Sleater-Kinney still wanna be your Joey Ramone. For a little while, there have been rumblings about Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker starting a Ramones cover band with longtime friend Fred Armisen, Brownstein's collaborator on the sketch show Portlandia. Now, this tribute band has an Instagram page, a first show booked, and a name. They're called the Return Of Jackie And Judy, after a 1980 Ramones deep cut, and they're promising "more to come in 2026."
Sleater-Kinney's first real indie hit was the 1996 song "I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone," and they've been doing Ramones covers live for many years. In 2016, we selected their version of the holiday classic "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)" as one of Sleater-Kinney's best cover songs. Last year, the band and Armisen got together to cover Kim Wilde's "Kids In America" on the surreal season finale of Everybody's Live With John Mulaney, and that's apparently where this enterprise started.
According to Brooklyn Vegan, John Mulaney asked Sleater-Kinney and Armisen to play a few Ramones songs at the season wrap party, and they enjoyed the experience enough to keep it going. Last year, the band played a couple of sold-out Halloween shows in Portland, with Sleater-Kinney touring member Toko Yasuda, formerly of Enon, on bass. Their first announced show is part of the ridiculous BottleRock Festival lineup, but there's more to come.
On their brand-new Instagram, the Return Of Jackie And Judy posted a video of themselves doing "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" at that Portland show, and it honestly looks extremely fun. Armisen was the only one who showed up in a Ramones Halloween costume, but Brownstein already could pass for a Ramone. She's got the haircut and everything. It feels weird to say that I'm more excited for this than I was for the last Sleater-Kinney album, but that's where I'm at.
