The Riverdales is basically Screeching Weasel, but doing their best to sound like the Ramones. This single is absolutely spot on in trying to capture that Ramones magic. Simple, hooky and punk rock.
My little story that kind of relates to this single is that when I was in highschool I was into punk rock. More specifically I was into skateboarding and with that came periferal involvement in some of the local punk rock shows and bands. I mentioned before that my neighbor was in the band Life Sentence. Well I remember going to a Life Sentence show that I think was in Carpentersville. Screeching Weasel played that show. I don't remember much about the show other than at one point they played some Ozzy Osbourne and they go boo'd. I also just remember people at the show saying they hated them and more specifically they hated Ben Weasel. Not knowing him and being a teenager I took their word for it and always thought he was lame. As I've grown older I've learned that the guy actually is pretty talented. Today's record being a perfect example. Whenever I read anything about Ben Weasel it says he was a controversial character in the Chicago punk scene. People either loved or hated him. I happened to be associated with the group of folks that hated him. Well, whatever the real story is, it probably has more to do with jealousy than anything else. Let's face it the guy was talented and the guy obviously knew how to hustle and make it in the music business. My hats off to him.
So now that you've read my rambling about some show that no one remembers about opinions about a guy that don't really matter, you can get to what does matter, the music. "Back To You" is a perfect punk rock single in the Ramones vein. If you like the Ramones, you'll love this one. "I Can't Pretend" is pretty good as well. It's not as perfect as "Back To You", but it is still pretty good.
Enjoy!
01 Back To You.m4a
02 I Can't Pretend.m4a
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