About Dramarama
Dramarama is an American, New Jersey–based alternative rock/power pop band, who later moved to Los Angeles. The band was formed in New Jersey in 1982 and disbanded in 1994. The band formally reunited in 2003 following an appearance on VH1's Bands Reunited.
Since 1996, an evolving lineup of the band, always fronted by singer/songwriter John Easdale, has been performing in one incarnation or another , and from then until 2003 played occasional shows in Los Angeles as well as in New Jersey. However, amid renewed interest since the episode on Bands Reunited in January 2004 and a large-scale appearance at KROQ-FM's annual Inland Invasion festival concert in September 2003, Dramarama then toured nationally and released a full-length CD titled Everybody Dies on October 25, 2005. Fifteen years later, they released the album Color TV.
In 1982, Dramarama formed in the basement of a record store in Wayne, New Jersey, owned by founding member Chris Carter. Carter operated the alternative record store Looney Tunez Records . Initially the line-up consisted of singer/songwriter John Easdale, "Mr. E Boy" and Carter, later joined by Peter Wood on guitars and Ron Machuga on drums.
The evolution and combined efforts prompted the emergence of the DPW and re-incarnation "The F&cks". The band emerged in North New Jersey, where at that time there was a scene with radio station WHTG 106.3 and venues such as The Stone Pony, Green Parrot and Fast Lane featuring other local bands such as Red House, Smithereens, Whirling Dervishes and The Blases. In 1982, the band released its first single, "You Drive Me", attracting some national attention.
In 1984, keyboard player Ted Ellenis and drummer Ken Moutenot joined the band and Dramarama released their first EP Comedy, a self-funded, five-track debut that garnered both critical and unexpected cult praise in France. Moutenot was replaced by Jesse Farbman, who left the group after the band's third album to pursue mind/body purity and to obtain "philosophical and spiritual awareness". Dramarama issued its first full-length release, 1985's Cinéma Vérité on France's New Rose Records. It was re-released in the U.S. after receiving airplay on KROQ-FM radio from influential Los Angeles disc jockey Rodney Bingenheimer . Bingenheimer alerted Posh Boy Records at New Rose, which approved Robbie Fields' contacting the band directly in New Jersey.
One of the early radio stations to play the song "Anything, Anything " was KROQ. It was one of the station's more requested songs in 1986 and 1987, and it became one of the more requested songs in the station's history. Following the local L.A. success of "Anything, Anything", the band obtained a larger advance from Chameleon and permanently moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles. The song was featured in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and was covered for the East Timor Benefit Album.
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