{{Short description|American record label}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}} {{Use American English|date=April 2024}} {{Infobox record label | name = Bomp! Records | image = | founded = {{start date|1974}} | founder = {{hlist|Greg Shaw|Suzy Shaw}} | genre = {{hlist|Proto-punk|punk rock|pop rock|indie rock}} | country = United States | location = Los Angeles, California | website = {{url|www.bompstore.com}} }}
'''Bomp! Records''' is a Los Angeles-based record label formed in 1974 by fanzine publisher and music historian Greg Shaw and his wife Suzy Shaw.
==Magazine== {{redirect|Who Put the Bomp|the song|Who Put the Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)}} {{Infobox magazine | italic title = no | title = Who Put the Bomp | image = | editor = Greg Shaw | frequency = | category = Music | firstdate = January 1970 | finaldate = 1979 | finalnumber = 21 | company = | country = United States | website = {{url|www.bomp.com}} }}
'''''Who Put the Bomp''''' was a rock music fanzine edited and published by Greg Shaw from 1970 to 1979.<ref>''Media and Popular Music'', By Peter Mills - [https://books.google.com/books?id=WaFvAAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Who+Put+The+Bomp%22Magazine&pg=PA10 Page 10]</ref><ref>''Billboard Magazine'', October 30, 1999 - [https://books.google.com/books?id=eAgEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Who+Put+The+Bomp%22Magazine+Pioneering&pg=PA49 Page 49 Koch Sees Personnel Shuffle; Bomp Records Turns 25 ''by Chris Morris'']</ref> Its name came from the 1961 hit doo-wop song "Who Put the Bomp (in the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)" by Barry Mann. Later, the name was shortened to ''Bomp! Bomp!'', and extended by Shaw to the record label Bomp! Records, which he headed until his death in 2004.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Perrone |first=Pierre |date=28 October 2004 |title=Greg Shaw: Early promoter of garage rock, punk and power pop |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/greg-shaw-30743.html |access-date=29 June 2025 |website=The Independent}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sisario |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Sisario |date=27 October 2004 |title=Greg Shaw, 55, Rock Enthusiast Who Loved Underground Music, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/arts/music/greg-shaw-55-rock-enthusiast-who-loved-underground-music-dies.html |access-date=29 June 2025 |website=The New York Times}}</ref>
===Background=== The magazine was a departure from the mainstream and its writing style unique with its own opinion described as almost partisan.<ref>''e-flux'', Journal #63 - March 2015 - [http://www.e-flux.com/journal/63/60924/circulation-and-withdrawal-part-ii-withdrawal/ "Circulation and Withdrawal, Part II: Withdrawal" - Simon Sheikh].</ref> The magazine was first published in 1970. It was created by Greg Shaw and his wife. The magazine chronicled bands that Shaw deemed worthy of covering, which he did passionately.<ref name="newnoisemagazine.com">{{cite web |website=New Noise Magazine |date=June 25, 2014 |url=http://newnoisemagazine.com/label-spotlight-bomp-records-greg-shaw-rock-n-roll-visionary/# |title=Label Spotlight: Bomp Records – Greg Shaw: Rock N' Roll Visionary Interview with wife Suzy Shaw |first1= Jeff |last1= Alexander |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202050058/http://newnoisemagazine.com/label-spotlight-bomp-records-greg-shaw-rock-n-roll-visionary/ |archive-date= Dec 2, 2020 }}</ref> Shaw made it known too that the magazine was not going to cater to nostalgia or be an info receptacle for fanatical collectors of obscure out of print records.<ref>''Between Montmartre and the Mudd Club: Popular Music and the Avant-Garde'', By Bernard Gendron - [https://books.google.com/books?id=2jtQAElFVUcC&dq=%22Who+Put+The+Bomp%22Magazine&pg=PT193 230 '''Chapter 10''', The Birth of "Punk"]</ref>
A significant number of writers who wrote for the magazine went on to greater things.<ref name="newnoisemagazine.com"/> Two journalists who had their careers launched via the magazine were Lester Bangs and Greil Marcus.<ref name="boingboing">{{Cite web |last=Frauenfelder |first=Mark |date=Jan 7, 2013 |title=Gweek 080: Interview with Anarchy Comics publisher Jay Kinney |url=https://boingboing.net/2013/01/07/gweek-080-interview-with-anar.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130110614/https://boingboing.net/2013/01/07/gweek-080-interview-with-anar.html |archive-date=Nov 30, 2023 |website=Boing Boing}}</ref>
===Staff=== Ken Barnes, who has written for the Best Classic Bands website, and other publications such as ''Fusion'' and ''Phonograph Record'' was once co-editor for the magazine.<ref>{{Cite web |website=Best Classic Bands |url=https://bestclassicbands.com/10-greatest-power-pop-songs-8-24-155/ |title=10 Greatest Power Pop Songs |first=Ken |last=Barnes}}</ref> Jay Kinney, who was a key man in the underground comics movement in the late 1960s, served as art director for the magazine.<ref name="boingboing"/>
===Greg Shaw=== Shaw was one of the first and best-known rock fanzine editors. Active in science fiction fandom as a young man, he became familiar with fanzines. Shaw founded one of the earliest rock fanzines, the mimeographed ''Mojo Navigator and Rock 'n Roll News'' in 1966.
==Record label history== alt=Suzy Shaw and Greg Shaw|thumb|Suzy and Greg Shaw [[File:Mick Farren & Patrick Boissel, 2007.jpg|thumb|262px|Mick Farren (left) with Patrick Boissel at the signing of the Bomp! book at Freakbeat Records in Sherman Oaks, California]]
The label has featured punk, pop, power pop, garage rock, new wave, old school rock, neo-psychedelia among other genres. Its roster has included the Modern Lovers, Iggy and the Stooges, Stiv Bators and the Dead Boys, 20/20, Shoes, Devo, the Weirdos, the Romantics, Spacemen 3, the Germs, SIN 34, Jeff Dahl, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Black Lips.
Greg Shaw died from heart failure at the age of 55 on October 19, 2004. Bomp! Records is headed by his ex-wife, Suzy Shaw.<ref name=suzybomp>{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=http://bomp.com/book.html |title=BOMP : Saving The World One Record At A Time by Suzy Shaw & Mick Farren |website=Bomp Records |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071205020519/http://bomp.com/book.html |archive-date=2007-12-05 }}</ref>
Suzy Shaw and Mick Farren co-authored ''Bomp: Saving the World One Record at a Time'', published by Ammo Books in 2007.<ref name=suzybomp/> In 2009, Bomp! and ''Ugly Things'' published ''Bomp 2 – Born in the Garage'', edited by Suzy Shaw and Mike Stax.
==Roster== {{Div col|colwidth=22em}} * 20/20 * Stiv Bators * The Barracudas * Beachwood Sparks * The Beat * Black Lips * Blow-Up * The Brian Jonestown Massacre * Paul Collins * Jeff Dahl * Dead Boys * Dead Meadow * Devo * DMZ * Eyes of Mind * Gravedigger Five * Germs * Hollowbody * The Hangman's Beautiful Daughters * The Haunted * The Hollywood Squares * Jon and the Nightriders (Voxx) * The Konks * The Last * The Miracle Workers * Modern Lovers * The Morlocks * The Nerves * Nikki and the Corvettes * The Pandoras * The Romantics * Shoes * SIN 34 * The Sonics * Spacemen 3 * The Stooges * Mark Sultan * The Telescopes * The Things * The Warlocks * The Weirdos * The Unknowns * Venus and the Razorblades * The Zeros {{div col end}}
==See also== * List of record labels
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.bompstore.com Official site] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20091212135740/http://www.bomp.com/history.html "Bomp History ..."] (Defunct before 8/11) * "[http://popdiggers.com/who-put-the-bomp-10-23/ (Who Put The) Bomp! Magazines #2-#21]", March 5, 2012, Lars Wenker, PopDiggers * [https://web.archive.org/web/20050402082127/http://bomp.com/BompMag.html "Bomp Magazine, The Complete History" by Greg Shaw] {{Authority control}}
Category:American independent record labels Category:Record labels established in 1974 Category:Vanity record labels Category:Garage rock record labels Category:Pop record labels Category:Punk record labels