When the New Bomb Turks unleashed their debut record !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!! on the world back in 1993, very few were prepared for the ferociously catchy noise these four self-proclaimed smart-ass kids (Eric Davidson, vocals; Jim Weber, guitar; Matt Reber, bass; Bill Randt, drums) from Ohio laid down. Considered an instant classic on its release by many of the taste-making underground publications of the day, the record has been given a 20th anniversary deluxe gate-fold vinyl reissue by Crypt Records, which originally unleashed this beast on the world back in the day.

The reissue features extensive liner notes by Cobra Verde front man and Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist John Petkovic, as well as testimonials from such punk ‘n roll luminaries as “Howlin'” Pelle Almqvist (Hives), Danko Jones, Dregen (Hellacopters/Backyard Babies), and and Timmy Vulgar (Clone Defects, Human Eye, Timmy’s Organism).

So, in honor of the 20th anniversary of this landmark album, we sent lead singer Eric Davidson a bunch of questions — not only regarding “Destroy,” but also about his book, We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001, the band’s recent reunion shows, and his new band, Livids, among many other topics.

Looking back at the time around the release of !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!!, what do you remember the most?

I remember noticing how dead and abandoned it was around Williamsburg, Brooklyn (where the studio was), and how Miriam from Norton Records told us a friend had been stabbed at a nearby telephone booth. But us Turks mainly noticed that there seemed to beno one around at all — like tumbleweeds rolling by, spaghetti Western whistling going on in the distance. I remember us pissing off the album’s engineer, Albert, routinely [in] the first few hours of setting up and recording, as we must’ve seemed like smart-ass college kids making dumb wisecracks — which we were. To this day, our inside jokes and ever-present sarcasm are just the “Cleveland” in us — we can’t help it. Sometimes, being enthusiastic seems naïve (or enviable) to grizzled New Yorkers. But we all very soon got along fine in the studio. Producer Mike Mariconda felt like an old pal by the end of the two days we were in the studio.

I also remember dragging the crates of beer upstairs to the studio when we first got there, knowing I’d be cursing them the next morning. I remember wanting to get recording done so we could go get good New York pizza and go record shopping. I remember thinking as Mike Mariconda and Jim [Weber] were tinkering with where to set up the amps and such, and then how it sounded really cool. I loved that Mariconda just shoved a couple baffles here or there, didn’t worry about bleeding, and encouraged us to do everything live, which we mainly did. The weather was nice the days we were in town. Oh, and George Bush, Sr. was still president. That sucked.

It was amazing we were in New York City making an album — I didn’t think just eight months earlier that would’ve happened. I think younger music fans now wouldn’t get how hard it was back then (pre-Pro Tools) for a band to actually record an album in a studio, and have someone pay for it and want to release physical copies of it. That seemed like some distant, fairly monumental task back in the mid-’80s when I started seeing local bands in Cleveland.

How do you think the album has aged?

Having listened to !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!! again recently going through this reissue process, I think it holds up great. I’m still totally happy with how it came out — maybe it’s a bit too fast here or there. I hadn’t really learned what to do about lyrics yet, but they’re fine. I think Mike Mariconda’s production was smart in keeping it straight-up and loud,not necessarily lo-fi. We chatted a little bit about adding, like, hand claps or more background vocals or something, but he suggested to keep it simple for our first album, try adding extra junk later. Good suggestion!

Do you still think it holds the same power now as when it came out?

For me — and this is obviously personal — but I think it is more powerful than when it came out. But there have also been a load of bands since who have dug on the whole early ’90s fast garage-punk sound, so I’m not sure how it would sound to the ears of a 20-year-old who grew up thinking Blink-182 or AFI or whatever is what constitutes a “fast punk band.”

How do you judge it when compared to your other albums?

It’s the generic answer every band gives, but I think each of our albums are different in their own ways. But I’d say !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!! and Nightmare Scenario are my favorite New Bomb Turks albums.

Was it your plan to make it as fast as it turned out? Or was that just the natural progression for the band?

Kind of a natural progression, as we were getting tighter. And I think with the music we play, the more you know the tunes, the more you zip through them. But definitely, between those seven cases of beer, the engineer glowering at us a bit, and knowing wehad to get this thing done in a day basically, we were nervous and probably played faster because of that.

How did you guys end up doing a split seven-inch with Entombed? What made you decide on the tracks to cover? I know their producer, Tomas Skogsberg, produced some tracks on At Rope’s End and also their drummer Nicke Andersson, went on to form The Hellacopters.

Basically — and my memory sometimes fades — we were setting up for a show at CBGB in 1993, I believe, and a friend brought Entombed to the show. He introduced us, told us they were big fans, and we were kind of blown away because the band — especially the drummer, Nicke (Andersson, later singer in The Hellacopters) — seemed like deferential and nervous in front of us. [Nicke] kept telling me how much he liked our stuff, and we’re there thinking, This is a huge metal band that actually sells a lot of records!

Soon enough, The Hellacopters formed (telling us they formed because of !!Destroy-Oh-Boy!!), and we became friends. They later helped us set up those recordings with Tomas Skogsberg. There was a label that wanted to do a series of bands that wouldn’t seem to go together, and that’s about it. I think that series of split-singles only went to about three or four, not sure. We always loved confounding expectations of what a “punk” band was supposed to do — not that we would have said it aloud that way back then, but just that we always thought of our band as fast rock n’ roll, and good rock n’ roll can be found in many different guises.

 I liked this collaboration, but did anyone give you any crap for it back in the day?

We never really got any kind of crap for it. Anyone who actually found that single seemed to think it was kinda cool. Our side’s an Anti-Nowhere League cover, for Pete’s sake. They rule!

How did the album re-release shows go?

The Columbus show was amazing! Sold out, packed with tons of friends I hadn’t seen in awhile. Sometimes, with these kind of reunion shows — let’s face it, our fans have gotten a little older, so maybe they don’t go quite as crazy. Well, not at that show! Lots of crazy jumping around, [people] got thrown on the stage a few times. I thought we played great — just a really fun time!

And the shows in Europe the following week — four shows in four countries in four days! — all went really well, as far as being packed, crazy. I am sometimes amazed at how crazy our shows still are, honestly. I think maybe those aforementioned older fans maybe also don’t go out as much anymore, so when we come to town, they get as drunk as they did 15 years ago. Then I think, one good thing about never really becoming a huge hit band, is that maybe younger kids discover us as some kind of “cult” band that they never thought they’d actually see. So then we come to town, and can still put on a crazed show, and they go ape-shit. And then there are a lot of people who just show up, never heard of us, and maybe we’re a little better then they expected. Or whatever, what do I know?

Switching gears, what was your motivation for writing We Never Learn: The Gunk Punk Undergut, 1988-2001? Do you believe that this scene was underrepresented at the time? Was this a way to correct that? Because it seemed like a certain group of critics didn’t care about raw rock music until about 2002 at the time.

Yes, I think there was such a huge scene of trashy, roots-influenced punk/fast rock n’ roll/whatever for like 10 years — and not just a scene, but one that should have at least got a mainstream bone thrown to it at some point during what was arguably the last era when guitar-based music ruled the Top 40 airwaves. But whatever, most of the bands that influenced all the bands in my book never got huge, so I don’t think most of us ever expected to get lots of attention, even from critics. So I thought “attention must be paid,” as it were. But mainly, I just thought it’d be fun, and a good idea to get some fun stories and pass along info from that era of how those bands survived and went about touring in the face of not much attention or sales.

What do you think of the current wave of “gunk punk” bands that have come about in recent years? Any particular favorites?

Not sure there’s been a wave. As always, I feel like you have to dig to find bands with that level of wild abandon. I’ve got half-baked theories about a couple generations of youngins being raised on Prozac, and so now we mostly get the 2013 editions of Bread or Three Dog Night. (Dubstep is essentially the sound of a sedated soul. Thank god Zoloft wasn’t around when Iggy Pop was a tween!)

But it’s fun to tick off band names, so as far as action-packed bands, I’d say I still like the Black Lips, Timmy’s Organism/Human Eye, Royal Headache, OBN IIIs, Cheap Freaks, Foster Care, Flesh Lights, Las Ardillas, The Othermen, Hives, Acid Baby Jesus, Dikes of Holland, any project with King Khan or BBQ, Nervosas, Mean Jeans, Paint Fumes, A Giant Dog, Jail Weddings, Useless Eaters, The Spits, Thee Mighty Fevers, Mouthbreathers, and probably a bunch others I’m forgetting. I also love the reissues on Last Laugh and Sing Sing Records, though that’s old shit — good old shit!

What made you decide to jump back into the fray with Livids?

Mainly, I’d been hanging around with guitarist Jami Wolf a bit. I liked her previous band, Shop Fronts, and she mentioned wanting to start another band. I’d been settling into living in New York City for awhile, and I felt settled in, I guess. I asked her if I could be in it, and she said sure — [it was] that easy.

I figured it’d be a trashy, fun band, not too much of a serious commitment, and that’s kind of how it’s been. But once we got the latest lineup settled (with bassist Joi and drummer Greg, in February 2012), things really started to click more. I really liked the tunes, we got asked to do some singles, and things have just been rolling.

What draws you back to playing this kind of high-energy punk n’ roll?

I didn’t think I’d be in another high-energy kind of band, but you can’t tell life and fate what to do! We’ve been having fun, and it’s still agreed we’re not out to tour loads… And everyone’s got jobs and shit to deal with too. So for now, we’re just seeing where it goes and playing shows.

Any bands or artists that people would be surprised that you like? I heard you are a big fan of Morrissey.

I like The Smiths a lot — Morrissey’s solo stuff is hit or miss. But I always thought his lyrics and stage demeanor were hilarious. I never really get that assumption that he’s some mopey, morose character. I like a lot of old crooner stuff, like Johnnie Ray, Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, but maybe that’s not a surprise. I have guilty pleasure songs (like New Radicals’ “You Get What You Give,” Earth Wind & Fire’s “September,” and a few Kylie Minogue tunes), but I’d like to think I’m open-minded about music — and you should be too! Also, I think since the dawn of the iPod shuffle, someone saying they like the Pagans, Prince, The Sweet, Teengenerate, Kurt Vile, Geto Boys, and Giorgio Moroder doesn’t really “shock” anyone anymore.

Is it true that some of us have “adrenalized hearts”?

That’s a Stiv Bator quote, so I’ll let him explain it to you in the afterlife.