Dramarama

Certain Songs #337: Dramarama – “Everybody Dies”

October 10, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Everybody Dies
Year: 2005

Every band dies. Every band is gonna die. For Dramarama, that death a year came after their best album, Hi-Fi Sci-Fi. Of course, life went on: Chris Carter started hosting Breakfast With The Beatles, John Easdale dropped a solo album, and they continued to play together informally.

I didn’t see it, but apparently back in 2003 they were on an episode of VH1’s Bands Reunited reality show, which lead to their resurrection album, 2005’s Everybody Dies.

Certain Songs #336: Dramarama – “Don’t Feel Like Doing Drugs”

October 9, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Hi-Fi Sci-Fi
Year: 1993

When I was a kid, my parents got me a book called The Good Drug and The Bad Drug, which, if I remember correctly, described the effects of a whole bunch of drugs, and probably had some kind of lecture as to why I shouldn’t use any of the “bad” drugs.

Instead, I used it as a guide as to which drugs I was interested in trying when I got older (alcohol, marijuana), which ones I’d never try (tobacco, heroin) and which ones seemed scary but kinda cool (cocaine, LSD). Which, I’m guessing, probably wasn’t the point.

Certain Songs #335: Dramarama – “Incredible”

October 8, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Hi-Fi Sci-Fi
Year: 1993

I think one of the things I loved most about Hi-Fi Sci-Fi was that while most of the songs were uptempo rockers, the words were about people going through totally fucked up things: homelessness, drug addiction, insomnia and just feeling worthless as a human being.

The grand exception is the beautiful power ballad, “Incredible,” in which one of the fuckups from the rest of the record is going through a good patch for once.

Certain Songs #334: Dramarama – “Work For Food”

October 7, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Hi-Fi Sci-Fi
Year: 1993

I don’t know how rare it is for a band’s fifth album to be their best album.

I don’t know how rare it is for a band to make their best album after getting a new drummer.

But somehow, my suspicion is that a band making their best album after combining the two is pretty rare.

Certain Songs #333: Dramarama – “What Are We Gonna Do?”

October 6, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Vinyl
Year: 1991

Always too clever by half, New Jersey’s Dramarama always seemed to be on the verge of making it big, but never quite doing so.

It’s weird: they had a great look and a great sound (though not a great name), but their timing was always a bit off. For example, their biggest song, the demented raver “Anything Anything (I’ll Give You)” was a huge hit on KROQ (and probably still gets played daily, 30 years later) but never really broke nationally all at once.

That said, all of their albums are worthwhile — including the reunion one — and while I’m not writing about songs from their first three albums like “Worse Than Being By Myself,” “Last Cigarette” (Similar Animals used to do a great cover of this one) or the aforementioned song that KROQ made me sick of, I considered it.

17 Musical Moments to Die For

August 27, 2009 by Jim Connelly

It has been four months since I’ve done one of these, a far cry from my original plan of doing one a month, and I can’t promise when the next one will be, or even if there will be a next one.

So, really quickly, the ground rules. These aren’t about artists, or albums, or even songs, but rather, moments: that piece of a song that draws you into it; that piece of a song that you wait to happen again; that piece of a song that is running in your head when you can’t sleep; that piece of a song that you find yourself humming at inopportune times.

That piece of a song that you can’t live without.

This is the ninth in a series: The first one had 25; the second one had 24; the third one had 23; the fourth one had 22; the fifth one had 21; and the sixth had 20; the seventh had 19 and the eighth had 18.