Cameron H.

Well, they’re just such different bands. The Runaways are pretty raw and Rush is super polished — almost mathematically precise. It’s such a weird bill. It reminds me of Hendrix opening for the Monkees.

From IMDB: “In the DVD commentary, Joan Jett states it was the Canadian rock band Rush that bullied The Runaways from having a sound check.” I’m sure it didn’t go down like it did in the movie, but maybe they were snobs or something. ETA: I noted in the scene the type of double necked guitar Geddy Lee sometimes plays. Not totally unusual, but not a whole lot of guitarists go the double necked route. Perhaps that was a nod to it being Rush. (It wasn’t the one that was peed on.)

I watched a YouTube video and both Jett and Ford described their music as "Riff Rock" which is very much like AC/DC. I seem to remember watching a documentary about Rock years ago, and when they were talking about AC/DC, they said they were one of the few hard rock bands at the time that were embraced by English punks. The Runaways could be another example of this. As kinf of an aside, Jett also complimented Ford's ability to shred. She said she would have put her up against any of the big hard rock band guitar players. I also started watching that documentary you embedded, and Ford said the first songs she played with West was Deep Purple's "Highway Star." The first song the three of them played together was KISS's "Strutter." So, yeah, definitely not punk or punk influenced.

I would probably call them (late) proto-punk. They have more in common with The Kinks, The Stooges, MC5, and the New York Dolls, than The Clash or The Germs. They would have been influential to punk bands, but I don’t know that they would have considered themselves punk. They would have probably just called themselves a rock band and left it at that. This is somewhat reinforced by the fact that according to IMDb, the band that was giving them shit about doing a sound check was Rush! There’s no way a Seventies punk band would have been caught dead opening for Rush.

To be fair, The Runaways released four more albums than the Sex Pistols who were also semi-manufactured. Punk music can definitely be localized and a lot of influential bands don’t tend to have huge (or any) hits. Kind of like The Velvet Underground or Operation Ivy. They are huge within the scene, but not necessarily to laypeople. The Runaways at least had some commercial success.

Lita Ford gets pretty short shrift too. Her whole character is “fight a couple of times with Jett.”

And before Fuchs, their bassist was Micki Steele, later of The Bangles. What was weird though is the moment Shannon was flipping through the band bios and he’s like “Robin Robinson, bass, smart as Hell” or whatever he says. Why even draw attention to it? I just thought it was funny. It was like telling the origins of the Beatles, omitting Pete Best, and replacing him with Rango Orbb.

Overall, I thought the movie was fine. I kind of want to get more Runaways records, especially the ones after Currie left. I didn’t realize that they released two more albums with Jett fronting the group. Not that this is portrayed in the movie, of course. That’s pure Wikipedia right there Most of all, I was impressed with KStew’s physicality. She really captured Jett’s body language.

I think it depends on what you call “hits.” They have other well-known(ish) songs, but I’d say “Cherry Bomb” was their big one.

I get it. I remember around Hard Ticket to Hawaii time, I wasn't overly fond of the pics. However, Paul has said in one of the minis that they kind of go through phases. If they do too many big budget movies, Cannon movies, dramas, ninja movies, etc. people complain. In other words, no matter what they pick, they can't please everyone all the time. And if that's the case, then they might as well just pick movies that they feel like doing -- which I think is ultimately great for everyone. I honestly don't think there's anything more to it than that. I'm pretty much a HDTGM completionist, and I try to keep current with them as much as possible, but I have also gotten to the point where if I'm not super excited about the movie pick, I don't jump through hoops to make sure I watch it before the episode drops. Like, I don't blame you if you're disappointed with their picks, but I promise it won't be long until they are back to doing something you are into.

If you want, you can go next ( I may need to be reminded, though)

“Hello world! I'm your wild girl. I'm your ch-ch-ch-Runaways is a fantastic movie that I like.” — Dick Byrne, Great Takes Magazine Seriously though, I’ve been wanting to see this

Take your time We know you’re good for it.

@AlmostAGhost...you’re up!

Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry! Take care and be safe.

Calling it! @theworstbuddhist, whatchoo got?

Thanks man, I'm so frazzled I forgot to even do what I said I was going to do...

I’ll bump it if you want.

I sent @gigi-tastic a DM as a reminder. If we don’t hear from her by tomorrow, we’ll move to the next person on the list

I have not had the chance to either watch the movie or listen to the episode. I just wanted to say to all the parents out there doing the Distance Learning thing...

As I watch the clip I just posted, I realize just how invested the movie assumes we are in who the kid's father is. Maybe it's because we're in the 21st century now, but I really didn't give a shit. I would have been happy had they never revealed it.

Here's Trent Reznor's band doing a pretty decent cover of Buddy Holly's "True Love Ways."

Yeah, that feels a little more real, but then you lose the whole "overbearing religious mom playing favorites with her children as she battles ovarian cancer" storyline.

Barbusters also feels more like a Springsteen cover band type name. I like "The Babysitters" much more -- well, maybe not with a 40 year old McKean in the group. It also felt weird that their band didn't really feel like it had niche. It was kind of punk, kind of New Wave, kind of Rockabilly, but also none of those things. And Jett is willing to be like, "We're Metal now" at the drop of a hat. Granted, Fox pushes back on that a bit, but it's still weird that the most overtly "punk" person in the movie is like "whatever we decide to do is cool."

Personally, I think The Barbusters is a terrible name for a band. They're never getting anywhere with that. That being said, I will say a lot of the band dynamics felt really true to life. Especially in that, "big enough to be kind of well-known locally" locally way. Shit like embarrassing each other on stage and playing bits of songs and then stopping, was very much a part of my band experience. Even that dismissive attitude toward bands that are little too polished felt real to me.