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The Wanna-Be's
By: Mike Standish - WallofSound.com
May 24th 2001 12:52am
Everybody knows that The Ramones invented punk rock in 1976. Three chords, played fast and coupled with catchy melodies and blissfully banal lyrics, the Ramones formula was simple and incredibly successful. And for the thousands upon thousands of imitators spawned in the years since, records like Rocket to Russia and Leave Home have served as an intro course to old-fashioned rock and roll. Twenty-five years later, Rock and Roll High School is still graduating glue-sniffing students, and Seattle's Wanna-Be's step up to the head of the class with their self-titled debut album. Sure, it's 14 tracks of riffs cribbed from Johnny Ramone and lyrics about girls ("Don't Let Me Go"), parties ("This Party Sucks"), brain damage ("Vegetable"), and getting medicated ("Medication"), but the quartet -- bassist Justin Jeske, singer-guitarist Chris Workman, drummer Scott Matthews, and guitarist Tim Matthews -- understands what so many other bands haven't: If you're gonna make this kind of music, you need to bring something original to the table, too. The Wanna-Be's separate themselves not only with a barrage of hooks, but also with a sound that owes just as much to New Wave and '80s power pop as it does to '70s punk, probably more. There's some seriously pop-savvy songwriting going on here. "ATM," a two-minute blast detailing the exchange of money for affection in a peep-show booth, is radio-friendly pop in the best fashion, right down to the ooh-wee-ooh backing vocals. And it's every bit as unforgettable as a Fountains of Wayne song. One of the album's other standouts is "This Party Sucks," which shouts out the frustration of, well, going to a sucky party ("No rock and roll and no booze allowed/ I think we've reached an all-time low/ Get your gear, it's time to go"). "Dropped on My Head," with its handclaps and call-and-response chorus, sounds like something that might be played during a prom scene in a John Waters movie. And "No Tomorrow" is an anthemic call-to-arms if ever there was one. The only missteps on The Wanna-Be's debut come when the band falls into derivation (listen to "Vegetable" and then The Ramones' "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement" and "I Wanna Be Sedated" for proof). And a tempo change here and there might be nice. But that's nitpicking. There's more than enough redeeming qualities on The Wanna-Be's to make this debut solid, and even original. For more music news & reviews, visit http://WallofSound.com.
Copyright (c) 2000. Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any form.
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