Customer Reviews

Best Of: 18 Big Ones

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What is there to say about Dramarama that hasn't been said before? My version of their history might be a tad KROQ-centric, but under the circumstances, that may be justifiable, or at least understandable, judging by the tale they themselves tell in the liner notes. I was in junior high, just getting my first taste of real FM radio after growing up in a house of Neil Diamond and John Denver (and Handel's Messiah at Christmas) when I heard "Anything Anything" blast its way onto Rodney Bingenheimer's show on KROQ (106.7 FM in Los Angeles, for the unenlightened). To say that I was blown away would be an understatement. In fact, I still look back on that song and the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun" as two of the most important songs of the 80s. I would welcome arguments to the contrary, but don't expect to change my mind. A year or so later, I won tickets to see Dramarama play a small concert at UC Irvine -- my second show ever. By the time another year went by, they were gone, lost to wherever such bands go, to be heard only on Richard Blade's flashback lunch hour and in the adolescent humming of those of us who came of age at that time in that place.

Flash forward about 10 years, and this wonderful CD finally found a release and, at least in me, a willing audience. After all, "Anything Anything" was, alone, worth buying a CD for, and based on that song, I was willing to give 17 other tracks a listen. Now I'm not going to pretend that Dramarama was the greatest band ever to record a record, or the second coming of The Beatles, or anything like that. But they're a ... good band, and this disc is full of ...good tunes -- slightly angst-ridden alt-guitar rock, lots of it from before there was such a thing. Some of the earlier stuff sounds a little Psychadelic Furs-esque ("Scenario" could've been the B-side to "Pretty in Pink"), later tunes like "Train Going Backwards" wouldn't sound out of place on a Soul Asylum record. But the unifier is a perceptive and identifiable lyrical style, catchy and hummable guitar riffs -- an all around great sound.

So give this one a try. You can start with the nostalgia trip of "Anything Anything," but there's a lot more here after that. You won't be sorry.

I have thousands of cd's and records -- literally. During my 20+ years of collecting, I became a club dj to pay for my fix and a college radio dj to exercise my demons. Enter Dramarama...

I heard them first while driving through L.A. on vacation in the mid 1980's. KROQ, a station I went out of my way to listen to whenever I was in SoCal, played "Anything Anything." I was an instant fan.

Few bands embody rock's rollicking influences of 70's punk, 80's fun and 90's grunge quite like Dramarama. Maybe the Pixies, maybe even REM or newer bands like the Sheila Divine. But really, none of them do. There is only one Dramarama. For the "professional appreciator" in me, Dramarama is the band by which many other bands are measured. Crunchy guitar hooks, smoker's-voice vocals and lyrics that rhyme at all costs, are the signature of Dramarama. No band ever delivered so much with so little recognition.

"18 big ones" does offer up a great slice of the Dramarama experience. But as an owner of every Dramarama CD, it is unfortunately just that, a slice, when what you really want and crave is to plant your face in the whole damn cake. My bet is that anyone who buys this "best of" cd will be left scraping up the crumbs and looking for more. It's crunchy-good! But so is all of their music.

Note: In 1993 I dragged my pregnant wife to a small club in Salt Lake City to pay homage to one of my all time favorite bands. They delivered! After the show I met the band and hung out with them for about an hour or so. I asked lead singer-song writer, John Easdale (who, by the way, was incredibly friendly) if he often wrote nonsensical lyrics just for the sake of rhyming. He answered with a straight face, "No, all my songs have a meaning." Well maybe -- if you're high.

Give Dramarama a listen. Trust me, you'll be hooked, and turning your best friends on to this great band.

...that this band didn't hit the big time. Instead we have to suffer through mindless garbage like the Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees etc., etc. blah blah blah. You know, it's so rare that a band comes along and actually shows not only tremendous musicianship, great melody, but also intelligence, and what happens? Everybody runs out and buys the pop crap that MTV shoves down their throats. It's a crime that this band isn't still around. It's a crime that "Last Cigarette" and "Shadowless Heart" aren't considered hits. It's a crime that no one will read this who isn't already a Dramarama fan. Hey, start a new religion. Go out and convert your family and friends. One listen to this record is all it will take.

After I saw a recent VH1 "Bands Reunited" show that showcased Dramarama, the rediscovery of this lost band shows just how easy it is to get buried in the music business between record labels, marketing the band and successfully blending a mixed bag of personalities that goes with it.

Artistically combining the melodicism of the Beatles, the power of the Stones,and the glam-punk style of the N.Y.Dolls, Dramarama never got it going commerically and therefore suffered not getting the recognition it deserved. Not only did this band put out some very good material as evident on this CD, their classic "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)" is one of the best rock songs to come out of the 80's. This CD is absolutely worth the purchase to rediscover these lost gems.

If you want to hear witty writing and straight ahead melodic rock at it's very best from a group that should have been rated right up there with the Beatles then get this CD right now.

I'd put Work For Food up there with the best musically and lyrically.

But if you really want to continue buying your Britney Spears and N'Sync music(?), go right ahead. I'll be listening (and missing) Dramarama.

Once you buy this CD, you will no doubt recognize several KROQ Los Angeles and WXRK New York radio hits.

"Dramarama? Who are they?"

"Um, 'Anything, Anything'? 'Last Cigarette'? Maybe you heard 'Haven't Got a Clue' on MTV?"

"Oh, _them_..."

Yeah, them. At their best, Dramarama combines great guitar work, infectious rhythm, and clever lyrics with a wit and sense of irony you almost never see in the post-grunge pop/rock top-40 world.

At their worst... Well, the irony and cynicism sink into whininess, exaggerated pathos, and/or absurdity, and instead of an effective hook you get an overly simplistic musical line that gets hammered into the ground.

"Hey! You gave the album four stars! What's with the-"

Well, I want to be honest here. There's maybe one or two songs that grated on me after a couple of playings. Everything else is perfectly listenable, and half a dozen or so of the eighteen are flat outstanding, including the aforementioned "Cigarette", "Anything", and "Clue". I've paid more than $10 for albums that contained less music I liked. If you want some good, solid rock with strong guitar and higher than usual intelligence, this is a good addition to your collection.

The story of Dramarama makes me sad that they never got the fame and money they deserved. When I play "Anything Anything (I'll give you)", people go "oh yeah I've heard that song but I never new who sang it". All the great classics from all of Dramarama albums are in this. But there are more great songs than Anything Anything (I'll Give you). "Emerald City", "Scenerio","Sincerely"
"Last Cigerrete", "Haven't Got a Clue", and much more. I think all the songs here are great. I don't know what it is that makes this band so great. Is it the singing of John Easdale, or the distortion of Mark Englert's guitar? Or is it just the underground sound of the band. This album is just such a great collection thats it's inspired me to buy other Dramrama cd's. You have to buy this cd. This also has a short memory of Dramrama's career on the booklet.

Dramarama's unterestimated and underrated brilliance stuns me. They are the masters of dreamy, wistful and sad. While this album does, indeed, provide just a slice of the Dramarama experience (check out ETC, on the first album, for example- it really should have made it on to the Best Of), it is a fairly meaty slice and a reasonably satisfying one.

This band made me proud to say I was from Wayne, NJ also. They were one of the best bands to see live and this CD captures that same electricity that filtered through the crowd at every show. It is one of the best CD's I've ever purchased.