Eric Davidson, front man of the Ohio-based New Bomb Turks, is equally adept at rocking, rolling and writing. During the 1990s, the Turks were rolling, too, through the clubs of the Midwest, South, West, Northwest and even a few cities in Europe and Japan. They released more than 10 albums and EPs in the 1990s and early 2000s on numerous indie labels. Somehow, despite the drunkenness and mayhem, Eric retained enough functioning brain cells to keep a record of unfolding events, resulting in We Never Learn (Backbeat), first published in 2010 and re-published this month in a new “expanded” edition. We spoke with Eric Davidson about it all.
What propelled Nirvana out of the underground into stores monitored by SoundScan wasn’t
Butch Vig’s glossy, radio-friendly production. It wasn’t even Samuel Bayer’s visually catchy “Smells Like Teen Spirit” MTV video, with the band, moshing fans and anarchy-symbol-wearing varsity cheerleaders disrupting a high school pep rally. It was
Kurt Cobain’s ‘60s-pop-radio-bred compositional smarts, which sliced through the wall-of-filth guitars like a chainsaw aimed at a stack of Kleenex. Having a monster drummer in
Dave Grohl helped, as did Cobain’s uncanny ability to scream on pitch. But his songs perfectly captured the ennui and frustrations of the entire latch-key-kid generation entering their early 20s. They ensured Nirvana went mega. However, a quick scan of many of