"Art-Damage!" ~ Craig "Baron Elmo" Bishop
"G.N.P. Took My Punk Virginity!" ~ Catt Shifflett
"G.N.P. Sparked My Rock Lust!" ~ Brandon Whorton
"Y'all are like a Well-Oiled Chaos Machine...." ~ Alamantra
"Guys Needin' Psychotherapy!" ~ Ed Bayhi of CONTAMIN MORTALIS
(R.I.P., brother)
"You made me feel Things I've never felt before, listening to Music..." ~
Andrew from ANNEXED ASYLUM
(Manscum's 30th b'day @ th' Hot L -- shot by Jonathan Purvis)
Welcome to the current homepage of the oldest surviving punk band
in the southeast, as far as we know. if you're older and you've been
around longer and you're still playing, we challenge you to a duel --
& may the Gnarliest Niggaz Prevail! (points deducted for cuteness)
GNP: A History of Sorts
Misunderstood, reviled, revered and ignored since its inception,Grossest National Product (the name came from Tim & Scott's
dad, Colonel Boykin -- a joke that stuck) was ripped untimely
from the womb in December 1982 and its poor players cast
upon a stage just scant months later. Much of their history
is shrouded in the mists of time and weed and booze and
death and night and blood and sweat and toil and tears.
The rest shall be exhumed from its dank basement
grave and autopsied here, for what it's worth....
The earliest days I will leave to themselves
until such time as I can get the real story
from those who were involved -- but
even they tend to get a bit
confused about it.
I first saw 'em in June of 1983, at a show put on by United Campuses
Against Nuclear War (remember, this was the REAGAN Era; we were
still under the threat that our gung-ho movie-cowboy president might
wanna take out the Evil Russkie Empire in a Blaze 0f Glory) which was
held in the parish hall of Saint Andrews Episcopal Church!!! This mad-
cap slam-fest included the pummeling premier of GNP -- a whole five
songs (at least two of them covers); the full-blown warp-speed high-
energy assault of the uncompromising punk masters The Ether Dogs;
and what was purported to be the last ever show by local new-wave
legends Jim Bob and the Leisure Suits. There is video of GNP and
the Ether Dogs, and a DVD has made it into our hands, courtesy
of Al Naff, The Ether Dogs' drummer, by way of their former
soundman, Ron Gull, who transferred it to disc! I'd forgotten
how many covers the 'Dogs did, it being their first show and
all -- everything from "Clash City Rockers" to MC5's "High
School" to the Dickies' version of "Nights in White Satin"
-- and they did them all outstandingly -- but what truly
knocked me out seeing this video for the first time in
probably twenty years is how much better their
originals were than the "classics" they were
performing!
Soon followed more shows, mostly with the Ether Dogs and Atlanta legends
DDT, and mostly at the doomed-to-be-defunct CAVERN on the dangerously-
cobblestoned Morris Avenue, a.k.a. "Underground Birmingham"; but in 1984
GNP lost both guitar players -- Dim because he could only play one string
at a time and felt somehow hobbled by that fact, and Scott to go back to
college for his Masters. Tim went back to the GNP fold for a brief spurt,
but left again -- then, bad-ass bassist and Odyssey Records' resident
punk-platter purveyor Brad Quinn tried out to be a Guitar Nastiness
Player as well, but fortunately he was just too damn pretty, and the
both of them wound up in the absolutely awesome psychedelic
garage band Karnival Season (aka Carnival Season, they
have a MySpace too under the C spelling) instead.
So in August of 1984, I became their new axist!
YOWSAH!!!!!
I edited my profile with:
Thomas' Myspace Editor Version
.44 caliber -- the most powerful in the world....