"We're A Happy Family" 2003-02-23 - 12:36 a.m.

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I'm listening to: "We're A Happy Family: A Tribute to the Ramones"

this is such a fucking good album

it's got a lot of different and amazing bands playing amazing covers of Ramones songs

it's got everyone, from Red Hot Chili Peppers to KISS

from Rob Zombie to Tom Waits

from Marilyn Manson to The Pretenders

from Green Day to U -fucking- 2

the complete track-list is:

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Havana Affair

this is a bloody amazing song; they made a Ramones song sound like one of theirs. It never ceases to amaze me; this song defies description save one word: Amazing

Rob Zombie - Blitzkrieg Bop

freaking great, doesn't sound like either Rob Zombie or the Ramones really; but it still sounds pretty good

Eddie Vedder with Zeke - I Believe in Miracles

the single getting all the airplay; it's ok, probably the closest to just playing the song like the Ramones did and not adding the artists' own twist. I don't know if that makes it better or worse

Metallica - 53rd & 3rd

pretty good track, nothing special really

U2 - Beat on the Brat

the big f'ing surprise of the album, I almost peed myself when I found out U2 was on here. They do a good job of it, too; much better than you'd think it would be

KISS - Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio

another 'artist just plays the song' track, nothing special

Marilyn Manson - The KKK Took My Baby Away

this falls short of what it could've been. I love this song, and Manson could've did this amazing; but instead he chose to do it in that slow, whiny voice he does sometimes that instead of making it creepy(like he's trying to do) just makes it lame

Garbage - I Just Wanna Have Something to Do

pretty spiffy, and it is kinda cool to hear Garbage doing something good again

Green Day - Outsider

another 'artist plays the song' track; which will now be referred to as: APTST

The Pretenders - Something to Believe In

I don't know too much about The Pretenders, but this one ends up pretty ok, nothing real special

Rancid - Sheena is a Punk Rocker

APTST; Husker Du did it better, even if they just did an 'ATPS' too

Pete Yorn - I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend

nice slow track, doesn't really fit with the rest of the album, but sounds good

The Offspring - I Wanna Be Sedated

APTST; but was actually done before this album was conceived for the "Idle Hands" soundtrack

Rooney - Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

nothing special

Tom Waits - Retrun of Jackie and Judy

I have an unbridled love and respect for Tom Waits, and he makes this song rock the house; and that's all you can really say about it

Eddie Vedder and Zeke(again) - Daytime Dilemma(Dangers of Love)

APTST

(hidden track)Eddie Vedder and Zeke(for the 3rd time) - Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World

this is one of my favorite Ramones songs, even if it is about a nazi; EV and Z take the novel approach of doing an accoustic version of the song; which sounds good at first, but ruins the best part of the song[Dee dee yells out: "Eins Zwei Drei Vir"(1-2-3-4 in German) for a time change, and they hit this majestic chorus of "Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World" that completely has the piss taken out of it in the accoustic version on this alubm]

all in all this is an amazing album of amazing artists doing amazing covers of amazing songs

and it deserves to have "amazing" thrown in there a few more times, as well

the sad thing is that Grammy Night is tomorrow, and this thing is gonna get no awards; stupid Grammy-deciding-people

I'm surprised at how little fan-fare this thing has gotten for how good it is

especially with all the big-name artists on here

and it even has an introduction in the liner notes by Stephen King

this was put-together/produced by Rob Zombie, and I remember back when I first heard Rob Zombie was putting together a tribute album for The Ramones; my dream was to be on it

I had so many day-dreams about how I would get a band together; and the first thing we would do would be to buy some recording time at a little shit studio around here; and record a cover of Pet Semetary by the Ramones, and then send that off to Rob Zombie

he would be so taken by this little crappy recording of a Ramones song by a little crappy band in the middle of no-where, that he would put it on the album as a hidden track, just as kind of a gag

and that was my grand delusion

of course I did get a band together shortly after that; but we never got around to recording anything before we broke up

the album was recorded, produced, and released before I ever had the chance to get another one together

and now I'm holding it in my grubby little hands and rambling on about my delusions of what could've been

I'll write a real entry about my week/life tomorrow

Sweet Dreams

Hey, Ho, Let's Go!

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