Riffs incognito: Bands disguised as another band 🎃👺

e.g. Money for Nothing (Dire Straits in the style of ZZ Top)

Long Distance Runaround (Yes as the Allman Bros Band)

Drop Dead Legs (Van Halen as AC/DC)

to name 3 obvious ones. List the others you can think of, and there could be a costume contest (poll) on Halloween

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH9YRpz757Y

Love is Like Oxygen (Sweet as ELO)

All of Weird Al's "style parodies" of course, probably not enough is said about how otm he and his band are everytime they try that

Judy in Disguise doesn't really sound like the Beatles but was written by John Fred after hearing Lucy in the Sky, which is very funny

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

I’m sure you could do a whole thread of these with just Dylan imitators, but Simon & Garfunkel “A Simple Desultory Philippic”

"Fall of the Peacemakers": Molly Hatchet trying to be Kansas. In 1983.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjeY2EbokSA

Talking Heads as B-52s - “Air”

“Don’t Mean Nothing” Richard Marx as The Eagles

Love is Like Oxygen (Sweet as ELO)

Sweet loved doing this. See Also: "The Six-Teens" (Bowie) and "No You Don't" (The Who) to name just two.

Is this just riffs or can it be entire songs?

Implement Yeah! (Suede as The Fall)
Liars' Bar (The Beautiful South as Tom Waits)
The Year of Purification (Manic Street Preachers as early R.E.M.)
At My Most Beautiful (R.E.M. as the Beach Boys)
Kuwait City (World Party as the Beach Boys)
(There is a lot of 'as the Beach Boys', but I'll leave out 'So Why So Sad')
The Overload (Talking Heads as what they thought Joy Division might sound like based on reviews)

Then there's half of Costello's Trust being modelled on his contemporaries: "Clubland" incorporated the guitar style of the Police, "You'll Never Be a Man" borrowed from the Pretenders, "White Knuckles" was modelled on XTC records, and "Fish 'n' Chip Paper" was an homage to Squeeze. "Lovers Walk" featured a Bo Diddley-type beat while "Big Sister's Clothes" had a bass line based on work by the Clash.[6][14]

Linx's I Won't Forget is also based on the Police. As, presumably, is Billy Joel's Running on Ice.

Don't Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy) (Ween as Ziggy)
The demo of Blur's For Tomorrow is unavoidably a Ziggy pastiche too

Girls in Their Summer Clothes (Bruce Springsteen as Magnetic Fields)

“Rocket From A Bottle” (XTC as Roxy Music)

Dig for Fire (Pixies as Talking Heads)

Misunderstanding (Genesis as Supertramp)

ooh yeah Ween does this a lot. "Stroker Ace" and "It's Gonna Be a Long Night" clearly tributes to Motorhead. "Pandy Fackler" is them doing Steely Dan. "Bananas and Blow" is Jimmy Buffet. "Gabrielle" is Thin Lizzy. "Take Me Away" is Tom Jones? probably a dozen others

wow @ the knickerbockers, heckin bamboozled fam. who is the ponce de leon one supposed to sound like?

Is this just riffs or can it be entire songs?

yeah sorry for the rockist framing of "riffs" and "bands", criteria are as follows:

https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2020-10/19/10/asset/08d86748a227/sub-buzz-5922-1603103156-32.jpg

the examples i picked in the OP aren't parody or homage. it's more like there's a direct appropriation of another band's identity in those riffs, but the songs still have aspects of the performer's own sound and style. you thot i was giraffe, iz pupper.

i def don't wanna say "no parodies" or "no tributes", first of all because gatekeeping threads like this one is really lame, but also cause it's a thin and blurry line, y'know?

Ween, Old Man Thunder= Bruce Springsteen

oh here's a bizarre one, They Might be Giants becoming Yes, with a song that's just 42 seconds long:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf4lGYmIGLs

Lost in the plot- The Dears (Morrissey)

King's Lead Hat: Eno as Talking Heads
Over My Shoulder: Eho and the Bunnymen as Jesus and Mary Chain

"It Could Be You" - Blur as XTC circa 1980
"Ocean Man" - Ween as XTC circa 1987
"Friends of Mine" - The Guess Who as the Doors
"There She Goes" - Paul Revere and the Raiders as the Lovin' Spoonful
"Let's Talk About Me" - Alan Parsons Project as Supertramp

Long Distance Runaround (Yes as the Allman Bros Band)

I have to take exception here, other than a harmonized guitar and keyboard, nothing about this sounds like Yes. This song was also out a year before "Jessica".

Sometimes this trope can be very lazy critical shorthand, like every band that uses harmonized guitars is "trying to be Wishbone Ash/Thin Lizzy".

...sounds like the Allman Brothers, rather.

i always pegged "ocean man" for richard thompson

Hollies doing CCR (long cool woman)

The Fall "Putta Block" sounds like Joy Division, at times

And, of course, Joe Strummer sounds like...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96H-6cwKTaU

Ween do this a lot

Did you see me (pink floyd)
Baby bitch (elliot smith)
Lmylp + roses are free (prince)
Falling out (beatles circa rubber soul)

other than a harmonized guitar and keyboard, nothing about this ...sounds like the Allman Brothers

agreed. i could have *sworn* i'd read that the harmonized riff (which tbf sounds quite a bit like the Allman Brothers) was a deliberate, direct take on the Allman Brothers. i googled it and... nada (really? anyone?) but don't worry, i can assure you it's just a harmless Mandela effect and not a lazy shorthand.

Isn't this literally the plot of the video for "Runaround"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ousaiByU1ko

is melvins's "berthas" offa "stag" thin lizzy?

Spoon's "Fitted Shirt" always sounded like a Led Zeppelin track to me.

Xxp Ween nearly predicted Elliot Smith in that case, as Baby Bitch came out the same year as his first album.

Not sure I hear Prince in Roses are Free, but I could def see the others.

Also “Gabrielle” is Thin Lizzy 100%

rush spent a few years in the '80s as a superior version of the police

Billy Joel’s An Innocent Man is all homages to the Fifties/early Sixties sounds of his youth, with “Uptown Girl” (Joel as Frankie Valli) probably the most famous connection among them.

numerous-x post: "Ponce de Leon" is Splitsville as Ben Folds Five.

Xxp Ween nearly predicted Elliot Smith in that case, as Baby Bitch came out the same year as his first album.

Not sure I hear Prince in Roses are Free, but I could def see the others.

Also “Gabrielle” is Thin Lizzy 100%

― zacata

Oh wow, never thought about checking the dates. Always thought of “baby bitch” as the best Elliot Smith song he never wrote.

Regarding Roses Are Free.. I’m kind of going by what Dean Ween said on the song:

Aaron wrote this song and recorded it in his apartment in Stockton, NJ during the very fertile writing period preceding Chocolate and Cheese. There was no bass on it. I immediately fell in love with the song and thought it was the closest thing we’d ever recorded to truly emulate Prince, who is our musical hero. The demo was on four tracks with two vocals, drum machine and keyboard. I heard it as being symphonic. I think it’s ironic that as many times as we’ve worn our Prince inspiration on our sleeves that no one ever picked up the obvious, massive Prince influence of the song.

Oddly enough the live version reminds me more of a song melody Oasis could’ve written than of Prince. The album version I could see a comparison to maybe “erotic city”?

The Ween song whose original model always puzzled me was "It's Gonna Be Alright". The best I could come up with was the Cars.

Another noteworthy ZZ Top pastiche is Meat Puppets - "Paradise"

“Somebody that I use to know” - gotye as phil collins

My Chemical Romance song Drowning Lessons is in the style of Saves the Day.

does someone want to pick a song by Ween and the other artists who have more than one entry. if i have time i'll make a poll.

surprised at no mention of no one will ever love you by the magnetic fields.

also "and don't the kids just love it" by the television personalities is a the jam pastiche.

Stay Loose (Belle & Sebastian as Squeeze)
Sam (Suede as Pulp)
Big Bang Baby (STP as Redd Kross)
Calling Your Name (Simple Minds as Magazine)
American Rock (Denim as The Cars)
The Silent Sun (Genesis as The Bee Gees)
We Dance (Pavement as The Frogs)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTSS0XxNxt0

A Seventeen Seconds outtake from the Netherlands:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd9DAQmtJ5I

I always liked this homage to late-period Felt by The Tyde. It has to be intentional. (As a Felt fanatic i might have growled at the sheer impudence but all i could say was "good job, gang!")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEKP3elld1A

this is my fave Cure rip by The Essence posted above. they were good at it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW1CNWDczYA

Plenty of cure copies. Here’s one:

All the way - new order as the cure

Also I haven’t been cataloguing every time I hear one, but I think one of the bands I feel are copied/homaged a lot - or at least in very noticeable forms - is Stereolab.

"Shakin'": Dandy Warhols as The Cars

all natural lemon and lime flavors were good at stereolab. and they would do MBV/Stereolab hybrids too. i like them.

"Plenty of cure copies."

i haven't heard too many that sound as Cure as that "lollipop" song.

i had this british mid-80s EP of a band who were trying to sound EXACTLY like r.e.m. but i forget who now and they weren't on youtube. it was uncanny.

Something always struck me as non-TMBG about Mink Car and I just recently found out about the Fountains of Wayne guy's involvement and then it clicked oh OK this is really TMBG doing FOW:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2damCwA7CP0

It was apparently a flop for TMBG but I wonder if it would have been another Stacy's Mom-esque hit if FOW did it.

I remember when that album came out there was a lot of bitching about that track in particular since it was previously a really strong power pop song. this version sounds like something from the TV show Scrubs.

to me there's always been something irreducable about what TMBG does. no matter what they do it always sounds like themselves (which I don't think is true with Ween, who often really do sound like a totally different band). Mink Car tested those bounds though and I think that's why a lot of people didn't like it. conversely very few of the TMBG covers or attempts to ape their style have really worked (Weird Al definitely got it musically, but not lyrically)

that said there is one song by Todd Rundgren which to me sounds like it's clearly trying to ape Linnell and it actually works pretty well! dunno if he'd ever admit it though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9PFQ7K0wo0

Essence have other Cure sounding songs like Only For You

Other songs top of my mind that seem to follow the cure footprint:

Soul. - Tribe
Shout Out Louds - impossible
The Legends - Air

Also popular latinamerican bands like Caifanes or Soda Stereo are heavily influenced by them but can’t think atm of a particular song that sounds straight up lifted from their sound. Their early looks were 100% them disguising as The Cure tho.

i had this british mid-80s EP of a band who were trying to sound EXACTLY like r.e.m. but i forget who now and they weren't on youtube. it was uncanny.

that reminds me:

"For the Singer of R.E.M." - fIREHOSE as (wait for it) R.E.M.

also:

"Under the Influence of Meat Puppets" - fIREHOSE as (wait for it) Meat Puppets

I have a probably false memory of the Minutemen covering Meat Puppets "Lost" but when I finally tracked down their actual cover it sounded nothing like what was in my head, which was much more straightahead and in Meat Puppets version's style, but the Meat Puppets version itself kind of sounds like Corona.

Calling Your Name (Simple Minds as Magazine)

...as well as every song on their debut where they aren't trying to sound like Roxy or the Velvets.

That's from the second album, where they had moved onto aping Kraftwerk and Magazine (really well admittedly)

love that band so much it hurts. until, you know, the bottom falls out...

and they become rich beyond their wildest imaginings...

Calling Your Name (Simple Minds as Magazine)

Which reminds me:

"The Thin Air" - Magazine as Pink Floyd

lmao "lollipop" is maybe the most impressive imitation, because it doesn't directly sound like any particular cure track but sounds like something they very easily could have done and the vocal is uncanny

"Glue" = Arab Strap as The Church