To certain crowds, Gregg Turner needs no introduction. With his time writing for the legendary rock magazine, CREEM, and his role in founding the first-wave punk outfit, The Angry Samoans, Turner has left an undeniable imprint on rock music. In the years since, he has slowed things down a little bit, trading punk rock fame for a professorship in Mathematics in New Mexico. But once a musician, always a musician, so Turner has not stopped writing and performing either solo and with his new outfit, the Gregg Turner Group. Luckily for Toledo, as a part of a solo tour this Summer, Turner is playing at the Switchboard on Thursday, June 19th.
For the curious – or those familiar with the Angry Samoans’ brand of hardcore punk – Turner’s current musical output is more varied. He still plays plenty of uptempo stuff, but has added a calmer, more gentle facet to his work. As he put it, “[that side] was always there with me. But, when you’re a bratty teenager and you’re grappling with…feeling or expressing your vulnerability and not realizing that could be cool, you just hide behind stuff…As you get older, it’s like, what is it about? It’s about really connecting with people on some level.” His current output pulls in new influences – from the classic rock and roll of Buddy Holly and Del Shannon, to the more avant garde, observational work of the Velvet Underground (especially Lou Reed), and Jonathan Richman. The result is a compelling melange of thoughtful social commentary, surprisingly sweet love songs, and a generous dash of goofy humor.
Time, as well, has honed Turner’s consistently witty writing to a fine point. His work with the Angry Samoans, while a clever and trenchant expression of and commentary on teenage angst, was a blunt instrument. About their biggest hit, “Lights Out,” Turner says “it was funny and sort of poking fun at nihilism – poking fun at all the jocks that were beating the crap out of people in mosh pits…You want to beat the crap out of each other? Do it, really do it.” Not for nothing, the song is an ironic paean to the virtues of poking your eyes out.
These days Turner’s satirical eye is subtler, less in-your-face. Compare “Lights Out” to one of his more recent cuts, “The Pharmacist from Walgreens.” The track takes a classic love song format and melodic approach and twists it into a hilarious, but veiled send up of the atomization and mundanity of modern life. He seems to be asking if we’ve built a world where romance and genuine human connection have been replaced by dependence on the guy who makes sure you don’t run out of Xanax. “To a fault, I’m sort of a journalistic voyeur,” says Turner.”I just take in everything that happens around me, internalize it, and it comes out in some way.”
That’s not to say that Turner’s ability to look problems dead in the eye and call them out by name is gone. The Gregg Turner Group track “The Last 20 Years” sheds metaphor and plainly rails against the many failings that have brought us to the brink of climate catastrophe. It spares little of its ammunition, aiming at the politicians who have failed us, the soporific effects of consumerism, and police officers who overstep their duties and kill without cause. In a catalog characterized by more layered commentary, its naked anger and unflinching delivery are all the more affecting.
On a final note, there’s some confusion about Turner’s old band, the Angry Samoans, who have cropped up of late, but bearing little resemblance to the original outfit. “There’s a bogus Angry Samoans making the rounds now and it’s really a bummer, because the only ‘original member is only the drummer, who never sang on anything, never wrote any songs,” says Turner. “I have no problem if he wants to call it a tribute or his version or whatever, but a lot of kids are coming out now…thinking it’s the original outfit.” So, if you are a fan of the Samoans or just want to see a punk rock legend still out there fighting the good fight, accept no substitutes. Thursday, June 19th at the Switchboard is the place to be.
Thursday, June 19th 9PM $10. The Switchboard. 912 Monroe St, Toledo, OH 43604.
https://switchboard419.com/
