Guitar Bomb

For a guy whose press often describes him as an aggressive hard drinker, Mike Devigne sounds pretty mild mannered on the phone from his home in Brooklyn. What those other writers were describing was in fact his alter ego, Guitar Bomb, a one-man musical attack on all things sacred in contemporary American society. The new guise is something Devigne cultivated after several years of performing in other bands within the New York punk scene, and since the release of the first Guitar Bomb album, Back Alley Jesus, he says he has finally been able to break out of that insulated world and reach audiences more in tune with his unusual mix of blues, punk and social commentary. "I do find that I enjoy being on the road more than I enjoy playing in New York," Devigne says. "This music has more of a rootsy edge that seems to be better received in other places than it is in New York. The scene there is still really trendy indie rock that requires the right haircut. I mean, I love living here and I can't imagine moving away, but at the same time I love places like Austin, Nashville and Memphis where people seem to appreciate what I'm doing more."
As far as the origins of Guitar Bomb go, Devigne says it became surprisingly difficult to find many other musicians in New York who shared his musical vision. "The last band I was in was called Don't Stop and we played some songs that I play on my own now, but those guys were more into punk and metal. On top of that, we would get into a lot of trouble with each other to the point where our shows got out of control. There'd be fights with people in the band or not in the band, and eventually I decided that if I wanted to play music seriously I'd have to do it on my own."
As Guitar Bomb, Devigne certainly has gotten down to business, hitting America's back roads and playing many small towns he passes through. He says the experience has made him more conscious of being a performer, although he admits that for his next album he'd like to fill out his sound with a rhythm section at the very least. "I've got a lot of new material that's been building up over the past year that I want to sort out after I get back from this tour," he says. "I've made a lot of new friends during that time too, and I'd like to get a lot of them involved in the recording. It's something I wish now I would have done with the first album, but I couldn't avoid it. I'm starting to feel like I'm ready to start playing with other people again."
Among those friends Devigne has made is his current touring partner, Kitchener singer/songwriter Lucas Stagg. They've seen a lot of the U.S. together, and now Devigne is looking forward to coming to Canada. "He was doing a gig in New York, and just got in touch with me out of the blue through my website," Devigne says. "I checked him out and I really liked his music, so we eventually started doing shows together. It'll be great to play with his band, and I expect we'll have some fun jamming out a few things."
--Jason Schneider

- The Record (Waterloo, Canada)

Guitar Bomb is an angry antagonist with alcoholic tendencies. He is also an army of one, emerging from a sorry scene obsessed with fake bands and worse haircuts; he is ready to go traditional, strap on the hollow body electric and go it alone. With obsessions revolving around porno, cocaine and Jesus, you should be warned that Guitar Bomb is painting an ugly picture of modern America.
As bands come and go, Guitar Bomb (Brooklyn's Mikey Devigne) can be identified as something of a veteran on the New York circuit having fronted Don't Stop for almost five years and most recently wielding his axe with last years (since demised) pop-punk noise outfit Mixed Art Foundation. Since choosing to go it alone, Guitar Bomb has done it his way or nothing. He has proven in a strikingly short period of time that he is cut from a different cloth and has already made more than a slight mark on New York, and is making inroads across America. He has just returned from a second American tour
within the space of the last twleve months which were both received with growing affection. He will be back on the road for a short tour in Septemeber, to coincide with the release of his first album, 'Back Alley Jesus'. Regularly performing in and around New York, with growing crowds and interest, Guitar Bomb was called upon to satisfy demand and answered with 'Live @ The Bowery Poetry Club', released before the summer.
From the tender splendour of 'Kathleen', through the heart wrenching downer 'Just Bury Me' to signature track 'Porno & Cocaine', the live record captures the despariity of despair that is an inevitable feature of the Guitar Bomb experience, yet perfectly demonstrates its surprisingly uplifting nature. It is not unusual to find yourself sat on the subway cheerfully whistling along to songs thematically calling upon notions of death, destruction, and our ultimate demise. It is a torrent of conflicting affairs that will usually fall either side of the line; suicidal ideation or worthless popism. Guitar Bomb has somehow managed to master the juggling act and find the perfect balance between the two. One hand opens and inside his palm he shows you something that will make your pretty heart bleed with optimism, hope and joy; from the other, he slams you with a firm punch
to the face that is called reality.
Guitar Bomb is ticking, and ready to explode. He spoke to Salvo in New York.

Salvo: You have played in bands before. What made you decide to go it alone ?
G.B.: Well, I can bullshit you around and say that it was creative differences that had split up past projects that I was involved with, but I would hate to compromise your journalistic integrity with any sort of half-assed answer like that. The plain truth of the matter is that there was simply too much whiskey and cocaine lying around the house and not enough touring. I feel that if I'm truly going to be able to progress as a musician I will need to play 200 shows a year and some how be able to make a touch of money off of the music so I can quit the mind numbing job that Ihave.

Salvo: Describe the Guitar Bomb sound.
G.B.: I feel like I'm trying to give the blues some more punk rock credibility with my songs. Someone else asked me the same question once and I told them the music sounds like if Bob Dylan had a mohawk and his best friend was Charles Bukowski, then they would drink together and find a woman that they could have a threesome with.

Salvo: What has inspired your subject matter ?
G.B.: Some of the most interesting people that you will ever meet are the really fucked up ones that are milling about through everyday life. I've had run ins with truck drivers, junkies, and socialites. I just take their stories, twist them around and mix and match them with other faces so as to keep them unrecognizable. I like to witness other people's tragedy just so I will always feel a bit better about my own situations. That asshole lying face down in his own puke really boosts my confidence.

Salvo: The album is hugely anticipated. What can we expect?
G.B.: It will sound like my demos but a bit cleaner. There will also be some killer art work with the cd. I was lucky enough to have the front and inside cover created by Brooklyn artist, Evan Schwarz. Encased within the spine of the first 100 copies of the cd there will also be fireworks and matches enclosed. If you hate the cd you will be able to literally blow the thing into smithereens. Or you can just blow your own face off.
--Neil Morgan (a.k.a Frank Raige) - Salvo Magazine (UK)

A one-man band consisting of Mikey Devigne, a 30-something Brooklynite who lists as his idols the likes of Highway 61, the Stooges and “the nutty guy that plays guitar at the 14th Street F train stop,” Guitar Bomb is a fascinating study in dichotomies. This is instantly apparent on Devigne’s debut CD. A collection of eight raw, gritty punk-blues tunes that sound as if they were recorded in someone’s bedroom, Back Alley Jesus certainly recalls at times the output of Iggy Pop and his buddies (particularly on the rowdy opening track, “Angels and Devils”), but is actually a bit closer in nature to some of Bob Dylan’s most recent output, particularly Time Out of Mind, the Oscar-winning “Things Have Changed” single and last year’s Modern Times. This is in part due to Devigne’s grizzled voice—a hearty concoction of raggedy hillbilly charm and down-and-out desperation that is at once familiar and, strangely, cozy—as well as the music itself. Devigne may incorporate electric guitar and drum loops into his sound—and recall iconic punk bands like the Clash with his wink-nudge song titles (one track is called “Rudie Can Fail”)—but his tunes are pure rockabilly blues, mixing heartache, righteous indignation and a fondness for backwoods Americana into a wholly listenable result. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this record is one of 2006’s most criminally overlooked albums. Devigne might not be Dylan, but, with his lived-in voice and knack for imbuing his brand of punk with the spirit of the Delta Mississippi players of the '30's, he certainly gets credit for being nearly as inventive.
--Ken Knox - Amplifier Magazine

The press pack for this one-man mildly blues band admits he’s the type of guy who wallows in whiskey, Charles Bukowski, and the Stooges and is able to tip his cap to both Delta heroes and fist-raising punks of the 1980s, and to be sure, those elements aren’t too far off the mark, though don’t expect anything louder than hell. Actually, in contrast, there’s a minimalism reminding me of The Kills and early Crooked Fingers, meaning essentially, more mood than mess and less is more. In fact, he lets pared down songs find a way to carve out space without all that real drummer fiasco and fidgeting. Oddly enough, it recalls Tones on Tails due to a certain black fissure and subdued flux too. On “Angels and Devils,” he takes the so-called opposites and imagines them curling back into a coil, thus narrating a potential collision and conjugation. It’s not necessarily rollicking and boisterous, but it ain’t coffee bar nickel and diming either. It find that middle-ground between front porch hollerin, tang, and tussle and more restrained, down on the hip corner, cigarette on the couch vibe.
On the somewhat bemused and perhaps even bitter “Kathleen,” even the strong and hard weep themselves to sleep. “American Holiday” emits a slightly remolded noir western vibe — Charlie Daniel meets LA. Confidential in the sluggish oily night, a glint of menace somewhere blinking around the brick and glass. “The clock keeps ticking/the world keeps spinning/the people keep walking…” the narrator muses on “Bury Men,” waiting to feel some semblance of comfort and belonging, even purpose, in the luster and taste of lips and hips, a body arcing under lights between needing hands shooing off the dull blasé days ahead and behind. The country returns on “God Damn It”; he unleashes the unlikely line “I have more resources (or is it reasons?) than a mathematician,” and admits that just because it rains doesn’t mean he will complain. As the sound speeds up in start-stop hiccups, you feel a kind of “hang-on” resilience, a little Kerouac fun instead of fury. The snakey, rockabilly “Rudy Can Fail,” a pun on the Clash’s “Rude Can’t Fail,” skitters like tumbleweeds across the naked highway. The song is propulsive and powered by a man who ain’t gonna give into hypothermia of the soul, while the slow “Piece of My Girl” pictures her bubblegum lips, making him want to pay a fool’s ransom just to rub-a-dub with that heroin-like girl-child. This echoes a thousand songs under a soggy roof, but at least there is a touching, low-key honesty to it all. - Left Of The Dial

Thank the lord for America. For red necks, cowboys, endless highways, mini malls, black coffee – and the blues. From the 1930s Mississippi Delta players to John Lee Hooker, Tom Waits to The White Stripes, only Americans truly know how to sing the blues. Back Alley Jesus is the sound of a drunk, hopeless individual who has nothing to live for but the strings on his guitar and the whisky in his cup. A one man band playing punk rock blues that reaches into your gut and messes up your insides. The sort of sound that makes you want to sit in a dark room smoking cigarettes. Rebellion – the good old-fashioned way.
-Niki Khoroushi - Stranger Magazine (UK)

Check out the latest release from GUITAR BOMB “Back Alley Jesus” - Down and dirty Brooklyn guitarist with an ear to the street – this one man show will blow you away without ever getting out of his seat. Guitar pickin’ good, whiskey soaked gorgeous vocals, a real back alley cat at heart. Our copy came with a bomb in the spine -for real. Sweet!
-Starr Tucker - New York Waste

Yikes! When Iopened the CD for Guitar Bomb there was a firecracker (fake,think!) and a wooden match in the spine of the box! Dang! This guy (Mike Devigne is a one-man band) takes the name of his act literally! Too bad he didn't include a miniature guitar. Anyway, the music on Mike's self-titled album is solid. It has that lo-fi vibe both musically and instrumentally. That's not to say it not a powerful album (it is). This isn't some kind of knock-kneed blues/punk poseur album. It has all the trademarks, righteous riffs, and gritty vocals you'd expect from someone who's deep into their trade. Mike (who looks like he's in his 20's) sounds like he's devoured the history of his genre, and cooked up a formidable songbook, easily balancing the rage of punk with the passion of the blues, both in equal measures of intelligence and arrogance. This disc is a heap of fun to listen to! Stand back kids, I'm gonna light the fuse!
- Phil Rainone - Jersey Beat

Si fa chiamare semplicemente Guitarbomb. Il nome (e le foto che nel sito lo ritraggono con una maglietta degli Anthrax) potrebbero risultare fuorvianti.
In realtà, prima di dare alle stampe questo esordio, se n'è andato su giù per il nord america a bordo di un minivan, armato solo di una chitarra dozzinale e di una drum machine.
Una one man band dedita a un rock aspro e per forza di cose essenziale, un'attitudine da vecchio bluesman mescolata con una certa corrosività punk.
Il risultato sono le otto tracce di "Back Alley Jesus", sospese tra acidità à la Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, la lezione dei classici (Johnny Cash, Tom Waits), qualche scarna 'impressione desertica'
con lontani rimandi ai lavori di Josh Homme, vaghi sentori psichedelici
e un disincanto un pò disagiato che, assieme a un 'certo non so che', (forse l'attitudine un pò istrionica da 'one man band') per certi versi ricorda Beck.
Certo, forse non tutto quadra, in qualche caso i brani appaiono fin troppo scarni e minimali, ma alla fine l'andamento un pò claudicante, la postura vagamente 'storta', e il sapore rendono "Back Alley Jesus" un disco piacevolmente straniante.
--MARCELLO BERLICH - Losing Today (Italy)

Guitar Bomb is a one-man drunken tour through the beat-up shanties and tear-soaked bar tops of clubs and coffee houses off the beaten path of mainstream acoustic music. With a guitar style that's rooted in the blues and a voice that bares resemblance to Taylor Hollingsworth, Mike Devigne (who is Guitar Bomb) has managed to throw together an album that will appeal to fans of both Tom Waits and The Stooges.
Of the eight songs offered there is not one I would refuse, but when pushed to make a request, I would have to shout for "American Holiday" -- a slow building blues/punk breakdown that sounds almost too much like "No Wow" by The Kills. It may not be the most original piece of writing on the album, but it's the one that I keep coming back to.
--Jen Cray - Ink 19

A one man show, good to go. He’ll get on a finger snappin’ rhythm and rock it about for awhile, in no hurry but moving with a gritty determination. Coffee and nicotine soaked vocals shuffle along with a sly banter and a weight of the world knowledge. A countrified undercurrent rambles along like a steam train clicking along the track. This music is hobo friendly, but like the 50’s romantic, freight-car jumping homeless, not the stab-you-in-the-gut-with-a-ballpoint-pen tweakers we have out here on the west coast. Guitar Bomb has that greasy retro twang reverb in his guitar with a dark, smoky presence that would make Tarantino cream on this and then include it on his next soundtrack. - Modern Fix Magazine