stuff that seems like a blatant rip off

[awolski]

Do you ever hear some music and think "Damn, how do they think they are going to get away with ripping that part off" or whatever? I started thinking about this because I just picked up Can's Future Days album and was listening to the song Bel Air. The vocal melody to the Buzzcocks song "Sitting Round at Home" seems totally ripped off of one of Mr. Suzuki's vocal melodies. Also, the descending riff thing is the source material to the Fall song "I am Damo Suzuki", although I think that's more of a tribute than a rip off (a tribute is when you know people know you're ripping it off).

Anyone else?

[jca83]

Jet - Get Born.

their hit "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?".. the bass line is Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life". and all their other songs sound like AC/DC riffs and Beatles ballads... it's annoying.

[SLiM BiLT]

One word...Interpol.

I mean, jeez, wearing your influences on your sleeve is one thing, but those guys really push it.

[Quest Poetics]

That stone temple pilots song on the Crow soundtrack is a Led Zepplin song I've heard...It's almost ridiculous how similar the song is...However, we all have our sougs that do that sometimes...I know I do....Oh well

[phalex]

Jet - Get Born.

their hit "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?".. the bass line is Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life". and all their other songs sound like AC/DC riffs and Beatles ballads... it's annoying.

"Lifestyles of the rich and famous" by Good Charlotte pratically sample the drums from "Lust for Life."

[chetatkinsdiet]

You know...I don't even mind if someone "borrows" a riff or some other part in a song. I mean...for those of you old enough to remember...the Jam totally ripped of the bassline and guitar...well, pretty much the whole music of Taxman by the Beatles. I always thought that was the ultimate compliment. Prolly cause I loved both bands and it was sort of like Paul Weller tipping his pint to the lads.
The Stones and especially Led Zep ripped of EVERYONE. Heck, Zep didn't do an original song until about 75. Before that it was all Willie Dixon stuff. Speaking of...have you ever heard the old Willie Dixon versions of some of that stuff. I can't believe that it took a lawsuit by Willie to get them to give him some credit. Now that's sorry.
I actually dig that new Jet CD. Even the sappy Beatle ripoff ballads....
later,
m

[cgarges]

I don't know who this band is, but there's some medium slow tempo tune out there now where the verses are two measures of the band dropping out and the vocals taking it, then the band comes back in again, rocking out for two bars. man, the melody, chord structure, and arrangement are EXACTLY the same as a song on Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians "Ghost Of A Dog" album, minus one minor chord that this band is playing major. Anyone know that tune I'm talking about? Intentional or not, it's gotta be the most blatantly similar thing I've heard since the Ghostbusters/I Want A New Drug thing.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[wayne kerr]

I feel the same way about social security. TOTAL RIPOFF!!!!!

SB

[slamonson]

Jet - Get Born.

their hit "Are You Gonna Be My Girl?".. the bass line is Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life".

man, i noticed that shit too. i thought it sounded like "loose" from funhouse. or was that some other band/song?

i agree--its fun to rip off song ideas, steal a riff here and there (which all of of us have done i'm sure of that), but i think its becoming more prevelant to make songs out of someone elses thing.
it would kick ass if more weird stuff was coming from these people. but its always the same formula.....it seems so uncreative and tired that some people (like me) feel like its just plain boring.

of course if ones songs are all "ripped off" from other succesful (or marginalized yet talented) artists, there will always be enough material to make a new "hit", which is the reason for making music, right everyone?

well i am voting for puddle of mudd, i think they've been ripping off nickleback too much lately, IMHO

[ryan_c]

For me it's always a real bummer to write a riff and be really excited about it and then be listening to records and realize that I just stole it. That just happened to me tonight with a Neurosis riff.

We very rarely intentionally rip off a riff, but I think it's okay as long as it's not too blatant and you put some thought into giving it a new context.

[NewPunk]

When I was in college, I had an obscure compillation called 'Don't Forget to Breathe' with a bunch of mopey Sunny Day Real Estate emo bands. One of the bands was called 'Pumpkin Eyes' by a band called 'Silver Scooter'. No shit, it was Cold Play's 'Yellow', like, fucking EXACTLY. Even down to the timing of the big guitars. But Silver Scooter wrote it five years earlier. I'm sure it was a coincidence, but how much would it blow to hear something that sounds exactly like something you wrote making somebody else both rich AND famous.

A few weeks ago, I saw a band play a song that was almost identical to one I wrote and never played for anybody but my girlfriend. Weird. Even weirder, the song I wrote was about a trip to North Carolina, which is where this band was from. Fortunately, they aren't at all famous. Or rich.

Oh yeah. If you wanna stear clear of blatant rip-offs and sub-standard schlock, give Clear Channel a miss all-together. Fuck corporate rock. Fuck corporate radio. Art is only owned by the people who experience it.

And fuck Metallica. Lars Ulrich is a tennis-playing gimp. I miss Napster.

[thearnicasync]

When I was in college, I had an obscure compillation called 'Don't Forget to Breathe' with a bunch of mopey Sunny Day Real Estate emo bands. One of the bands was called 'Pumpkin Eyes' by a band called 'Silver Scooter'. No shit, it was Cold Play's 'Yellow', like, fucking EXACTLY. Even down to the timing of the big guitars. But Silver Scooter wrote it five years earlier. I'm sure it was a coincidence, but how much would it blow to hear something that sounds exactly like something you wrote making somebody else both rich AND famous.

A few weeks ago, I saw a band play a song that was almost identical to one I wrote and never played for anybody but my girlfriend. Weird. Even weirder, the song I wrote was about a trip to North Carolina, which is where this band was from. Fortunately, they aren't at all famous. Or rich.

Oh yeah. If you wanna stear clear of blatant rip-offs and sub-standard schlock, give Clear Channel a miss all-together. Fuck corporate rock. Fuck corporate radio. Art is only owned by the people who experience it.

And fuck Metallica. Lars Ulrich is a tennis-playing gimp. I miss Napster.

Dude...you're hella punk, yo!

I loved silver scooter...

[phalex]

I still don't understand why it is said that the strokes rip-off the velvet undergound, I don't think they sound alike in the least. i guess the both have a guitar playing one chord the whole song, but other than that they don't sound similiar. I always thought the strokes sounded like the Rolling Stones.

[djslayerissick]

Demon Hunter rips off the Deftones REALLY bad on their first album. theres one song with a part thats note for note, same rhythm, same tone. its identical too.

[Rodgre]

Two of the worst offenders in my opinion are Paloalto and Muse. On one hand, Radiohead doesn't sound like Radiohead anymore, but on the other hand, we have Paloalto and Muse.

What's up with Paloalto? Not only is their name a Radiohead B-side, but they have a song called "Fade In/Out" (radiohead has "Street Spirit (Fade Out)") and they both have songs called "Bones"....and Paloalto sound exactly, precisely and without any question like Pablo/Bends era Radiohead.

Rick Rubin produced these Californians.... Now here's what bugs me. I'm just a small-time producer/engineer and if I get a band in the studio and they even have ONE SONG that reminds me too much of another band (and by the way, I love Radiohead) I will bend over backwards trying to find a new approach for a song until it sounds like something new. How could someone of Rick Rubin's (and Rich Costey, whose work I love as well) stature let it go? I mean, were they listening to Radiohead CDs in the studio saying "hmmm... nope, not close enough. Let's try to get it to sound just like this..."?

Interpol may sound just like the Chameleons and Joy Division to most of us, but if I was seventeen, bored with current music, it sounds fresh to me. Put it into this perspective.... Interpol is ripping off music from 1980-1982. That was twenty years ago and then some. When I was a little kid, say in 1980, and if I heard something that sounded like it was done in 1958, like, oh I don't know, the Stray Cats, it would sound fresh, no? Then again, Sha Na Na was probably still in re-runs at that point.

And the Strokes/VU thing.... It's all in Julian's voice, not the guitars. The first time I heard him open his mouth (they opened for Doves in 2001) I said "Wow, someone thinks he's Lou Reed." He admits it himself, that he's a big fan of Lou and Iggy.

And speaking of Iggy.... Lust For Life's drum part is the same as Katrina and the Waves' "Walking on Sunshine" check it out.

And you can sing "Don't Worry Be Happy" over "What's Going On" by 4 Non-Blondes.

And you can overlay "Counting Backwards" by Throwing Muses with "D'yer Maker" by Led Zeppelin.

and Coldplay's Yellow is ripping off what The Curtain Society has been doing for fifteen years now

Roger