Greta Van Fleet

I mean, as unperson hints at upthread, I'd rather hear a GVF single on rock radio than three-quarters of what passes for "modern rock" right now, even if it they are wholly indebted to Zep scraps.

Zeppelin is like the absolute worst band to try to copy. I have no idea how they work, the way they sound, there's some sort of feeling they give me it's hard to articulate, but it's not riffs or any stylistic thing you can copy

Drum sound aside.

I'd rather hear a GVF single on rock radio than three-quarters of what passes for "modern rock" right now,

I mean, what's the opposite of the "why not both?" meme? "Why not neither?"

but agreed how aping 80 sophisti-pop stuff the 10000 time is always seen as progressive as opposed to aping other styles from the past is regressive

I think it's more that it's really hard to imitate Zep well, and they really try hard and with his voice it gets into uncanny valley, off just enough to be offputting. It's viable to build your whole sound off the Ramones or Gang of Four, and change one little thing and it freshens it enough to kindle a familiar thrill. Actually I'd a say it's really hard to ape Talking Heads or Fleetwood Mac too, as they have a similar amount of odd ingredients and big personalities baked into their peak pop sound.

The Raveonettes went pretty far doing uncanny-valley Jesus and Mary Chain but as I recall they branched out some on later records

I can think of some great Zep rip offs (Billy Squier's "Lonely is the Night," Whitesnake's "Still of the Night") but in the end it's fun but pretty pointless, because yeah, there's really nowhere to go with it.

Do even Rush consider their first album to be one of their better ones?

I can think of some great Zep rip offs (Billy Squier's "Lonely is the Night," Whitesnake's "Still of the Night") but in the end it's fun but pretty pointless, because yeah, there's really nowhere to go with it.

Btw, a lot of mainstream MOR pop-rock from the last few decades sounds Fleetwood Mac-influenced to me, from Sheryl Crow to pre-Max Martin Taylor Swift. Wasn't Courtney Love attempting an explicit homage at one point.

Parts of Celebrity Skin were definitely Mac-influenced.

Fleetwood Mac as a hip musical crush goes back as far as The Dance.

xpost - to me the first Rush album is kind of it's own thing in terms of their history

but yeah for me personally it's fun but not in the top 10 or anything

Yeah, I've found I enjoy the Rush debut more when I pretend it's the only album from a one and done mid-70s power trio, not Rush.

This Ophelias obscurity is a great ersatz LZ III. A parallel naiveté to Plant's lyrics, and the unwieldy grafting of Appalachian folk to barroom slide guitar appropriately Page-like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCrA_a71n1Y

Yeah, I've found I enjoy the Rush debut more when I pretend it's the only album from a one and done mid-70s power trio, not Rush.

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, April 13, 2021 10:03 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah totally if it were some obscure Sir Lord Baltimore or Dust type band from Cincinnati or something Numero Group would have re-released it

Also, re: Courtney Love & Fleetwood Mac, Hole covered "Gold Dust Woman" on the second Crow soundtrack in '96.

Zeppelin is like the absolute worst band to try to copy. I have no idea how they work, the way they sound, there's some sort of feeling they give me it's hard to articulate, but it's not riffs or any stylistic thing you can copy

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, April 13, 2021 10:36 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm.

It's the drums. It's the fucking drums. A band can have a singer with Plant's range, Page's riffs, some pseudo-mystical hippie sprinkles...but if the groove and swing (and sound -- Bonham didn't hit super hard, relatively speaking, and drew incredible tones out of his kit) aren't there, it will fall flat, and has always fallen flat. GvF are no exception to this. It's like I posted upthread about how JPJ complained that Zep ripoff bands completely miss what made Bonham great, and how he and Bonham were James Brown fanatics, and how that element is always absent from faux-Zep bands.

Anti-GVF sentiment seems less tied up in aping Zeppelin/classic rock dinosaurs and more in aping poorly. They’re completely sexless, lack the groove of Bonham/Jones or any of the quirks and rough edges of Cream or whomever.

GVF sound like generic radio rock of the last 20 years with someone screeching in a similar way to Plant.

Ok, I just listened to "Heat Above" and it does sound a bit like a Rush pastiche, albeit minus the rhythmic or compositional intricacy that usually makes Rush interesting.

Don't get me wrong, I'll probably listen to this before Robyn Murphy or whatever.

Only 332 messages itt so far? Huh, I was expecting at least twice that amount.

The vocalist sucks, he should feel bad for singing, his vocal cords should be seized

Finally found the JPJ interview bit I keep referring to, at 18:38 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI4tJlStEIg

Ophelias

Directly related:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh9cPAXyEVg

BTW, I also agree that GVF sound closer to early Rush than LZ, but given that I rarely listen to early Rush, and that Rush itself was often pretty much trying to ape Zeppelin ... yeah that's a hard pass on GVF. It's like something I don't want to hear, several times removed.

The vocalist sucks, he should feel bad for singing, his vocal cords should be seized

Yeah, a bunch of ppl in the YT comments saying he's a stronger singer than Geddy Lee was which I don't think I agree with - he sounds like he's doing an impression on this song but his voice sounds like it's got less behind it to me, as a relative non-singer. Could be something about the recording idk.

Again, I absolutely love Rush, but if I had to pick one thing to imitate, Geddy's vox would be last on the list.

Especially '70s Geddy.

Yes, the JPJ comment gets to one of the main problems of derivative bands - you have to retrace the influence of everything the players were listening to, not just the stuff they overtly covered. Breakthrough bands inherently have to have chops in genres other than the one they created.

Would be better and more impressive if this band aped Yes.

Yes, the JPJ comment gets to one of the main problems of derivative bands - you have to retrace the influence of everything the players were listening to, not just the stuff they overtly covered.

And believe me, this also explains a lot -- speaking of concurrent 70s obsessions -- of post-Tolkien fantasy. (Which post-GRRM fantasy is repeating in similar ways.)

What would you hope for from that? They certainly don't have Squire's or Howe's chops or versatility any more than than they have Zep's or Rush's.xp

There's a reason nobody rips off Yes, and it's not because musicians don't like Yes

I mean, there are a lot of neo-prog bands on one side, and Flaming Lips-y psychedelic indie bands on the other, but, no, no one recreates "Close to the Edge". That Lips side project actually left out all of the instrumental passages when they covered "Heart of the Sunrise" iirc.

Electric Würms, they were called: https://www.stereogum.com/1685826/electric-wurms-heart-of-the-sunrise-yes-cover/news/

"There's a reason nobody rips off Yes..."

...because Spock's Beard already demonstrated the results.

While I agree that post-Zep bands never achieved the same feel, I also don't really know what the point would be of four young musicians embarking on a deep study of Delta blues, English folk, Indian classical music, James Brown, etc., and then applying all of those influences to record new songs that sounded just like Led Zeppelin. It seems like it would if anything be more interesting to listen to Guns n Roses or Soundgarden. (I would listen to that other band's progressive folk-jazz project, though.)

Greta Van Fleet sounds like a competent high school band fronted by someone in the process of having his testicles pulled off by an octopus

Pretty much. Or an ejaculating hyena.

Of course these chumps can't play like Yes, they (try to) play like Zep (or early Rush) because it's easier! I just meant that it would be more fun if they *could* play like Yes instead of the umpteenth Less Zeppelin.

I just realized who else the GvF singer reminds me of: Noddy Holder! If GvF covered "Gudbuy T'Jane" I think it'd actually work.

so you think i got a shitty voice
it makes me money

sort of surprised to see this, re the new GVF album:

"The album was recorded with musical producer Greg Kurstin, who most recently worked with Foo Fighters on Concrete and Gold and Medicine at Midnight."

tarfumes otm about the drumming, this band's drummer totally sucks

I mean, there are a lot of neo-prog bands on one side, and Flaming Lips-y psychedelic indie bands on the other, but, no, no one recreates "Close to the Edge".

Beg to differ:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC5v7Xr0eAc

Anyway, back to the thread

hold up there are plenty of bands imitating Yes they just don't sell any records

unfortunately i'm not above listening to a mediocre-to-shitty rock record just bc greg kurstin worked on it

I love how many of the boomer Zep fans who basically are averse to new music for lacking creativity suddenly embraced Greta Von Fleet.

i definitely don't want to live in a world where it's 2053 and bands are still obsessed with sounding like a band that's 80+ years old

lol who am I kidding there won't be a 2053.

But will there be a 2112?

GVF should form a Rush cover band called 2113, because they sound like a bunch of 13-year olds trying to cover Rush.