Bombshelter Videos

Naked Raygun will be playing Seattle in a few weeks, the first time since they reunited. Getting hyped for the show I was listening to an old CD and their song "Bombshelter" came on and a flood of memories came back about Bombshelter Videos, a Northwest TV show that used the Naked Raygun song as their theme song.

This photo is of Bombshelter host Bill Bored (in real life Frank Harlan) from a show he MC'ed at the Off Ramp back in the early '90s. Bombshelter Videos ran for a year on Channel 11 (KSTW) for a year starting in November of 1987, then it moved to Channel 22 (KTZZ) for a 3 year run. The show had pretty humble beginnings, Bill Bored would pretend to climb down a ladder into a bombshelter covered with band posters and play low-budget punk and alternative videos. Or as Bill Bored said it, he played the latest videos of "UndergroundGarageBandArtThrashNoiseMusic." Some of the bands were well-known underground artists like Bad Brains, Black Flag, Sonic Youth, Mojo Nixon and The Dead Milkmen, or metal bands like Voivod and Death Angel, but there was always room for local bands and bizarre stuff you had never heard before--like a song about a vacuum attachment called "Crevice Tool" or a transvestite dressed as a housewife singing "Open up my lovin' oven!"



I watched the show fairly religiously, often setting up the VCR to tape episodes if I was out at a show or party. To this day, while I've gotten rid of almost all of my old VHS tapes, I've hung on to my shitty copies of Bombshelter Videos (and another local show, Almost Live). What made the show so great, besides the punk rock and local videos, was Harlan's goofy demeanor and dumb jokes, which post-Bombshelter (and Northwest Rock, another video show he did later with just local videos) he turned into a career as entertainer and facilitator.

Frank has put a few clips and videos from the show up on YouTube. He also has a website for Bombshelter Videos with some of the episode guides and more info for anyone on a nostalgia kick.