Bands/Artists whose imitators are better than they are

Anyway, I was thinking more Doors/Jim imitators=Iggy, Patti Smith, Nick Cave, Echo & the Bunnymen.

Good pop songs can have good lyrics if they want - a good backbeat is better sometimes. The Strokes' lyrics are far from awful and I adore the "catchy simple hooks". I think they imitate other bands as much/more as the VU, I just mentioned them cos they were the first lot that came to mind.

Oh Vey...

How Bizarre, how bizarre.

hahaha the hell they did

i still don't mind the strokes, but is there any truth to that rumor going around that their new alb is being produced by nigel godrich? haha, the mind boggles at how inconceivably bad that's gonna turn out!

And Pere Ubu were way better Captain Beefheart.

And Public Enemy (and lots of other rap acts, politically minded and otherwise) are better than the Last Poets or Gil Scott-Heron.

Eh? The Tubes better than Zappa? (jeri don't know me very well do she?)

And Pere Ubu were way better Captain Beefheart.

A closer call, but I'd still give it to Beefheart -- mainly because I wouldn't exactly peg Pere Ubu as strictly Beefheart imitators.

Dark yes, but metal, absolutely not.

Nirvana >>>>>>>> the Pixies or the Melvins or the Vaselines or whoever else they imitated

Refer to "This Charming Man" and its Motown shuffle. Now imagine it with nothing good about that combination (like Gene's "This is Not My Crime," f'r instance).

And the Auteurs (and London Suede) are better than the Smiths.

The Auteurs, ARGH! Pain!

I have no doubt about Lifter Puller being better than Pavement, though. But what's a good place to start?

Sublime are better than the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
P.O.D. are better than Korn.
Crazytown are better than the Chili Peppers OR Korn (but not Sublime.)

Everything being relative, I agree with this completely.

that totally trounced their minimalist asses in the song department

"The Model" has a melody and a beat, what more do you want? ;-)

I might take "I Got My Mind Set On You" over having tacks driven into my butt-cheeks.

How about somebody else's butt-cheeks?

*this may be a lie.

I should hear this Lifter Puller...

to add to that danava song, as above, lansing-dreiden 'disenchanted' >>>>>>>> everything new order ever did ever

I think ALS was a production triumph. How does Danava improve on it sonically? By adding that synth line?

There are countless ways One Mind Gone Separate Ways improves (for me) on Achilles Last Stand, to the extent it really is not the same song at all. It isn't just superficial stuff like an extra synth line - it adds several extra chords to the sequence, making it much less repetitive and imo more dramatic. There are more fun rhythmic switches, a better and more memorable bass line, different textures adding to the sense of a lush, orchestrated trip, and above all a clearer sense of development throughout the song, featuring a sick bridge section featuring both mellotron and horns falling headlong into a cataclysmic final build slathered in all sorts of astonishing synth bullshit, it's so amazing lol, I'm listening to it again right now in honour of them finally releasing a new album and it's just as incredible as it always was, but above all, it is extremely psychedelic in a way the original song just wasn't. I'd hardly call it an imitation, more that they had an idea based on ALS but took it in some insane psych-prog direction

I mean, you decide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdVrV1XQxXI

Sorry for taking nearly 8 years to reply