Holly Ramos, singer, songwriter and guitarist.
All the other lovely folk who play with me at a given time....
Influences
not exactly influences but inspirations: Nina Simone, Generation X, Patti Smith, The Ramones, Blondie, X-ray Spex, Iggy Pop, The New York Dolls, Minor Threat, Black Flag, CRASS, Dee Dee Ramone, The Kinks, Bowie, Lina Wertmeuller, Gene Hackman, Ramsey Lewis, Missy Elliot, Samantha Morton, Al Pachino, Lucinda Williams, Burt Bacharac, Sissy Fit, James Brown, The Carpenters, Carole King, Vaginal Creme Davis, Jennifer Honkey Tits, Ryan Adams, Bridgette Bardot, Billy Bragg, Booker T and the MGs, Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Darlene Love, Mean Streets, City of God, Raising Victor Vargas, You Can Count on Me, Arrested Developement, Johnny Thunders, Sly and the Family, Hughy Piano Smith, Marshall Stacks, Rumi, Hugh Masekela, Fela Kuti, Billy Bragg, Neil Young, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Odetta, Flloyd, Jackie 60, Liza Minelli in Caberet, Bob Fosse, Lenny Bruce, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Into Thin Air (the book), The White Stripes, Hole, FUR, Ram Dass, The Evens, 1960's Gibson guitars, The Royal Tanembaums, Dave Chapelle, The Hold Steady, Amy Winehouse, Florence and the machine, Santo Gold, M.I.A !!!!!!!
Sounds Like
Johnnny Thunders, Mazzy Star, Regina Spektor, Beth Orton, Lucinda Williams, Keith Richards, Mick Jones, Shelby Lynn, Jonathan Richman, Lloyd Cole, Dee Dee Ramone, Nina Simone, and Lou Reed, and Fur all mixed up.
"Holly Ramos is the one who sat me down and played me James Brown records. In the 90s she fronted the NYC band FUR. She is the real thing,her songs have been a part of the soundtrack of my life over the last decade. Now she writes true grit New York City Soul. The street experience makes out with her radiant innocence; she is a descendent of Johnny Thunders and The Ramones, child-like and all knowing"
-Antony from Antony and the Johnsons
ANTIMUSIC REVIEW: "That's not unlike Dylan and Young, both loved for an unusual musical genius that somehow doesn't extend to what's considered ----traditionally or technically ----a solid singing voice. Yet the fact that Ramos is mentioned in the same paragraph as these two Greats should be reason enough to check her out.
Which leads us to the real noggin scratcher: Ramos's vocal skills are not exactly toe-curling, hair-raising or heart-tugging, nor the source of any other immediate positive bodily reactions. So what is it about Ramos that earns her a four out of five? As best as I can figure, this is it: You WANT to give her a good rating, if only to reassure her that not all of us music lovers have been brainwashed into acting and buying like Stepford Significant Others. You WANT her to believe that some of us actually PREFER music that hasn't been vanilla-ized (look it up—if it's not there, it should be. Start a petition, get involved already).
Ramos's voice, in all its glorious originality, cunningly textured lyrics, and irresistible magnetism is, (and if anyone out there is actually keeping track, I apologize for my by-now strangulation-worthy overuse of the following word) refreshing. It's so unlike anything else out there today, that you will be forgiven for initially considering switching the channel or flipping through your musical options for something familiar, safe and Ovaltine comfy cozy." http://www.antimusic.com/reviews/08/HollyRamos.shtml
hey peeps,
i wrote and acted in this short film that went to Sundance a bit back. it was directed by the fab Ilya Chaiken and is about a promiscuous girl and the Coney Island Memaid Parade! New York Magazine just put it on their website. here is the link.(shot in glorious color, posted oddly in black and white, still cool looking...)
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/05/filmmaker_ilya_chaiken. html
I am a singer songwriter, have been for ever. i wasn't credited at first when i wrote for my friends. it didn't matter. sooner or later i got the courage to do it myself, for real. i hope you like my songs, tales of growing up in nyc, loving people, sometimes the wrong people. i have all of these stories inside me and they can't help but come out, stories about addiction to negative ions (the electric charge in the air that happens when water falls); cute girls who walk around on the lower east side along with the roosters and the chickens; holding my fathers hand when he was dying and i wasn't sure if i even liked him; pledging my love till we're old and grey and say things two times cause we forgot we said it, "but i'll still listen anyway". true stories of my life that i get to sing out with my bronx drawl (are you from the south? no but there is an accent you find deep in louisiana and oddly enough up north in the bronx. i learned about it when i read "a confederacy of dunces.") i've been called a street fighting princess and a rock star already, compared like some weird sin to some of my favorite characters, ny doll- guitar hero and junkie, Johnny Thunders, and warhol superstar Andrea Feldman. My heros's Dee Dee Ramone and Iggy Pop have both come to my shows. And my dainty songs sit somewhere in the middle of all that, soft and almost easy, with a little attitude and edge amidst all this living. Racehorse is my first solo release (2007/FORD TO CITY: DRoP DEAD RECORDS www.myspace.com/fordtocitydropdeadrecords), produced by producer extraordinaire Jess Stroup (visit him now at http://www.myspace.com/reedrothchild). i used to have a punk band called FUR (you can hear us if you visit my friend Fur in my top friends). the song Art lover is a KINKS song written by Ray Davies!! sooo beautiful!!
visit me at www.hollyramos.com
do a good deed today and support the arts
get a copy now at ameoba records in hollywood, www.amazon.com, www.milesofmusic.com, itunes or www.cdbaby.com/cd/hollyramos
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Born and raised in Manhattan, Holly was the front woman of the band FUR and the infamous DJ of GREENDOOR fame throughout the 90's. Fur released their self titled cd and a handful of singles on Blackout! records. Holly has collaborated and recorded with the lovely Antony, of Antony and the Johnsons, winner of 2005 Mercury award. She co-wrote the songs Cigarettes and Violets on Jesse Malins The Fine Art of Self-Destruction cd, Gods Lonely People on The Heat cd and Black Haired Girl on his new one, Glitter in the Gutter. She even played guitar in Joey Ramone's band for his Christmas show at Coney Island High. She Her last ep was produced by Malin and features Ryan Adams, along with Iggy Pops drummer Paul Garisto and Robbie Williams bass player Fil Izler and the song "Waterfall" which came out of those sessions is featured on Racehorse.
Holly has performed everywhere from CBGBs and Jackie 60 to the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, and has toured the US and Europe. Hollys experience of growing up punk is quoted in the American Hardcore, the definitive book on the history of hardcore punk music by Steve Blush. Holly was a special guest member of the underground performance cult BLACKLIPS!! She can be seen acting in the principal role of Natalie in the indie cult feature Margarita Happy Hour, directed by Ilya Chaiken as well as starring in the official Sundance Film Festival selection, The 100 Lovers of Jesus Reynolds, also directed by Chaiken.
la weekly write up:
Holly Ramos at the Hotel Café
"When Holly Ramos was fronting the New York trio Fur in the 90's, she sang with a sweetly endearing voice over a buzzing beehive of punk tempos and power chords on souped-up Blondie-ish tunes like "Beautiful Wreck". She was at the center of the Manhattan underground-rock scene, backing the late Joey Ramone on guitar at one of his Christmas concerts and later working with Jesse Malin and Antony & the Johnsons. Now she’s performing solo and living in L.A., but yoy can still hear lipstick traces of the Lower East Side in her phrasing and imagery on her new solo CD, Racehorse (on the wonderfully named Ford to City: Drop Dead Records). “I’m wearing two-day-old eye shadow in the sun on my stoop and thinking about you.” She confides on the sentimental Johnny Thunders-style ballad “Thinking about You”. Most of the songs on Racehorse are about love or losing love, such as he slowly unwinding waltz “Kiss Like a Waterfall” (which was co-produced by celeb pals Ryan Adams and Malin), and she puts a delicately innocent Jonathan Richman twist to her version of Ray Davies’ “Art Lover.” Tonight (5/29) she celebrates her cd release with an early (6:45pm) set. (Falling James)
The LA Weekly's Steven Leigh Morris commented on the riveting sensuality of her work; Varietys Julio Martinez called her work Outstanding; AP magazine called her a star already; and David Noh in Film Journal International compared her to Warhol superstars Andea Feldman and Patti D'Arbanville; and Entertainment Weekly listed her in "The 10 Best Bands You've Never Heard Of "...yet!
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LOTS OF FUN FOR EVERYONE
I ASK MYSELF (LIVE PART I)
PART II (continued)
please visit www.myspace.com/fordtocitydropdeadrecords to hear the whole song below:
"don't need no xmas tree"
hey girl, long time no speak...how are you these days? what is going on in your life? things are nuts around here. teenaged daughter, two year old son (must i say more). lots of love
Ohhhhhh. I love your kitty. I have 4 and would have 40 if I could handle it. Husband would get too jealous, though. :) I'll have to create a kitty file in my photo section. One American Curl....One Ebony Oriental Shorthair, One Bengal, and one stray who marched up to my door on Rivington St. one morning to announce his whole one pound of self with seven toes on each front paw. I put him in a shoe box, took him to the vet and had him de-everythinged. Now he lives a life of luxury with cat trees,and organic healthy treats. His Karma is good. Up cause I can't sleep. Just me and the cats. Ballet at Lincoln Center tomorrow. Plan to sleep allllll day. It's suppose to rain anyway.
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