by Kastle
by Kastle
Gabba Gabba Hey... Would you buy a computer from this man?
Well, he's hardly the stereotypical computer nerd but with the internet becoming a part of everyone's life, Joey Ramone is no exception. The man best known for saying 1,2,3,4 and breaking into a barrage of two minute rock anthems is now a true "cyber punk."
Set up with his own personal laptop and upcoming plans to do a Powerbook ad, the frontman for the legendary punk band, The Ramones, also writes a regular column for the online music magazine Addicted To Noise.
"It's been a really great experience working for them. For me it's something that I hadn't done before. It's definitely interesting and pretty wild, the whole internet. I haven't done that much because we've been touring so much lately but I'm looking forward to it. I've let people know how they can get a hold of me with E-mail and all that, everyone tells me once you start you can't stop."
For now Joey has got other things on his mind. Upon the release of their
latest album, Adios Amigos, this summer, the rumors were endless about
the Ramones' decision to break up. But Joey calls it "retirement," and confirms
that the band will do it right after a farewell tour of the US in early 1996.
"It's a band agreement, we want to be remembered as a great band. Plus, me and John have been doing this for about 22 years and we want to move on with our lives. It's been great, the Ramones are a very constructive band, we've influenced 2 or 3 generations of younger bands. I feel like we completed what we set out to do."
The Ramones have enjoyed a long career as one of the innovators of punk, a musical movement that began in the late 70's in New York, and spread to Britain then back to the US in a fury of angst, anarchy and chaos. Though the music was about being an individual, the term punk rock slapped a label on a scene Joey remembers from the perspective of a major creative player.
"When we were tagged punk rock in 1974, we were rocking the system in a time that was corporate...disco...it was like we were from Mars or something. There was the Ramones, Donna Summer, Disco Duck, the CB Song, Boston, REO Speedwagon, on and on. In those days it was just us. When we went over to England all these kids got turned on to our album and they all wanted to form bands like the Ramones...We're not big on labels ourselves, the Ramones kind of stood alone and still do, we always considered our music Ramones music but the press are always going to tag you or label you, which is sick but that's life. That's being a statistic, a number (laughs), take a number, like in a bakery!"
