Kevin Bronson on January 1st, 2016

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Ramonda Hammer got firsties. The L.A. quartet — singer-guitarist Devin Davis along with Andy Hengl, Justin Geter and Danny Louangxay — released the first single of 2016 at 12:01 a.m. today (PST), and it’s a rager. “Goddamn Idiot,” the first single from the forthcoming album “Whatever That Means,” is a muscular throwback to 1990s from a four-piece that calls its sound “grunge-pop” but whose wall of sound might be equally indebted to the British shoegazers from that era. Guitarist Geter certainly knows what he’s about, his leads playing cat-and-mouse with Hengl’s bass lines. The band derives its name from a woman who one was featured on the reality television show “Cheaters.” And whatever the sound, angst never goes out of style, and Davis delivers that convincingly. In one of the album tracks, she screams “I hate that all I write about is how I feel about the people that I care about / and I’ll try to have more depth. … Whatever that means.” To that, we say whatever and ever, amen.

||| Stream: “Goddamn Idiot”