Punk Rock Raduno/Striped Music, July 15, 2020
The Manges drop a quick taster for their upcoming LP.
Italy’s Ramones-adoring punks The Manges are a bit of a thing in some circles. They are beloved by many of the great bands coming out of Europe recently and fans of Ramonescore know The Manges mean it. And while Andrea Manges has stayed busy with various projects including the fantastic Andrea Manges and the Veterans, The Manges haven’t dropped a full length in a while (dating back to 2014’s All Is Well). So any new stuff from The Manges camp is worthy of excitement for a Ramones-adoring nerd like myself.
Thankfully, a new record called Punk Rock Addio has been announced (coming September 25) and they’ve dropped the first song from the record via this “Endless Detention”/Ramones At Lollapalooza” single. And if you know and like The Manges, then you won’t find any surprises here.
The single, “Endless Detention”, is a buzzing fast song with riffs that are catchy and seemingly ripped from any number of Ramones songs. The drums do the speed-of-light 8th note hi-hat thing and the minimal guitar lead rips just for a second before coming back to the fray. They throw some siren sound effects in to add just a bit of ambient dorkiness. And they do it all with hooks, down-on-your-luck-things-suck sort of lyrics, and an “endless detention” singalong down the stretch. I mean, it’s just a Manges song, and a really good one.
The flip side is “Ramones At Lollapalooza”. This one’s a mid-tempo riff monster that has a swagger and heaviness to it as they sing about getting old, feeling lost, and being a fish out of water (“like the Ramones at Lollapalooza”). The verse is okay, but the chorus is where it’s at. It’s catchy like crazy and hooks me quick. Pretty good stuff for a song that’s been shelved and unreleased up until now.
This single is pretty awesome. Fans of The Manges and the like will eat this up and rightfully so. No new bells or whistles (though I suppose a siren is tossed in there), just a couple of good songs. For me, that’s all it takes.
You might like this if:
- Everything begins and ends with Ramones and their progeny
You might not if:
- You don’t need any more Ramones-worship in your day
ryan is a reviewer and news editor for TGEFM. He’s very secretive, he might be an alien.
