Ramonescore Rules

GUEST POST: Mike Patton (Vista Blue)

Oct 01, 2024

If you're reading this, there is a good chance that you're a fan of power pop.

And if so, then there's also probably a pretty good chance that you know there are a lot of unwritten rules involved in power pop. For one of my bands, Vista Blue, sometimes we're labeled power pop. But other times, we're described as pop punk.

Of course, this leads to wacky scenarios online where power pop people will say we're too pop punk, and then punk dudes will say we aren't punk enough! It's something we've laughed about for 10 years now, and we've reached the point where we enjoy openly calling it out in our songs occasionally.

This is what inspired our most recent single, "The Pop Punk Preservation Society."

Any Kinks fan can probably guess where we went with this one. And it's important to note that, in this context, we are referring to a very specific type of pop punk known as Ramonescore. For me and my friends (at least), Green Day kicked off a love affair with this subgenre, leading us to quickly find the other Lookout Records bands and eventually other similar labels and bands.

I arrived later to the Lookout party than most of my current friends did. Weezer and Green Day were probably my two favorite bands of the mid-‘90s, but Oasis was right there with them, and I was honestly listening to more Britpop than anything else. (To this day, I'd like to think my music is more Pulp than Screeching Weasel, but I really don't care either way.)

I finally caught on to the Mr. T Experience (MTX) in the late ‘90s, and they'd definitely top my list of Lookout bands, with Green Day and The Queers being something like 2A and 2B. (If you want my third, it'd be Groovie Ghoulies.) After playing a show with MTX and the Ghoulies in the spring of 2000, I officially started The Robinsons, my first pop punk band, the next day.

In 2008, our Ramonescore band The Loblaws signed with Mutant Pop Records.

That's when we really started to hear about all the rules and formulas necessary to be a "good" band. The internet had collected enough data by then, I suppose:

Leather jackets
All downstrokes on the guitar
Songs about girls
PBR, pizza, bubblegum

I don't know. Some of it made sense. Some of it seemed random.

Sure, I can hear the Ramones influence in MTX, Green Day, and The Queers, as well as the bands I fell in love with during our Loblaws period such as The Kung Fu Monkeys and The Leftovers. But, of course, they're all different and have their own styles as well.

Yet look around the internet and you’ll find someone trashing Ramonescore bands who don’t follow the rules—including my band Vista Blue. Bringing us back to our Kinks ripoff song about the people who worry about this kind of stuff: The Pop Punk Preservation Society (also known here as the Ramonescore executives):

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
We preserve songs
About girls and drinking beers
Green Day are sell outs
But god save The Queers

Vista Blue (L-to-R): Mark (bass), Mike (guitar), Reese (drums), Pat (guitar)

We cite a few of the rules, such as downstrokes, songs about girls, counting to four, etc. We also paraphrase Dr. Frank from the MTX track "Mr. Ramones," where he sings, "Ramones are God, and I'm the only one who knows."

But here's the funny part, I think: As some reviews have already pointed out, the song is also sort of a love letter to it all. Right? We do, in fact, enjoy downstrokes, fast tempos, catchy rhythms and lyrics. And beer! I even like songs about girls, despite the fact that I hardly write any of those myself these days.

So, I guess the point is that rules are stupid.

Music is supposed to be fun, and if it gets stuck in your head, it shouldn't matter exactly what the drummer is doing on that hi-hat.

Someone once told me that he stopped listening to Green Day "when they decided to be musicians." And I imagine that guy, who has missed out on some terrific Green Day songs over the last 20+ years, would love to be a card-carrying member of The Pop Punk Preservation Society.

Then again, someone has to do it!