Événement

Cj Ramone, The Mean Jeans, Black Bolt

All Ages
Bar w/id
7pm show
$15 adv tix

What we love during our youth often loses its power as we age. Its understandable and expected, especially if the thing you lovedmaking musicwas also your job for a long time.

CJ Ramone made his name as a member of the greatest punk band of all time, and nearly 25 years after that experience, itd be understandable if Ramone now spent his days resting on his legacy and tsk-tsking the state of punk rock. But The Holy Spell, Ramones new solo album out May 10 on Fat Wreck Chords, joyfully celebrates his undiminished love of music. Its right there in the title.

I never lost that magical feeling that you get from music, and thats where the title came in, he says. The bands that I listened to when I was young that I really enjoyed, I can still put that music on now, and it still has the same magic for me.

Full of fist-pumping punkbut not limited to itThe Holy Spell pays tribute to that magic in a variety of ways. Notably, a pair of sly covers hearken back to Ramones childhood: He would hear Dave Edmunds Crawling from the Wreckage on the portable radio he played in bed at night, and Webb Pierces 1953 hit There Stands the Glass recalls his parents love for classic country.

Those songs get revitalized here, which is also how Ramone, guitarist Dan Root, multi-instrumentalist Nate Sander, and drummer Pete Sosa, sound on The Holy Spell With producer Paul Miner (Death By Stereo, New Found Glory, H20, Adolescents) again at the helm, The Holy Spell is a surprisingly nuanced release from a punk lifer.

The albums first half, kicked off by One High One Low, continues the hook-laden pop punk that fans expect from the Ramone name. But check out the country-tinged Hands of Mine around the halfway point, the SoCal pop bubbling up through Movin On and Postcard from Heaven, and the feeling of closer Rock On. A farewell to Ramones longtime collaborator and friend Steve Soto of the Adolescents, its a fist-in-the-air tribute that says rock on without a trace of irony.

Steve really has a lot to do with where I am now, and every record, Steve was right there with me, Ramone says. He is completely irreplaceable. I owe Steve a lot. Its definitely strange going on without him, but even though hes not on the record, a lot of what we learned from Steve is still on the record.

The Holy Spell is Ramones first album since 2017s American Beauty, which PunkNews hailed for keeping the Ramones sound fresh, while AllMusic raved that Ramone is not just copying the bands old glories, but giving their legacy a fresh dose of energy and a different perspective.