"It's a dinosaur. It's a plane. It's Superman."
That's about the best description of Chomp Womp I got from Jonathan Doerr - perhaps the reason he felt compelled to call me later and apologize for "poorly representing" Chomp Womp. I'd be inclined to agree with him if anyone else could explain the damn thing.
Most obviously, Chomp Womp is a collective of Lawrence and Kansas City musicians who play shows and put out tapes - yes, tapes. They've been kicking around for three years or so, claiming friends and neighbors like Boo and Boo Too, Baby Birds Don't Drink Milk, The Armory, Coat Party, I Love You, Bandit Teeth, Fag Cop, and Fortuning.
"Pretty much we just wanted to do something," explains Drew M Gibson of Baby Birds and No School Get Fucked Up.
Chomp Womp's new "Family Night" series at the Eighth Street Taproom in Lawrence aims to make good on that ambition. The third installment of Family Night will go down Sunday evening, and like previous efforts, it mixes established local acts (1,000,000 Light Years and Fortuning) with newer faces on the scene (Jabber Josh, Low Oriole, The World Palestine, NASCAR, Rockabilly Land Singers).
"We're trying to get people who aren't really playing a lot or are shy to," Doerr says. "It's especially fun to have people who have never played in public."
To entice them, Chomp Womp accomplice Lacy Myers has been baking cakes, typically in the shape of dinosaurs. Sometimes she and her friends sneak over to the neighboring Sandbar to grab shark toys and pass them out.
Myers brought a life-size Hannah Montana poster to the last Family Night, and people wrote dirty things in an adjacent speech bubble. Unfortunately, someone stole Ms. Montana at the end of the evening.
"I keep thinking of putting up flyers that she's lost, but somebody will find her," Myers insists.
Family Night has also been known to spawn bad KISS makeup and encounters with a mysterious character named Bramblethrash, which might either be a band or a toy, I couldn't really tell based on Gibson's description.
Another "Chompilation" is in the works for a 09/09/09 release ("If you turn it upside down it's 666," Gibson astutely points out). Doerr - often the engine of the Chomp Womp beast - will likely be kicking it L.A.-style by then, as be plans to join Baby Birds for an upcoming tour and get off the bus in California.
Until then, he'll be working at the Dollar Tree and slumming it at his parents house.
"It's the goddamn Dollar Tree," Doerr says. "No one's really trying there. One of the #1 things we sell is pregnancy tests to 14-year-olds."
Whatever Chomp Womp is, how can you not want a piece of that?
"It's for everyone," Doerr offers. "Don't be afraid. Come join us."
MP3:
Family Night featuring Rockabilly Land Singers, Fortuning, Jabber Josh, Low Oriole, The World Palestine, NASCAR, 1,000,000 Light Years, and DJ N' Full House. Sunday, May 3, at the Eighth Street Taproom. $3. 21+.
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My mistake, Emily, not Richard's. Corrected. I also varied the capitalization of the headline for easier reading.
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