For eight years, C.J. Ward experience both the world of punk and
\nthe world of rock first-hand as the bassist for The Ramones. The
\nlessons he learned onstage with one of America’s best-known punk
\nacts were incredibly valuable – and now, he’s ready to show the end
\nresult of those years of schooling.<\/p>\n
Ward’s band, Los Gusanos, takes the best parts of the Ramones,
\nand dares to add something else into the mix – real chord
\nstructures! The songs on their recently-released debut album
\nLos Gusanos<\/i> demonstrate that this band is the next step
\nforward from the ashes of the Ramones, if not a little rougher in
\nthe sound.<\/p>\n
In Los Gusanos, Ward trades in his bass for the double-duty of
\nrhythm guitar and lead vocalist – and one would be a liar if they
\nsaid that Ward didn’t sound a little bit like Joey Ramone. Lead
\nguiarist “Dirty” Ed Lynch, bassist “Big” John Chadwick and drummer
\nBo Matheson round out the quartet, all of whom add just the right
\namount of punch to the mixture to make this band sound unique and
\nfresh.<\/p>\n
Unlike what you might expect from Los Gusanos, the band actually
\ntakes the time to develop the songs on this one into some
\noccasionally heavy, often powerful works. The difference is heard –
\nas well as the eventual similarities – right from the word “go” on
\n“Bad Day”. Ward and crew go after your eardrums with a 2-X-4 and
\nthey don’t stop for forty minutes.<\/p>\n
The development of songs instead of teen anthems is a refreshing
\nchange of pace, as heard on cuts like “Strip,” “Reciprocal” and
\n“Helldorado”. In fact, when listening to this, one wonders why Ward
\nwasn’t given the chance to express himself more in The Ramones.
\nEven “Blue Sky” might shock the by-the-rules punk fan – this wasn’t
\na song the boys thought up just before they strapped their
\ninstruments on.<\/p>\n
There are only a few letdowns on
\nLos Gusanos<\/i>. “Burnin’,” an ode to wonder weed, might be a
\nfavorite of Howard Stern’s, but to my ears, it was an
\nunder-two-minute waste of time. The overall groove of the album
\nlets up a bit near the end, even though it picks up significantly
\non the final track “On My Way”. And, perhaps the greatest
\ndisappointment – why didn’t they include their cover of Ten Years
\nAfter’s “I’d Love To Change The World” on this one? I really would
\nhave liked to have heard what they did to it.<\/p>\n
\nLos Gusanos<\/i> is a natural progression from Ramones to
\nnew-punk, eventually to a sound and style all its own. While Ward
\nand crew still have a little work to do, this is a solid first
\neffort that is worth checking out.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7370],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38921","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-los-gusanos","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38921"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38921"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}