Taken off spinner.com’s free mp3 of the day, Ramona’s “How Long” is a blast from the past studied here in real time all the way from Brighton, England.
If you don’t know Brighton, the sea side resort ourside London, where my old pal Julie Burchill lives, it is a great place to take a new girl on an Autumn weekend.
“How Long” itself is a pretty wondrous thing. Lead singer Karen Ann carries the song with a cool pop voice and the boy 60s out without a trace of irony. The song is built for a world of AM radio that doesn’t exist any more and it seems to tell a version of birth of Ramona (is a band).
Ramona is a very happening name right now between Francis Black and the Black Lips it’s the name on the tip of your tongue. Though Black at least appears to be referring to a character in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World.
When I had heard about both bands I’d guessed it was a reference to the classic Dylan song, “There’s no one to beat you, no one to defeat you except the thought of yourself feeling bad” is just one truism the song features, another “and there is no use in trying to deal with the dying though I can not explain that in lines” is another. Or perhaps Ramona are even cooler than me and are referencing Chuck Berry’s classic if little known “Ramona Say Yes”.
Well, say no. I was right the first time.
This is off Karen Ann’s blog on myspace:
“I moved back to Brighton because I was tired, and more importantly broke. I was tired because the beautiful mess of London had been harder to survive in than I had imagined aged 17, I’d moved house more times than I could remember, was very in debt and more importantly I had forgotten why I loved making music. Everything had become about surviving and trying to fit in when all I wanted to do was get back to basics, put a band together and play.
It wasn’t easy at first, back in my hometown I was afraid of going back to being the timid kid I used to be, I was really alone and didn’t know anybody. Just like when I first moved to London, I was starting out all over again. I met Charlie first, I was at a gig and he was standing in the crowd next to me, he looked great and probably thought I was chatting him up when I asked if he played anything. He played guitar, perfect. We met the next week to mess about and play some of the songs I’d written in London, we wrote Gorgeous Garbage that day. James and Fred had been in a local band together, when I met james he was more than ready to start something new, Fred however took a little convincing…. He was like ‘ohhh, I was gonna go and travel the world and play drums in my nan’s garage for a year.’ so I said ‘Shut up Fred. You’re an amazing drummer, you were born to play the drums, you have the best worst name ever and we need you!!’ So eventually Ramona was born. We work, we play, we fight, we paddle in the sea (weather permitting)
and we try not to fuck it all up.
Karen Anne xx “
Name of the post? “Ramona come closer…” So this will decide that.
On their myspace there is another killer track “Steve McQueen”. The chorus goes “Everybody has the right to live the way they like” and is pretty self evident, but the back ground oooohs oh oohs moves it away from sophomorism and the verse is a verse and a bridge and it is very very good.
And that makes em two for two.
On their myspace they claim they will be in New York soon. News to me. Do they have a PR company? I dunno, I’ll try and find em for sure if they are playing local.
Here is Ramona’s myspace:
and their facebook: