Surfrider wrote:

- It just doesn't seem worthwhile to get panties in a bunch because a band you don't like covered a band you do. -


Misfire. It's not that simple and you know it. Proof of this being in the description and reasoning by Muse of their cover version. They're trying to score some 'cool' points, and the way they describe LB is laughable, embarrassing, and mostly just infuriating.
I couldn't care less if Muse are fans of Lightning Bolt, but to cover them (in such a straight fashion, and badly) is indirectly asking to put themselves up for comparison, both musically and otherwise. So i say it is justified, probably not worthwhile, but justified to get our 'panties in a bunch' as you so eloquently put it.

Anger factor 9.

Agreed. Is it 'worth it', preaching to the converted / disinterested on a message board? Nope. But it...really grates in a way that few similar things do. Ugh. I refer you to my first post in this thread. Page 1, post 2.

Fair enough. I just personally think it's kind of absurd to get worked up about, but to each their own.

run joe, run wrote:A good musician makes good music.

One more question that just occured to me.

Given your view relating to the concept of 'good musician', do you consider that musicians become less good the older they get (typically)?

For example, The Jesus Lizard could (in most fan's opinions) be described as peaking two or three albums into their 'career'. Does this in your opinion mean that they are best described as becoming worse musicians?

Duane Dennison could be said to have once been a great musician, but now sadly not?

Maybe in the good musician/bad musician debate you need to consider the difference between being a good performer and/or a good composer. I have known many exceptional orchestral/solo 'classical' musicians who haven't been able to compose anything other than elevator musak because they just didn't have the artistic vision. Put a Betthoven concerto in front of them, however, and they can bring it alive with their own interpretation and breathe life into it.

In this example Lightning Bolt are amazing composers and performers who have created this piece of music. Muse have then come along and 'interpreted' it into a boring, flat lifeless piece of swill, like a 14 year old covers band playing Nirvana or something. I'm not sure how relevant this is actually but oh well...

On an anectyodal level, a conducter I once played under once told me this: "music is one of the only things in the world that uses both the heart and the mind"