Well, that explains it...
New bands have been ripping off old bands since the birth of rock & roll. I like to think of it as song writers being influenced by their heroes, the people they grew up admiring. Others dismiss bands like Oasis (a favorite of mine) by saying "aw, man, they're just ripping off the Beatles!" So what, I say! At least they're ripping off a great band. The Beatles themselves stole tricks from Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. They were even influenenced to a degree by Elvis Presley. The Rolling Stones and Led Zeplin gave props to blues singers. Primal Scream makes better sounding "Stones" albums than the Stones currently do themselves. Sleepy Jackson sounds like solo George Harrison. Dwight Yoakum shows his love for Buck Owens. The Donnas stole a Motley Crue riff so overtly that they covered the Crue song on their next cd. And there have been around 147 new bands over the last three years that sound like Joy Division. What's wrong with that? Nothing.
All of these bands have great influences as far as I'm concerned. More power to 'em!
But what happens when some suck-ass band decides to rip off an older, equally suck-ass band? Here is where we have trouble.
One Dave Matthews was bad enough, do we need Jack Johnson, John Mayer and Jason Mraz, too? No, I think not.
Grateful Dead blew goats the first time around. But then we had to contend with Phish and Widespread Panic. Hippies, fuck.
You know, I don't even mind when a band says they were influenced by cheesy bands like Journey or Styx. The two bands weren't the Beatles or the Stones, but they had their charm.
But I just read about the latest musical hero worshipping, and doctor, is it ever lame. Seems that a few bands have gone on record (admitting it for the whole world to know) that they love Adam Duritz and his Counting Crows. Adam has recently recorded with one of these bands. First of all, all Counting Crows did was take Van Morrison songs and water them down, if that's even possible. The end result was bland, insipid rock-lite. But now there are bands emulating the Crows? What collection of idiots would like, much less admit to liking, the Counting Crows?
The answer: Panic At The Disco, The Fray, Thrice and Dashboard Confessional. Or as I like to call them: Suck, Suck, Suck and Suck. But it makes sense. If some guy from The Fray had said, "we really love the Beatles and try to take some of their good qualities and use it in our songs," I would have said, "well, what the hell happened? You guys suck! Didn't you learn anything at all listening to them?" But when they say they love Counting Crows...well, that seems just about right...
New bands have been ripping off old bands since the birth of rock & roll. I like to think of it as song writers being influenced by their heroes, the people they grew up admiring. Others dismiss bands like Oasis (a favorite of mine) by saying "aw, man, they're just ripping off the Beatles!" So what, I say! At least they're ripping off a great band. The Beatles themselves stole tricks from Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. They were even influenenced to a degree by Elvis Presley. The Rolling Stones and Led Zeplin gave props to blues singers. Primal Scream makes better sounding "Stones" albums than the Stones currently do themselves. Sleepy Jackson sounds like solo George Harrison. Dwight Yoakum shows his love for Buck Owens. The Donnas stole a Motley Crue riff so overtly that they covered the Crue song on their next cd. And there have been around 147 new bands over the last three years that sound like Joy Division. What's wrong with that? Nothing.
All of these bands have great influences as far as I'm concerned. More power to 'em!
But what happens when some suck-ass band decides to rip off an older, equally suck-ass band? Here is where we have trouble.
One Dave Matthews was bad enough, do we need Jack Johnson, John Mayer and Jason Mraz, too? No, I think not.
Grateful Dead blew goats the first time around. But then we had to contend with Phish and Widespread Panic. Hippies, fuck.
You know, I don't even mind when a band says they were influenced by cheesy bands like Journey or Styx. The two bands weren't the Beatles or the Stones, but they had their charm.
But I just read about the latest musical hero worshipping, and doctor, is it ever lame. Seems that a few bands have gone on record (admitting it for the whole world to know) that they love Adam Duritz and his Counting Crows. Adam has recently recorded with one of these bands. First of all, all Counting Crows did was take Van Morrison songs and water them down, if that's even possible. The end result was bland, insipid rock-lite. But now there are bands emulating the Crows? What collection of idiots would like, much less admit to liking, the Counting Crows?
The answer: Panic At The Disco, The Fray, Thrice and Dashboard Confessional. Or as I like to call them: Suck, Suck, Suck and Suck. But it makes sense. If some guy from The Fray had said, "we really love the Beatles and try to take some of their good qualities and use it in our songs," I would have said, "well, what the hell happened? You guys suck! Didn't you learn anything at all listening to them?" But when they say they love Counting Crows...well, that seems just about right...