| CD REVIEW Rämouns |
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Band : Rämouns Okay now, for those needing only little indications, simply put this band’s name (sounds like…Ramones, right?) and the album’s title together, and you know what this Düsseldorf based German quartet is about! If you don’t yet, that may be because you hadn’t understood that the album title is a reference to what’s being done to some 12 songs originally by The Beach Boys, a Californian Rock (say Surf Pop) band which became famous for its close harmony vocals (and the lyrics, which usually had to do with the Californian youth culture of cars, beach, surfing…and romance). They had their hay days from the early ‘60s to the mid ‘70s, saw several line-up changes, and eventually fell apart through court battles. The surviving members still play music on a solo basis, though they often remenisce of old glories on stage. Anyway, that’s not what this story is about! In fact, a couple of guys from Düsseldorf (Butsch on lead and additional vocals, Micky on the bass and additional vocals, Lemmy on guitar and additional vocals, and drummer Triny) were mooning over The Ramones, realizing that the discography as it existed today would no longer expand. Somehow or other, one of the guys must’ve come up with the funny notion of how quaint it would’ve been, should the Ramones’ typical Proto-Punk style have developed 10 years earlier, influencing people like the Wilson brothers (who formed Beach Boys in 1961). And so that’s the bulk of this project! Take a bunch of Beach Boys hit songs, keep the harmony vocals, but play the guitar with that typical Ramones drive ‘n’ punch! Although there’s a few which even I have not heard yet (and I kinda pride myself on my broad musical knowledge), there’s plenty of songs here which you simply mùst have heard on the radio, heard play in some movie at one time or another. I mean, stuff like “Surfin’ Safari”, “Surfin’ USA”, “I Get Around”, “Fun Fun Fun”, “Help Me Rhonda”, “Catch A Wave” and “Do It Again” simply belongs to the stuff of ages. To give things an additional Ramones touch, the singer does a “1, 2, 3, 4” to start up most of the songs! And in order to give the tracks an additional Beach Boys feel, some of the songs get a short addition of organ played in ‘em! At myspace.com/rockawaybeachboys, there’s two tracks for to to savour, which amounts to nearly 4 ½ minutes of listening pleasure. In true Ramones fashion, the whole of the 12 minutes only lasts a merre 25 minutes. And even though it’s fun for someone in the know (like myself) to give these covers a couple of spins in the cd-player, the question remains whether it’s something you wanna spend your money on! I’m not gonna tare this record, as it’s a covers album anyway…meaning I’d be prejudiced to begin with, but I díd have some fun with it (maybe because just the two spins in the cd-player were enough to get what it was al about?). Oh, if you’re on their MySpace page anyway, read the fictionary story they put up at the bottom of the page! Good fun indeed! Tony. |