Tribute albums suck?

[beccabear67]

I used to think so but either my bean is going right soft or they aren't all future coasters... it started with finding that If I Were A Carpenter thing in the cheapie bin... Shonen Knife doing a Crapenters song has to be worth a buck... but then I happened upon The Ramontures! Punk rock in a ventures style, this is brilliant! Then I moved onto the hard vinyl stuff... Monkeys A-Go-Go by The Chimps! Wheels And Other Guitar Hits with The Phantoms! Charles River Valley Boys' Beatle Country! Well, by the time I found Sour Cream & Other Delights by the Frivolous Five let's say I was real gone. Now I'm actually winning ebay auctions for the CDs that came with the Mojo magazines I never wanted just to get a lot of people doing Revolver tracks. Suddenly I can't get enough; I'm craving opera versions of The Seekers Greatest Hits, and Capt Beefheart as interpreted by German synthesizer wizards! But most of all Son Of The Children Of Nuggets Play The Best Bits From Boulders! Somebody really ought to put a comp together of all the best modern covers of garage originals if only for me. :)

Tell me where to go next? What are the best 'tribute to' albums of all time, new and vintage? Am I hopelessly degenerating by liking these things?

My current favorite is This Bird Has Flown from the Razor & Tie label which has The Donnas, Sufjan Stevens and Cowboy Junkies among others covering songs from Rubber Soul. I really like Yonder Mountain String Band's (whoever they are/were) version of Think For Yourself!

 

[paul messis]

I'd love to part-take in cutting a cover version for an official LP like this if it ever came to being.

I can confidently say, I feel my covers would be faithful to the originals and would sound good.


Paul

 

[tom kirby]

Aren't all "Garage" comps tribute albums or cd's? They are a "tribute" to all the bands they contain and the genre in general.

 

[beccabear67]

Aren't all "Garage" comps tribute albums or cd's? They are a "tribute" to all the bands they contain and the genre in general.

A 'tribute' album has come to mean one of more modern artists covering the music of someone or some group earlier. A couple other favorites are 'Here Ain't The Sonics' which has a lot of modern day Pacific Northwest groups (like Girl Trouble) covering songs The Sonics recorded in the '60s. Bad examples would be something like Michael Buble's 'Tribute To Bon Jovi', or Box Car Willie 'Sings The Eagles', there are a lot of those kind to be found in the K-Mart discount bin. :)

The more unusual the cover version the more I like it, The Racontuer's version of 'Bang Bang' is a favorite, but an album of the best garage rock songs reimagined by modern artists would be fun I think.

 

[tymespan]

Some of the better tribute CDs:
Bobby Fuller Our Favorite Texan oop & only released in Japan, mostly power pop artists like Jamie Hoover of the Spongetones & Marshall Crenshaw but Fortune & Maltese do a cool version of Pamela (should be able to find this on the Power Pop Criminals blog)
Buddy Holly Every Day Is A Holly Day eclectic selection of artists: Shoes, Roky Erickson, Panther Burns, Chris Spedding among others
Melody Fair Bee Gees -there's a couple of horrible mainstream Bee Gees tributes out there, this covers only the early years with songs like Craise Finton Kirk & Mrs Gillespie's Refrigerator
Sing Hollies in Reverse - again mostly power pop artists Posies, Tommy Keene , Mitch Easter, Wondermints

 

[Derf66]

Glad you dug our version of Pamela Tymespan. Another solid tribute album is the Ventures Swingin' Creepers. Fortune & Maltese are also on that, everybody really seemed to come together and turn in a very cohesive sound.

 

[beccabear67]

Some of the better tribute CDs:
Bobby Fuller Our Favorite Texan oop & only released in Japan, mostly power pop artists like Jamie Hoover of the Spongetones & Marshall Crenshaw but Fortune & Maltese do a cool version of Pamela (should be able to find this on the Power Pop Criminals blog)
Buddy Holly Every Day Is A Holly Day eclectic selection of artists: Shoes, Roky Erickson, Panther Burns, Chris Spedding among others
Melody Fair Bee Gees -there's a couple of horrible mainstream Bee Gees tributes out there, this covers only the early years with songs like Craise Finton Kirk & Mrs Gillespie's Refrigerator
Sing Hollies in Reverse - again mostly power pop artists Posies, Tommy Keene , Mitch Easter, Wondermints

Yeah, those all sound good, thanks! Spongetones, Fortune & Maltese, and The Posies are favorites, and Roky and Chris Spedding doing Buddy Holly has to be interesting!

That Swingin' Creepers is hard to find but I can borrow Erik's maybe. :oops: