I walk up West Grace Street Wednesday afternoon as its bustling with students and people rushing to grab a quick lunch, and head up to a large house.
I walk up West Grace Street Wednesday afternoon as its bustling with students and people rushing to grab a quick lunch, and head up to a large house. As I knock on the door, a tall, lanky, long-haired guy greets me with a smile and warmly invites me in. He, being Ryan Dickerson, the bassist of local heavy rock band The Erotic Bombs, leads me to their living space which also doubles as their practice space, to meet fellow band members Zach Snider, guitar player and vocalist, and Adam Krause, drummer for the band.
I plop down on a comfy couch and to my right sits a massive drum set, amps, mics, and cords all squeezed into a little square as though they’d just finished up a set. To the left, a gigantic window to peer out and witness all the hustle and bustle of people and cars on the street, which the guys assured me was great for people watching day or night as they sat together on a brown squishy couch.
Anyway, let’s get down to the music. This trio is fairly new to RVA’s music scene, forming in March 2015, but judging by the demo the band released this summer you wouldn’t know it. It is rock and roll at its core, but there’s also some psychedelia and punk influences that definitely creep in. It’s the perfect blend in my opinion, a little bit of everything to soothe the soul.
It’s jangly at times, soulful in other places, and drags on with long far out riffs in some other songs so it’s really quite the demo for this fairly new Richmond band.
“Punk and psychedelia are two we tend to go towards I feel they’re almost, when it comes to writing they’re sort of our reference points if we’re going more direct {its} going to sound more punk if we’re more laid back it tends to roll over toward psychedelia,” said Snider.
Krause agreed they have some punk sounds in the demo, but mainly describes it as pure rock and roll.
The band released the four track DIY demo via their Soundcloud about five months ago.
“We just kind of had one mic laying around and just tracked everything individually,” Dickerson aid. “All the recording took about a week.”
Krause added that it was kind of a spur of the moment thing, but the group was working on the all of the songs for a long time.
Krause said they have about11 songs total and a lot more that their currently working on.
The track “Guilty” is definitely an in your face rock track and rightfully so saved for the end. “Sun King” is a little more psych-y and trippy and drags out a little more, but is just as good.
With a few different genres interwoven into this little demo, musical influences obviously came up.
Dickerson said the band draws on Queens Of the Stone Age and The Stooges the most when it comes to their sound. He also added that he and Krause draw from a lot of doom metal. Snider said he was heavily into The Smiths at one time, but now he’s leaning in a post-punk direction.
Now that they have the demo, The Erotic Bombs have been performing around Richmond mainly at house shows, but have also done shows in Stafford, Virginia Beach, and Circle Thrift here in Richmond.
The guys have also played a venue that was a bit out of the ordinary even for bands.
“We played this printer museum,” Krause said. “It was basically this house these two guys turned into a printer museum.”
Now I’m thinking some cool antiques and rare collectibles, but Dickerson quickly assured me that was not the case when they arrived.
“It was all HP printers,” he said. “When I heard about it I was expecting old timey printing presses, like something a few hundred years old, than I walk in and its stuff that we had when I was like in middle school.”
They all laughed reminiscing on the time. The guys, who aren’t old friends, seem like they’ve been playing for many, many years from the closeness and comradery that comes from playing in a band. And in that small space it’s probably made for some cool bonding time I would venture to say.
The trio seems to like going the DIY route for now and hasn’t put much thought into a label. They prefer rocking it out at house shows and having that connection with their fans.
“You get a reaction you don’t get at other shows and it builds fans,” said Krause.
Dickerson concurred, adding to Krause’s feelings on house shows compared to venues.
“There’s a certain feeling you can’t get in a real venue just because there’s no stage just kind of being on that same level, Dickerson added. “At a show the band and the crowd need each other to get the right energy going.”
All of them have been toiling away at their craft for quite some time. Dickerson started out playing trumpet in the fourth grade which the guys joked about trying to get him to bring that into the mix. He’s been playing bass for about three years. Krause started playing drums at age nine. Snider has been playing guitar for about five or six years.
Snider and Dickerson started jamming together in January 2014. They had a different drummer who left the band in January of this year with whom they replaced with Krause.
All of the bandmates are students at VCU, Krause, a Newport News native, is a sophomore, Dickerson is a junior and Snider is a senior. But you can tell music is definitely where their passion lies.
The Erotic Bombs said they hope to have a couple shows lined up for January so definitely keep them on your radar.
Dickerson expects the band will release another handful of songs similar to the demo they have now in the near future.
“We’ve got material for an album plus,” he said.
