Bomb Squad

Refreshing punch-drunk sentiments like these (never mind that the charity benefit falls on a Saturday night) led to over two hours of music, interviews and debauchery in 1998, as audio from a rather infamous LoDo warehouse keg party found its way onto the now-defunct airwaves of KRRF-AM (Ralph). A live segment of the station's weekend series called Soundcheck -- hosted by unctuous jock Brian Pavlich and featuring Buzz and the band -- coincidentally aired from a warehouse the same evening as the Westword-sponsored Music Awards Showcase. Originally intended as a one-time "love letter" to then-Backbeat editor Michael Roberts, the muddy and rough-sounding Westturd '98 is a recording of the Ralph broadcast, which soundly razzes the citywide event and finds Bomber and friends relishing their own self-appointed status as the worst band in town. Reissued for diehard Bomber fans, the CD now comes professionally packaged in a sandwich bag with cover art that apes the Westword masthead, which, according to Bomber, approximates "Third Reich boldface."

The pranks continue on the band's forthcoming disk, The Pink Album, its most polished and intriguing batch of songs to date. Assisted by the United States Postal Service, the CD was created by mailing material back and forth between computerized studios with the same software configurations -- one in Salt Lake City, the other in Shit's Denver basement. The band also offers a nifty MP3 site (www.buzzbomber.amp3.net) to keep fans up on its latest efforts. And like the proceeds from Saturday night's impending shenanigans, sales of Pink will likewise go to charity.

So what makes a guy like Bomber do all of this? Consider driving eight hours in the December cold from America's cultural crater, Salt Lake City, just to jangle on a guitar and screech at a bunch of drunks. Consider slouching back toward Utah afterward -- another eight hours on the road -- and what that place has to offer: dry counties, beehives, the Latter-day Saints.

Is it love? Bomber doesn't really think so. "I like to stand up in front of people and yank my pants off," he says. "I'm big on free drinks, too, man. That's the best part."

Even if the "Toys for Tots" event never matches the pyrotechnical Christmas billing of say, Gwar, Slayer and Mahler, Bomber does promise one thing: "If you come you pay four dollars and we put on a five-dollar show. It's money in your pocket. You're making money."

Hopefully, so are all the Tiny Tims at Children's Hospital.

Merry Payload. See you under the mistle-silo.