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I have a problem with cover/tribute bands.

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#301
the notion that original = poor/deluded offends me.

i can say with some certainty that i've made music/been a part of projects that have achieved some recognition. nothing that got anyone signed. but certainly where people have written me from other countries thanking me for the music we've made. i can honestly say that being both flattered and humbled by these things definitely means more than making money, or having people go nuts over me playing a cover song.

(i've had people got nuts with me playing originals, as well...not just the 4 friends i dragged along to the show. it's a great feeling, but one must remember that just because you're on a stage with a guitar in your hand doesn't mean you're a god or better than anyone.)
 
#302
Greyvagabond said:
Maybe its just the Boston scene, but NOBODY would take a "rock" band seriously that played more than one, maybe two, covers in a single set. If you want to be taken serious, you have to bring your original compositions to the show. My band does play covers; in fact, The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" is in regular rotation in our set. However, we arranged it to fit our style, and its the only cover we do (unless its a REAL long set, in which case our guitarist and singer to a nice acoustic duet of U2's "Staring at the Sun"). But the idea of playing a bunch of covers and "peppering" it was originals would likely be seen as amazingly amatuer, and you would get neither fans, nor an invite back to any respectable club. Again, that's just Boston. To paraphrase James Joyce, Boston is the sow that eats her own indie bands.
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My guess is their are all kinds of respectable clubs in Boston that have coverbands that are not part of your inbred scene.
 
#303
ransombass said:
+1

We don't do shows for less than $750. Our average is $1200 per show. We played at Harrah's in Tunica, Ms. last year for $5000 and will play for the same people this year at Talladega for $10,000-15,000. And to top it all off we're recording our second CD and get to play all of our originals during the course of a 2 1/2-3 hour show. We sell our CD's and swag at our shows and play all over a four state area. None of this would be possible without playing covers.

:bassist:
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Right on, bro. That's what I'm talking about!
 
#304
Check these guys out. When I came across them at MPMF a few years ago, they were great. At the time, they were still doing gigs as an all cover band, along with gigs doing all original. There was also a band here in Columbus doing the same thing - living a double life.

Link Removed

btw - I have Temporal Bliss, and it's a really good album.
 
#311
modulusman said:
My guess is their are all kinds of respectable clubs in Boston that have coverbands that are not part of your inbred scene.
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There are respectable BARS in Boston that have great, professional covers bands on a nightly basis. But there is a big difference between a bar and club in Boston. And you're right; there is TONS of band-cest (band incest) in Boston! But, I guess that's what makes a music scene (which is by definition original music.) :D
 
#312
Jamie Bishop said:
I love love love new innovative music, but there have been many original bands that made me wish I was watching a cover band. Also, if it weren't for cover bands, I might just have to get a real job. And I hate working much more than Mustang Sally and Celebration.
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I definately understand rather playing Mustang Sally than working a 9-5 job, but for me, I've always seen my Work and Music as very different things. When Music BECOMES Work, I think its a very slippery slope to losing sight of my musical goals.
 
#313
Greyvagabond said:
I definately understand rather playing Mustang Sally than working a 9-5 job, but for me, I've always seen my Work and Music as very different things. When Music BECOMES Work, I think its a very slippery slope to losing sight of my musical goals.
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I'm sorry, but this just doesn't jibe with what you've said before. You talked about part of what makes being in a band worthwhile is being poor etc and that people in cover bands "lacked the balls to put their creativity on display."

Are you now saying that you don't want music to become work? Have you ever lived solely off the money you made playing music?

If not, a lot of the high-minded ideals you've displayed thus far in this thread seem hollow upon reflection. Especially given the irony that many of the people you've disparaged in this thread for playing in cover bands have done exactly that in their pasts or currently. In my case, with original music.
 
#314
No, I have never lived soley off the money I've made playing music. Because, to do that, I'd have to play in a Cover Band, which is NOT what I want to do. It is IMPOSSIBLE for 99.9% of original bands to cover living expenses playing just originals. Therefore, we take low paying jobs/unusual jobs for living, and save our creativity for working on originals. Its like fishing; maybe you're a good fisher, and you really, really like it. Does that mean that you should become a commercial fisherman? Not necessarily. Part of what makes fishing fun is that its not your job; when you try to do both at once, often times you ruin what made it fun in the first place!

I'm really not trying to knock cover bands, its just that I've never seen a cover band that has ever come close to making me feel the way you do at a great live, original concert. And for me, that's what I'm trying to replicate. Seeing Guster live is fantastic; seeing semi-drunk, if well-intentioned, frat boys covering Guster, however...not so much :)
 
#316
Ha, maybe, but show me the last Spin/Rolling Stone/Pitchfork review of the lastest and greatest cover band? When was the last time any A&E section of a paper did a feature on a cover band (other than Lez Zeppelin, because they rule)? What cover band do you remember from your youth? What cover band songs did you blast on the last day of classes in high school? What was the last cover band that mattered?
 
#318
Greyvagabond said:
Ha, maybe, but show me the last Spin/Rolling Stone/Pitchfork review of the lastest and greatest cover band? When was the last time any A&E section of a paper did a feature on a cover band (other than Lez Zeppelin, because they rule)? What cover band do you remember from your youth? What cover band songs did you blast on the last day of classes in high school? What was the last cover band that mattered?
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No, it's not impossible to do without playing covers. I left college twice to do it. But it's hard and often painful. And it may cause you seriously reevaluate the definition of a living wage.

And it takes balls.
 
#319
But all that's not even the point. The point is simple. If you so easily put being a musician and playing in bands into such simplistic buckets and make bigger decisions, like refusing to play [X] or at venues like [Y] - because of a self-imposed and quite narrow sense of 'ethics' or 'integrity' or 'morals' (all descriptors have been used in this thread), then the only thing your accomplishing by holding such views is limiting your opportunities to be a musician.

Period.
 
#320
Greyvagabond said:
Ha, maybe, but show me the last Spin/Rolling Stone/Pitchfork review of the lastest and greatest cover band? When was the last time any A&E section of a paper did a feature on a cover band (other than Lez Zeppelin, because they rule)? What cover band do you remember from your youth? What cover band songs did you blast on the last day of classes in high school? What was the last cover band that mattered?
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Ah...I see the reason for writing and playing your own music is to matter in the world.

Being an artist full time and a musician part time, I understand the whole creative soul, I'm-not-gonna-sell-out feeling all too well.

However, I take on commercial, commissioned art projects all the time...and I find inspiration in the underlying meaning of the project and make it my own creation. I also paint purely to get my own creative fix.

I play in an original band and two cover bands. Playing covers or originals feels no different. The satisfaction is no different. The meaning of either and how much either matters to the world isn't up to me, but rather who I play for.

Art is an expression of your soul. The depth of enlightenment with your soul will tell you if what you do matters, not only to yourself, but to the world.

I can create a painting or play music that can move people to tears, or smile, laugh, sing, be introspective, or dance like they've never danced before. Care to tell me which kind of paintings/music of mine has done this for other people? Was it my commercial or personal artwork that moved them? Was it my cover band playing music or my original music that made them cry, laugh, or dance, etc.?

Art that elicits no emotion is worthless, regardless of it's source.
 
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