THE DONNAS - Queens Of Noise
SHONEN KNIFE - Black Leather
THE BINGES - I Love Playin' With Fire
BEBE BUELL BAND - Heartbeat
DEENA & THE LAUGHING BOYS - Lovers
FRANKENSTEIN 3000 - California Paradise
DELIRIUM TREMENS - Wasted
RICHIE SCARLET - Wild Thing
BLUE FOX - Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin
THE EASY OUTS featuring GAR FRANCIS - Is It Day Or Night
LAURA WARSHAUER - Little Lost Girls
WHITE FLAG - C’mon
CALI GIRAFFES - You’re Too Possessive
TARA ELLIOTT & THE RED VELVETS - You Drive Me Wild
PLANET SORROW - Thunder
ROBBIE RIST - Yesterday’s Kids
SERPENTEENS - Little Sister
ADOLESCENTS - School Days
BLUE FOX featuring SANDY WEST - Dirty Magazines

THE DANDY WARHOLS - Cherry Bomb
RICHARD BARONE - Hollywood
CARE BEARS ON FIRE with EARL SLICK - Saturday Night Special
DERWOOD ANDREWS - Gotta Get Out Tonight
DAVID JOHANSEN - Blackmail
THE RIBEYE BROTHERS - Trash Can Murders
DIGGER PHELPS - Rock & Roll
TOILET BOYS - Born To Be Bad
THE SWALES - Midnight Music
FRANKENSTEIN 3000 featuring CHERIE CURRIE - American Nights
F-13 - I Wanna Be Where The Boys Are
THE STAY AT HOMES - Gettin’ Hot
KITTIE - Fantasies
STARZ - Waitin’ For The Night
JACK BRAG - Secrets
CLINICAL TRIALS - Don’t Go Away
KATHLEEN HANNA & PEACHES - Dead End Justice

First off, I really adore cover albums. I mean really GOOD cover albums. It's probably because I grew up in the 1990s completely enamored with 1970s NYC and LA punk and pre punk. So yeah, good music was still accessible, but the great music had from my perspective already been made and most of the people who made it were already dead. The release of cover/tribute albums can be a brilliant way of bridging these gaps, showing appreciation for trailblazers and upon occasion, auto resuscitating the classics. And what an awesome band to pay tribute to. The Runaways most definitely blazed trails and broke down boundaries for women in music. They were crass, street smart and they took complete control over their own sexuality and they did this before punk officially broke which I find significant because punk "breaking" allowed for a great deal of freedom for everyone involved. The Runaways on the other hand virtually came out of nowhere.

All that formally declared, Take It Or Leave It is hands down the best tribute album I've heard in recent memory. There isn't a song on this compilation that isn't good, which is quite a feat for a two disc set and cheers to Main Man Records for that. My absolute top picks are as follows: Shonen Knife's cover of "Black Leather" with the jagged guitar counter balanced by uber sweet vocals; The Binges take on "I Love Playin' With Fire"; Bebe Buell Band's "Heartbeat" which is quite possibly better than the original due to the fact that Bebe Buell's unique vocal stylings are particularly well suited to "Heartbeat"; Sandy West's band Blue Fox throwing down on "Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin" was a really nice touch, along w/ Blue Fox's last studio recording, "Dirty Magazines"; The Adolescents' extra gritty take on "School Days"; The Dandy Warhols' deadpan delivery of "Cherry Bomb"; True to form David Johansen lays down an epic cover of "Blackmail" complete with his signature vocals. This cover could have easily been pulled from The Dolls' vault; Toilet Boys' "Born To Be Bad" is a gem with the chunky guitars and Miss Guy's stellar, breathy vocals and finally, one of my fave recent collaborations, Kathleen Hanna and Peaches' (produced by Ad Rock) lo-fi beat boxy take on "Dead End Justice" (definitely better than the original) sounds like equal parts Julie Ruin and equal parts Peaches. All told, this is a fabulous 36 song tribute album that I definitely recommend picking up. In honor of Sandy West, who lost her battle with cancer in 2006, a portion of the proceeds will benefit The American Institute For Cancer Research.

For more info check here: http://www.mainmanrecords.com/MMR040.html and might also be nice to show their Facebook page some love: https://www.facebook.com/runawaystribute?sk=info