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All grown up, Ramona's Valerie Esway sucks on a lolipop. Sweet Precocious Berkeley-bred Ramona the Pest turns out the schizophrenic new CD Birds, Bugs, Bones By Marie-Adele Moniot I'll be the first to admit that my interest in cultural commentary from the perspective of a post-9/11 world is starting to run thin. It's not that I don't appreciate the gravity and seriousness of such a defining event, but I just think it's too soon to start proclaiming the death of this or the birth of that. I do, however, feel the events of that terrible Tuesday served as a sort of national speed-aging process. In other words, on Sept. 10, we were fresh out of the '90s and feeling like carefree twentysomethings, and 24 hours later, we felt like we had hit the "what am I doing with my life?" wall of midlife. Okay, granted, that's a bit dramatic. Our innocence had started to wane long before Sept. 11, but the events served as the final cold shower. So, the question is what will happen to music in the next few years? If we assume that the tone of the times influences the airwaves, then we can certainly ring the death knell of over-the-top, mainstream teen tripe. But I doubt many Urbanview readers are concerned with the fates of the Britneys and the boy bands. However, there's a rather huge (and powerful) generation of young people who have been raised on a diet of prefab pop music. The sheer size of Gen Y will give them control of the direction of mainstream music. Will they steer it back towards the disaffected rockings of early '90s grunge? It's doubtful. Could they possibly grow to love the mature stylings of indie-pop outfits like Berkeley-bred Ramona the Pest? With the new EP Birds, Bugs, Bones, Ramona the Pest has unwittingly created the perfect post-9/11 transitional sound. It's part catchy hooks, part dark lyricism, and the result is a sort of schiz-ophrenic mix of longing for the wide-eyed days of youth and the knowledge that comes from per-haps having seen too much. The thread of childhood is apparent in everything from the EP's cover art to the band's name to the songs themselves. All of this is combined with vocalist Valerie Esway's biting lyrics like, "She will tear your bones apart / put them back together again," from the track "Skeleton Woman." The seamless blending of enthusiastic innocence and hardened cynicism, against a backdrop of driving guitars, makes for a very strong collection of rock songs. With the lightning-quick "15 Yeah," Esway describes a young girl on the verge of entering the scary world of high school and "starting to find out about those things they tried to warn (her) about." This is followed by a clever re-tooling of the "Itsy Bitsy Spider," which has a Liz Phair-like, mischievous narrative punctured by Lucio Menegon's rock-out riffs. The strongest track is the epic "Skeleton Woman," but the EP closer, "Lullaby for a Sad Day," with its precious toy piano plinks, is a sweet ode to the pleasant bliss of dreams. Birds, Bugs, Bones is reassuring. Not only does it give us a weird sense of optimism through all that nostalgia and cynicism, but it also reminds us that indie-pop will weather whatever storm. It remains to be seen whether Ramona the Pest (and music in general) will continue on its pop trajectory or if it will ultimately choose a darker, rawer path. Join Ramona the Pest Sat/1 at the Starry Plough to celebrate the release of Birds, Bugs, Bones. [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]