Biography
Punk's confrontational spirit has not always translated into calls for political upheaval. While early acts such as the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Dead Kennedys used the form to voice dissent, other groups including the Ramones and the Dickies treated it chiefly as a vehicle for amusement. The Bulemics belong to the latter camp: their sole aim is entertainment through deliberate crudeness, bad taste, and provocation. Relying on shock tactics, the group fills its songs with flippant references to Satanism, substance addiction, self-destruction, sexual excess, and brutality. Listeners in Texas and elsewhere generally recognize that these themes are not offered as sincere statements.
The band came together in Austin, Texas, in 1996, a period when alternative-rock outlets favored emo-tinged pop-punk acts typified by Green Day. The Bulemics, however, drew nothing from Green Day, blink-182, Fenix TX, or comparable contemporaries. Instead they revived the approach of late-seventies and early-eighties American hardcore, echoing Los Angeles outfits such as the Circle Jerks, Black Flag, and the Germs. Critics have also noted parallels with contemporaneous Boston groups, an unsurprising link given that Jerry's Kids, Gang Green, and the Freeze absorbed much of their style from West Coast predecessors. The Texans' sound remains distinctly domestic rather than aligned with British Oi!.
Lineup turnover has been constant since the band's inception. By 1999 the five-piece roster comprised Gerry Atric on vocals, Gabe Bulemic on lead guitar, Haywood Jablomey on rhythm guitar, Mississippi Sweet Dick (born Craig Merrit) on bass, and Hell Sancho on drums. Two years later Gabe Bulemic and Jablomey had departed, leaving Atric, Sweet Dick, and Sancho in place; Rusty Trombone joined on lead guitar and Wes Texas on rhythm guitar. The Bulemics issued several full-length albums in the late nineties and early two-thousands: Old Enough to Know Better and Too Young to Care appeared on Junk, Blurred Vision and Twisted Thoughts on Man's Ruin, and Talk Dirty to Me on TSB. They also contributed eight tracks to the 1999 Man's Ruin split Full on Hate Fuck alongside the River City Rapists. Their fourth album, Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, was tracked in 2001 and issued the following year by Philadelphia's Steel Cage imprint.
The band came together in Austin, Texas, in 1996, a period when alternative-rock outlets favored emo-tinged pop-punk acts typified by Green Day. The Bulemics, however, drew nothing from Green Day, blink-182, Fenix TX, or comparable contemporaries. Instead they revived the approach of late-seventies and early-eighties American hardcore, echoing Los Angeles outfits such as the Circle Jerks, Black Flag, and the Germs. Critics have also noted parallels with contemporaneous Boston groups, an unsurprising link given that Jerry's Kids, Gang Green, and the Freeze absorbed much of their style from West Coast predecessors. The Texans' sound remains distinctly domestic rather than aligned with British Oi!.
Lineup turnover has been constant since the band's inception. By 1999 the five-piece roster comprised Gerry Atric on vocals, Gabe Bulemic on lead guitar, Haywood Jablomey on rhythm guitar, Mississippi Sweet Dick (born Craig Merrit) on bass, and Hell Sancho on drums. Two years later Gabe Bulemic and Jablomey had departed, leaving Atric, Sweet Dick, and Sancho in place; Rusty Trombone joined on lead guitar and Wes Texas on rhythm guitar. The Bulemics issued several full-length albums in the late nineties and early two-thousands: Old Enough to Know Better and Too Young to Care appeared on Junk, Blurred Vision and Twisted Thoughts on Man's Ruin, and Talk Dirty to Me on TSB. They also contributed eight tracks to the 1999 Man's Ruin split Full on Hate Fuck alongside the River City Rapists. Their fourth album, Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, was tracked in 2001 and issued the following year by Philadelphia's Steel Cage imprint.