Last month, I mentioned that I was anticipating We're A Happy Family - A Tribute To The Ramones with some trepidation. While some of the acts (like Garbage, Green Day and Rancid) looked right, I wondered how U2, the Pretenders and Tom Waits would handle the humor and three-chord power without looking stupid.

What was I thinking? With Johnny Ramone and Rob Zombie at the helm, the first band that started to get preachy would have been tossed out on their artsy-fartsy asses.

In other words, I loved it!

There is a good mix of acts that tried to sound as close to the original as possible (without making you wish you'd just gone ahead and listened to the original in the first place) like: "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio" (Kiss), "I Just Wanna Have Something to Do" (Garbage), "Outsider" (Green Day), "I Wanna Be Sedated" (Offspring). And unique interpretations that come off well: "Havana Affair" (Red Hot Chili Peppers), "Blitzkrieg Bop" (Rob Zombie), "Return of Jackie and Judy" (Tom Waits). Marilyn Manson's cover of "The KKK Took My Baby Away" grew on me, after a few listenings.

The only weak spots are the aforementioned U2 and Pretenders. U2 is trying so hard not to be U2 that you can hardly tell it is them. "Beat on the Brat" is ok, but kinda boring. The Pretenders "Something to Believe In" is a complete snooze-fest.

One of the best things about the album, too, is the liner notes. Stephen King wrote four pages on the Rob Zombie, the Ramones, disco, and how he expected this album to suck and was pleasantly surprised it doesn't. What was really cool for me, however, was this:

Once my radio station in Bangor put on a Ramones concert (well, Cheap Trick headlined, but to me it was a Ramones concert).

Ric the Schmuck and I were at that concert (as I'm sure you've heard me mention over and over and over), and thought the same damned thing.

Well, I thought it was cool.

Bite me.