Grab your s’mores, your bug spray, a shot of Malort and pack your bags as Riot Squad Media is returning to Northeast Pennsylvania to take over the West End Fairgrounds in Gilbert, PA with Camp Punksylvania! The 3-day festival with multiple stages and amazing national and local acts like 7 Seconds, The Bronx, Less Than Jake, will take place from 5 July until 7 July tickets are available here. Gang of feral raccoons Car Bomb Parade has joined TGEFM to discuss this year’s festival for the latest installment of our Camp-centric interview series: Happy Campers. Check it out below and I’ll see you at the campfire!
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! What should our readers know about Car Bomb Parade; your mission, your sound?
Will E. Ramone: The mission is unchanged since day 1. We assemble to create community and promote unity, as humanity often forgets about these things. We coined the term “New World Hardcore” for our sound because this is a global effort. Everyone is welcome, everyone is encouraged to participate.
What does Car Bomb Parade have planned for us beyond Camp Punksylvania?
Drummer Mike: At the moment there are no shows lined up, but when Will and I get together at practice he comes with a ton of new ideas which I love. Think very much like Bad Religion and Social Distortion. Will and I have very similar tastes in music, and you would be hard pressed to find something we don’t agree on albeit there are a few. So maybe new songs? A new record?
Will E. Ramone: Writing more songs will certainly be the focus for the rest of the year. We dropped our first new single in two years “Fur The Love” back in April. We’ll have another real soon and a third before the year is out. Hopefully we’ll get a few good show offers to tide us over while we write.
What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences with the band so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?
Drummer Mike: We embrace the weird. You have to come out and experience it for yourself. Every time we get together is a memorable moment not to mention this band has taken each of us to new places and new heights. Can’t forget getting to share the stage with our favorite bands and be part of something with friends that are just like us!
Will E. Ramone: Like Turnstile said: “you really gotta see it live to get it.” Every show is a memorable moment. Every show is a reminder to everyone involved to just live. You only get one chance at this life thing. Be present and go full-throttle always. Being that we started this band for funsies, I never expected to share stages with bands I admire. I never anticipated rubbing elbows and being in the same circle as these people. Touring the west coast and playing to 250 people the first night was a surreal moment. The whole thing has been a blessing.
Car Bomb Parade was one of the most fun sets last year at Camp and CBP really stood out for the blend of aggression and community. What made you want to come back and do it again? How has it felt being able to watch this thing grow from the inside?
Will E. Ramone: Thank you! We agreed last year that being a part of Camp Punx was a magical experience and is still a highlight we talk about til this day in our band meetings. We had a fill-in drummer for our set in 2023, and even he was blown away by the way the entire operation was put together and the outpouring of love we experienced after our set. To be asked to partake again for a second year in a row is an absolute honor. The professionalism and respect we were shown by everyone in charge really made us feel special, especially as out-of-towners. We will always rep Camp Punx and do whatever we can to make this the premier punk rock fest in the states. And sorry in advance, Laura, but we will apply to play each and every year until you forcefully tell us to stop!
Drummer Mike: I need to experience it for myself. I had planned on being there last year, but my first child was born during this time. Now I hope to bring the whole family.
Speaking of your live sets, what are you most excited to bring to the Camp Punk audience? What do you want the campers to say about your set when they write home from camp this year?
Will E. Ramone: We will be bringing our brand of fun, loving aggression. Nothing more, nothing less. We want all the little punk campers to say “Punk rock is alive and well, and the Car Bomb Parade is carrying the flag for the current generation.” And we want every band that plays after us to go “fuck, now we gotta step up our game!”
We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?
Drummer Mike: At times it’s easy to forget where you come from. After doing it for so long and loving it as much as you do, you pour your heart and soul into it. You work very hard at it, make sacrifices with family and financial situations; it’s a labor of love and easy to forget whilst working at it to have fun. Always have fun.
The punk and ska scenes have almost always been at the forefront of inclusion and diversity within the music scenes. The flipside of course is that the gatekeeping in the scene is also very prevalent? Why do you think the genre brings in such a welcoming community and is so happy to let everyone in and also seems to shut the doors so quickly behind themselves?
Drummer Mike: I never understood the gate keeping or people acting like they’re “too punk” to listen to this or that. Motherfucker, sit down and listen to “Sandinista” by The Clash! Also, none of us came out of mommy’s womb with a studded jacket and green mohawk, once again don’t forget your roots haha.
Will E. Ramone: Everyone yearns for community and to be a part of something. Maybe some are so happy to be accepted somewhere that they selfishly want it all for themselves. Like Mike said, “don’t forget your roots.” We’re all welcome here, and we should all leave the door open.
Many of the Camp Punx artists have not been afraid to get political, and Car Bomb Parade is certainly no different. If you had told me a decade ago we’d be looking at a campaign trail made up of a pair of clueless octogenarians set to a backdrop of legal proceedings, foreign wars and record profits I’d have told you there’s no way things could get so bleak…but here we are and it turns out you’d have been underselling the shitshow happening inside the dumpster fire of American government. How is the already absurd presidential race and performative legislation playing into your writing, the live experience and your mental health?
Will E. Ramone: I used to want to change the world, and part of me still does, but I learned over the past several years of political insanity that real change starts within. Be the best version of yourself and the good you want to see in the world. The right people will gravitate to you like a magnet. That’s how you make a difference.
Here’s the thing. Raccoons are fucking terrifying, from their horrifying masks to their opposable thumbs and even their innocuous cuteness when swimming is just a front for nefarious intent… How did The Car Bomb Parade start to embrace those evolutionary mistakes? And since I’m sharing my irrational fear of a species, what creature makes your skin crawl?
Drummer Mike: I hate spiders. The raccoon stuck and we decided to base our band’s artwork off an image of a raccoon. Many of our shirts and latest record covers pay homage to what we consider the greats but in our own twisted mind’s vision of a raccoon.
If Punksylvania were a real camp, what activities are each of you leading (last year, Will wanted to run a raccoon taming lesson… luckily that didn’t manifest)?
Will E. Ramone: The raccoon taming sessions were a great success. You must have missed them. Every feral creature out in the hot sun singing along with us has now been domesticated and indoctrinated into our tribe of brigadiers. This year they will be doing the taming, and the tribe will expand henceforth.
Drummer Mike: It would be cool to have amusement rides like a fair. Go on a merry-go-round while RBNX is rippin’ it up. Or take your love on the ferris wheel and make out while 7 seconds is shredding, you feel me?
Will E. Ramone: I think they had rides last year. You wanna make out during 7 Seconds, Mike? We can make that happen. Also, shoutout to the homies RBNX.
Time for some post-show jams.. what song are you performing around the campfire this year?
Drummer Mike: Anything by the Clash, Hüsker Dü (Will and I have been talking about them this week), folky renditions of Dead Kennedys songs would be cool! Actually forget all that. How about everyone just randomly picks a song and the people that know it go and play it? Like a spin the wheel kinda thing.
Will E. Ramone: I think the entire community could really benefit from heartfelt, acoustic renditions of “Bite It You Scum” by GG Allin and “Code Blue” by TSOL.
Camp Punksylvania is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see?
Will E. Ramone: The Karens, Vulture Raid, Working Class Stiffs, and of course the legends: DOA, 7 Seconds, Koffin Kats, the Bronx. Just seeing our name on the same billing is mind-blowing.
Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?
Will E. Ramone: All love to the brigade. Stay tuned for our next single very soon!
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
