box office bomb (1987) - dramarama: questionmark records, QM-009

The late-80's post-punk era was a weird time in both society and music. The raw honesty, energy, and confrontational anger that drove the musical overthrow of corporate rock and disco had burned out, and was co-opted by suits into non-threatening ways to sell breakfast cereal.  The

mohawks, leather jackets and unnaturally colored hair that were once seen as a threat to the placid suburbia of Reagan America, became little more than fashion accessories.

And made-for-TV musical acts like Ratt and Madonna and Whitesnake and Debbie Gibson became the center of rock through slick videos featuring sexy dancers, careful lighting, quick-cut editing, and meticulous choreography. A song could suck eggs but still be a "hit" so long as the video got a regular play on the MTV.  It was a perfect distillation of the cheap shallowness of the 80's. Image ruled and substance ... well that became a dirty word.

But somewhere in the ashes of punk and the shadows of the soulless Top 40 there was still a fringe where real bands with real songs and no budget for slick videos with sexy dancers played and recorded.  There were bands like the Lemonheads and the Replacements out there playing genuine music.  And one of those bands was Dramarama.

Side 1: Steve and Edie New Dream Whenever I'm With Her Spare Change 400 Blows Pumpin' (My Heart)
Side 2: It's Still Warm Out In The Rain Baby Rhino's Eye Worse Than Being Myself Modesty Personified

The problem was there was very little outlet for these fringe bands.  Radio and MTV were now saturated with the major acts and the big labels controlled airplay, making it tough for these indie bands to find an audience outside of college radio and the rare station dedicated to promoting genuine rock.

That was the situation in which Dramarama found themselves.  Formed by John Easedale and Chris Carter, they struggled to get traction until Rodney Bingenheimer (who is one of the most unsung but important heroes in music) heard their 1985 album, Cinéma Vérité, and played it on his Rodney on the Roq show on LA radio icon KROQ (another unsung hero in music).  That led to Dramarama finally getting some much-deserved attention, and eventual commercial success.  It's clear that  Easedale and Carter appreciated this because the liner notes for Box Office Bomb (which are awesome, by the way) end with a very large, bold statement dedicating the album to Rodney.  In fact, the entire "dedication" section of the liner notes are pure gold, including such names as Jed the Fish, Richard Blade, & Poorman (other kroq deejays), Peter Buck, Ian Hunter, Chris Stein, Mickey Dolenz, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Joey Ramone, and Mick Ronson.  That's quite a list of musical influences, right there.

Dramrama is one of those band without which there may never have been a Nirvana.  Because of their time, they, along with other bands like Dinosaur Jr and the Smithereens, were essentially caretakers, bridging the mid 80's and mid-90's from the previous generation (i.e. the Plimsouls, Blondie ) to the next (Nirvana, Pearl Jam).

Unfortunately as caretakers Dramarama ended up being not only undervalued, but neglected and dismissed.  Which sucks, because Box Office Bomb is a great album, with a strong songlist including a killer cover of Patti Smith's Pumpin' (My Heart).

Box Office Bomb turned out to be one of the last albums I ever bought new.  By 1987 I was well into investing heavily in CDs, and in any event new releases on vinyl were becoming more and more scarce in record stores. In many ways the change from analog to digital was a reflection of the change in music back to more mainstream AOR.  There was still good stuff out there, but the landscape had definitely shifted.  The next so-called revolution in media (from CD to MP3) would also be reflective of a change in music - and much like the shift from vinyl to CD represented a small step backwards, the drop from CD to MP3 would be a major decline in quality.

Up next: The album with perhaps the greatest title ever.