Bomb - Hate Fed Love

Bomb were from San Francisco and consisted of Michael Dean on vocals and bass, Jay Crawford on guitar, Anthony Paul Short (aka Tony Fag) on drums and Doug Hilsinger also on guitar. The band was originally a three piece minus Hilsinger, but he took Crawford's place briefly. When Crawford returned, they decided to continue as a four piece and did so until 1993 when Tony quit. The four piece lineup reunited in 1999 for three shows and recorded some new tracks which were released on the Lovesucker EP, but that was it.

Michael Dean is the general historian when it comes to the band, running a very detailed site with all kinds of info and downloads for just about everything he's ever done with Bomb and otherwise. From reading his stuff, he seems to have his head on straight and I find him pretty interesting. That said, Bomb is what's really got my attention, specifically their final full length, Hate Fed Love.

Bomb got their contract with Warner/Reprise based on their live shows and a demo tape named Sex Kiss Cage. Warners put up the money for them to go record the album in New York with Bill Laswell producing, and as much as I respect Laswell's work, even fans of his say it was probably a mistake. There are stories that he wasn't terribly involved in the sessions, leaving most of the work to his engineers and studio people. Regardless of whether this is accurate or not, I've heard similar stories about Laswell's production work as a hired gun for labels, so it wouldn't be shocking if it was true. He was rumored to have made sixty-five grand for his work, and while such stories aren't great on a resume, when you're getting paid that well wouldn't you consider taking the work? Hell, in some circles you'd probably be considered an excellent taskmaster, so I wanna make it clear I'm not bashing Laswell, just reporting what I've heard.

Anyway, the band finished the album to less than their full satisfaction and it proceded to flop when Warners showed they had no idea what to do with their new "product". Bomb left Warners and broke up not too long after. You can blame it on major label excess or a lack of research on the label's part, but years later all that matters is the music, and the music is good!

Dean has had a copy of Hate Fed Love available for download via his site for quite a while, but 128kbps is below current standards, so I present to you a V0 rip from an original CD. Don't take this as a reason not to visit Dean's site though, as it has far more detailed accounts of the circumstances described here and you can get the Sex Kiss Cage demo there, and while it's sound quality isn't remotely as nice as that of the released album, the versions as far superior! So, visit Dean's page, visit the Hate Fed Love page, visit the Sex Kiss Cage page and download it, and grab a high quality rip of Hate Fed Love below!


Bomb - Hate Fed Love

01 Made To Fire
02 All My References Are Dead
03 Love Fed Hate
04 The Power Of Suggestion
05 Hey Richard
06 There Is NO Promise Of A Future In The Moment
07 Hot Bloody Hearts
08 Suzanne
09 Goodbye Baby
10 The Devil Is US


Oh yeah, Suzanne is most certainly the Leonard Cohen song.