Dear Cover Bands......

jpfamps

Danny1969 said:

One thing I saw over here in Nashville and Memphis from cover bands is awesome harmonies Every single band had at least 3 people who could sing a great lead vocal so the 2 or ; part harmonies were great

But then these bands play for tips so fhey depend on their skills to bring in the tips

I my experience the standard of playing of American musicians is an order of magnitude better than British musicians.

Admittedly I tend to listen more to American music, but I think that this holds true for most genera.

Danny1969 said:

One thing I saw over here in Nashville and Memphis from cover bands is awesome harmonies Every single band had at least 3 people who could sing a great lead vocal so the 2 or ; part harmonies were great

But then these bands play for tips so fhey depend on their skills to bring in the tips

MatthewShreddery

Play That Funky Music...

jpfamps

It's interesting listening to those two live clips is how slow the tempo is. 

Most band will play this song faster than this and lose the groove.

In my opinion there are 3 legitimate reasons why a song is popular:

1) It's a great song (sounds obvious, but bear with me).

2) It's a great performance

3) It's got a great groove

It's important to realise why the song is popular when you are trying to play it. Often bands think as song is a great song because their judgement is clouded by either point 2 or 3.

A great song will work in any genera and arrangement. It stands up on it's own as a piece of music, and requires something pretty special to butcher.

An average or poor song can be saved by a great performance, and kid you into thinking that it's a great song.

As an example I always use Try A Little Tenderness. I truly poor song that is rescued by the tremendous performance of Otis Redding and the Stax house band. Trying listening to the Etta James or worse the Frank Sinatra versions. These are great artists and they can't save it.

The third category includes quite Get Lucky. It's not a great song, it doesn't really go anywhere (eg no middle 8), or have any dynamics, so lives and dies by it's groove. Get this wrong (and most bands do) then it will be very very average.

Roland

Longtallronnie said:

Agreed on the harmonies, while we're certainly not the beach boys we spend a lot of time on themt. They can add so much power to a song and go a long way to making you sound more "professional".

For me, vocal harmony is what distinguishing a good covers band from an average pub band. The trick with a cover arrangement is to preserve the essentials of the original whilst making your own version. There are some things you must do note for note, there are some you can drop. Matching or improving on the harmonies is often key.

monquixote

Wisdom Awarded!

I need a dollar by Aloe Blacc falls into the same category. It's not actually a good song, just well produced. 

If you try and cover it you find it's really boring. 

Jetfire

We've actually got a live version of our band doing Get Lucky, Im just too chicken shit to post it up!

mike_l

And while we're on the subject of cover bands, last week I had a couple of beers with @RocknRollDave (top bloke) and caught a band (sorry, I didn't catch their name) and there PA/FOH sound was way too bassy. It would have been good for a Nu-metal (IE Slipknot) band, not a pop/rock covers band.

stickyfiddle

Jetfire said:

We've actually got a live version of our band doing Get Lucky, Im just too chicken shit to post it up!

http://media.tumblr.com/a24ca275e839bf3e7d5bc55cef7773ed/tumblr_inline_mt5vve9GYZ1qk9ao5.gif

JayGee

dindude said:

jpfamps said:

Superstition is another song regularly butchered.

Agreed, but weirdly the same band that slaughtered Get Lucky done a wicked version of superstition!

My lot did a fairly limp Get Lucky[1] but (IMHO) a really rather good Superstition but it probably wasn't us... :-)

[1] Which is why, in spite of the punters responding well to it we dropped it fairly quickly when we realised it wasn't quite working for us and we had no clear idea how to fix it...

RocknRollDave

mike_l said:

And while we're on the subject of cover bands, last week I had a couple of beers with @RocknRollDave (top bloke) and caught a band (sorry, I didn't catch their name) and there PA/FOH sound was way too bassy. It would have been good for a Nu-metal (IE Slipknot) band, not a pop/rock covers band.

Very kind of you to say so, @Mike_L apologies if my Black Country mumbling became even more indecipherable after my two pints of Rattler..Great to meet you! Just seen another band in same pub and it's all down to that alcove they put the bands in. Couldn't hear the drums at all, bass was muffled and boomy...walked out towards the end of their set and as I passed them everything sounded exactly the opposite - all drums and top end.
point being...covers bands: mic your stuff up and do a proper sound check, Get Lucky or no Get Lucky!

digitalscream

JayGee said:

dindude said:

jpfamps said:

Superstition is another song regularly butchered.

Agreed, but weirdly the same band that slaughtered Get Lucky done a wicked version of superstition!

My lot did a fairly limp Get Lucky[1] but (IMHO) a really rather good Superstition but it probably wasn't us... :-)

[1] Which is why, in spite of the punters responding well to it we dropped it fairly quickly when we realised it wasn't quite working for us and we had no clear idea how to fix it...

Hmmm. We did Superstition for the first time at last night's gig. Well, kinda. We did this version...

Not sure whether that counts as good, clever or just feckin' awful. I suspect a poll of everybody in this thread would probably throw up a three-way-tie

It was quite funny, though - we left a longer-than-usual gap after the SBT intro, so everybody had the horns up...then "Verrrryyy super..." and you could immediately see the confusion, followed by a "huh?" and then about half the crowd decided it was awesome. Plenty of comments about it on FB today, which was exactly the point. If nothing else, people will remember it.

However, the confusing bit for me was...did they seriously think we were going to attempt Sad But True with a female singer?

PolarityMan

Drew_fx said:

This thread really should just say 'fuck off you suck' because I've literally *never* seen a good covers band.

Saw one band absolutely butcher Tool once. That was hilarious/depressing

I hope that want us..we ballsed up tool a couple of times

mid57

I think this lot  may have it down ( friend of mine on bass)

Fuzzdog

jpfamps said:

I my experience the standard of playing of American musicians is an order of magnitude better than British musicians.

I shall simply say that, as someone who lived over there for a chunk of my life and played many gigs with American musicians, that's one of the funniest thing's I've read in a while.

frankus

All the bedroom jammers, all the bedroom jammers
all the bedroom jammers, all the bedroom jammers
all the bedroom jammers, all the bedroom jammers
all the bedroom jammers

now put your hands up!
here in the club, you just woke up
We're doing someone elses song
you're too shy to wanna sing along
so you stoke your chin and think it's wrong

I'm up on stage all eyes on me
Don't pay him any attention
I've learnt the part, spent three weeks
ya can't be mad at me.

cause if you liked it then you should have had a crack at it.
if you liked it why don't ya take a shot at it?
don't be mad once you see they're dancing
cause if you liked it you'd be in a band playing it.

JayGee

frankus said:

All the bedroom jammers, all the bedroom jammers
...

...and so the tragedy of not being allowing the same person to give a LOL,  a Wisdom, and a Wow to the same post is cruelly revealed.

bluechargeboy

mid57 said:

I think this lot  may have it down ( friend of mine on bass)

Well that's the best version I have heard, better than the Nile Rodgers vids up there! ^^

Nice to hear a band with some sense of feel!

stickyfiddle

frankus said:

All the bedroom jammers, all the bedroom jammers
all the bedroom jammers, all the bedroom jammers
all the bedroom jammers, all the bedroom jammers
all the bedroom jammers

now put your hands up!
here in the club, you just woke up
We're doing someone elses song
you're too shy to wanna sing along
so you stoke your chin and think it's wrong

I'm up on stage all eyes on me
Don't pay him any attention
I've learnt the part, spent three weeks
ya can't be mad at me.

cause if you liked it then you should have had a crack at it.
if you liked it why don't ya take a shot at it?
don't be mad once you see they're dancing
cause if you liked it you'd be in a band playing it.

Well that was Frank's afternoon well spent