A Ramone Picks His Teenage Head

05/14/08 5:30pm

by Keith Carman (CHARTattack)

It was a long time in the making, but two of punk rock's most notorious names have finally united.

Any self-respecting Canadian punk rock 'n' roller knows Teenage Head. Responsible for anthems like "Let's Shake" and "Teenage Beer Drinkin' Party," the quartet's upbeat musical tomfoolery has been the soundtrack for three decades worth of weekend warrior festivities.

Similarly, few would be hard-pressed not to recognize Marky Ramone, drummer for New York punk rock creators The Ramones during their most successful years. The timekeeper is unmistakable with his straight black hair, aviator shades and leather jacket.

Their recently released collaboration, Teenage Head With Marky Ramone, is a one-off barrage of Head tunes revived with new flavour. Originally recorded in 2003, but only now seeing the light of day, Teenage Head's first fresh material since 1996's Head Disorder is garnering more press for guitarist Gord Lewis, singer Frankie Venom, bassist Steve Marshall and drummer Jack Pedler than they’ve received in years.

"I've always wanted to do something with (Ramone) — play or record — because he understands this kind of music," says Lewis of the union.

"Originally, Ramone was coming to Canada with The Speed Kings and the offer was made to me to be a part of that band. That didn't happen, so he opted to do a spoken-word presentation. At the end of it, he'd bang off some Ramones songs with local musicians. Steve and I were asked to be a part of that. That's how we met. We made sure to put out that offer to record, not even knowing what we wanted to record."

Ramone called their recording bluff faster than Lewis and crew could pen new tunes, so the quartet simply opted to give Ramone free reign over their catalogue, allowing him to decide which tunes they should record together. The end result finds "Lucy Potato," "Top Down" and "Some Kinda Fun" getting more updated with improved production courtesy of producer Daniel Rey (Ramones, Misfits) and Ramone's inimitable rhythmic style. Lewis feels the modernized sound is perfect, giving new life to "classic punk songs” interpreted by the original artist.

"We didn't have any new songs so we gave him a sampling of tunes and he picked his favourites," Lewis says. "That went well so we decided to do 10 more.

”When we were choosing songs, we just thought, 'Let's do the loudest, fastest songs: the most Ramones-related. Let's do rockers.' Apparently it worked well. They have a whole new life to them despite having a great life as they were. This is just the new spin on them with someone having a level like Marky Ramone shining them up. I think the songs are lot more intense because we're mature musicians with experience now."

You can see Teenage Head without Marky Ramone at these shows:

May 27 Victoria, BC @ Lucky Bar
May 28 Nanaimo, BC @ Queens Hotel
May 29 Vancouver, BC @ The Plaza
May 30 Calgary, AB @ The Distillery
May 31 Innisfail, AB @ The Zoo
June 1 Edmonton, AB @ New City
June 2 Winnipeg, MB @ Royal Albert Arms
June 20 Toronto, ON @ Rock 'N' Roll Heaven
June 21 Burlington, ON @ Lezley's Chaps
June 27 Kirkland Lake, ON @ Kirkland Lake Homecoming Festival
Aug. 2 Hamilton, ON @ Gage Park (Y108 Rock ‘N’ Roll Picnic)
Nov. 22 Montreal, QC @ Tiger Town 2008 Grey Cup Party