[July 29, 2011] Dirty, spacey, quirky rock Tweet Jul 29, 2011 (St. Joseph News-Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Some people call The Ramey Memo the weirdest band in St. Joseph. But maybe they just haven't soaked in the band's brilliance. "Either you get it or you don't," says Todd Cooper, a longtime Ramey Memo fan and lead singer/guitarist for Third Wounded Man. "If you understand what they're doing, it's an amazing thing to watch. If you don't get it, it's going to be like reading the phone book in Arabic." Here's to hoping people will "get it" Friday night, when both The Ramey Memo and Third Wounded Man perform at 10 p.m. at the Rendezvous. As far as the music is concerned, The Ramey Memo -- named after a supposed piece of evidence that proves the existence of space aliens -- isn't all too quirky. After all, the band shares the grungy guitar riffs and groove-heavy bass lines of alternative rock acts like Mudhoney, NOFX, Pavement, The Melvins and others who gained notoriety in the late '80s and early '90s. But The Melvins never concocted hilarious songs about Darth Vader or the history of Van Halen lead singers. For Garner Cowdrey, Raye Lynn Cowdrey and Tyson Bottorff of The Ramey Memo, writing geek rock tunes has always come more naturally than love songs, melodic ballads or butt-kicking moshers. "Instead of writing the same songs you've heard 100 times over and over, we'll do songs about movies and bands that we like," Bottorff says. But there's more substance to this band than nerd references and random premises. In the process of recording The Ramey Memo's new album "Forget It," Raye Lynn Cowdrey picked up the electric violin (she played classic violin in high school) to give the group a different sound. Bottorff also says the band has sharpened its lyrical prowess. "We've went from being more of just a flat-out 'what was that?' funny to having a sarcastic tone," Bottorff says. The group doesn't mind performing some obscure -- very obscure -- covers either. For "Forget It," The Ramey Memo paid tribute to "REPPEN 816 ST. JOSEPH MO. ROLLEN AROUND," a freestyle rap video about driving around in St. Joseph that was posted to YouTube by Verbal816. Bottorff says it's one of the group's favorite Web videos, but it took a while for Garner Cowdrey to master the lyrics. "I still don't know if he has them all right," Bottorff laughs. The musical selection will be a little less quirky -- but only a little -- when Third Wounded Man opens the show. Bottorff also plays bass guitar in this band, along with Cooper and drummer Bill Blizzard. Cooper says the sound of Third Wounded Man wavers between the garage rock stylings of Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age and the relentless metal of Slayer and Prong -- all with a taste of punk reminiscent of The Misfits. "If it sticks against the wall -- if it's something that's fun to play -- we're going to go with it," Cooper says. That attitude is what he has enjoyed most about forming this band. In Blue Oyster Culture Club, Cooper and the crew stick to '80s pop songs. In Full Power, he and the group constantly checked themselves to make sure the band's sound wasn't too similar to anything else. But Cooper, Blizzard and Bottorff are playing anything they darn well please in Third Wounded Man, and they all describe it as a freeing experience. "You know, we're not 20 anymore, desperately trying to get a record deal," explains Cooper, who is also a member of IT and the now-defunct Barbecutioners. "We went into it with an idea of having no rules, and it's been so much fun." Cooper says writing new songs has been more fun than anything. In the past few months, he's penned "Every Little Thing She Does is Tragic" about all of the "hot messes" he's seen frequenting bar gigs over the years. He also wrote a tune called "The Ghosts of Tuesday's Past" about how no one feels a sense of anticipation over album releases anymore. But his pride and joy is "The March of the True," a song about St. Joseph itself. "No one sings about this town, but this town has been good to us," Cooper says. "It's all about people who would come to see us and it has all sorts of references to St. Joe. It's just a shout out." The regulars at the Rendezvous will welcome both bands with open arms, but anyone looking for something different from the typical St. Joe music scene should have a good time, too. "If you like good, hairy, dirty rock songs, then come out," Cooper says. "Most people are 'getting it' now," Bottorff says of The Ramey Memo. "If they don't, there's plenty of other stuff they can listen to." To see more of the St. Joseph News-Press or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.stjoenews-press.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, St. Joseph News-Press, Mo. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]