All you ever wanted to know about
THE RAMONETURES!!!
Featuring the great BILLY ZOOM and
DJ BONEBRAKE of X!
Well kiddies, it's time for another RAMONETURES release!
For this go around, The World's Foremost Punk Instrumentalists have torn
through the pages of the X songbook to come up with one KILLER album! As
with the band's self-titled debut, the RAMONETURES are again led by
mastermind/Phantom
Surfer MEL BERGMAN. This time the boys are joined by punk legends BILLY
ZOOM and DJ BONEBRAKE to answer the musical question, "What would it
sound like if the VENTURES recorded a boatload of great X tunes?" And,
filling out those crazy sounds are CHRIS BARFIELD on guitar and bass, and
MARK NEILL sitting in the producer's chair and knocking out the occasional
guitar lick.
But there are plenty of fun facts, in-jokes and obscure
gags associated with this album that you RAMONETURES and X fans may want
to know! Let's take a look, shall we?
- See that cool silver leather jacket
our lovely model is wearing? It's the VERY jacket Billy Zoom wore onstage
in the early years with X.
- Could that be Billy Zoom's actual Gretsch Silverjet gee-tar our model
has slung over her shoulder? Indeed!
- Check out that deftly rendered lettering in the title of the album.
(Not the band name; the TITLE!) That was done by renowned artist COOP! By
the way, it's based on the look of the word "Johny" as it appears
in the lower corner of the inner sleeve of the first X LP, "Los
Angeles".
- Does that blue-sky background look kind of familiar? It was taken
from the cover of RAMONES album, "Leave Home" - an obscure, in-joke
nod from one sophomore album to another.
- You can't see it here, but the back of the LP/CD features a photo
of a burning letter "V". Of course, that refers to the burning
"X" on the cover of "Los Angeles", but it's also a tribute
to the Ventures.
- On the album, the X tune "Sugarlite" has been renamed
"Shadowlight".
Why? Because CHRIS BARFIELD came up with an AMAZING lead guitar part in
the vein of Shadows guitarist Hank Marvin. So, basically you get the RAMONETURES
pretending to be the RAMONES pretending to be the VENTURES joining half
of X to play X tunes but also pretending to be the SHADOWS on one tune.
- Art Robles, Jr., credited as "Mane Engineer" on the CD,
is Mel's barber...and a huge X fan.
So, you know everything you need to about the new
RAMONETURES album! Head on over to the
BLOOD RED RELEASES PAGE
and find out how to order it!!