Dramarama

If your short memory of this group begins and ends with its alt-rock-before-it-was-alt-rock hit “Anything Anything (I’ll Give You),” you’re in good company. This Wayne, New Jersey, group relocated to California when “Anything Anything” became the most requested song in KROQ’s history after Rodney Bingenheimer gave it his endorsement (founding member Chris Carter returned the favor by producing the Bingenheimer documentary Mayor of the Sunset Strip, which rather unflatteringly depicts Bingenheimer chewing out Carter for doing a competing radio show). Combining the American sprawl of R.E.M. with the Eurotrash of Psychedelic Furs, Dramarama was a band some people swore by (the ones who were there) and some people thought was Oingo Boingo (those who weren’t there).