Which bands are in need of a tribute album

How about one for The Modern Lovers?

Marilyn Manson covering (B)ryan Adams.

Bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

I always figured that the best tribute albums are tributes to people who are known for songwriting rather than for performing (hence the excellence of _Red Hot & Blue_), or whose compositions have interesting aspects that aren't articulated in their own versions.

Tribute album -- still something ppl say?
Real question!

this thread has been dormant for 12 years?
whoa

Shows that people have the right idea about tribute albums.

you think they are a terrible idea?
i kinda like them! it's fun to hear a bunch of no names interpret familiar songs.

It is? Maybe ILXors should do one... maybe they have?

I've been waiting years for a good Free to Be...You and Me tribute album.

Yeah I do think it's fun. Fun for the bands to interpret favorite tunes too. It's better than pretending like you don't have influences. I only like it when I don't really know much about the bands though. Like I used to have this tribute to the Minutemen (that I loaned out and never saw again) that was a bunch of bands I had never heard and I loved it.

Not a tribute album per se, but the soundtrack to Sky High (2005 kids superhero film) is a bunch of no name pop punk bands covering new wave hits, and my kid and I both love it:

"I Melt with You" – Bowling for Soup (Originally by: Modern English)
"Through Being Cool" – They Might Be Giants (Originally by: Devo)
"Save It for Later" – Flashlight Brown (Originally by: The Beat)
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" – Christian Burns (Originally by: Tears for Fears)
"One Thing Leads to Another" – Steven Strait (Originally by: The Fixx)
"Lies" – The Click Five (Originally by: Thompson Twins)
"Voices Carry" – Vitamin C (Originally by: 'Til Tuesday)
"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" – Elefant (Originally by: The Smiths)
"True" – Cary Brothers (Originally by: Spandau Ballet)
"Just What I Needed" – Caleigh Peters (Originally by: The Cars)
"Can't Stop the World" – Ginger Sling (Originally by: The Go-Go's)
"And She Was" – Keaton Simons (Originally by: Talking Heads)
"Twist and Crawl" – Skindred (Originally by: The Beat)

LL that Minutemen comp (Our Band Could Be Your Life) is great, PM me if you want a rip

it was put out by a guy who used to live in my town

Oh yeah! I would like that!
thanks!

Stroke: Songs for Chris Knox 2009 ---- a tribute album with a point (i.e. to raise money for him after his stroke) and really quite a good, listenable collection.

Someday somebody will do some Stephin Merritt collections and some of it is going to be good. Like Knox, Merritt undersells his own songwriting when producing tracks (which I think is far preferable in general).

I think what I'd most like to hear right now would be a progressive rock tribute album by some bands who can't play particularly well. Sort of like how I'd like to hear a bad high school marching band cover Duke Ellington's "Blue Pepper" --- nothing but pervert kicks you understand.

i quite like Powerslaves: An Elektro Tribute to Iron Maiden, not every track is great but some are! check out Rude 66 - Killers or Macondo - Purgatory.

i did like the ones that imaginary put out in the late 80s. think there was a byrds one, a beefheart one, a neil young one, maybe more

ILX has done Wire and The Beatles so far iirc, I always thought a Kraftwerk one would be a fun listen.

I love the Pavement tribute album that came out 5 or so years back, Everything Is Ending Here.

I've heard like five Kraftwerk tribute albums, most of them have about one interesting rendition there, though that's about par for tribute discs

Certainly there must be a way to do them that doesn't suck, but I haven't really heard them yet. Obviously there are plenty of great cover songs in history. But I wonder how many artists doing tribute albums really want to use up their "good ideas" on a project that not many people will hear. Often they come off as "artist you like minus most of what you like about them". Worst are the ones of bands that are high on technique but low on songwriting (I heard an ELP tribute album that was pretty bad in this regard)

The Leonard Cohen "I'm Your Fan" one was really good. I'm sure the Carpenters one from the 90s (the one with the great Sonic Youth version of "Superstar") has gotta be in my local record store bargain used bin. I just need to get over there some time.

the Neil Young one ("The Bridge"?) has several excellent tracks

there is a Shaggs one that I like

13th Floor Elevators one is pretty bad

Wait, I loved that one! I got it at the mall in 10th gr and I had never heard of Roky Erickson/13th Fl Elevators but I can say honestly that I learned a lot from that tribute album.

i did like the ones that imaginary put out in the late 80s. think there was a byrds one, a beefheart one, a neil young one, maybe more

Most of those Imaginary (Communion in the U.S.) records were pretty good:

Syd Barrett - Beyond The Wildwood
Captain Beefheart - Fast 'N' Bulbous
Kinks - Shangri La
Byrds - Time Between
Rolling Stones - Stoned Again
Hendrix - If 6 Was 9
Velvet Underground - Heaven And Hell Vol. 1, 2 and 3
Nick Drake - Brittle Days
Dylan - Outlaw Blues Vol. 1 & 2
...and 3 tributes to specific years: Through The Looking Glass 1965, 1966 and 1967

The big disappointment was that they had announced a Bonzo Dog Band tribute called "We Are Normal and We Dig Bert Weedon" but it never came out.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41fQw-jOCAL.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51lFXnEUrDL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WAX6MDBFL.jpg

The one Shiina Ringo record on Spotify (last I looked) is a toy piano tribute record, so odd.

Hey, that Beefheart tribute is on Spotify! I've never heard the whole thing but that XTC track is gold.

I think a band like Scritti Politti would make for good tribute material as their style changed so much it'd bring together lots of disparate sounding artists.

Most tributes have a few great tracks and the rest is sludge.

tbh plenty of albums full of original material have a few great tracks and a bunch of sludge

ok i finally listened to our band could be your life enough to remember what it was that i liked about it

1) obvs the songs were awesome
2) i had very little idea who most of the bands were -- i know that i knew lou barlow and a few others.
3) the version i have of it today doesn't even have the artist's names tagged, so it just sounds like a bunch of random people and it really lives up to its name -- our band could be your life. i remembered being really inspired by that at the time and the feeling is still there today. that's the kind of spirit a tribute album can only hope for imo -- to not only pay tribute but to proliferate sounds and ideas/plant seeds.
also kind of a bonus laugh to current me to hear that this is what i was into when i was 19.

the d boon interview is also classic