Various

Another tribute album to everybody's first favourite band, the Ramones. Being on Sweden's White Jazz Records, there are lots of European and Scandinavian, as well as North American, groups trying their best to do justice to the old hits. There are 19 tracks in total here and most are pretty forgettable, with a few exceptions. The Danko Jones version of "The Return of Jackie and Judy" not only represents hard for Canada but is also the strongest and heaviest song on the record. The production is absolutely stellar and Danko does a good job of recreating the original flavour of the song while adding his own raunch as well. The Dictators do an interesting version of "I Just Wanna Have Something To Do" that infuses the "Hey... Now!" breaks with their own similar riff from 1974's Go Girl Crazy's kick-off track "The Next Big Thing," which no doubt was copped by the Ramones a few years later. The Toilet Boys do an okay job on "Carbona Not Glue," as do the Hellacopters on "What'd Ya Do," while bands like Mary Slim and Sahara Hotnights barely warrant a mention. On the bottom part of the curve lies Wayne Kramer, who might want to think about doing smack again, as his "electro-folk-hip-hop" version of "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" is a huge embarrassment to everyone involved. I just hope that poor Joey and Dee Dee never have to hear that one, wherever they are.