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COVER STORY - VIEW MAGAZINE
Hamilton ON (24 April 2008)
TEENAGE HEAD
By Adam Grant
When a meeting of musical minds turns into a historical event that takes five years to complete, you know it has to be good. In fact, it better damn well rock all your senses so hard that, by the time you come to, you feel as if the 1,825+ day wait was merely an elongated speed bump.
Let's go back to Saturday, March 1, 2003 - it happens to be the day Ramones drummer Marky Ramone came to Hamilton, initially slated to play with band The Speedkings. When logistical errors began to rear their ugly heads, The Speedkings couldn't cross the border and Marky was left with no back-up. In an effort to keep the night alive, a last minute decision was made to place Jimmy Vapid (of The Vapids) along with Gord Lewis and Steve Marshall (of Teenage Head) on stage with Marky for a true-blue Ramones tribute set. The bar was packed, the enthusiasm palpable, and this at-the-time aspiring music writer would catch one of Marky's drumsticks, and eventually wind of a potential collaboration.
History will tell that soon, semi-secret sessions began to take place at the Jam House, where Marky, Ramones producer Daniel Rey, Lewis, Marshall, and Frankie Venom would come together and play through Teenage Head classics. "I wanted to work with them for quite awhile," says Lewis of Marky and Rey. "Because of the Ramones camp, I knew these were people that understood the music we play and are quality, professional people. There are certain people you would like to work with and there are certain people that you admire - these were people I'd admired and wanted to work with. The opportunity presented itself, so we grabbed it.
"It was a matter of timing," he continues. "When Marky was up here, and me and Steve and Jimmy Vapid were part of the band, I just thought to myself that I can't let this guy go back to New York without at least asking him to record something with us. So, that's exactly what we did. The initial approach was a little difficult, but eventually Marky said, 'you really want to do this don't you?' We said 'yeah,' and just worked it out."
More specifically, Lewis was - and still is - fascinated by Marky's drumming technique. He cites Marky's ability to understand the parts of all instrumentation and vocal techniques in song, which allows him to compliment each track percussively without just going through the motions and keeping a good groove. Beyond that, Lewis loves watching the man play.
"With Marky, I used to watch him a lot. We played with the Ramones quite a bit, and I went to see them plenty of times, and I was just drawn to his drumming," reflects Lewis. "I found myself watching him a lot, which was very unusual for me to do when I went to see a band - I didn't really pay a lot of attention to drummers, but for some reason when the Ramones were playing, I was watching this Marky guy playing the drums and I was pretty impressed that he was able to play like that."
During two separate visits to the area in 2003, Marky and Rey would record 12 songs with Teenage Head at Hamilton's Catherine North and Toronto's Metal Works. However, year after year would pass and no documentation of these sessions would come to be. That is, of course, until now.
April 22, 2008 finally saw the release of the album Teenage Head with Marky Ramone, through Sonic Unyon. On board are staples such as "Let's Shake," "Lucy Potato," "Picture My Face," and "Teenage Beer Drinking Party," just to name a few. As for what stands out right away, that would have to be the sound of revitalization. While the tracks are as hooky and fun as they've always been, they feel newly minted and new.
Lewis and Marshall are forever on the mark, while Venom's vocal delivery feels pumped up and ready for business. Of course, there is also Marky's performance. His inescapable Ramone-esque drumming presence is glaring and - while rock n' roll isn't about stopwatches - the speed in which these tracks move is a credit to this legendary kit-man. "It was a challenge sometimes - it was intimidating, but we were on a mission," mentions Lewis about the pressure of re-visiting and re-recording past works. "It was something that had to get done and it happened so quickly that we didn't have a lot of time to think. It was definitely something that had to be good and it had to click.
"'It's gotta be good.' That's all I thought. 'It's gotta be good.'"
Good it is, but where will this album take Teenage Head now? Lewis hopes it'll take them around the world and, when you have a Ramone on your side, the possibilities are refreshingly endless. Since Teenage Head's never had a solid distribution deal anywhere outside of Canada, Lewis is hopeful Teenage Head with Marky Ramone could aide in carving pathways to places like Japan, Germany, England and America.
In the immediate future however, Japan will have to wait. Teenage Head is in the midst of playing a bevy of Southern Ontario shows with Jack Peddler on drums, before shipping off to do a Western Canada jaunt. Lewis is also hinting at releasing archived material Teenage Head has never made public before, including tracks recorded prior to their first album and some legendary live moments. Also, with it now being 12 years plus-or-minus since their last studio album Head Disorder, Lewis is looking toward a crafting new one. While no timeline is set, his recent "ambitious" feelings are paving the way.
With an eye to the future and welcomed hand tilted towards to the past, Lewis knows the Teenage Head with Marky Ramone album brought punk pioneers from the north and south together for a stand-out performance. And, if anything is ever to be remembered as one of those moments in time, that night in 2003 will forever inspire those who were fortunate enough to have some part in it. "It was a very exciting four days and a lot happened and it was over real fast. Just the fact that it actually got done, and (the album) is living proof (is great).
"I'd like people to feel that it is important in the whole scheme of things," asserts Lewis. "For me, to work with these guys, it was only a dream. I didn't think I'd ever be working with these guys, and here I am. If you believe in something hard enough, other people will believe in it too."
http://www.viewmag.com/printer.php?storyid=6091
TORONTO SUN
(24 April 2008)
Some kinda new fun
Teenage Head's Gord Lewis gets his wish with release of record with Marky Ramone
By JASON MACNEIL, SPECIAL TO THE SUN
And while guitarist Gord Lewis jumped at the opportunity to play with drummer Marky Ramone as part of Ramone's Canadian spoken word tour a few years back, another creative seed was germinating.
A longtime wish of Lewis' was to have Marky Ramone appear on a Teenage Head album. Hence the new album of old favourites entitled Teenage Head With Marky Ramone, a 12-song effort recorded a few years ago in a small window of time.
"After a few more conversations he said, 'You guys are really serious so let's do it,' " Lewis says of the collaboration. "So then it was done, our minds were made it up and it was a go."
Teenage Head -- performing a CD release show tomorrow night at Healey's with another show set for Saturday in Hamilton -- quickly decided on the dozen punk ditties, recorded them and gave a CD to Ramone for him to listen to and learn the songs while he toured Russia. By the time recording began, Lewis says Ramone "had the songs down pat."
VIBE
Lewis says the vibe between the band and Ramone was very natural considering both play similar styles, but he was surprised at Ramone's workmanlike demeanour.
"He has an incredible work ethic," Lewis says. "It was, 'Let's get the job done and get it done the best you can.' He had a whole level of professionalism that I felt very comfortable in. Collaborating with people that you respect, it's well worth it."
The record draws liberally from Teenage Head's first three albums and includes Little Boxes, Lucy Potato and Picture My Face, of which Lewis is particularly fond.
"We played that song the way it's supposed to sound and that's when we nailed it," he says of Picture My Face. "That's the way that I've always liked to hear it, so that's my favourite."
While getting something done in a short time can offer up its share of problems, the biggest hurdle Teenage Head had was finding a studio space at the last minute after a studio previously booked wasn't exactly up to snuff.
"There was a bit of anxiety but everything was happening so fast it was too hard to panic about anything," Lewis says. "It was just bang, bang, bang, which was a good way to deal with the adversity. You can solve problems when you have to think really fast. But overall I knew it was going to get done."
Getting it done was one thing but eventually getting it out took a bit longer. After signing to Hamilton label Sonic Unyon, a label Lewis says was quite passionate about the band, Teenage Head re-released its self-titled debut in 2006 before releasing Teenage Head With Marky Ramone.
Lewis says there was no real rush to get the record out despite the strong early reviews the album is garnering.
"When we did it, it was just an opportunity that presented itself," he says. "We knew that we weren't going to release it right away. We knew that we were going to put it in the pantry and keep it. It seemed strange after five years but this is more or less how I thought it would play out to be honest."
Teenage Head plan on touring the rest of the year behind the album and hope to set up a few showcase performances later this year with Marky Ramone behind the drum kit. Lewis also says a new studio album is on the agenda, something that would "freak everybody out."
But Lewis is enjoying the moment for now.
"I really like it myself, I really believe in it and therefore I'm enjoying the fact that it seems other people like it too."
http://www.torontosun.com/Entertainment/Music/2008/04/24/5371691-sun.html
TORONTO SUN - sidebar article
Thu, April 24, 2008
'Good' thing could get even better
Although they never discussed covering a song by The Ramones for Teenage Head With Marky Ramone, Gord Lewis says the synergy between Ramone and the band was instantaneous.
"When we were laying down the bed tracks in rehearsal, it felt like it came together," he says. "That's when I knew things were going good."
The record could also enable Lewis to issue some archival material he's been hoping to "shine up" at some point. But Lewis also says the record could catapult Teenage Head to another level, making inroads in the U.S., Europe and Japan -- markets that aren't very familiar with the band.
"Well, to be honest, that was kind of the whole idea behind this thing as well," he says. "The music hasn't been distributed internationally really and I thought this would be a great way of introducing ourselves to the rest of the world."
BACKGROUNDER
The album's liner notes offer up a rather detailed backgrounder behind the record, including money used toward financing the album received from the late Gord Hamilton, a friend and associative executive producer on the record. In fact the band dedicated this album in his memory.
So what would Hamilton think of the record?
"I think he would love it," Lewis says. "He was watching us through the whole thing."
http://www.torontosun.com/Entertainment/Music/2008/04/24/5371686-sun.html
HAMILTON SPECTATOR
(22 April 2008)
Teenage Head: still Some Kinda Fun
Graham Rockingham
Showtime
What: Teenage Head, CD release party for Teenage Head with Marky Ramone. With The Vapids
Where: The Studio at Hamilton Place
When: Saturday, April 26, 9 p.m.
Tickets: $20/door, $18/advance from Copps Coliseum box office, ticketmaster.ca, 905-527-7666
We always knew Teenage Head and The Ramones lived in parallel, if not separate, universes.
It was only a matter of time before the two paths crossed.
Luckily, when that moment came, somebody had the good sense to record the moment.
It happened in Hamilton five years ago in an old converted church called Catherine North Studio. Marky Ramone, drummer on classics such as I Wanna Be Sedated, Rock 'n' Roll High School and The KKK Took My Baby Away, sat on the studio's raised stage behind a borrowed drum kit thrashing out Let's Shake with The Head's Frankie Venom, Gord Lewis and Steve Marshall. Behind the controls was New York's Daniel Rey, veteran producer of punk bands such as The Doughboys, The Misfits and The Ramones.
This week, the music those combined talents made during those three days in that north Hamilton studio was released as a new CD, Teenage Head With Marky Ramone.
Marky and the guys recorded a dozen of Teenage Head's biggest rockers from their past. Half the tracks were originally on the Head's 1979 self-titled debut album. The rest are from Frantic City (1980), Some Kinda Fun (1982) and Electric Guitar (1988).
Hardcore Head fans may wonder why. The original recordings are classics. Why redo them? So with some trepidation, I sat down to compare the "new" with the old.
Track One is Top Down, the high-speed cruiser that opened that original Teenage Head album. The new version lacks Frankie's introductory belch, but the sound of Marky's pounding toms make up for it. Gordie's fat guitar chords fill the speakers, gaining speed and pulling Marshall's bass along with it. On the original, Frankie's voice was a reedy teenage nasal whine. Thirty years later, it's lower, growly and mean.
Everything is harder, faster, stronger. So it goes through Let's Shake, You're Tearin' Me Apart, Picture My Face and Some Kinda Fun.
By the time, Lucy Potato comes thundering through the headphones, I'm sold.
The session happened almost accidentally in 2003 when Marky Ramone came to Canada for some speaking engagements. The Ramones were already finished as a band. Joey and Dee Dee were dead, and Johnny was suffering from the cancer that would take his life the following year. Lewis and Marshall were hired to back Marky on a few Ramones' songs at the end of each appearance. It was backstage at a Toronto club that Lewis and Marky discovered their mutual love for the old Honeymooners TV show.
"All these New York guys are crazy for the Honeymooners, so I broke the ice with the old Ed Norton line, 'Who is the composer of Swanee River?'" Lewis explained in an interview. "Marky looked at me kind of funny and then picked up on it right away."
Teenage Head had never stopped playing gigs in southern Ontario, but they weren't exactly a household name anymore. They had already had their day, selling a couple of hundred thousand records in the '80s. One of the band's concerts at Ontario Place had even sparked a riot. But that was a long time ago.
Last year, a couple of things happened that gave Teenage Head reason to believe they still had a large audience. There was that night in February when the Tragically Hip performed Picture My Face to a sold out crowd at Copps Coliseum. The Hip's Gord Downie later told Lewis that Teenage Head was one of the Hip's biggest influences.
Later, the Head got another lift when the band's self-titled debut album and Frantic City made No. 50 and No. 58 on the respected Top 100 Canadian Albums list compiled by author Bob Mersereau.
The time was now right, figured Lewis, to release the Marky Ramone sessions. He found a label, Hamilton's Sonic Unyon, which could offer the band promotion and international distribution. They started out with a Canadian re-release of the first Teenage Head album last year, followed by a successful Western Canadian tour.
This week, the Marky Ramone CD was released in Canada. There's another western tour set for May with Jack Pedler on drums and, in June, the CD will be released in the United States and U.K.
"Back in the '80s we never really got a chance outside of Canada," Lewis says. "Maybe now we can play all those places we didn't back then, like the U.S. and Europe, maybe even Japan. Why not?"
http://www.thespec.com/Entertainment/article/358032
ALBUM REVIEWS
MONTREAL MIRROR
Montreal QC (24 April 2008)
http://www.montrealmirror.com/2008/042408/disc.html
Teenage Head with Marky Ramone
self-titled
(Sonic Unyon)
One of Canada's most beloved punk bands join forces with punk rock legend Marky Ramone and revisit half of their 1979 debut as well as six other songs from their somewhat rocky career—a tall order indeed. Even with odds against them, this is a killer slab of greasy rock 'n' roll, still managing to ring out with inspiration and bare some teeth. Marky adds his trademark nailgun beat, punching the ones and threes while adding a newfound swing to these dusty nuggets. Most young punk bands could only hope to get this intense.
8.5/10
(Johnson Cummins)
NOW MAGAZINE
Toronto ON (24 April 2008)
http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/discs.cfm?content=162764
TEENAGE HEAD
Teenage Head With Marky Ramone (Sonic Unyon)
Rating: NNNN (4 out of 5)
by Jordan Bimm
Q: What do condoms and Teenage Head have in common? A: Marky Ramone. That's right, the dude who hit the skins for the Ramones from 1978 to 1983 and then again from 1987 to 1996 has been busy launching a line of condoms (dubbed "Too Tuff To Break") and collaborating with Canada's best-loved retro punks, Teenage Head.
While their songs are a little longer than the Ramones' famous buzz-saw blitzkriegs, fans looking for a taste of true 70s punk will not be disappointed. You can sing the chorus to I Wanna Be Sedated over Full Time Fool, but Top Down offers some top-shelf guitar licks.
Teenage Head get down at Healey's on Friday (April 25).
EYE WEEKLY
Toronto ON (24 April 2008)
http://www.eyeweekly.com/music/ondisc/article/25358
TEENAGE HEAD
With Marky Ramone
BY Nick Flanagan April 23, 2008 16:04
Editorial Rating:
3 stars out of 5
Having reformed several years ago, Hamilton new wave/punk legends Teenage Head capitalized on a 2003 meeting with Marky Ramone, asking him to record with them. The result was this collaboration, with the band re-recording several of their most iconic songs and going deep into their catalogue. Produced by Daniel Rey (whose credits include the Ramones' Brain Drain), the results are fun, with Ramone's drums adding a different feel to vintage songs such as "Picture My Face" and "Teenage Beer Drinkin' Party." New vocal touches from Frankie Venom and arrangement changes keep the release interesting, and the liner notes capture guitarist Gord Lewis' pure enthusiasm for the project, but the band and the songs are older now — part of the beauty of the originals lies in the absolute freshness of the recordings. That said, this album rolls along without a stumble.
TEENAGE HEAD PLAY HEALEY'S ROADHOUSE (56 BLUE JAYS WAY) APRIL 25
FREDERICTON TELEGRAPH JOURNAL
Fredericton NB (23 April 2008)
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/magazine/article/275643
Hamilton's Teenage Head still has it
BOB MERSEREAU
BACKBEAT
Published Wednesday April 23rd, 2008
Appeared on page D4
Having had the honour of emceeing a Teenage Head show in the group's hometown of Hamilton last November, I can tell you that the group still has it, and has lost neither the plot nor its energy.
Canada's first hit "punk" band, you can argue ad nauseam whether its blend of ripping rockabilly and dripping attitude fits the definition of punk. I can tell you that in 1979 it was the band that showed Canada had a scene equivalent to London's or New York's.
Now, the group returns with Teenage Head with Marky Ramone (Sonic Unyon), a disc featuring the group's three surviving original members with the one remaining living Ramone on drums. Teenage Head has shared bills with The Ramones over the years; a couple of years back it was doing a project in Ontario with Marky. The idea of recording together came up and a plan was hatched to re-record the group's hardest, fastest, rocking-est, most Ramones-esque numbers.
Instead of simply a greatest hits set, they approached the album as a group of songs that "helped define the genre, very similar to jazz greats getting together to record ... different concepts and twists on the standards."
For many early Canadian punks, these are the standards: Let's Shake, Picture My Face, Some Kinda' Fun, Teenage Beer Drinkin' Party. They all feature Gord Lewis's buzzsaw guitar, Frankie Venom's sneering vocals, Steve Marshall's heavy and melodic bass and now Marky's incredible drive.
Ably recorded by another punk fixture, producer Daniel Rey, the project has taken years to come out, but it has the authority and sincerity only veterans of quality can produce. You'd have to march a long way to find a band today that's able to match the intensity of these recordings, simply because most groups don't know how to create fireworks anymore, they just know how to copy them from old acts.
The music is still all about the melody. The song comes first, as it does with all the best garage rock. It's been almost 20 years since Teenage Head played the Maritimes, so please go to its website (www.teenagehead.ca) and demand an Eastern tour.
SUN MEDIA CHAIN
Various Cities (22 April 2008)
Toronto Sun - http://www.torontosun.com/Entertainment/Music/2008/04/22/5353821-sun.html
Calgary Sun - http://calsun.canoe.ca/Showbiz/2008/04/22/5354561-sun.html
Edmonton Sun - http://www.edmontonsun.com/Entertainment/Music/2008/04/22/5354986-sun.html
Winnipeg Sun - http://www.winnipegsun.com/Entertainment/Music/2008/04/22/5353291-sun.html
Teenage Head
Teenage Head with Marky Ramone
Punk
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Talk about a match made in punk heaven. For their first CD in 12
years, Hamilton legends Teenage Head recut 12 of their beer drinkin' classics with the one and only Marky Ramone on drums and Daniel Rey producing. That's pretty cool. What's even cooler: Frankie Venom and co. still sound every bit as raw, rangy and rambunctious as they did 30 years ago. Some kinda fun.
-Darryl Sterdan