EPK – Turbo Lovers – Lettin’ It Fly! (2022)
Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations[.]com
“We play the kind of music that we want to listen to and see live. It’s why this band started and why it’s still going after all these years. “Lettin’ It Fly!” is the next phase of our love affair with rock ‘n’ roll. We need to write and perform rock ‘n’ roll in the same way people need to eat and sleep. It’s something we have to do and will always do. We’re extremely proud of the work that we put into this album, and we feel we’ve stepped up our game in terms of songwriting and our recorded performance. We’re excited to incorporate these songs into our live show and for a wider audience to hear what we feel is our strongest record to date.” – B.J. Lisko – Guitar/Vocals – Turbo Lovers
For fans AC/DC, Kiss, Danko Jones, Backyard Babies
Album / Single Title: Lettin’ It Fly!
Release Date: February 4, 2022
Label: Self-Release
Distribution: Self-Release
Facebook.com/theturbolovers | Twitter.com/turboloversrock | YouTube | Instagram.com/turboloversyo
Turbolovers.bandcamp.com | Apple Music | Spotify
“These never-say-die soldiers are the sole sleazers in their luckless mid-US town, yet they make a genre-hopping trucker metal juggernaut that easily straddles The Supersuckers and Y&T in the same goddamn song. – Classic Rock Magazine
“The pride of Youngstown, Ohio. Their headbanging take on AC/DC, shit-kicker country and 80s metal is low-brow and rabble rousing. – Classic Rock Magazine
“Aging rock ‘n’ roll lifers from the guts of Ohio use their arena rock illusions to create an impressively overblown collection of balls-out chug, sort of like Guns N’ Roses with male pattern baldness, bills to pay, and a flabby with that won’t stop bitchin’ at them. Desperation rock lives. Here’s the proof. – Classic Rock Magazine
“Turbo Lovers are, officially, from the worst town in America: Youngstown, Ohio, known far and wide for its off-the-charts unemployment and high school dropout rates, to say nothing of the subsequent crime sprees such circumstances foster. Naturally, they sound like a trailer park Judas Priest robbing a gas station.” – Classic Rock Magazine
“Youngstown’s Turbo Lovers shake rock ‘n’ roll to its very foundation and deliver it in its most basic and timeless form. – Cleveland Free Times
“Fun rock that is light-hearted and unpretentious. Oozing bravado, you can’t help but enjoy the music from this extremely likeable trio.”– Powerplay Magazine
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STORY ANGLES / FUN FACTS:
1. B.J. Lisko is a journalist of 20 years generally focusing on music, professional wrestling, stand-up comedy and other entertainment. He also writes for wrestling star and Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho’s wrestling and rock news site, WebIsJericho.com. In his career, he’s interviewed literally thousands of notable entertainers including Gene Simmons, Bill Maher, Chris Tucker, Mike Tyson, Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes, Kevin Owens, Lisa Lampanelli, Jim Norton, Doug Stanhope, Eddie Money, Belinda Carlisle, Phil Collen, LeAnn Rimes, Henry Rollins, Alan Thicke, Bruce Campbell, Lewis Black, Weird Al Yankovic, Tom Hamilton, Andrew Dice Clay, Lou Gramm, Norm Macdonald, Bob Saget, Louie Anderson and Jake “The Snake” Roberts to name a few.
2. Turbo Lovers are named after the Judas Priest song and sometimes get confused as a Judas Priest tribute band, especially when we play with tribute acts. The venue where this was most confusing to people was when we used to play at the bar owned by former Judas Priest singer, Tim “Ripper” Owens. So in certain situations, we have to really tag ourselves as “original rock” on posters and in social media posts, but they’re still is the occasional confusion.
3. Turbo Lovers was sort of a tongue-in-cheek name, to begin with. That’s a polarizing Judas Priest album to a lot of people, but we love it. The reason the name stuck was the band’s debut record unknowingly at the time received a good review in Classic Rock Magazine. So we sort of got stuck with it, but it’s always been a talking point, and a lot of time because that song and album is so polarizing with a lot of metal fans, it makes our name stand out and easier to remember.
4. At one show at the Agora in Cleveland, a crackhead wandered in, as they sometimes do, and stole a giant armful of our T-shirts. A week or so later, there was a news story about heroin deaths in Cleveland and the footage shot was of some random, sketchy folks walking down the street with their faces blurred. What wasn’t blurred was the matching Turbo Lovers shirts they were wearing. So, even though we lost about $100 in merch, I suppose we can chalk that up as an advertising expense. Not real sure what target audience that hits, but they say all press is good press, so what can ya do?
5. We kind of pride ourselves on being able to play with a giant variety of bands. In one particular 2-week stretch, we opened for 80s rock legends Loverboy at the Canton Palace, then we played with masked surf rock madmen, Daikaiju at a hole-in-the-wall dive, then we opened for an AC/DC tribute band at the bar owned by former Judas Priest singer, Tim “Ripper” Owens. And we went over great at all three shows!
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Album / Single Title: Lettin’ It Fly!
Release Date: February 4, 2022
Label: Self-Release
Distribution: Self-Release
Track Listing:
1. Should’ve Known Better (4:26)
2. Reasons That We Rhyme (3:19)
3. Too Cocky (4:27)
4. Lettin’ It Fly (3:45)
5. Gave Me A Sign (3:50)
6. Almost Great (3:22)
7. Finally Home (3:22)
8. Under Pressure (3:46)
9. Rockers Extraordinaire (4:23)
Album Length: 34:42
Album Recording Credits:
• All songs performed by: Turbo Lovers
• All songs written by: Turbo Lovers
• Produced by: Dave Piatek
• Mixed by: Dave Piatek and Keith Dougherty
• Mastered by: Dave Piatek
• Album Artwork by: B.J. Lisko
• Member of ASCAP
Album and Live Band Line Up:
B.J. Lisko – Guitar/Vocals
Keith Dougherty – Bass/Backing vocals
Christian DeSantis – Drums
The album as a whole explained by the band:
Well, they’re complicated songs about complicated things. That’s obviously a joke. It’s 35 minutes of rocking, drinking, gambling, sex, and more rocking. We used to describe our live set as “35 minutes of ‘Whole Lotta Rosie,’ give or take. That’s still fairly accurate and is pretty apropos for “Lettin’ It Fly!”
Track by Track explained by the band:
1. Should’ve Known Better – A super anthemic, up-tempo and catchy tune. Lyrically, a lot of people will probably think that it references being in a bad relationship, and the lyrics could certainly read that way. It’s actually a really hooky tune about getting hooked on drugs, something that happened to me (and that’s happened to about a billion other people), after a bad car accident and more than a year’s worth of ultra-cheap painkiller prescriptions. It was pretty awesome until the drugs ran out. Then it was a total pain in the ass being hooked on something you once needed, but now we’re also physically dependent on.
2. Reasons That We Rhyme – If there’s a paint-by-numbers Turbo Lovers track, this is probably it. An AC/DC-influenced rocker that’s lyrically about falling for the wrong person, realizing it, then trying to break away. AC/DC is the band that inspired me to pick up a guitar in the first place, so naturally, a lot of what we do is rooted in their style.
3. Too Cocky – “Too Cocky” was a song I’m not sure we expected to come out as good as it did. It’s nice when you hear the final mix in the studio and it exceeds expectations. It’s an AC/DC-style tune with more cowbell that’s about people frowning upon bands that put on a bombastic stage show. People sometimes mistake confidence for arrogance. This song is about rock stars being rock stars and putting on a show. The video we shot for this reflects this attitude. It’s a slight nod to the “Bohemian Rhapsody” scene in Wayne’s World, and the whole goal was to make a ridiculous and fun video.
4. Lettin’ It Fly – The first song written for this album quickly stood out as the title track. It’s a Judas Priest/Turbonegro-inspired jam with lyrics that are about as subtle as a brick shithouse. It’s about getting down and dirty and quite literally letting it fly. A filthy song about filthy sex.
5. Gave Me A Sign – If there’s a track on the album that maybe leans a little more towards a modern rock sound, this is it. A hard-rocking song with a big catchy chorus, lyrically it’s about finding someone that makes you feel great about yourself.
6. Almost Great – The previous engineer we worked with used to have a nice way of saying when a recording take sucked. He’d say, “Well, it was almost great.” That sort of describes Turbo Lovers in the sense that we feel like we missed the rock scene that we love by a few decades. So, we love rocking in 2022, but we’d love for this band to be existing in 1987. So we started saying, “Well, it was almost great,” to describe shows where the crowd was weird or when we’ve almost gotten a big break with certain support dates. It’s a bit of an inside joke, but it kind of applies to the rock scene in general nowadays. A lot of the time it’s almost great. Musically, this one is inspired by classic AC/DC.
7. Finally Home – Finally home is directly inspired by UK rock band Massive Wagons, who are one of the best newer rock bands out there. It’s got a bit more of a punk rock feel, and lyrically it’s about getting back on stage after not being able to do so during the height of the pandemic. The idea was to write a big anthem for rocking out live again without any cares. Hopefully everyone can get back to that in 2022.
8. Under Pressure – A super catchy song about nearly having a mental breakdown, “Under Pressure,” was inspired by Rick Springfield and AC/DC. It’s really a simple tune but another with a big gang vocal chorus tailor-made for a singalong. We can’t wait to play this one live.
9. Rockers Extraordinaire – A rock song about rocking. This one has a bit of a Social Distortion-meets-Supersuckers feel, and lyrically it’s about a lifelong love affair with rock ‘n’ roll.
Photo credit – Gary Leininger
Turbo Lovers is a rock ’n’ roll power trio from Youngstown, Ohio that’s equal parts bravado, swagger and fun. Often chastised for taking their name from what some consider the worst Judas Priest album in history, the band’s sound is more akin to AC/DC, The Wildhearts, and Kiss than the New Wave of British Heavy Metal Gods. But yeah, there’s a little Priest in ‘em, too.
“Lettin’ It Fly” is the band’s new 9-track album, and it’s straight-up, infectious, and unpretentious rock.
“We’re sort of like AC/DC and Danko Jones in that with each album we’ll have a few surprises here and there, but it’s reliable working-class rock ’n’ roll,” said guitarist/singer B.J. Lisko. “It’s all about hooks and solid songs, and we feel like we’ve got plenty of those on the new album.”
The band’s steady stream of support shows opening for the likes of Warrant, Kix, Loverboy, Sebastian Bach, Slaughter, Reverend Horton Heat, Blaze Bayley, and Stephen Pearcy, among others, has netted it a solid fan base, and the racket made by three Ohio rock lifers has turned quite a few heads, as well.
The band originally started as a recording project for Lisko before morphing into somewhat of a revolving door of drummers and bass players. Bassist Keith Dougherty and drummer Christian DeSantis joined the band in late 2011, and have been in tow ever since.
“Turbo Lovers didn’t really become Turbo Lovers, officially, until these guys joined,” Lisko said. “It’s a cohesive unit now, and I couldn’t imagine doing this with anybody else.”
Discography:
2018 – Almost Greatest Hits – EP/compilation
2015 – Over The Hump – LP
2013 – Hopelessly Addicted – LP
2013 – Classic Rock Magazine sampler issue No. 191
2011 – A Hot Minute – EP
2010 – Classic Rock Magazine sampler issue No. 150
2009 – Roll Your Vice – LP (Cracked Piston Recordings)
2008 – Outstanding – LP (Cracked Piston Recordings)
2006 – Cock of the Walk – LP (Cracked Piston Recordings)
2005 – Glamnation Vol. 2 compilation (272 Records)
2004 – No Longer Attractive – LP (Cracked Piston Recordings)
2003 – Snake Oil Supercharm, a tribute to Zodiac Mindwarp & the Love Reaction compilation (Sleazegrinder Records)
Shared Stage with:
Loverboy, Kix, Sebastian Bach, Warrant, Jackyl, Slaughter, Stephen Pearcy, Sponge, Reverend Horton Heat, Blaze Bayley, Puddle of Mudd, Tantric, Fozy Shazam, Electric Frankenstein, The Hookers
Tours and Festivals:
2019 – Ribs-N-Rock Festival, Boardman, Ohio
2019 – It’s Only Rock Fest, Youngstown, Ohio
2018 – It’s Only Rock Fest, Youngstown, Ohio
2017 – It’s Only Rock Fest, Youngstown, Ohio
2009-2015 – Pabstolutely, Youngstown, Ohio
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