The Official Covers vs Originals Thread

[bluewine]

Originally Posted by ctrotier

My originals band from Milwaukee does WI, IL, IA, MN, IN, MI, MO...we go where the (weekend) gigs are. We do festivals, clubs, bars, and get played regularly around the world on podcasts, internet radio stations, Pandora, etc. It's a smaller world these days, and this originals bands from Milwaukee still does 50 odd gigs per year. We've even won a few awards over the years.

You just need to work harder to get your music out there if you want to compete with the cover bands. It's easier doing covers - yes, I know this from experience. You do not have to sell the music when doing covers. The original artist(s) already did. You just have to worry about the show.

In short, the experience is what you make it. We write because we love it, we play whenever we can because we love it, but its not a career.

We use lots of chords too - more than 2 or 3! And not just in E.

And for the most part, we try not to suck.

Milwaukee has lots of good originals bands, just like most towns. It just depends how hard you look to find them, and how hard they work. Check out The Form. Outstanding Milwaukee band. Great Lakes Drifters...Whiskeybelles...Mr Deagun Jones...lots of good bands if you want to find them.

I've seen you guys at Shank and Irish Fest.

Your band is on what I call the rather short list of good originals bands in Milwaukee.

Blue

[pushbuttonfour]

Originally Posted by bluewine

I take it you have never heard a top notch cover or tribute band?

I've been lucky enough to have seen many great originals bands and cover bands in Milwaukee.

Blue

you're right, I have never seen a top notch tribute band. What would an example of one be? The best one I've seen is this Johnny Cash Tribute band at a fair.

[bluewine]

Originally Posted by pushbuttonfour

you're right, I have never seen a top notch tribute band. What would an example of one be? The best one I've seen is this Johnny Cash Tribute band at a fair.

Who knows, if you don't live near or in a major metro area there might not be any. And what I consider good might not be good to you.

We have The Brittins here in Milwaukee. I consider them a top notch Beatles tribute band.

Blue

[pushbuttonfour]

Originally Posted by bluewine

Who knows, if you don't live near or in a major metro area there might not be any. And what I consider good might not be good to you.

We have The Brittins here in Milwaukee. I consider them a top notch Beatles tribute band.

Blue

OK. To be fair I haven't seen very many tribute bands. I agree that they seems fun to play in, and I respect the members as musicians. Like I said, I just find them limiting. But I can see a band covering someone as big as the Beatles being viable.

I like when people cover songs and put a new spin on them, like doing an acoustic version of a song that is not acoustic or vise versa. When people try to sound exactly like the original recording, though, that's what sorta bugs me.

[bluewine]

Originally Posted by pushbuttonfour

OK. To be fair I haven't seen very many tribute bands. I agree that they seems fun to play in, and I respect the members as musicians. Like I said, I just find them limiting. But I can see a band covering someone as big as the Beatles being viable.

I like when people cover songs and put a new spin on them, like doing an acoustic version of a song that is not acoustic or vise versa. When people try to sound exactly like the original recording, though, that's what sorta bugs me.

That's fine, that's your thing.

Me, seeing a band replicate a song with multiples guitar, bass, vocals, keyboard tracks and high production values live with the chops to execute it is very impressive.

But many people don't hear or see performances the same way.

Blue

[pushbuttonfour]

Originally Posted by bluewine

That's fine, that's your thing.

Me, seeing a band replicate a song with multiples guitar, bass, vocals, keyboard tracks and high production values live with the chops to execute it is very impressive.

But many people don't hear or see performances the same way.

Blue

I see what you're saying now... It is impressive. I probably hadn't thought of that because my favorite bands are bands like Green Day and blink, pretty simple guitar and not many instruments.

So I guess when you get down to it, we just have different tastes

[bluewine]

Originally Posted by pushbuttonfour

I see what you're saying now... It is impressive. I probably hadn't thought of that because my favorite bands are bands like Green Day and blink, pretty simple guitar and not many instruments.

So I guess when you get down to it, we just have different tastes

And, I'm sure it's generational too. I don't even know any Green Day. I've seen them on TV but I don't know any of their songs.

You don't here much high skill bass and guitar work production anymore not in rock at least or pop., imo.

Blue

[pushbuttonfour]

Originally Posted by bluewine

And, I'm sure it's generational too. I don't even know any Green Day. I've seen them on TV but I don't know any of their songs.

You don't here much high skill bass and guitar work production anymore not in rock at least or pop., imo.

Blue

yeah true, in fact many punk bands pride themselves in being crappy. I'm pretty sure a lot of them have never taken any lessons. But I still like the music itself, despite how basic it is sometimes. Still more skill involved than pop, IMO

[zachoff]

Originally Posted by bluewine

And, I'm sure it's generational too. I don't even know any Green Day. I've seen them on TV but I don't know any of their songs.

You don't here much high skill bass and guitar work production anymore not in rock at least or pop., imo.

Blue

You do realize there's great bass work in a lot of today's music, right? Punk rock or otherwise. Just because you haven't heard it doesn't mean it's not there. It's fine if you want to keep your classic rock. Hell, I like a lot of that stuff to... Grew up on it, even.

But to say "I don't even know any Green Day.." and then follow it up with "You don't here[sic] much high skill bass and guitar work..." shows ignorance. Mike Dirnt (Green Day's bass player) is damn solid & has some really fun songs to play not to mention loads of others that write some really good stuff these days.

[pklima]

Isn't Green Day classic rock, and not knowing any Green Day something usually associated with people under the age of 30?

[zachoff]

Originally Posted by pklima

Isn't Green Day classic rock, and not knowing any Green Day something usually associated with people under the age of 30?

touche...

[pushbuttonfour]

Originally Posted by zachoff

You do realize there's great bass work in a lot of today's music, right? Punk rock or otherwise. Just because you haven't heard it doesn't mean it's not there. It's fine if you want to keep your classic rock. Hell, I like a lot of that stuff to... Grew up on it, even.

But to say "I don't even know any Green Day.." and then follow it up with "You don't here[sic] much high skill bass and guitar work..." shows ignorance. Mike Dirnt (Green Day's bass player) is damn solid & has some really fun songs to play not to mention loads of others that write some really good stuff these days.

yeah, Longview comes to mind. Also Carousel from blink-182. But I would call these anomalies; having listened to every song from both artists, I can say many of the basslines are pretty simple. But 1) that doesn't really inhibit my enjoyment of them, 2) These bands are both over 20 years old, so they don't really represent today, and 3) Like zachoff said, there are always different types of music out there, you just have to dig deep. Hey, if the only type of music that could get marginal success was pop garbage, why would anyone on this forum be playing in bands, anyway? (besides solely for fun)

[bluewine]

Originally Posted by zachoff

You do realize there's great bass work in a lot of today's music, right? Punk rock or otherwise. Just because you haven't heard it doesn't mean it's not there. It's fine if you want to keep your classic rock. Hell, I like a lot of that stuff to... Grew up on it, even.

But to say "I don't even know any Green Day.." and then follow it up with "You don't here[sic] much high skill bass and guitar work..." shows ignorance. Mike Dirnt (Green Day's bass player) is damn solid & has some really fun songs to play not to mention loads of others that write some really good stuff these days.

It's generational, I'm 59. The Chuck Raineys and Willie Weeks are my heroes. When I hear the Mike Dirnt and Les Claypool, they go strait to my " I don't Get It" files.

Blue

[bluewine]

Originally Posted by pklima

Isn't Green Day classic rock, and not knowing any Green Day something usually associated with people under the age of 30?

Or rapidly approaching 60.

Blue

[bluewine]

Originally Posted by zachoff

But to say "I don't even know any Green Day.." and then follow it up with "You don't here[sic] much high skill bass and guitar work..." shows ignorance.

Well, it's not fact it's merely my opinion.

Blue

[ChrisB2]

Um... whoever is in charge of the fireplace... you had a breakout...

But to the point that cover bands never do justice to the original:

On a business trip back in the early 90s me and a buddy saw a cover band in a little bar in Chicago do House of the Rising Sun and they KILLED it...

We both agreed it was much better than the original. Of course it may have just been the power and energy of seeing it performed live. Or it could've been the beer...

[jive1]

Since this thread has derailed, it will be merged with the covers vs originals thread.

[Summit]

I haven't been a gigging musician long (2.5 years) but for me it's pretty simple.

Like playing out to crowds? Play covers.
Have a burning desire to create new music? Play originals.

Originals bands will struggle to play at high quality venues that won't take advantage of them in some way. Original music venues don't invest much time in their artists anymore. You won't just be a musician - you'll be a promoter, an organizer, a publicist, a webmaster, on top of your existing duties as a musician. Booking won't be easy and you'll play to a lot of empty rooms. That's just the reality of what it's like when you're introducing people to a brand new song. They are not forgiving.

You may assume that I am in a cover band based on the above, but you'd be wrong. My band is 90% originals with a few covers thrown in. Personally I find most of our 'gigs' very disappointing - people just don't wander into original music venues anymore. You have to fight to get people in the door and then they might stay for the one band they came for then leave. The partying crew that spends all their money on booze which is what the bar actually cares about doesn't want to hear an original band. They wanna get drunk and sloppily sing/dance to what they already know. The best and most rewarding venues are going to be those that cater to that type of crowd. You CAN play there as an originals band, but it takes a lot of time and talent, most people don't have it. I know I don't yet, if I ever will.

Having seen what I've seen over the past few years, I would say the ideal path of the originals band would be to not gig at all until you release a full length CD. Send it out for reviews, finally do some gigs to see what kind of response you get. If it's good, keep gigging! If it's poor, wrap it up and try again. The originals scene is not very supportive of new bands experimenting on stage. I've learned this the hard way.

If you just wanna get on stage and entertain people, you'd be a fool to do originals. It just takes flat out more time to write good songs that people will enjoy then it does to learn a cover tune. Then you need to do the work of building a website, getting Facebook organized, writing love letters to clubs begging to play, bothering all your friends all week to get them to come out. All that time you could be spending learning more cover tunes and getting in front of bigger crowds. Originals are a lot of work that isn't playing music, I don't blame anyone for saying no thanks, I just wanna play some tunes.

[Big Brother]

Originally Posted by Summit

Like playing out to crowds? Play covers.
Have a burning desire to create new music? Play originals.

Art versus entertainment.

That is it.

The reality is that both are art and both are entertainment. The difference is that one attracts bar patrons and thus takes a disproportionate share of the local market. Hilarity ensues when they meet.

[Summit]

Times have changed.

In my city the clubs that do original music are just not pulling in the business as those that DJ or hire cover bands.

We can whine all day (and believe, I whine about it a lot) but at the end of the day the available audience has shrunk dramatically in the past 50 years. We are now competing with Netflix, Hulu, video games, blockbuster movies, easily available music on Youtube/iTunes, etc. None of my friends (I am in my mid 20's) go out to original music venues unless I bother them all week to come check out my band. It's just not on their radar. My single friends wanna go where the girls are dancing, my coupled friends wanna relax in a quieter place where the beer is good.