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Every page is a surprise whether it be something out of the early MOJO NAVIGATOR which mentions some interesting garage ideal (and in many ways it’s funny to read Shaw rip on "teenybopper" groups he would later champion like Paul Revere and the Raiders while praising local SF punks, especially since both of these once-opposites would be lumped together into the great stew of sixties glory in less than a good five years!), or a page or three taken from a mimeo-era BOMP! that I only had access to via the great back issue xerox sale of 1981. But what really got my life-energy force flowing was the appearance of what’s more or less left of the never-published issue 22 that was supposed to come out around the same time those great back issue photocopies were being sold at exorbitant prices! And when this issue was being advertised in the BOMP! catalog back in ’81 even I sent my buck in hoping this promising magazine would wing its way to my door more sooner than later only to grumble ten years later thinking my buck was all for naught! Little did anyone know that the masters to that legendary non-issue were considered lost until this very book was being compiled, but anyway here it is seeing the light of day looking a lot worse for wear and pretty much like the BOMP of the pre-new wave days which exactly was Shaw’s point! It’s sure swell reading all of Shaw’s opinions on the then-latest garage band reissues (not forgetting a class rundown on the then-recent PEBBLES, BOULDERS and PSYCHEDELIC UNKNOWNS collections that were certainly inspiring awe in me) as well as informative pieces on the likes of the Barracudas and Blasters that gives blokes in on the rockism game (like myself and presumably you) a nice warm ’n toasty feeling of nostalgic pudding just remembering how much this stuff mattered at the tail end of one of the more fruitful rock eras in our lives. Not that it doesn’t elicit such pangs of rheumy-eyed rose-colored rear-view mirror looks now, but ya gotta admit that back then the impact was surely stronger considering what we were (eager-beaver rock & roll lovers) and where we were coming from (some of the most boring places on the face of this earth!). But why the crack about these original pages to 22 showing just how fanzines were put together in the days before computers? Listen, every issue of my own fanzine well up until the year 2003 was laid out pretty much in the same way as BOMP! was and under much more primitive conditions, and frankly any future ones will be done even cheaper, if you technowhiz reader can fathom that in you readers’ underdeveloped ape-like minds! Still, if you still value those memories of getting tons of garage band reissues via BOMP!’s mailorder business and discovering new groups that really did seem like they were going to save the worald, a book like this is indispensable. - Blog To Comm

This "yearbook-sized" hardcover tells the story of Bomp!, an independent record label, record store, mail order (and now online) record outlet, magazine and life-work of owner/genius Greg Shaw. Lovingly compiled by Greg's life and business partner (and ex-wife) Suzy Shaw, and co-edited by Mick Farren, the book is a smorgasbord of creativity, with generous helpings of artwork, memorabilia, plenty of anecdotes, and some fantastic rock journalism by some of rock's best writers. These include Farren, Greil Marcus, Lester Bangs (whose legendary "James Taylor Marked for Death" essay is reprinted here in its entirety), Lenny Kaye, and Greg Shaw himself. You get archival material – such as articles and features from Shaw's pre-Bomp! 'zine "Mojo Navigator" (which featured the first published interview with The Doors, also reprinted here), and the renowned lost and previously unpublished "Issue 22" of the magazine - along with new essays that put the entire project in perspective. In short, "Bomp!: Saving the World One Record at a Time," tells the story of rock 'n' roll better than any biography or other rock treatise you're likely to read. – Una Persson / Bullz-Eye

Finally got a copy of this book, which came out late last year, and I heartily recommend it to fans of music, magazines, great writers, and popular culture. Lovingly assembled from the pages of the historic Bomp! magazine (ca. 1966-1978) and eye-opening in its breadth of coverage and overall editorial open-mindedness, it's a great testament to the devotion and enthusiasm of founder Greg Shaw and a worthwhile package for any fan of pop music. For additional fun, readers can stare at its cover for several minutes then shift their gaze to any nearby white wall! - Dave DiMartino / New This Week

This great anthology takes in the very best of Mojo Navigator, Who Put the Bomp, and Bomp! Numerous full page reproductions from the archives of the aforementioned organs are interspersed with essays by Mick Farren and Suzy Shaw. Being the erstwhile wife, lifelong friend and business partner of the late Greg Shaw, Suzy Shaw's pieces add a certain poignancy and intimacy to this history of the Bomp! music empire which Greg Shaw founded in 1966 by producing Mojo Navigator. Although Shaw extended Bomp's tentacles to include the Bomp! record label and a successful mail-order business (still running today under the auspices of Suzy Shaw), it is with the magazine wing that this tome is primarily concerned.

Although Mick Farren must be well used to commenting on the emergence of rock'n'roll and subsequent evolution of rock music his writing is as engaging as ever, and he provides a colourful introduction, as well as several other pieces including his "Preamble to Punk" essay. Adding a further element of gravitas, other notable contributors include the likes of Greil Marcus, Lenny Kaye and Mike Stax. Excellent though they are, the essays only tell part of the story and it is the original material that really speaks for itself, both in the literary sense and visually.

Lavishly illustrated throughout and benefiting from the addition of extra photographs and pictures, Bomp's large coffee-table format also lends itself perfectly to the faithfully reproduced full-size articles, reviews and covers from the magazines' archives. Although perhaps not as visually striking as the later Bomps! the earlier mimeographed editions of Mojo Navigator and Who Put The Bomp still have a certain rudimentary DIY fanzine charm to them nevertheless. But, overall the juxtaposition of contemporary essays and graphics with the original material is truly a sight to behold. - Funtopia

Greg Shaw was some kind of music fan. As a teenager in the mid-60s, he helped found the fanzine Mojo Navigator - one of the first publications to present serious writing about rock music, and a prime inspiration upon the birth of Rolling Stone. During this time, he secured the first published interview with The Doors. After Mojo Navigator folded he partnered with future wife Suzy to start up the highly influential magazine Who Put The Bomp! (later known as simply Bomp!), which Shaw then spun off into Bomp! Records, his Los Angeles record store and label of the same name.

Shaw was a true believer in the healing powers of rock & roll, and one of the early champions of the 'garage bands' of the 1960's. In his world, The Standells were as big as The Beatles, and The Seeds were greater than The Stones. Incredibly, he predicted in print that the sound of his beloved garage bands would lead to a mid-70s music revival, accurately describing the punk movement three years before it happened.

Bomp! Records produced albums by many punk and post-punk luminaries, including Iggy Pop, Devo, and The Dead Boys. Shaw: "I know how to find good music that isn't getting any exposure, and I can give it a little bit of exposure, and that gives me more pleasure and satisfaction than anything else I can think of doing." He worked tirelessly doing just that until his death in 2004, along the way providing a guiding hand in the careers of modern retro rock groups such as The Black Keys and The Black Lips.

Bomp! - Saving The World One Record At A Time serves as a scrapbook of - and tribute to - Greg Shaw's work. Here Suzy Shaw and Bomp! contributor Mick Farren compile highlights of Shaw's various publications, from his beginnings as a Tolkien/Hobbit geek all the way up to the lost mockup of the final, previously unpublished issue of Bomp!. It's all presented in facsimile form, so it feels like you're flipping through the original publications. This is a revealing look at the essence of a guy who believed that "fans should have absolute control over the direction of rock & roll" and lived his life as an example of how to make it happen. - dk presents

La Luz hosted the book signing for this more comprehensive page-turner a couple of weeks ago with authors Mick Farren and Suzy Shaw (wife of Bomp's dearly departed mastermind Greg Shaw), and the occasion, which also featured an acoustic performance by The Last's Joe and Mike Nolte, brought out a jovial crowd of Shaw pals and admirers, including "label whore"Jim Freek, Silver Lake scene queen Kari French and DJ Audrey Moorehead (who spun after the band). The book covers Shaw's journalistic endeavors, which extend from his LSD-enhanced explorations of San Francisco's scene in the '60s to the insider critiques of later music styles such as N.Y. punk and Brit pop (all photocopied straight from his zines Mojo Navigator and Who Put the Bomp) to Shaw's role as "guru of the new garage scene" with Bomp record-label signees the Black Keys, the Warlocks and, of course, the Brian Jonestown Massacre. It's a fittingly raw and passionate tribute. - Lina Lecaro / LA Weekly

After Greg Shaw died in 2004, his former wife Suzy Shaw decided it was time to resume work on a project that had been back-burnered for two decades: to assemble a book chronicling her ex-husband's journalistic legacy and resurrecting crucial early writings of some of rock writing's greatest voices—among them, Lester Bangs, whose notorious Troggs screed "James Taylor Marked For Death" originally consumed a whopping 24 pages of Shaw's seminal publication Who Put the Bomp.

WPTB was one of the premier rock fanzines of the '70s, aesthetic sibling to the likes of Crawdaddy!, Fusion and CREEM, and an oasis for kick-out-the-jams-minded fanboys and collectors who had little truck with corporate-hyped swill. Early issues featured the Bangs classic, stories on the Seeds, Flamin' Groovies and the rockabilly revival, and all manner of left-field minutiae (take the 26-point test to learn if you are a "rock and roll trufan"[sic]; point 13 inquires if "you squeezed Robert Plant's lemon"). When punk and new wave dawned, Shaw eagerly dived right in, doing cover stories on the UK punk explosion ("England's Screaming" blared the headline, over an image of a leering Johnny Rotten), power pop, the Ramones, etc., and foreshortening the mag's name to just Bomp!. Regardless of the coverage—Shaw's late-'60s pre-WPTB zine Mojo-Navigator Rock & Roll News included—there was never any whiff of complacency. This was rock criticism as activism.

For the Bomp! book, Suzy Shaw and author/Deviants frontman Mick Farren have deftly anthologized the Greg Shaw oeuvre, culling the best features as direct reproductions so one can see exactly what the magazine's pages looked like, right down to the typos, the quirky layouts and the close-ups of Joey Ramone's ripped jeans. The editors have also penned fresh essays and added unpublished photos to contextualize Shaw and his magazine as both evolved with the times.

In 1974 Shaw also launched Bomp! Records, and along the way he had a hand in the careers of Stiv Bators, Flamin' Groovies, Plimsouls, Warlocks, Black Keys and others. But whether he was writing about music or releasing it, his overriding manifesto was saving the world one record at a time. As he told me in 1984 when I interviewed him for my own zine, "I don't find much essential difference in producing a magazine or producing an album. It's our shared opinions, expressed through records or writing, that it boils down to." - Fred Mills / Harp Magazine

Most indie labels have the life span of a house fly. But not Bomp! Records. For more than thirty years, the Burbank based label has been feeding our ears with smashing sounds, and there's no sign of them slowing down. Compiled by Suzy Shaw (who has been there since the beginning and continues to run the shop) and Mick Farren, "Bomp! Saving The World One Record At A Time" was not only conceived as a tribute to Greg Shaw (the fellow responsible for making it all happen), but for rock and roll connoisseurs like us. Before Greg launched the magazine "Who Put The Bomp" (which also receives a generous spread throughout the book), he published "The Mojo Navigator" back in the sixties. Reprints of "The Mojo Navigator" are featured in "Bomp! Saving The World One Record At A Time" as well, with the spotlight shining on interviews with The Grateful Dead, The Doors, Janis Joplin and Country Joe and The Fish. Reproductions from "Who Put The Bomp" orbit anywhere and everywhere from Elvis Presley to The Sex Pistols. A letter to Greg from Lenny Kaye (written in January of 1971) discussing his upcoming project, "Nuggets," is priceless, as is a lenghty and wacky piece on The Troggs penned by Lester Bangs. Mike Stax's memories of the garage rock revival of the eighties is a tickle, while stories of sex and drugs further grace the pages of the massive tome. The Seeds, The Runaways, Brian Wilson, The Standells, The Barracudas and articles on rockabilly, acid punk, glitter rock and power pop should not be overlooked either. These days, we take this music for granted, since it is so readily available and accessible on disc and on the internet. But in the late seventies and early eighties, such acts resided far underground and were appreciated by a select few. "Who Put The Bomp" and "Bomp! Records" were visionaries in that respect. An alternative to the mainstream mentality, imagination and adventure were and remain championed. Rife with excitement and enthusiasm, "Bomp! Saving The World One Record At A Time" is informative, fun, intelligent, entertaining and silly - that's rock and roll. Required reading indeed. - Twist and Shake

Rock 'n' Roll Salvation

By Wendy Case/MOLIImmortalizing California's legendary Bomp! label and ragI knew I'd get a kick out of AMMO press's new tome, Bomp! Saving the World One Record at a Time. But the truth is, I haven't been able to put it down since the UPS guy had me sign for it.

A scrapbook on the evolution of the oldest continuously operating indie label in the United States and the rock magazine that preceded it, Bomp! gives me the same thrill I used to get pouring over my sixth grade yearbook back in the '70s. But instead of pining for Jonathan Mansberger from fourth period study hall, I gush hopelessly over Joey Ramone, Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop, Sky Saxon and the myriad punk, rock, pop, and new wave bands that changed my life forever.

Bomp! founder Greg Shaw was an anomaly when he founded his first magazine, Mojo Navigator, in '60s San Francisco. Instead of casting out the early heroes of rock (Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, Elvis), he began construction on a traceable road map — visual, aural, and intellectual — that connected them, and us, to the future. With the help of wife and Bomp! co-founder Suzy Shaw (who co-authored this book with rock journalist/former Deviants frontman Mick Farren), Greg revolutionized rock journalism and initiated the format that everyone recognizes today as "indie rock."

Suzy still runs the label (which relocated to Burbank in the '70s), along with partner Patrick Boissel. And though Greg succumbed to kidney failure in 2004, his legacy — which includes everyone from the Germs and the Romantics to the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Black Keys — is a legacy of love. The man loved rock 'n' roll. The book, basically a compendium of clippings from Mojo Navigator and its successor Who Put The Bomp, along with pictures and artifacts from Bomp! Records and its many subsidiary labels, is a fitting tribute to his passion and enthusiasm. In its pages you'll find early writings by fellow rock devotees Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus, the first-ever fanzine interview with the Doors, the original advertisement for Runaways auditions (hosted by Bomp! and Kim Fowley), and heaps of other fun stuff.

You can order a copy for yourself (along with an unrivaled catalog of music both old and new) from Bomp!'s online store. Also be sure to drop into the label's brand new MOLI profile and say "Hi" to Patrick and Suzy. They're awesome. - Wendy Case / Moli

A Must For The Fanzine Generation. Rating:5
Around the 'Punk Era' in the UK, we had someone shoving a copy of their fanzine up our nose, either at ever gig we attended, or sometimes, during the Saturday High Street shopping rush in town. Usually written on an enthusiasm driven by the band's they had been to see at local venues, then printed, as cheaply as possible, and tacked together with a staple; they were sold for ten or twenty pence each to (with luck) enable another one to be created.
And created they were, yet by accident more so than design, one fanzine-ist had a key missing from the typewriter, so this became his trademark; as his work had the letter 'K' (for example) missing. Other's creating fanzines thought this was 'cool,' so they ripped a key out of theirs as well. Today, British fanzines like 'Sniffin Glue' are famous and have been reprinted in book form.
So, too, 'Bomp!' except Greg Shaw was doing his thing in the 60's, and he was interviewing the likes of Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison when their bands were still playing support on the circuit, and a far cry from the legends they became; and he didn't have a missing typewriter key, either, that was a 'British peculiarity.'
So this book presents those long-ago-and-precious-interviews with these and many more stars besides, and on occasion, even the original 'paste-up' pages of those now legendary fanzines are reproduced here. It's one of those books, well, if you're like me, anyway, who appreciates things like this, which takes your breath away. It's a knockout book, and an amazing tribute to Greg whom, little did he know at the time, was carving his name out in Rock History.

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