AlmostAGhost

That quote was in a Rush forum too btw and it immediately went into the prog fans listening to Runaways songs and declaring how bad they were

Ha no I just googled it. Geddy Lee was asked about it! "The Runaways had a ginormous chip on their shoulders. I remember that show. We had trouble with our gear so our soundcheck got delayed and The Runaways never got one. But we were always good to whoever was opening for us. We had no bias against them because they were girls - none of that bullshit. I know they said that we were laughing at them when they played, but quite frankly they were too shitty to listen to. And 40 years later they have a story to tell about it. Who knew?"

I don't know what was Rush was thinking, but I can see it... prog is known for being a little snobby. 'We can play our instruments and look down on music that can't.' I've had arguments with prog-fan friends who dismiss any music that isn't based on skill like that. Of the course, the irony is Jett and Ford and the drummer West, all were very good. Maybe it wasn't Rush exactly, more like "Rush" and Jett was using the name as a pejorative.

Yea, Ford went on to a pretty solid career in straight-up metal, so that's not too surprising. It is interesting, and impressive, how this fairly simple band is so hard to define!

No way! Ha that's crazy. Why wasn't that mentioned in the movie? They should've been like, "Screw you, Neil Peart!" There is a video of the Runaways playing CBGB's in the like 1977 on youtube, so I guess at very least they were either punk-adjacent... or more likely, they were attempted to be thrown at the punk crowd to see if they stuck... and maybe they didn't? I really love the first Runaways record, I just relistened to it. I'll stick to my AC/DC comparison... slow heavy riffs with lots of innuendo. It's so much fun. It's honestly a shame that AC/DC got to continue doing that for 40 years and be a top-selling band of all-time and the Runaways didn't.

Wiki includes it in their list, so maybe they were, but in my view, The Runaways weren't really punk at all. They were far too good at their instruments and weren't trying to cause a ruckus or cause a commotion like the Sex Pistols or Ramones were. The last track on their first album was a 7-minute blues guitar thing, few to no punk band could or would do that! Honestly, they sound like AC/DC to me. I really don't see them in the same lane as punk that much. ("Cherry Bomb" perhaps.) I dunno, I'm not great with genres when it comes to music, except for the purest originators, it's usually hard to tell definitively.

I was looking at the movies I've watched with Stewart in it on Letterboxd, and putting aside the Twilights and the one super dumb blockbuster thing (Underwater), I've seen 5 of her artier movies and I rated them all 3.5. That is, I liked them all, but nothing super blew me away. Rarely was that her fault, either. But I take it as she's out there making really good stuff if you know where to look!

Oh, there's also a documentary about them, which looks pretty solid. I think I might watch it soon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgeplay:_A_Film_About_the_Runaways it's here on youtube

Yea, though "Cherry Bomb" was a pretty big hit in Japan. I'm not sure the movie made that as clear as it could have. They became influential later, probably when Jett became more famous (and even Ford and the others). Now they're recognized as an influential female band, I think. Maybe less in the punk realm though and more towards rock or even metal (i.e. Ford). Actually maybe 'influential' is the wrong word, not sure they changed much really, but they were a pioneering group. I was stunned by this number as I was listening to their music the other day. On Spotify, "Cherry Bomb" has over 88 million plays. Their second highest song is at 2 million (my favorite of theirs "You Drive Me Wild"). So yea they're definitely a one-hit wonder type of group.

Yea, for real. And she's had a really interesting life too... became a successful lawyer and a Jeopardy champion! But one side angle of that is how they handled her in this. They cast Alia Shawkat who is great, but did she even have any lines? Did she one word? But on the other hand, Fox wasn't even allowed to play on their first album, which this film covers. They ending up using, if I recall right, Blondie's bassist. So in a way, she was somewhat expandable in this story.

Yea I think "Cherry Bomb" was pretty massive, but there's a few other hits. I'm not familiar with their music, beyond their first album. Which I think is amazing. The guitar playing by Jett and Ford is pretty impressive. From what I learned about the group, it seems that in some ways the most interesting story could have been Currie's twin sister. She apparently was left out of the band because Fowley didn't want twins in it. She did end up making some music on her own (and even as a duo with Cherie). There's a lot of other drama and controversy between band members and Fowley that didn't get portrayed too. I was watching some live clips of the band after I watched the movie and the movie did nail the band in a lot of the details. That sexy lingerie costume Cherie got and Jett was like 'that's too much'... that was real!

I'm surprised how much I loved this movie! This feels like almost the most realistic teen movie we've seen yet, tbh. I did vote yes because of that, but also think the bar for this is impossibly high so probably shouldn't have jumped on the poll so fast. But yea, I was into it.

OK how about we carry on with some more Joan Jett and watch her biopic? This one's on Netflix

All that wanting to be ready for my pick and instead I get to do a last-minute one! Will have it shortly