Ramona - How Long / Steve McQueen

Despite being influenced by the New York City punk movement of the 70s (as if their name didn’t already give that one away…), Ramona are an up and coming band contrastingly hailing from the bright lights of, um, Brighton.

The scuzzy riffs of ‘How Long’ are practically stolen from Johnny Ramone’s Mosrite - crunchy and rotating like clockwork - and bound to please the eardrums. Six-strings aside (and I know ‘Hey! Ho! Let’s go!’ wasn’t exactly Shakespeare), Ramona’s lyrical content is pretty darned weak - ‘How long are you gonna keep me? Cos you don’t want me. You just want me tonight.’. The repetition of this ends up sounding juvenile and bubblegummy.

B-side ‘Steve McQueen’ may have a more sinister edge as it takes down the BPM - but once again the track lacks any true whollop. There is no overwhelmingly sneering attitude to these songs - they are far too fluffy. Lead vocalist Karen Anne pipes out her best vocal which, while fun, isn’t up to slick Debbie Harry standards. Ultimately, the tracks end up sounding like bedroom attempts of vintage CBGB turn outs.

Despite knocking out some decent guitar-work, there is no progress musically into 2010 with Ramona, nor do they compete with the gems which could be found back when Joey Ramone’s drainpipes lead the way.