Yorn—because sometimes it’s nice to pay tribute to a band that hasn’t apparently influenced your work at all.

BAND WHOSE FANATICISM PAID OFF Huntingtons: Although they’ve gone on to maintain a multi-album career, this band’s early discography is sullied with sundry embarrassing Ramones references, including the songs “I Wanna Be a Ramone,” “What Would Joey Do?” and “Jeannie Hates the Ramones,” as well as not one, but two Ramones tribute albums, File Under Ramones and Rocket to Ramonia. It all paid off in 1999, however, when they were asked to back Joey Ramone at two CBGB gigs.

MOST DEDICATED TRIBUTE Free Phil Spector, by Hamburg Ramönes: Composed entirely of individual song

dedications, including “Hammer Boy (Dedicated to Dee Dee Ramone),” “I Remember (Dedicated to Johnny Ramone),” “Greetings From Heaven (Dedicated to Joey Ramone),” and “Clockwork Ramone (Dedicated to Marky Ramone).” While completely ignoring Richie, C. J., and Tommy Ramone, the band manages to give a shout-out to Harald Juhnke, the Frank Sinatra of Germany.

MAN WHOSE NAME WILL MAKE
YOU THINK HE’S A WOMAN UNTIL
YOU FINALLY LOOK HIM UP ON
WIKIPEDIA, LIKE, FOUR YEARS AFTER
YOU BOUGHT HIS CD
Kristy Krash Majors: I always wondered
why the long-haired, bejewelled creator
of For Those About to Sniff Some Glue…We
Salute You had such a deep voice for a girl!

ARE YOU SURE YOU PEOPLE EVEN
LIKE THE RAMONES?!
A Real Cool Time. Tributo a Ramones: The
bands on this Argentinean comp don’t just
cover the Ramones, they cover the songs
the Ramones covered, like the Searchers’
“Needles & Pins,” Freddy Cannon’s “Pali-
sades Park,” the Rivieras’ “California Sun,”
the Ronettes’ “Baby, I Love You,” and Tom
Waits’ “I Don’t Want to Grow Up.”

“OF COURSE WE LIKE THE RAMONES!
BUT NOT THAT MUCH!”
Strength to Endure: A Tribute to
Ramones and Motörhead: If you enjoy
Riotgun’s cover of Motörhead’s Ramones
tribute “R. A.M.O.N.E.S.,” just wait until
you hear Bullet Treatment’s cover of the
Ramones’ cover of Motörhead’s Ramones
tribute “R. A.M.O.N.E.S.”

“TEENAGE FACSIMILE”: ThE ALTErNATE rAMoNES DISCoGrAphy
WHY BUY THE FIRST EIGHT ALBUMS BY THE RAMONES WHEN YOU CAN OWN THEM BY SOMEBODY ELSE?

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1 2 3 4 5

 

1 Beat Is on the Brat, by Screeching Weasel: The first album, along with bonus original tracks. For Ramones fans who’ve always felt the debut needed four awful songs.

 

2 Coverones: The first album again, covered by the Tunas, Mr. Tomato, and 12 bands you won’t find in a niçoise salad.

 

3 Leave Home, by the Vindictives: The Ramones’

second album, sung by a castrated Muppet.

 

4 Rocket to Russia, by the Queers: The third, sung by a man with a very bad head cold.

 

5 Road to Ruin, by the Mr. T Experience: The Ramones’ fourth and meanest album, rendered slightly less mean by the decision to perform the frantic “Go Mental” as a gentle acoustic ballad.

6 End of the Century, by Boris the Sprinkler: The fifth album, sung by a man who announces at the beginning of track one that he hates everything past album No. 3½, It’s Alive.

 

7 Pleasant Dreams, by Beatnik Termites: Album No. 6, by a band so lazy that they didn’t even bother learning the last song on side one. Must’ve been that demanding fourth chord.

8 Subterranean Jungle, by Tip Toppers: No. 7, by a Norwegian band whose bassist has a full beard!

 

9 Too Tough to Die, by Jon Cougar Concentration Camp: Album No. 8, rendered too loud to endure!

 

10 Too Tough to Die, by McRackins: The eighth again, released two years after JCCC’s version. Come on, McRackins—was album No. 9 (Animal Boy) really that daunting?

64 APRIL 2009 / SPIN.COM: WHERE STRANGERS BECOME FRIENDS