We've Got A Flyer On You: Adam "Atom" Goren of Atom & His Package, Armalite, Dead Best, Fra. C. Ture & T.V. Casualty (The Witzard Interview)
We've Got A Flyer On You will (hopefully!) be a new recurring column here at The Witzard. It's set to feature, examine, and re-visit mixed bill/genre, once-in-a-lifetime, iconic, and otherwise noteworthy Punk/Hardcore show flyers and their corresponding line-ups. As often as possible, we plan to speak directly with the promoters, bookers, flyer artists, soundmen/women, show attendees, and, most importantly, the artists themselves. If all goes well, we're even hoping to, eventually, cover a handful of shows we attended ourselves in years past, as well. For this slightly re-vamped edition of We've Got A Flyer On You, we'll be spotlighting a noteworthy musician, rather than a singular infamous show, for each installment.
Adam "Atom" Goren is an Oreland, Pennsylvania-based musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Goren is best known for his one-man band, Atom & His Package, which was primarily active between 1997-2003. Goren chose to end Atom & His Package following the release of 2003's Attention! Blah Blah Blah after his wife found out she was pregnant and he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Adam Goren has since sporadically resurrected Atom & His Package within the years since and has, also, performed with Fra. C. Ture, Armalite, and T.V. Casualty. While never explicitly playing proper Punk music, Goren was always recognized within the scene for his Punk-like feel/delivery and D.I.Y.-minded aesthetic. Largely due to this sentiment, Atom & His Package (well, sequencer...) were featured on many Punk/Hardcore bills; this including, but, of course, not limited to shows alongside Alkaline Trio, AVAIL, Avenged Sevenfold, BANE, The Donnas, Hot Rod Circuit, The Mr. T Experience, Nada Surf, New Found Glory, Pansy Division, PIEBALD, SPAZZ, Tenacious D, THE ZAMBONIS, and ZAO. Adam Goren is now a high school Physics & Chemistry teacher and still makes music in his free time, amidst family time and adulthood duties.
I. What are some of the most varied mixed bill/genre show line-ups you were fortunate enough to partake in?
Adam "Atom" Goren: I played a lot of shows from 1997-ish to 2003-ish in a lot of different places. Since I felt connected to the Punk Rock/D.I.Y. scene in a lot of places, I felt at home with lots of Punk bands and whatever fell under that umbrella; even if the 80's snarky Synth Poppy songs I was playing didn't sound too much like stereotypical "Punk." I figured that under the Punk umbrella could live stuff that sounded differently from each other, if they shared "Punk" perspectives (I presume there are writings on what this means that are more articulate and well-organized than I could write?) So, I ended up playing with Punk bands, Metal bands, Hardcore bands, Laptop Noise... errr... people (not sure if the word "band" works to describe this,) or even local weirdos that seemed to have some sort of quirky Bee Boop-y stuff.
II. What were the circumstances behind one particular show: SPAZZ, Brutal Truth, His Hero Is Gone, Black Army Jacket, and, of course, Atom & His Package?
Atom: I'm not sure if I'm quite getting at the question you're asking... but the show was set up at Stalag 13, a warehouse/Punk squat/venue. The Cabbage Collective, a group of D.I.Y. Philly area Punks put on the show. Many of The Cabbage Collective folks were (and some still are presently) friends and, likely, thought it'd be funny to throw me on the show with heavy/super-fast (or both!) bands. As for me, Brutal Truth was/is one of my all-time favorites. Their first two records are unmatched Grind records, as far as I'm concerned, so this show was a highlight to me. They were, also, super-sweet and some of them were kind enough to join me for a (shirtless) version of their epic song, "Collateral Damage," (I think, this may be a touch longer than Napalm Death's "You Suffer.") This was one of those shows where whatever the Hell it was that I was doing worked. It was like a big summer crowded stinky sing-along Punk dance party. There's a video of this show online (though, I guess, there's a video of everything that's ever happened online, so that's not saying much.)
III. OK, two specific shows, actually... do you recall how this particular show with Good Clean Fun, The Hope Conspiracy, Brother's Keeper, BANE, Daltonic, and Dead to The World?
Atom: Yup. Though, I don't remember exactly who the show was set up through, it was, probably, just another along the lines of being under the Punk umbrella, even if I didn't sound (much) like BANE. I was friendly with the Good Clean Fun folks (and, though, I haven't seen them for a while, still consider myself so!) so, maybe, they got me onto this show? We did a lot of travelling together, but not sure if this was before or after that period. This may be totally wrong—since I played a lot of shows, but I remember a band called Age of Ruin playing this one. They were sorta mid-tempo Melodicy Growly Metal. I think, they had two skull-masked robed figures flank them on the sides of the stage and they breathed fire. It was awesome/probably really dangerous. My brain may be making this up, though.
IV. From what I was able to find online, it looks like you may have, also, played shows with PIEBALD, AVAIL, Alkaline Trio, Hot Rod Circuit, THE ZAMBONIS, and Sean Na Na (later, Har Mar Superstar.) Do you remember any specific details about any of the aforementioned gigs?
Atom: Yup, yup, yup, yup, yup, and yup. It's, probably, easier to remember about specific shows with bands that I didn't play with too frequently. I played a bunch of shows with THE ZAMBONIS—an awesome, awesome band of people I really love. We traveled together a bunch and did a few mini-trips through The Northeast. I'm not sure I remember specific shows we played... though, they were definitely there the only time I've been to Oswego, NY. I played a bunch of shows not necessarily booked with, but, coincidentally, with Hot Rod Circuit in The Northeast, too. They were always really nice to me, even though they were way cooler than I was (now, I am the coolest, as if that's not clear by my high school Physics & Chemistry teaching bravado that accompanies me wherever I go.)
Also, played a bunch with Sean Na Na—initially, coincidentally, but became friends with them and the band's many incarnations. Eventually, Sean [Tillmann] (AKA Har Mar Superstar) took a trip in my mom's car around The US playing shows we set up. There are some tour diaries online that I kept during these times—I'm sure there are ones for THE ZAMBONIS/Har Mar tours... [but] bet with a little time, one could find some entries with [the] Hot Rod Circuit & Alkaline Trio show I played with them in Vero Beach in one of them. I don't remember much about the Alkaline Trio show, except the singer [Matt Skiba?] was nice to lend me the guitar and amp for a song or two of mine that had guitar on it. I remember thinking... "oh, this is why people buy Marshall heads..." It was really loud and sounded great.
I played a show with AVAIL in Philadelphia at a venue called The Trocadero, which was neat-o, since I had seen lots of bands there from an early age (Overkill in 1988?) It was kind of a bigger venue than I, generally, played and likely didn't work as well for the type of stuff I was doing, but I remember it being neat to see "the guts" of the place from the back. I played with PIEBALD, maybe, a couple of times in MA—maybe, once in Boston and once at a Worcester fest. At the Worcester fest, I remember having the worst soup I have ever had in my life. I am convinced it was hot ketchup water. I think, it was always nice, especially, when on tour when one sits through a LOT of bands, to see more than more of the same. So, variety is the spice of life or whatever?
V. How would you say being signed to Hopeless Records factored into Atom & His Package booking and, ultimately, playing mixed bill shows through the early 2000's?
Atom: A bit after(?) I agreed to do a few records with Hopeless Records, Margie & Tyler from Do It Booking (based in Salt Lake City) started doing some booking for me. Because of the hectic schedule, it had become hard to keep booking more shows while on tour. Margie & Tyler were great and super-nice to work with. I'm, actually, not sure if any of the shows I referred to were booked by them, though. I'm inclined to think they weren't, but I could be wrong!
VI. What are you currently working on, if anything, in a musical capacity?
Atom: During The Pandemic, one of my oldest friends (since first grade!) and I started emailing parts of songs back-and-forth, each adding parts. We've, now, gotten to a point where we have recorded enough to put out a record (this December on Don Giovanni Records, I'm told!)—so, we have a name (Dead Best) and a pile of songs and have reached the part of the band where we (seemingly) try to annoy each other with the parts we send to each other as a challenge to make songs (e.g. he just sent me a song (that I LIKE and doesn't sound like Mathy Prog Rock, despite the next sentence) that is in 14. Like, the time signature is in 14 (I think.)) So, there's that. Much Noisier than the likes of Atom & His Package, but we like it and it's been the most interested I've been in making music for some decades.
