went by that name, they changed it to Hot Blood Bombers,

Herb
explains, “We wanted something with some jam to it and exciting when
all put together. Raining hot blood on the crowd! Sort of, haha.
Actually, Dave sometimes cut his hand playing guitar, spraying blood
all over. He’s toned that down now though.�

The Bombers have
shied away from playing songs written by their favourites, even though
they have a distinctive style and sound that springs directly out of
that rowdy, three-chord vein of white punk, blues, trash and rawk,

“We’ve
always done a couple of covers,� says Dave, “but when we started, we
started writing originals. The Cramps were a big influence, for sure.
The Sonics and Tricky Woo too. Stuff that’s raw, dirty rock and roll.�
Herb
adds, “A friend of ours had The Sonics’ first album and we played that
no-stop. A lot of our songs along definitely roll along the same
lines. We’ve just broaden it from there.�

Shane says that the
last record he bought was by the Chesterfield Kings, a Rochester, NY
60’s-retro garage band who’ve been at it since 1979. “We listen to a
lot of stuff, though. Good stuff from every decade. In the van, we can
usually agree what to put to play, say Buddy Holly and Fats Domino. And
I know Herb likes The Bronx, and that’s pretty awesome!�

In a
span of less than five years, the Bombers have already recorded three
CDs and plan for another in May. While prolific, Shane points out that
the last CD only had eight tracks. “Eight songs is a good length for a
whole album. You can get real bored listening to a whole lot of tracks
on the same album sometimes. And twelve songs, well that’s a big
commitment! Haha.�

Their latest outing, Dirty Little Party, is
on Winnipeg’s Transistor 66, a “roots to punk� label whose “family� of
talent also includes Scott Noland, Cripple Creek Fairies and the Get
Down.

In Regina, there aren’t a lot of similar sounding bands
like the Bombers. While there’s a few rockabilly acts, Shane says that
it’s largely dependent on what the venues like. “They usually cater to
cover bands and the hipper indie scene. There was great place called
the Manhattan Room that a lot of different punk and rock and roll bands
came out of, but it closed and those bands seemed to disappear with
it.�

Driven by the need to survive and that great rock and
roll adventure, the Bombers, like every other Canadian band out to
prove itself, hit the road in their 20 year old cargo van, a battered
workhorse passed down from other musicians. Shane recalls some moments
of glory.

“In Calgary, we were booked for two shows one night.
An opening slot at the Distillery, which we then had to tear down our
gear and race over to the Palomino. We walked in, and there’s some kind
of event going on, a Zombie Walk, and the place was full of people
dressed in zom - Beatroute Magazine

Hot Blood Bombers were full tilt right out of the gate and had the attention of myself and quite the crowd on the dance floor. The quiet and reserved Dave David, who spoke in soft tones during the earlier taped interview, attacked the mike with ferocity. The sound was more refined than what I had heard on the myspace sight. Shane Grass, once a Moose Jaw native, blistered out some heavy beats on the bass and added his own vocal leads as this team shares the duties of putting the words out through the amplification system. Herb Exner did not have the comfort of his own larger than life drum set but you would not notice as he ripped it up in "Animal "fashion. Remeber he was based on Keith Moon! If you're listening you can tell the talent is there as the guitar riffs and basslines are clever, lyrics tell it like it is, and the drums are not used as simply ryhthm, but stand out. These young lads tore it up and you can see the live interview and some of their performance as soon as I can get it posted to this website and supply a link. The video speaks larger volumes than I can, meanwhile check out the sound at their myspace site www.myspace.com/hotblood . The band admittedly states the sound on the myspace site is not as refined but I like the rough edges. - Times Herald Newspaper, Moose Jaw