Friday, October 11, 2019

Do You Remember Me? A Tribute To Head

I'm not usually one for tribute albums. But without question I will make an exception for a tribute to the almighty HEAD. If the Ramones are God, then HEAD are Jesus. Everyone else is merely mortal. And while HEAD are eternally revered within Ramonescore and pop-punk circles, they have managed to maintain a certain air of mystery about themselves for over 25 years. The music largely speaks for itself. Do You Remember Me? has been compiled and released by Mom's Basement Records, and I've gotta say that John went all-out to make this thing awesome. Pulling from his own label roster and beyond, he enlisted a veritable who's-who in modern-day Ramonescore and pop-punk music to record their own versions of HEAD classics.

Who's on this comp? The question should actually be who ISN'T on this comp! Amazingly, this release squeezes 24 tracks onto one LP, plus five more digital bonus tracks. Ratcliffs must have won the cage match to determine who got to over "35 Years Older Than You" (the "Stairway To Heaven" of Ramonescore), and predictably they nailed it! All of the songs that just had to be on this release are here. You've got The Putz doing "Don't Go Looking In The Closet", Flamingo Nosebleed tackling "Am I Fresh?", Tough having at "I've Made My Peace With the Hippies", the SUCK taking on "No One Likes A Snitch", and Ratbones absolutely crushing "Do You Remember Me?". Other standouts for me are Neon Bone ("The Sissy"), The Young Rochelles ("Teacher's Pet"), and the legendary Manges ("Senor Itchy"). And somehow how I still haven't mentioned NECK, DeeCracks, Parasites, Geoff Palmer, Black Russians, and many more?! Since all of these bands properly play these songs in the sanctioned HEAD style, this is about as close as you can get to an actual HEAD album without actually being a HEAD album. And hearing all of these tracks in one place serves as a quick reminder of why HEAD is worshiped. You could argue that this collection is mostly for fans, and I would not disagree. But if you've somehow fallen into Ramonescore fandom without any familiarity with HEAD, this album should lead you on the righteous path of beating up whoever you have to in order to secure the original versions of these songs. An amazing comp!



-L.R.

https://momsbasementrecords.bandcamp.com/album/do-you-remember-me-a-tribute-to-head 
https://momsbasementrecords.bigcartel.com/product/preorder-do-you-remember-me-a-tribute-to-head 
https://www.facebook.com/MomsBasementRecords/ 

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