CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast

Hey kids! The final transmission of the season is coming in hot, and we're heading back into the eye of the Ramones storm with the man who kept the whole circus rolling for nearly thirty years: Monte A. Melnick. Although they’re well-known for their wicked sense of humour, life on the road with the Ramones was no joke. It was a travelling pressure cooker of personal demons and enough chaos to...

Hey kids! Welcome back for Side B of our Adios Amigos Deep Dive. If Side A was the beginning of the goodbye, this is where things get really personal. We dig deep into the final stretch of the Ramones’ last studio album, where the deep cuts hit harder, the memories run deeper, and the farewells start revealing themselves for the first—and, indeed, last—time, from ‘Cretin Family’ to CJ’s own ‘Scatt...

Hey kids! Welcome to the season finale of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast. This episode comes to you in two parts and we're going straight to the source for our Series One closer… Before the leather jackets, uniform haircuts and three-chord assault that rewired the nervous system, the Ramones were just a bunch of kids knocking about Queens, riding their bikes, and figuring out what they wanted to d...

Hey kids! The end is nigh. The leather jackets are battered, the engines are running on fumes, and the greatest punk rock ‘n’ roll band on the planet is staring down the barrel of its final studio album. But Adios Amigos isn't quite the predictable last blast you might expect. There's more going on here than meets the eye… This week, we dive into Side A of the Ramones' final record, fr...

Hey kids! Welcome back… Before she was dancing with zombies in The Return of the Living Dead , Linnea Quigley was a Midwestern kid who jumped ship for Los Angeles, found punk rock, picked up a guitar and started making some noise. In this episode, Linnea takes us from the early LA punk scene and her adventures in music to cult horror movies, chainsaws, prosthetics and the wonderfully deranged worl...

For the penultimate episode of the CJ Says Deep Dive Series, Matt Stocks and CJ Ramone dive headfirst into Acid Eaters—the Ramones’ glorious trip through the songs, sounds and sub-genres that first inspired the band back in 1977. For Matt, this record is personal. Acid Eaters was the first proper Ramones album he ever owned after being seduced by the album cover and the promise of whatever was hap...

Hey kids! Welcome to another episode of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast. This week, we're joined by Joe Sib—singer, storyteller, comedian, label boss, lifer, and all-round punk rock renaissance man. We dive deep into the Ramones universe in this interview, from Joe's recollection of first meeting CJ on the Escape from New York tour in 1990 and discovering they were two kids with the same musical backgr...

Hey kids! Welcome back to CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast. This week, we’re going deep into Side A of Mondo Bizarro with a man who was there. The one and only CJ Ramone… We kick things off with ‘Censorshit’, Joey Ramone’s furious, funny and unapologetically political response to the music-censorship battles of the early ’90s. CJ takes us inside the recording of the track, explains why it was an obvious...

Hey kids! Welcome to another episode of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast. This week, we're stepping into the wonderfully deranged world of Dirty Donny — artist, hot-rod obsessive, Ramones fanatic, and one of the great modern custodians of the all-American art forms of rock 'n' roll, lowbrow and car culture. Drawing inspiration from legends like Coop and Big Daddy Roth, Donny has spent decades creating a...

Hey kids! Welcome to another Deep Dive episode of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast. This week, we drop the needle on Brain Drain— the Ramones' eleventh studio album, released in 1989, and a record that arrived at one of the most turbulent moments in the band's history. By this point, the cracks were beginning to show. Richie Ramone was gone, Dee Dee was battling his own demons, and the band were facing...

Hey kids! Welcome to another episode of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast. This week, we're heading north of the border to Vancouver to sit down with one of the great survivors of the punk rock underground: Joey Shithead, frontman of DOA, and a man who’s spent nearly five decades making noise, causing trouble, and proving that punk was never supposed to be a spectator sport. Joey takes us back to the beg...

Hey kids! Welcome to another Deep Dive episode of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast. This week, we drop the needle on Halfway to Sanity —the Ramones' tenth studio album, released in 1987, which proved that after eleven years of broken hearts and internal warfare, the brothers weren't ready to lie down and die. By this point, the musical landscape had changed beyond recognition. Punk had mutated, MTV had...

Hey kids! Welcome to another episode of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast. This week, we throw the doors of the punk-rock asylum wide open and invite onto the show the illustrious Blag Dahlia—frontman of the Dwarves, professional troublemaker, underground philosopher, solo artist, and one of the few men alive who can discuss the Ramones, Frank Zappa, jazz, rock 'n' roll, swing, and the decline of Western...

Hey kids! Welcome to another Deep Dive episode of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast. This week, we drop the needle on Animal Boy —the Ramones' ninth studio album and one of the most idiosyncratically awkward records in the band's back catalogue. Animal Boy is a far from perfect record. Yet, there are flashes of brilliance buried beneath some questionable production, strange sequencing, curious keyboards,...

Hey kids! Welcome to another instalment of CJ Says : A Ramones Podcast. We've got a great artist interview lined up this week. Before New York became a cultural phenomenon, it was a state of mind—a city where punk rock, fashion, nightlife, and art collided inside smoke-filled clubs beneath neon lights. This week, we're joined by one of the true architects of that world… Miss Guy is a musician, DJ,...

Hey kids! Welcome to another Deep Dive episode of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast . This week, we drop the needle on Too Tough to Die — the album that didn't just save the Ramones…it reminded the world who they were… By 1984, the musical landscape had shifted beneath their feet. Punk rock had splintered into a thousand different directions, mainstream success remained frustratingly out of reach, and th...

Hey kids! Welcome to another episode of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast. Long before Manic Panic became one of the world's most recognisable hair colour brands, its founders, Tish and Snooky, were simply two young sisters trying to carve out a place for themselves in the beautiful chaos of New York's underground scene. This week, we sit down with the creators of the legendary company to explore a story...

Hey kids! Welcome to another Deep Dive episode of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast. This week, we explore the bizarre world of the Ramones' seventh studio album, Subterranean Jungle —a record that divides fans as much today as it did back in 1983. An unexpected pair of cover songs kick things off, and the production is notably more ‘experimental’ than anything the band had attempted to date, which begs...

This week on CJ Says, we sit down with one of the true originals of American punk rock 'n' roll. Nikki Corvette is a singer, songwriter, and unapologetic rock and roller whose story begins—much like proto-punk pioneers The Stooges and MC5—in the Motor City of Detroit. Emerging from a scene that prized attitude and authenticity, Nikki quietly embodies both. Equal parts primitive punk rock and infec...

Hey kids! Welcome to Episode 011 of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast. This week, we drop the needle on the Ramones' sixth studio album, Pleasant Dreams , which might just be the most underrated record of their entire career. Before we begin, a huge thank you to everyone who’s already subscribed to the show over on Patreon. Your enthusiasm, support, and belief in this little corner of the Ramones univers...

There are photographers who take pictures, and there are those who capture culture itself in their images. Bob Gruen firmly falls into the latter group. In this week’s guest interview, we sit down with the legendary rock 'n’ roll documentarian whose images helped define the look and spirit of 1970s New York - and beyond. While other photographers exclusively chased stars, Bob Gruen was drawn to th...

In Episode 009 of CJ Says: A Ramones Podcast, we step into the strange and fascinating world of the Ramones’ fifth studio album, 'End of the Century' — an album forever suspended between the neon glow of pure pop ambition and the battered leather jacket of punk rock purity. It’s 1980. The Ramones have already helped redraw the map of modern music, and now they find themselves in the hands of eccen...

When the topic of punk rock comes up in conversation, the Ramones are often at the forefront of the discussion. Their raw energy and unique sound changed the landscape of music indefinitely. In Episode 008 of CJ Says, we enjoy a fascinating conversation with Kid Congo Powers - former president of the West Coast Ramones Fan Club and guitarist in The Gun Club, The Cramps & Nick Cave and the Bad...

Road to Ruin was the last of the "Big Four" Ramones’ records. This album marked a turning point for the band. With new drummer Marky Ramone stepping in to fill Tommy’s shoes, and Tommy & Ed Stasium manning the production dials, the sound of the band transformed in their quest for commercial success. The energy was still raw, but by this point the Ramones were also pushing boundaries and experi...

Ever wondered how Harley Flanagan’s chaotic upbringing shaped his hardcore spirit? In Episode 006 of CJ Says, Harley shares how his wild childhood fuelled his passion for music and community - from his misspent youth running loose on the mean streets of NYC, to his introduction to skinhead culture in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to making music that was louder than the noise inside his head, it’s al...