Dramarama | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Background information | |
Origin | Wayne, New Jersey, U.S. |
Genres | Alternative rock, power pop, indie rock, new wave |
Years active | 1982–1994, 2003–present |
Labels | Binky 101, Questionmark, New Rose, Chameleon, Eggbert, Harvey Star, 33rd Street |
Members | John Easdale Peter Wood Mark Englert Mike Davis Tony Snow |
Past members | Chris Carter Jesse Farbman Clem Burke Ted Ellenis Tom Mullaney Ronny Machuga Ken Moutenout Craig Ballam Morley Bartnoff Ray Barwick |
Website | Official website |
Dramarama is an American, New Jersey–based alternative rock/power pop band, who later moved to Los Angeles. The band was formed in New Jersey in 1982 and disbanded in 1994. The band formally reunited in 2003 following an appearance on VH1's Bands Reunited .
Since 1996, an evolving lineup of the band, always fronted by singer/songwriter John Easdale, has been performing in one incarnation or another (initially billed as Easdale solo but usually joined by former Dramarama bandmates), and from then until 2003 played occasional shows in Los Angeles as well as in New Jersey. However, amid renewed interest since the episode on Bands Reunited in January 2004 and a large-scale appearance at KROQ-FM's annual Inland Invasion festival concert (attended by more than 78,000 fans) in September 2003, Dramarama then toured nationally and released a full-length CD titled Everybody Dies on October 25, 2005. Fifteen years later, they released the album Color TV. [1]
In 1982, Dramarama formed in the basement of a record store in Wayne, New Jersey, owned by founding member Chris Carter. [2] Carter operated the alternative record store Looney Tunez Records (previously known as Dirt Cheap Records). Initially the line-up consisted of singer/songwriter John Easdale, "Mr. E Boy" (Mark Englert) and Carter, later joined by Peter Wood on guitars and Ron Machuga on drums.
The evolution and combined efforts prompted the emergence of the DPW (a local parody named in honor of their hometown Department of Public Works) and re-incarnation "The F&cks". The band emerged in North New Jersey, where at that time there was a scene with radio station WHTG 106.3 and venues such as The Stone Pony, Green Parrot and Fast Lane featuring other local bands such as Red House, Smithereens, Whirling Dervishes and The Blases. [3] In 1982, the band released its first single, "You Drive Me", attracting some national attention.
In 1984, keyboard player Ted Ellenis and drummer Ken Moutenot (replacing Machuga) joined the band and Dramarama released their first EP Comedy, a self-funded, five-track debut that garnered both critical and unexpected cult praise in France. Moutenot was replaced by Jesse Farbman, who left the group after the band's third album to pursue mind/body purity and to obtain "philosophical and spiritual awareness". Dramarama issued its first full-length release, 1985's Cinéma Vérité on France's New Rose Records. [2] It was re-released in the U.S. after receiving airplay on KROQ-FM radio from influential Los Angeles disc jockey Rodney Bingenheimer (who at first thought the band was French). Bingenheimer alerted Posh Boy Records at New Rose, which approvedRobbie Fields' contacting the band directly in New Jersey.
One of the early radio stations to play the song "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)" was KROQ. It was one of the station's more requested songs in 1986 and 1987, and it became one of the more requested songs in the station's history. [4] [5] Following the local L.A. success of "Anything, Anything", the band obtained a larger advance from Chameleon and permanently moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles. The song has been featured in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and was covered for the East Timor Benefit Album. [6]
As an expression of gratitude to both Bingenheimer and Fields, the band gave Robbie Fields their recording of the New York Dolls' song "Private World" for inclusion on the CD The Best of Rodney on The Roq, released in 1987 and re-released in 1992 through Rhino Records.
The recording sessions for Stuck in Wonderamaland produced enough material for three albums. Easdale and Carter decided to again try a foreign release. Thus, Looking Through..., a 14-song album, was released in Europe by The Bent Backed Tulips, both pseudonym and album title in reference to lyrics from the Beatles' "Glass Onion". Looking Through... was re-released in the U.S. through eggBERT Records with extra tracks, increasing the number of songs to 20.
The band then signed with Chameleon distributor Elektra and released 1991's Vinyl . Backed by a major label for the first time, Dramarama got nationwide airplay with the singles "Haven't Got a Clue" (which also was on a CD included with the Sega CD video game system in the United States) and "What Are We Gonna Do?". The album's production with Don Smith added to the success of the LP. Vinyl included contributions from Mick Taylor, Jim Keltner, Benmont Tench, and Brian Macleod of Wire Train.
After Vinyl, a limited-edition, 17-song CD titled The Days of Wayne and Roses (The Trash Tapes) was made available to members of the Dramarama fan club. It included the band's early recordings together as well as songs that were dropped from their early albums, a couple of live performances, and one song exclusive (at the time) to the disc.
The band's final release on Elektra, 1993's Hi-Fi Sci-Fi , was a favorite among both critics and fans, and it remains a cult staple. Clem Burke, who had joined the band for the Vinyl tour, appears on this album, and backing vocal contributions include Dwight Twilley and Sylvain Sylvain. After the tours, the group split. [2]
Following two relatively quiet years after the 1994 breakup, John Easdale began performing live music again in 1996, doing shows in both New Jersey and the L.A. area. He assembled a band that he occasionally has named The John Easdale Group and has casually named it The Newcomers, featuring Dramarama's Mark Englert, as well as Peter Wood for East Coast appearances. Other Newcomers have included fellow eggBERT alum Nick Celeste (of former Bongo Richard Barone's band and once the frontman for In Color, Aimee Mann, Jules Shear, Muddy Shews, Danny Roselle, and Chris O'Hara. Easdale found steady players in Mike Davis, Tony Snow and Craig Ballam, who connected with Easdale circa 1996.
In 1998, John Easdale released a solo album on the eggBERT label titled Bright Side, on which many of the tracks featured musicians with ties to both Dramarama and the Newcomers, including Mark Englert and Clem Burke, as well as Mike Davis, Tony Snow and Craig Ballam, who also contributed production and engineering skills. Before Bright Side, Easdale issued a fan-only, no-label version of the Bright Side in 1996 that contained versions of songs that made the final cut as well as some that did not. Easdale refers to it as his "blueprint" for the final collection, and fans call it the "pre-release" of Bright Side.
Following the publicity from the VH1]series Bands Reunited, subsequent KROQ's Inland Invasion, and an article in Rolling Stone that lauded their retooling of the Dead Kennedys' politically charged "California über alles" in response to Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2003 run for governor of California, Easdale decided in late 2003 the band name Dramarama should continue. The next CD (an EP) would be billed to Dramarama, titled Absolutely, 100% Made in N.J., which was recorded on a whim while John and the band were on a brief tour of New Jersey in 2003. The EP's liner notes indicated that most of the seven tracks were "from the forthcoming Dramarama album Everybody Dies ."
The album was released on October 25, 2005 by California-based label 33rd Street Records.
They appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show as Ellen's 50th birthday present from her DJ Ted Stryker.
The current lineup consists of original founding members John Easdale, lead and rhythm guitar player Peter Wood (the only band member who moved back to New Jersey and still maintains a residence there), and lead guitarist Mark Englert (Mr. "E" Boy). Rounding out the band are Los Angeles–based musicians Tony Snow (No Sugar, Tonio & The Change, Shiteland Ponies) on drums, and (former Lizzy Borden member) Mike Davis on bass. In addition, Tony Snow leads Tonio & The Change, and Mike Davis is the bass player for both Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford's eponymous solo band Halford and metal "supergroup" Death Dealer.
The Dramarama song "Anything Anything" serves as the title and theme song of New York City radio station WRXP-FM's free-form program "Anything Anything with Rich Russo". The version from Live at the China Club begins each show. After the switch of format to all news on WRXP-FM, Russo's radio show was picked up on WXPK-FM and WDHA-FM, where "Anything Anything" still serves as the name and the China Club version opens each show.
The band has been very active since 2005. In 2009, they played for the Troy High School Battle of the Bands. This event took place on February 3, 2009 at Plummer Auditorium, located in Fullerton, California. Also in 2009 were several shows at House of Blues venues in Texas and Southern California as well as Six Flags Magic Mountain. Dramarama returned to New Jersey for two shows in November 2009 and performed in Downtown Los Angeles and San Juan Capistrano's The Coach House in December 2009. They returned to Troy High School's Battle of the Bands in 2010 and 2011.
A special live version of "Last Cigarette" was recorded for the limited-edition, 500-pressing vinyl album "Anything Anything with Rich Russo on 101.9 RXP presents Exclusive Live Performances". In this version, the band replaces "Johnny Carson" with "Rich Russo" as an homage to the free-form DJ. The album was released April 2010. [7]
As of 2018 [update] , Dramarama continues to perform frequently as headliners and at various festivals.
After a 15-year hiatus the band released Color TV on May 1, 2020. [1]
Original bass player/producer and Dramarama co-founder Chris Carter is currently a disc jockey in Los Angeles, where he hosts America's longest-running Beatles show Breakfast with the Beatles , and the weekly four-hour eclectic program on the satellite radio station Sirius-XM "Chris Carter's British Invasion." Carter also produced and wrote the film Mayor of the Sunset Strip , which in 2003 was nominated for Best Documentary by the Independent Spirit Film Awards, and which featured members of Dramarama. After Dramarama split in 1994, Carter formed QM Management, for which he manages the pop group The Wondermints, currently touring as Beach Boy Brian Wilson's backing band.
Drummer Jesse Farbman, a.k.a. Anant Jesse, lived in Montreal, here he taught spiritual therapeutics and maintained a private practice; he died in 2014. Former keyboard player Theodore Ellenis works as senior finance executive for a New York City–area firm.
Name | Chart | Released |
---|---|---|
Cinéma Vérité | — | November 1, 1985 |
Box Office Bomb | — | January 1, 1987 |
Stuck in Wonderamaland | — | April 1, 1989 |
Looking Through... (as The Bent Back Tulips) | — | January 1, 1990 |
Vinyl | — | October 15, 1991 |
Hi-Fi Sci-Fi | 10 (Heatseekers Albums) [8] | January 1, 1993 |
Everybody Dies | — | October 25, 2005 |
Color TV | — | May 1, 2020 |
Name | Type | Released | Label |
---|---|---|---|
Play New Rose for Me | Compilation | 1986 | New Rose |
Best of Rodney on the Roq | Compilation | 1989 | |
Days of Wayne & Roses | Compilation | 1992 | |
Rock'n'Rose | Compilation | 1990 | New Rose |
Live at the China Club | Live | Chameleon | |
Days of Wayne & Roses | Compilation | 1992 | |
Days of Wayne & Roses | |||
KBCO Studio C Vol. 2 | |||
Welcome to Our Nightmare: A Tribute to Alice Cooper | Compilation | 1993 | Triple X |
Amongst Friends - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack | Atlantic | ||
10 from 5 | Rhino | ||
Melody Fair | Compilation | 1994 | EGGBERT |
Sing Hollies in Reverse | Compilation | 1995 | EGGBERT |
The Best of Dramarama: 18 Big Ones | Compilation | October 29, 1996 | Rhino |
Blockbuster: A 70's Glitter Glam Rock Experience | Compilation | 2000 | Robison Records |
One Step Beyond: The Best of New Wave | Compilation | 2002 | Rhino |
Mayor of the Sunset Strip | Compilation | 2003 | Shout Factory |
Anything Anything with Rich Russo Exclusive Live Performances | Compilation | 2010 |
Name | Released | Record Label |
---|---|---|
Comedy | May 19, 1984 | Question Mark Records |
Vinyl | 1992 | Chameleon |
Year | Title | Chart position | Album | |
---|---|---|---|---|
US Alternative Songs [9] | AUS [10] | |||
1983 | "You Drive Me" b/w "A Fine Example", "Femme Fatale" | N/A | — | Non-album single |
1985 | "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)" | — | Cinéma Vérité | |
1987 | "It's Still Warm" b/w "Private World" | — | Box Office Bomb | |
1989 | "Last Cigarette" | 13 | — | Stuck in Wonderamaland |
1989 | "Wonderamaland" b/w "70's TV" | — | ||
1989 | "Anything, Anything (I'll Give You)" b/w "I Wish I Was Your Mother" | — | 85 | A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master |
1991 | "Haven't Got a Clue" | 6 | — | Vinyl |
1991 | "What Are We Gonna Do?" | 10 | 60 | |
1993 | "Work for Food" | 10 | — | Hi-Fi Sci-Fi |
1998 | "Tie Me Down" b/w "Last of the Famous International Playboys" | — | — | The Bent Backed Tulips Looking Through... |
2003 | "California über alles" | — | — | Non-album single |
2005 | "Physical Poetry (A-B-C-D-1-2-3)" | — | — | Everybody Dies |
Hi-Fi Sci-Fi is the fifth studio album by alternative rock group Dramarama. Released in 1993, it was also their last studio album until Everybody Dies was released in 2005.
Cinéma Vérité is the first album by the alternative rock group Dramarama, released in 1985. Although Dramarama was an American group, from New Jersey, the album was originally released by New Rose Records of France, and in America on Question Mark Records. It was later picked up for release by Chameleon Records, a small independent record label based in California.
The Pandoras is an all-female garage punk band from Los Angeles, California with a run from 1982 to 1991. The band is among the first handful of all-female rock bands to ever be signed. From the beginning, the band found a strong following in the Hollywood garage rock and Paisley Underground scene, making the gossip pages almost weekly. The Pandoras enjoyed strong radio support from DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. The band graduated from the garage rock sound to a more contemporary, hard rock style in later years, spawning the off-shoot band The Muffs. The Pandoras founder/singer/songwriter, Paula Pierce, died on August 10, 1991, of a brain aneurysm at the age of 31. The Muffs front-woman/founder Kim Shattuck who played bass in the Pandoras from 1985 to 1990 passed in October 2nd, 2019 from ALS. Shattuck had appeared as lead singer/lead guitarist of the reunited Pandoras in recent years, until her passing.
The Quick were a mid-1970s power pop band based in Los Angeles. The Quick were influenced by 1960s British Invasion bands and 1970s British glam bands, as well as by fellow Angelenos Sparks.
Flipside, originally known as Los Angeles Flip Side, was a punk zine published in Whittier and Pasadena, California, from 1977 to 2000. The magazine was associated with its own record label, Flipside Records, releasing vinyl records and compact discs beginning in 1978.
Lippy's Garden was a post-punk band formed in 1984 in Glendora, California. The band consisted of David Milhous, his cousin Mark Bollinger, James Ross (keyboards), and Rob Salter (Bass). The four were nicknamed "Corn", "Milo", "Stuart", and "Raw", respectively. Their album "The Etiquette and Economics of Escape" was produced and recorded during the summer of 1985 at Loyola Marymount University by the son of legendary live television producer Marty Pasetta. Marty produced hundreds of hours of television including Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite.
Chicklet is a Canadian musical group consisting of Julie Park and Daniel Barida. Sean Bettam (bass) was part of the group from 1997 to 1999 and toured the US to support their first album Wanderlust. Chris Sytnyk (bass) recorded on several Chicklet releases including Lemon Chandeliers, Wanderlust and Indian Summer.
Chris Paul Carter is an American disc jockey and music/film producer based in Los Angeles.
Zolar X is an American glam rock band founded in 1973. Zolar X became known in the Los Angeles club scene for dressing and acting like space-aliens. They spoke an 'alien language' of their own invention. They are referred to as "Los Angeles' first glam rock band" in the 1998 book Glam! Bowie, Bolan and the Glitter Rock Revolution by Barney Hoskyns.
The New Order was an American hard rock and protopunk band. The band was based in Los Angeles and existed from early 1975 to October 1976.
John Easdale is the lead singer and songwriter for the American band Dramarama.
Felony was an American new wave and rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in the early 1970s by brothers Jeffrey Scott Spry, Joseph Anthony Spry, brothers Danny Sands and Steve Sands.
KROQ-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ".
Morley Bartnoff, is an American keyboardist, guitarist, songwriter, and composer who has been performing and recording for the past 30 years. Formerly with the Los Angeles rock band Burning Sensations, Morley now leads alternative rock band Cosmo Topper, and whenever possible serves as the "secret weapon" on keyboards for Dramarama, an enduring power pop band best known for its hits "Anything, Anything " and "Last Cigarette". For the last few years Morley has been playing keys for the reunited group Dramarama and will be featured on the New Dramarama recording, playing Baby Grand Piano and a Hammond B 3, with a Leslie to be released in 2011. His talents have also appeared on their previous 2005 CD, Everybody Dies.
Rodney Bingenheimer is an American radio disc jockey who is best known as the host of Rodney on the ROQ, a radio program that ran on the Los Angeles rock station KROQ from 1976 to 2017. In the early 1970s, he also managed a Los Angeles nightclub called Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco.
"Anything, Anything " is a 1985 song by the alternative rock band Dramarama released as the first single from their debut album Cinéma Vérité. Written by John Easdale in the mid-1980s, "Anything, Anything" features a steady beat and lyrics about the breakdown of his marriage.
The New Fidelity is an American mod/power-pop band founded in Long Beach, CA in 2005. The New Fidelity are heavily influenced by 1960s pop and rock, and most of their music is steeped in two-, three-, and four-part harmony. Bands including The Beatles, The Zombies, The Who, and The Beach Boys are obvious influences as well as 1980s mod revival and jangle pop.
Blood on the Saddle is an American country-punk band, though often referred to as a cowpunk band, from Los Angeles, California, United States. Greg Davis formed the band in early 1983 with the original line-up of Ron Botelho and Hermann Senac. Annette Zilinskas joined in the summer of 1983. They released three albums, one EP and songs on one compilation before that line-up broke up in 1987. Band leader Greg Davis has continued the band to present day, with one break to work with The Vandals and Candye Kane. Eventually the band recorded two more EPs and six more albums, getting three of them out officially, which were released in 1993, 1995, and 2001, respectively. A fourth album, The Mud, the Blood & the Beer, was recorded in 2008 and released to all digital platforms in 2020. A fifth album, True Blood, was recorded in 2013, and has since been put out in 2019 on all digital platforms.
Anything Anything with Rich Russo is a weekly two-hour freeform radio program that airs on Sunday nights at 9 PM in the New York City market. The program's weekly playlists range from deep tracks of known artists, punk, non album b-sides, bubblegum pop, TV themes, jazz, blues, country, novelty and unsigned local artists. Dramarama’s "Anything, Anything " is the theme song and the Live at the China Club version begins 99% of the shows. The show has world premiered tracks by Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, and Tegan and Sara. fun.'s "We Are Young" had its first airing in October 2011 on Anything Anything with Rich Russo. The show has also had numerous guests including Andrew WK, Joan Jett, Mike Ness, Brandon Flowers, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, The Buried Life, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, Girl in a Coma, Little Steven Van Zandt, Alejandro Escovedo, Steel Train, The Bangles, Urge Overkill, The Smithereens, Jesse Malin, Paul Collins, Garland Jeffreys, Lucero and Prima Donna.
"Amoeba" is a song by American punk rock band the Adolescents. It is the eighth track on their self-titled debut album Adolescents, released in April 1981 on Frontier Records. It is the band's signature song.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link)