Following is an edited transcript of my talk with Bob.

Erika Szabo for antiMusic: How did Bum Kon form as a band?

Bob: We basically got started at an all-ages Husker Du show in Denver. After HD played they asked if anyone wanted to come on stage and play (using their gear). Erik (bass) and I jumped up, as did Larry (guitar) and Mark (drums). We did our version of Black Flag's version of "Louie Louie" and maybe "Stepping Stone" or something else. Afterwards we thought that it sounded pretty good, and that we should make a go of it as a band.

antiMusic: Why name yourselves after a Korean mass murderer?

Bob: We needed a name and there was a story about it in the newspaper, which read unintentionally funny, at least to us. We wanted to go off with our music, and Wu Bum Kon definitely embodied that ideal.

antiMusic: Favorite tracks and why? Least favorites?

Bob: I've always been really partial to "Slow Death." I also really like the first song on the album "Giving In," which is kind of funny, because Andrew from Smooch was playing it at his work desk, and I didn't recognize it as us. Perhaps that's why I like it so much. I don't really have a least favorite; I like them all, though oddly, "Drunken Sex Sucks" has never been one of my faves � at least not the recorded version.

antiMusic: Why did the Drunken Sex Sucks LP take so long to come out? � It's been 25 years!

Bob: No one had a tape (to my knowledge), and apparently no one cared until recently.

antiMusic: I heard you guys played in a lot of � how shall I say, varied � locations. What was the weirdest place you played at? What was your favorite place to play at?

Bob: Back then you played wherever you could, warehouses, Grange halls, airplane hangars, etc. They all are probably weird, but didn't seem so at the time, just cool and a lot of fun. The "Dustbowl" was good - it was a dangerously low-ceilinged basement of a dilapidated building on Santa Fe in Denver (at that time a pretty rough gang neighborhood), you had to enter from the alley, and load gear down some perilous wooden steps. The place got its name due to the dirt floor, which got kicked up when people started dancing. You'd blow black snot out of your nose for a week after being in there. The Packing House was also great - a former meat packing company and slaughterhouse. It had a very unique vibe to say the least. Best place to play was Kennedy's warehouse, if for no other reason, than scene mom Nancy Kennedy (mother of TK from Child Abuse/Brother Rat), used her life savings to open an all-ages venue, so us kids would have a place to play. It was a really special place run by very special people. Miserably cold in the winter, with the addition of buckets of ice water some pretty good shows went down there.

antiMusic: Think you could describe a typical show?

Bob: Get there; hang around, freakout on nerves a bit. Set up on stage and wait for Larry to arrive. He had a special knack of not arriving until the bass was tuned and we were ready to start. He'd walk in, plug in, look at everybody with an innocent look, and say, "what? I'm here." Then bedlam. We threw ourselves and our bodies into the shows.

antiMusic: What were your fondest memories while playing with Bum Kon?

Bob: Time spent just hanging out, practicing or whatever. Having a van breakdown in the mountains on the way back from playing a disastrous show in Las Vegas, Mark falling asleep on I-70 while driving home from a show with The Mortal Micronotz in Lawrence, Kansas. Whatever bad things happened, the band always made the best of it, and turned it into a good time one way or another, usually another.

antiMusic: Do you know what the rest of your old band mates are doing now?

Bob: Erik is still living in Colorado, is a father and owns his own business. Mark is living a life of seclusion and wandering, I believe as a wizard, somewhere in the deep woods of the Pacific Northwest. Larry sadly died in 2004 and is missed by all who knew him.

antiMusic: It must be weird knowing that your Drunken Sex Sucks EP is selling for so much on eBay, right?

Bob: Seems pretty stupid, but people got to have their fixes. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was still a stash of them in the basement of Wax Trax Records, where the label (Local Anesthetic) was run.

antiMusic: How do you feel punk/hardcore has changed over the years? Do you feel it has changed for better or for worse?

Bob: It's not my scene to judge. Though I started to really bum out on it when moshing replaced good ol' chaotic, atom smashing slam dancing and skanking. I guess it's good that people don't get beat up anymore for being punks, but that also seems to take a lot of the fun and excitement out of it. Who knows? I'm old.

antiMusic: So I hear you're in the band, Hank IV. Could you tell me a little about the band and how you started?

Bob: Yes indeedy. We're a five-piece panic skiffle combo. We formed from the ashes of Satanic Franco Gangsta Rap group Mr. & Mr. & Mr. & Mr. & Mr. Evil, which imploded under its own misdeeds and delightfully negative energy.

antiMusic: If I'm not correct, the band is based in San Francisco. Why did you move from Denver to California?

Bob: We are. I moved to SF in 1986 following a girl.

antiMusic: I've heard Hank IV be called a panic-skiffle rock band, what is that exactly?

Bob: It's a sub-genre of panic rock It isn't really exactly anything, more like a nerve-wracked mix of various rock'n'roll and punkish styles. It requires serious dance moves from all involved. Some might call it indie rock, but I don't.

antiMusic: Think you could describe a typical show?

Bob: Same as before. Show up wait around; try not to let my nervousness get the best of me. I don't really remember shows when we're done. They're just kind of a blur. I dance around like an a-hole and try to stay out of the way of the band, catching a bass head in the head isn't all it's cracked up to be. I'm also not allowed to physically touch the microphone.

antiMusic: Where'd you learn those dance moves?

Bob: Some are natural creations, others I've copped from my favorite frontmen, ballet dancers, disco superstars, and puppeteers.

antiMusic: Who's the girl on the front cover of Dirty Poncho?

Bob: Her name is Tamara. She's a really cool teenager who was in the band Icky Girlfriends, named after Anthony Bedard's (Hank IV guitarist, stage left) legendary group Icky Boyfriends. She's got more punk rock in her little finger than most people have in their entire lives. The poster girl of rad.

antiMusic: The new album is coming out this October, what can you tell us about it?

Bob: It's called Genre In Refuge and was recorded in June by the great Tim Green at Louder in SF. It's a tighter, quicker, more punkish mess than our previous Third Person Shooter album released by Hook Or Crook in 2006. Hits galore.

antiMusic: Got any hobbies?

Bob: Not really. Dumb stuff I enjoy that I don't really think anyone else would be interested in. I do linocut/woodcut stuff, but haven't done anything in a while (except the portrait of Bum Kon on the back of the record.

antiMusic: Any final thoughts?

Bob: Thanks to all who cared, came out and supported. Thanks to those who are interested now.