There are those bands in Punk who follow the formula that was generously gifted to us by The Ramones forty six years ago and don’t stray too far from it. It makes for a lot of bands that have a similar sound, and that’s perfectly fine, as we, here, at The Thanks List, can’t get enough of that stuff. But then, once a in a while, there comes a band that does it better than 99% of their peers. Dark Thoughts is that band. The songs are short, expertly well crafted and ultra catchy. When their first LP came out, we knew right away that they were something special, and they quickly followed it up with two more high quality albums. We spoke with vocalist and guitarist Jim Shomo (who also sings in Hardcore band Loose Nukes) in a coffee shop, right before their set in Montreal in 2019 at Katacombes, the legendary, and now sadly defunct, Montréal venue.
What have you been listening to lately?
Well, I haven’t been buying as many records recently because I’ve been a little broke from touring so it’s mostly been stuff around the house. MECHT MENSCH, the US Hardcore band, I got that 7 inch recently. Most of the times, I listen to US Hardcore and Power Pop. Actually, I’ve been listening to a bunch of Finnish Punk bands because, to be honest, I don’t know that much about them. Apart from majors, like KAAOS and D-beat like TAMPERE SS and stuff like that. I think it’s a geography thing. I can’t place a lot of this stuff so I’ve been trying really hard to like, “Alright, this is actually from this place”, which has been pretty cool. I just got into this band called KOHU-63, an early 80’s Finnish ripping Punk band that I didn’t know anything about. It was pretty cool. So yeah, that’s mostly what I’m listening to. That and a pretty steady dose of Power Pop like The JAGS or The NIPS, that pre-POGUES band. I like that stuff a lot. If I go to a record store, that’s what I’m looking for mostly. Either ’77 Punk and Power Pop or Hardcore that I know about. Mostly US Hardcore but I’ve been trying to branch out to get into more shit like Italian Hardcore, Japanese or Korean, yadda, yadda, yadda. All that stuff but the US stuff is more accessible to me and I’m just into that.
What would you say is the record that you’ve listened to most in your life?
Wow. Probably Shock Troops by COCK SPARRER. I probably listened to that record over and over and over again so many times. I wouldn’t say a RAMONES record because I feel like all the Ramones records I listen to. I won’t be like “Alright, I’m gonna listen to Animal Boy for a month and then I listen to Rocket To Russia.” When I was a kid, It’s Alive by The Ramones, that was the one that was playing. On a bus ride, the first half of the bus ride was the first half of it and the second half on the return.
Do you enjoy a lot of live records?
I feel like I did a lot when I was a kid. Maybe it was because of that It’s Alive record but I did have a thing where I didn’t get into too many albums per se but I would listen to a live one. Like, I had a live DEAD KENNEDYS CD when I was younger. I didn’t have Fresh Fruit on CD, I had a live one. I don’t know why.
Is there anything these days that you’d say the live version is better than the studio recording?
You know what I just recently listened to actually, because it’s kind of cold and sad out and maybe it’s weird because it’s kind of “in” right now, but I’ve been listening to a lot of weird Country and stuff. I just got into this live TOWNES VAN ZANDT record, Live At The Old Quarter, that I like way more than most of the recorded stuff just because you can hear, he makes little jokes and it’s very homey sounding and really raw sounding. It’s a good record. I’m kind of a poser when it comes to a lot of that stuff, but I’ve just been listening to more of it recently. I read about that one and it seemed like a good place to start and it’s really, really good. We’ve been on tour for a pretty substantial time, like for the better part of two months and then we had a whole month off and I didn’t have anything to do and I’ve just started listening to a bunch of stuff like that.
Can you name three songs that you would consider to be perfect?
Vengeance by THE FIX. It’s an action by POISON IDEA. Teenage Kicks by THE UNDERTONES. The song is the exact length that it’s supposed to be. It sounds really good, to the point that it’s corny but it’s such a good song.
What do you think makes the first two so good?
I don’t know. Song length for one and then I’m a sucker for cool things, like hooks for intros. The fact that, on The Fix record, when he says “Go ahead” right before that song. I actually have that tattooed. Then, The Undertones with the snare head hits *hums the pattern*, that is really cool.
I’m trying to think of some other ones. There’s a couple RAMONES songs that I would consider perfect, but they’re kind of a deeper thing…It’s like a whole different conversation. It’s weird, there’s all the music that I listen to, and then, there’s the Ramones. They exist in this different world to me.
In the sense that they are your favorite band of all-time?
Yeah. For sure. Even to a point that they’re the type of band that I listened to when I was young and wore out and went back to and realized that every song is my favorite song.
Well, I guess that’s a wrap for us! *Hahaha*…Can you describe every single song? *Haha*
If I sat there, I could think of it! I’ve been really into the last song on Adios Amigos, which I guess is technically the last Ramones recorded album song, Born To Die In Berlin, I think is such a good song. It’s so cool this sort of death theme at the end of this record, this big thing. The drums are so heavy and the song is kind of depressing, but also cool and intense. I have moments like that when you listen to something and it’s just like, “Oh, they definitely did this on purpose.” I don’t even know if they did, but they had to have done that, and they probably didn’t even think about it.
So you’re a fan of through and through, all across the board, right?
Yeah, every record. There’s different levels of which ones are maybe better than others, but all the Ramones records are good.
Can you think of some kind of hidden gem in their discography? Something that most people will overlook but you just find genius?
I feel like a lot of people skip over that record Mondo Bizarro because it’s an early CJ record and it’s a later era record. It’s kind of in a weird place but there’s a lot of hits on that record and it’s recorded really well. I think that stuff about the later era Ramones that I like the most, which is different from the earlier era of the 70’s, Road To Ruin and Leave Home and stuff which is amazing, but what’s really sick about a lot of that 90’s stuff is that they kind of have honed this thing. They basically just did the same thing in a different way. To take this very simple thing and figure out ways to make it complex or whatever, because they had to reinvent all those songs all the time. There’s people that are saying like, “Oh, every song is the same.” Well yeah, it is, but it’s the same with this tiny thing that makes it into a completely different thing. You play this one note a little bit longer, whatever…I’m kind of rambling now but I feel like the production on all those records are way heavier than people think. Even on Halfway To Sanity too, which is late 80’s, there’s that song, I’m Not Jesus, the break in that song is on par with like a CRO-MAGS song or something. The production on that, like *humming the riff*, there’d be people who would go nuts for that, you know? It’s really fucking good and the drumming is fast too. Not Hardcore fast but still.
That’s a good pointer for anyone looking to steal a riff! *Haha*
Yeah, that’s a cool riff!
Talking about hard songs, hard riffs. What would you are the hardest riffs that you can think of it?
That’s a tough one…Oh, any BASTARD riff. The intro to the Bastard LP, man! Yeah, all those riffs, that’s the answer to the question. You can’t fuck with any of those riffs, those guys definitely dialed it in at the same time. Really cool. I love those records a lot.
*Random coffee shop employee walks up to us*: I heard you guys are talking about music, right? I’m a guitarist too. You asked about the hardest riff? GUTHRIE GOVAN. He’s a guitarist, really talented. Progressive jazz. Also, I would say some of Jimmy Page’s later work is really hard, like Achilles Last Stand.
Jim: What do you feel about like, not hard in the sense of difficult but like, heavy? Heaviest riffs?
Employee: Like Metal?
Jim: Yeah, sure. Or harder Rock N Roll.
Something that makes you want to fight. Like walk out music as a boxer.
Employee: It would probably be a DREAM THEATER riff. (Jim: Oh yeah!) Probably Under A Glass Moon. What do you play?
Jim: I play in a Punk band. We’re playing right around the corner, at Katacombes.
Employee: It’s happening tonight? I work until 11:30, when do you play?
Jim: We’re playing last, check it out.
Do you remember the first time you really appreciated music?
Yeah, my dad was kind of the musical person in my family and he’s since passed but when I was younger, he -and my mom too, she still gets into a lot of stuff- he was one to play guitar and he kind of gave my brother and I an interest early on. We would go to concerts and stuff but at Christmas one year, he gave us each two CDs. He got My Name Is Drew by ELVIS COSTELLO and I got The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust by DAVID BOWIE. My dad was a huge David Bowie fan and I ended up just basically getting into both of them. I was really into David Bowie and basically, everything he was into, I got into. Blues and like, I saw LYNYRD SKYNYRD and ZZ Top when I was eight, that was the first concert I went to, it was awesome.
I just watched this really good Lynyrd Skynyrd documentary that was pretty informative and I’m giving them more credit, getting kind of more interested in it. So early on, that was David Bowie and Rock stuff like ALLMAN BROTHERS and things like that. Then, I had a cooler cousin who was into Grunge, he was dyeing his hair and going to shows in the early 90’s. He turned me and my younger brother on to GREEN DAY and that was kind of the launching point for getting into Punk. Green Day and from Green Day, it was The RAMONES and that was sort of where it went. I was talking to somebody at the Albany show yesterday who was like, “I saw the Green Day video for Basket Case and I wanted to learn how to play guitar” and I was like, “Oh, yeah, me too.”
From that point on, how did your music tastes evolve? From high school or whatever to now?
I guess from there, I got into The Ramones and then in the late 90’s, early 2000’s, I got into Street Punk and definitely had a Ska phase, I saw MUSTARD PLUG a few times and from that though, I did get into like some Reggae stuff and I still like The SPECIALS so much. They’re a top band for me. I had that moment and then I think Street Punk stuff and that vein, I got into the NOFX and RANCID and that time period was cool because a lot of those bands toured and it got me interested in meeting people to go to shows. Then from going to shows -I grew up pretty close to Philadelphia, about half an hour/45 minutes away-, I had friends and we figured out how you could take the train and it wasn’t that expensive or you could get a ride and from there, I started going to more shows in the city. I would get into bands that played in the city and seeing different bands, that was when I started to get more into DIY Punk.
I don’t know, I was a weird kid because I liked a lot of different weird Punk stuff but then I was also into Hardcore because I was straight edge -and I’m still straight edge I guess, I don’t drink or do drugs or anything- so Hardcore was also pretty present and I would go to Hardcore shows but I was this Punk kid at a Hardcore show and trying to fit in to that or whatever. Figuring that out. Also, I was very small and it was a violent time to see Hardcore shows but that was really fun. Fortunately, where I was from is kind of West of the city and the first portion that you get into is where there was a lot of house shows and where DIY shows have been going on for a long time. I slowly gravitated towards stuff like that and when I was just getting out of high school, I got to see bands like NO WARNING or AMERICAN CHEESEBURGER and random Hardcore bands on tour. It was cool because it was like, “Oh, this band is from some place that I can’t conceive of”, even though it’s only five hours away, right? As a young person, it’s difficult to understand. Then from that, I ended up joining bands and going on tour and stuff. I guess that’s where it comes from. I’ve got friends and had a steady diet of US Hardcore and exciting Punk shows and things like that.
Pop Punk was also present in this, which is a thing that I’ve started to appreciate more as I get older, especially being in Dark Thoughts. We kind of toe this line. We were joking yesterday with the dude at the show about still liking the bands that you got into when you were 15, as a Pop Punk fan, but also like, getting down with Finnish hardcore and those different things. Where that line is, that’s an exciting thing for me, and I feel like that’s cool. It’s cool to me, but it’s like only cool because it’s not that cool? The Finnish thing is like a buzzword. I feel pretentious even saying that! Even if that shit is awesome. Yeah, it’s good but I don’t need to be inundated by it. And I’m not talking shit about DISCLOSE, You know what I mean? A friend of mine said this once, it’s all Punk. You get into it and you get stocked on it. What makes you stocked is good. If it makes you happy and you’re not hurting anybody then, hell yeah!
It’s not Finnish but we’re big fans of MASSHYSTERI over here. Especially that second album.
I like that band. Is that the HURULA guy too? (TTL: Yeah, same guy.) It’s pretty sick. I’ve heard that he doesn’t talk about any of those bands. He still knows all these people but he won’t talk about it. That’s what I’ve heard. But that guy won a Swedish Grammy; Hurula is really popular. What’s crazy is that it’s basically just The VICIOUS slowed down.
What would be your top 5 rappers? Can you name one song that best exemplifies them?
O.C., the dude from New York. That record Word…Life is really good. The song Time’s Up.
Dark Thoughts has a regular tour rotation and Amy got me really into this so I’ve been very, very into it recently, mainly ICE CUBE but in particular, the first WESTSIDE CONNECTION record. It’s at the height of the West Coast-East Coast beef and it’s just a shit talk record. There’s three songs where he talks about CYPRESS HILL and shut them down. It is really good. We have to drive for a really long time and Amy is driving the van so and she’ll say, you have to put Westside Connection on so I’ve heard it a million times. That’s really good.
There’s this group from Philly from early 90’s called DA YOUNGSTA’S. They changed name a little bit later, as they got older. Their dad was a Hip Hop producer and they were young kids, I think they were 15 or so when they did their first record. They did three or four records and they’re all awesome. There’s this song Hip Hop Ride that’s really good. I’ve been trying to listen to more Philly stuff. SCHOOLLY D. I mean, there’s also like, NAS, Illmatic is great. It’s an undeniable record. Yeah, I like Hip Hop. I don’t know if it’s the environment of Philadelphia, having like crossover and stuff, but stuff that has good style really gets me.
What would be your top 10 albums of all time?
I feel like I can do it if I don’t do it in any particular order.
Leave Home by the RAMONES.
Kings Of Punk by POISON IDEA
NEGATIVE APPROACH, Tied Down
GAUZE – Crash The Pose
BASTARD – No Hope In Here
DEAD MILKMEN, Beelzebubba and Big Lizard in My Backyard. That’s 6, right? Four more, let me think…
Maybe a Finnish band? *Haha*
KOHU-63, both of those LP are good but I don’t know if this is in my top. I just heard that last week. That’s the thing that’s funny is, I heard it on YouTube last week, and I just said this and you recorded it. Now it’s like, “Oh, he’s into this stuff.” Now I’m an expert! *Haha* I sincerely like that record a lot, you know what I mean? But it’s a funny thing about the time that we live in where, how people experience music is so different. Right now, I’m trying to think of records that I have.
Actually, how do you experience music most of the time these days? How do you discover new music? Live, on records?
Most of the times, on records, then if there’s something that I haven’t heard, via a recommendation from a friend or something…I’ve been trying really hard to get over the social anxiety of just asking someone when I don’t know. You know that feeling? “I don’t know what that is. What is that?” That’s been really cool.
Yeah, in Punk, it’s not cool not to know.
Yeah, it’s very difficult not to know. But then, everybody wants to know so you have to ask.
The dreaded question “What was that cover song?”
That’s funny, last night, there was definitely this dude who went off as soon as this band covered Big Time by RUDI. I love that song, it’s fucking awesome. They did a really good cover and this dude went nuts and Daniel and I were looking on and I don’t think he knew a single word! Maybe he knew the chorus but I was like, “You don’t know!” It was fine, nobody knew what the song was. I was stoked that the band knew what it was.
You know what? Actually, there’s this favorite things that’s a weird one is, there’s this one Good Vibrations band called The BANKROBBERS that has a single called On My Mind and that’s one of my favorite songs of all time. That’s a weird one that I think people don’t really know. It’s just really good to me, a really good Power Pop song. Synths and cool guitars and the drums hit super hard and it’s just one of those random records. I like that a lot. There’s a lot of singles like that, like JAGS Back Of My Hand.
Oh, on that top records list, Give ‘Em Enough Rope by The CLASH. Most Clash singles, I listen to that a lot. I’ve been trying hard to get seven inch singles and have stuff at home, just listen to one song and do another thing. We were in the UK in October and Daniel found this random tiny record store that we were just going to walk past and look like kind of messy or whatever. We went in and there was two dudes in there who would already have been there for a minute and they have all this stuff out on the counters and those dudes pulled a WRETCHED seven inch, an EXIT-STANCE seven inch and a bunch of other crazy stuff. Immediately, it was one of the craziest spots I’ve ever been to. There were deals, the dude was really nice and he knew what he had but he didn’t care how much it costs. It was just boxes and boxes and boxes of singles everywhere. Daniel was trying to talk to me and I couldn’t speak. There was all the CRASS stuff, COCKNEY REJECTS, SHAM 69…I love the JAM a lot and I got every Jam seven inch that I needed, all the hit ones. In The City would be a big one. I discovered them later but I had this really cool moment listening to that song Away From The Numbers. That’s a slower song but it has this huge, open intro at the beginning *humming* I had headphones on, not knowing what I was going to listen to and I had it turned up real loud and it was like, whoa! That was cool because I was in my mid-20’s and I’ve heard all these things and listening to this record like, “Oh shit, it’s amazing!”
It doesn’t happen as often in your 20’s then when you’re 15.
I love being amazed by records. There’s been a couple good current records that I feel really done that to me. The IMPALERS last LP, when it came out actually, I had that. Friends had been asking “Have you heard it yet? It’s really cool.” I was like, “Yeah, I’m sure it’s good. Impalers, they’re a great band.” Then, I actually put headphones on to listen to the record while I’m at work and I’m like, “Oh shit. I can’t talk to anybody about this! I’m at work.” I was really excited. That’s a fun thing to discover, friends bands that are doing really cool stuff. There’s a lot of friends’ bands in Pittsburgh that I’m really into. DETAINEES, if you like The Vicious and stuff like that. It’s not as melodic but it’s really snotty. That’s their style. Other newer bands, POBREZA MENTAL from New York. They’re awesome. Really, really good. The new WARTHOG record is really good too. It’s exciting to hear good Punk.
Is there any band that you discovered live lately?
Not really super recently but last summer (2018), that band SCALPEL from New York. They’re all friends and I hadn’t seen them and I was at Skull Fest in Pittsburgh. Dark Thoughts were playing, I went to get food, came back and there’s a band playing. What is this band? I got really excited and then I had this moment like, “Oh, I know them!” They got me.
Is there any artists or band that you love in a music genre that you usually don’t listen to?
I don’t know. The only thing that comes to mind is, I hate the GRATEFUL DEAD but I like that song Touch Of Gray. That song’s great but the Grateful Dead sucks!
Is there anything that you didn’t like at first but learned to appreciate over time?
That one’s tough. I feel like there definitely are. I don’t want to be negative but I was talking to my friend the other day and we were listening to a demo by a new band or something and I didn’t like it. I made a joke of like, “Surprise, surprise! I don’t like a new band that just came out.” I try to give stuff a chance but after a certain point, it’s not that you want to be stubborn, but there’s a pretty good chance that visually, before I even listen to it, I’m probably gonna like it or not like, so there’s a lot of stuff that I think I maybe don’t give as good a chance. I love bands with really good aesthetics too, that match their sound and what they’re doing. I feel like that’s a really cool thing that maybe gets lost sometimes. That gets lost because you made this really quick. You tried really hard to make this cool, interesting, creative thing and then you just make it look like shit. When the physical thing looks like shit, it’s almost like accepting that people are only going to ever hear your band on Bandcamp or something, which I think is really a bummer. It’s just sad. You did the thing, you wrote all the songs, and even if you did it in like five minutes, and it looks really cool, then you put it out and you can say in five minutes, that’s amazing. Like the ADRENALINE OD seven inch, Let’s Barbecue, where they fuck up. They did it live and the first song’s wrong and then they just keep it in there? That’s amazing! I wish there were more bands that did that. Cool.
Actually, what are some of the best album cover artwork. In your opinion? Do have a favorite artist?
I love simple artwork. Like, I love GAUZE, it has its thing. DEAD KENNEDYS, with the layouts and the posters, all the Winston Smith. Those intricate collages, there’s so many different things but it doesn’t mean anything, that’s really cool. Current people, there’s Cassidy McGinley, who is in BLANK SPELL and DEVIL MASTER, her artwork is always really cool. All that stuff always looks so fresh and really sick. Another really good current person is this guy Tom Sara from North Carolina. Do you guys know that band PUBLIC ACID? They’re a North Carolina band and have this LP that just recently came out and it’s awesome. He did all the artwork for it and it’s just weird. He has a really cool style and they screen printed all the records. It makes it that the record is this specific thing. The ink is too thick for the record and you can get stuck and it just looks cool, you know? Yeah, I like when people really think about it. Like, how that FEEDERS record is on sandpaper. It’s an item. Ephemera is kind of sick too, stuff that people didn’t think about. Like BLACK FLAG Damaged that has the anti-parents sticker on it. That puts it in a different level, even though that image is really amazing and the record is great. I like finding extra stuff. There’s a DEAD MILKMEN Big Lizard insert that has a little glue thing in the insert and it had come with the sticker. That’s cool.
What are some of the most memorable shows you’ve seen?
COCK SPARRER came to Philadelphia about five years ago but I had never got to see them. They did two nights at this big venue, like 1500 people and they all sold out. That was really memorable.
There’s been a lot of really fun shows that Dark Thoughts have been really fortunate to play recently. We played in Pittsburgh two months ago and we did a crazy drive, like nine hours and the night before, we got paid like 40 bucks but we showed up and all of our friends were there and there’s 150 people there and it’s just crazy. For a bunch of idiots to show up and to happen, this is really cool. Those are memorable things for me. I like playing.
A pretty funny one is, one of the first big venue shows I went to with my high school friends, we went to see the DROPKICK MURPHYS and the band that was the direct support was STIFF LITTLE FINGERS. I was 14 or 15 and I had never heard Stiff Little Finger before and to bring back that SPECIALS thing, Stiff Little Fingers does a cover of It Doesn’t Make It Alright. I knew that song and then I was watching them, totally blown away. That was my introduction to that band.
Not too long after that, one of the first DIY shows I went to was a D.O.A. show, with a bunch of local bands at this American Legion Hall in upper Darby, which is not in the city, a little shitty town. It was the first time I’d ever been to a show that wasn’t at a venue and it was like really awesome. They were great and you know, the classic trope of any cool punk shows, I was a super young kid and I got to talk to the band. Like, you’re Joey Shithead, you’re in the band and have been touring forever and you’re really nice. It was right after Johnny or Dee Dee died too, and they did a medley of RAMONES songs and that was really cool because I was pretty young and I was familiar with D.O.A. but I was like, “Oh! Now I’m really excited!”
Is there any show that you’ve missed and that you wish you’ve had experienced?
Oh yeah. I lived at a couple different punk houses that did shows in Philadelphia for a long time and Amy actually booked this show at a house that I was living at. She booked a show for D-CLONE when they were touring around Chaos In Tejas, in a West Philly row house, in the basement. I don’t know exactly how many people were there but there was way too many people and I had to work. I was working at this pizza place and I couldn’t get off work, I don’t remember why but it was literally impossible. There was just no way and I was so bummed that I couldn’t go. It was really funny too because I was also really stressed out because I was really worried that the cops were going to come, because it was like a crazy show. I came back to my house and it was like 10:35 and there was nobody there. I was like, “Oh no! The cops definitely came.” There was just no one in the house and I was like, “What the hell’s going on? Where’s everybody?” It was clean and it looked like the show didn’t happen and I came around the corner and there was this mountain of beer cans. Like seven feet high! “Oh, I guess the show did happen!” Everybody cleaned up and put it in the corner. I really regret that one. ZYANOSE played a couple weeks later in the basement too and I got to see that and it was awesome.
Do you have any unpopular music opinions that you’d like to defend?
I feel like it’s got to be something that Amy and Daniel think I’m corny for liking…’cause we’re all snobs! That’s why we get along so well. We’re not mean, but we’re snobs.*Haha*
How does that work in the van? Is it like, everyone for themselves and you each get a time slot?
No, it’s pretty good. We all like a lot of the same things. This is a pretty rare occurrence, where it’s just the three of us touring together. We normally have a driver, but since it’s such a short tour, Amy’s just doing the driving. It’s funny because we have this dynamic that’s almost like on stage, Amy drives, she’s on the left, I’m on the right and Daniel’s in the back. But normally, I have to DJ so I’ll DJ to everybody. It’s pretty easy, run of the mill stuff. On the way up, we were listening to a bunch of weird Soft Rock on the radio, through the mountains. That was pretty funny.
No Comments