you drive me wild, you know you do

i forgot about the recommendation for october. it must've slipped my mind between assignments, and not showing up to class... and playing batman arkham asylum on xbox.

this month is a bit of an unusual suggestion. i dug wayyy back in my dads lps (he actually doesn't have any of this band, he said something about it being 'crap'... my father and i have vastly different tastes) and did some sleuthing of my own (re: watched the movie of the same title with d. fanning and k. stewart) and found this awesome jem. it also helps that i actually met one of the members of this band, and fell into a total girl crush with her.

for october, i'm obsessed with: the runaways.

cherie currie, joan jett, lita ford, sandy west and jackie fox-- simple brilliance. it's bad girls doing bad rock (and in all due respect, for the time when it was new it was fucking groundbreaking). there's nothing more difficult than a driving bass line, some basic lyrics and a lot of yelling and so, so much repressed sex.

i'm also reading 'a memoir of a neon angel' by cherie currie-- seriously good stuff, if you're into that kind of thing. i actually recommend this book over the (decent) movie 'the runaways' with kristen stewart playing a spot on joan jett (except for the height, that i don't get... kristen has to be like, nearly a foot taller than ms. jett) and dakota fanning doing a fairly decent job with cherie. not everyone can be cherie currie, including cherie currie herself. she was the cherie monster, she even said so herself. but that's besides the point-- the book is brilliant and captivating. so much so, that i've had to hide it so i can read my assigned books. fuckers be boring!

so listen away, young readers, to the dulcet sounds of jackie fox' rudimentary bass slapping, joan's shredding of a guitar and cherie's incredibly adult sounding voice. keep in mind, she was 15 when she started the runaways, 17 by the time she was out, so her voice projection was astounding. the first time i heard 'cherry bomb' i was sure i was listening to a twenty-something woman. oh how wrong i was.

it's an oldie, and a not so goodie since after cherie left the band pretty much fell into obscurity, with joan eventually breaking off to do her wildly successful solo project (see: joan jett and the blackhearts or that incredibly annoying hit song 'i love rock and roll'-- yeah, that's joan from the runaways) but nonetheless it's one of my personal favorites.

if you're doing the quick listen, i have both album suggestions as well as songs:
for the in-the-moment-runaways-at-their-best pick up 'runaways live in japan'-- possibly the best performance they'd ever performed, not to mention the best live album they put together.
the epitome of runaways glory is 'queens of noise'-- their first album (the runaways) was recorded rough, meaning they did one or two takes -- since 'queens' is a more polished album than the freshman release would ever be.

for a real quick listen, my top runaway's songs:

- american nights
- cherry bomb
- queens of noise
- you drive me wild (joan sings)
- take it or leave it
- midnight music
- heartbeat
- california paradise
- dead end justice
- hollywood


as a note: i've always liked cherry bomb, i got excited about the movie. i'm not a runaways fan because of kristen stewart/dakota fanning. i think i'm better than that.......