If you've ever wondered how a group of French musicians might play the music of The Ramones, you are in luck. Direct from Toulouse, France: Los Jamones, a Ramones tribute band, performs this Saturday night, April 18, at Cafe Nine in New Haven with Elm City punk rockers The Hulls.
I spoke with lead singer of Los Jamones, MickyJamon Morales, about channeling Joey Ramone night after night on their American tour.
WNPR's Ray Hardman: Do you remember the first time you heard The Ramones? How old were you? Was it in France ?
Mickey Jamon Morales: Yes, I was about 16 years old and I was starting to play the guitar. It was when the Pleasant Dreams album came out. As far as I can remember I was hooked on the song "The KKK Took my Baby Away," and then I started listening to their previous albums and became a fan.
Are The Ramones well-known in France ?
Yes, The Ramones are well-known, especially "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Rock 'n Roll High School," and "Howling at the Moon (Sha La La)." I'm a teacher, and some of my students have heard of The Ramones, and are coming to see us play.
For Americans, The Ramones was a reaction to the mid to the late 1970s – Richard Nixon, greedy politicians, disco culture, and horrible, heavily-produced pop music, among other things. What do The Ramones mean for French fans?
Energy, fun, rebellion, punk rock! I don't think we saw a political message in The Ramones, only maybe in "My Brain is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo goes to Bitburg)." From what I read, Johnny wasn't very happy about that song, because he liked Ronald Reagan.
Tell me about the challenges of being a tribute group for such a recognizable band.
A lot of the songs have the same chord structure, so it took us a while to remember all the titles we are playing! Apart from that, there are a lot of purists who love The Ramones, and if you don't play them well, they'll let you know. It's like sitting an exam each time we play. No, only joking -- everybody loves The Ramones, because their songs are very melodic, and they were so easily recognizable because of their sound and their look. And we make people happy because they can hear Ramones songs live.
How are American audiences different than French audiences when Los Jamones performs?
We really enjoyed playing in New York last time around. We were a bit worried, because we thought people might start throwing eggs and other stuff at us -- especially because we wear wigs, and we thought it could be seen as a lack of respect for the Ramones.
But it wasn't a problem. People in the audience were very nice to us!
We are really looking forward to doing it again, and to play at Cafe Nine, especially when we saw that CJ Ramone, The Waldos, The Fleshtones, and many other bands we're fans of have played there.
We are also supporting Richie Ramone with a band where we mostly play original material, "The Badass Mother Fuzzers." We are actually playing as "The Badass Mother Fuzzers" in New York on Wednesday before Los Jamones.
