Left for Dead Releases Two Vintage Tracks From Pioneering NYC Synth Punks Comateens

The Comateens' “Danger Zone” and “Elizabeth’s Lover” is being reissued by Left for Dead, a label with a long connection to both the band and their original guitarist Ramona Jan.  The tracks are released on CD (with gatefold sleeve), 12” LP vinyl, and digitally via Bandcamp today, November 21. The 12” will be a limited, very collectible release with 90 copies on orange vinyl and 200 on black vinyl. 

The Comateens’ Ramona Jan and Nicholas “Nic North” Dembling had just gotten started when they recorded “Danger Zone,” a sneering, blaring punk song spit-sung by Nicholas with Ramona Jan’s untutored guitars sounding like an electric razor, a catchy chorus floating in from Jan’s love of Motown. “Elizabeth’s Lover” leans toward 60’s girl-group with a gleeful chorus as taunting and addictive as “My Boyfriend’s Back.” The song marks Jan’s turn from punk rock to new wave.

“Danger Zone” was originally backed with “Cool Chick,” recorded during the same session and released independently on Teenmaster Records. Jan left the band shortly after recording these songs due to a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, so this version of “Elizabeth’s Lover” was never released.

Jan recorded it again, later, with Dizzy and the Romilars. Left for Dead’s James Reynolds considered releasing the original “Danger Zone” single on his Jimboco Records, however he put out Dizzy and the Romilars’ version of “Elizabeth’s Lover” in 1980 instead, followed by the Ramona Jan-produced NastyFacts single “Drive My Car” in ‘81.

The Comateens were one of NYC’s earliest synth-punk bands, along with Suicide and Kraftwerk one of the few live bands to perform with a drum machine. Jan and North formed the band in 1978, bonding over their shared love of merely playing music together and the punk rock scene taking shape in downtown NYC. Singer and synth player Lyn Byrd and drummer Harry Viderci joined shortly afterwards.

Both cuts were recorded at Mediasound in 1979 with Jan on guitar, North on bass, Byrd on synths and Viderci playing drums. Don Wersheba and Harvey J. Goldberg engineered; Ray Janos was the mastering engineer.

The band was able to record at Mediasound because Jan was an audio engineer there, one of only a handful of women engineers in the world. On the then-gritty Upper West Side, Jan lived cheaply at the bohemian Bretton Hall on the corner of Broadway and 86th Street, dodging pimps and prostitutes on the elevator to her apartment. The building’s low rent also attracted other types of artists, though, and a neighbor heard her singing, knocked on the door and asked her if she’d want to record.

The neighbor worked at Mediasound Studio in Midtown. Jan took one look around and realized she just had to work there. She told the boss she’d wanted to be a recording engineer all her life—a lie—and that her mother was an electrician, her father a piano tuner, another falsehood. She was hired on the spot and thrived, kicking off a lifelong career in engineering and production that led to work with Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Ramones (who wrote “Ramona” about her.) and more.

Comateens continued after Jan left the band, recording three full lengths and building a dedicated following in France before breaking up in the mid-1980s. Their biggest hit was a cover of the “Munster’s Theme Song,” recorded in 1981.

Ramona Jan has also had an active career in music since, performing with Dizzy and the Romilars and more recently Northeast Regional Folk Alliance award winners, JANTURAN. She was a founding member Venus Fly Trap, an all-female vocal group, whose members Soozie Tyrell and Lisa Lowell now tour with Bruce Springsteen. Venus Fly Trap sang with David Johansen’s Buster Poindexter act and won the 1984 Village Voice Award Best Street Performer.

Jan is also a writer, the author of the first biography of Jon Bon Jovi, published by Sony. She recently received the 2023 Upper Delaware Council Cultural Award as well as a 2023 Congressional Award for her work as Director of Yarnslingers, a true storytelling group based in the Catskills. She is currently the Tuesday columnist for the award-winning Sullivan County Democrat with her column, Ramona’s Ramblings.