4HR Ramona

Pharmacy Park (Yeah, It’s Rock)
by Jon Sarre

If Seattle drug bands coppin’ Mike Ness’ version of roots rock with readymade choruses wet yer panties, then 4 Hr. Ramona is better than a variable-speed vibrator, you sick fuck. What’s up here is the Rainy City’s dubious decadence worn as a badge of pride cuz our band seems more fucked up than yours, yet we can still spin off a perfect Replacements guitar solo to chorus like clockwork, so maybe we’re just more cynical than you.

The road map’s got the previously mentioned Social Distortion’s born-to-loseisms (take yer pick), Paul Revere and the Raiders rips (“Wounded Knee” ‘cept I understand why they did it, cuz they care about the drunk Native Americans wandering around the Greyhound station, but I still don’t get “Cherokee Nation”), Springsteen covers (“I’m on Fire,” but rockin’!) and what amounts to one really long run-on sentence. Basest truth is the map’s useless and 4 Hr. Ramona’s tryin’ to find north on their compass, just like damn near everyone else in Sea-Town. At home and lost, ain’t that a shame?
(PO Box 85775 Seattle WA 98145)