Further impacting my theory that the music industry is leaning towards a trend of mash-up music and cover albums (no thanks to such albums as Punk Goes Crunk and such artists as the Reel Big Fish), there is now a festival that embraces this art.
In preparation for the summer season, which could be called the summer of Warped Tour, The Bamboozle hosts two festivals, one on each coast, that combines some of the hottest musical acts around, or at least some of the hottest indie and punk-pop acts around. Think of it as a junkie's fix between South By Southwest and Warped Tour. The unique thing about this festival, is that they also expose older artists from different genres during the festival (can you say Brett Michaels in 2008?)
Moving on.
As a sublet to the Bamboozle, there is something called The Hoodwink Festival. Taking place at the same time, this festival honors the music industry's seemingly inability to create timeless pieces of audio gold by contracting relevant bands of today to play cover sets of the relevant bands of yore. Just as Bamboozle divides its two festivals into Left and Right (one for each coast East and West), the Hoodwink is doing the same thing, with different artists covering different bands at each. Here's 2009's Hoodwink Lineup
To be honest, I would give nothing short of my liver and first born child to see We The Kings cover Jimmy Eat World. I think We The Kings is somewhat of a generic rock group by today's standards, but they do a phenomenal job at what they do. Girls love them and they have a knack for writing relevant music. In the indie scene, Jimmy Eat World has influenced EVERYONE. I'm not kidding. The fact that We The Kings is covering J.E.W. is a little bit of a surprise to me, though. Why not choose a band that came up after Jimmy? I feel like there are a thousand bands that WTK listened to other than Jimmy that they can credit for their sound. Why doesn't WTK cover Blink-182 or Fall Out Boy? These styles of music are more interchangable then WTK and Jimmy. Jimmy Eat World has created music that is instantly a hit (reference their breakthrough CD Bleed American). Songs like "The Middle" have been on countless movies and feel-good T.V. shows due to its spirited nature and positive outlook on even the worst things in life.
I wish more noticable (or more talented) bands would have been chosen to cover some of the bands that are to be featured at Hoodwink. For example: Hoodwink attendees will hear Never Shout Never cover the Beatles. What an abomination. I can't say much, positive or negative, on Never Shout never, but I wonder if the organizers of this festival have taken into account that the Beatles can not and will not ever be able to be covered without disgracing their timeless classics. I take that back. Jeff Beck. The O.G. of the Fender Strat. The Beethoven of the fingers. Known for his instrumental Rock 'N' Roll albums, he can literally say anything he wants by plucking a few strings at a time. Geroge Michael, the Beatles' former producer and sometimes referred to as the "5th Beatle", recently issued a Beatles tribute CD. On the same CD that Jim Carrey (remeber Ace Ventura?) covers "I Am The Walrus," Jeff beck does the most beautiful rendition of "A Day In the Life" without anything but his guitar, a backing band and pure, unadulterated emotion. There are few songs I would claim authorship to if I could and that song is one of them. I downloaded this CD just so I could hear Beck's version. To this day, it's the only Beatles cover that I believe is worth listening to.
However I am getting off track. The Hoodwink festival is a great idea. It exposes the unlearned "music afficianado" to the music that their parents listened to, through a channel that the kids are already familiar with (a.k.a. their favorite bands). However, have some goddamm respect for music that was never meant to be covered. When all is said and done and a few Hot Topic girls decide that Never Shout Never is their new favorite band because they gave their fans something to connect with their parents about, I hope that SIR George Harrison (you know. . .because he got KNIGHTED for his work with The Beatles) takes time from counting his money and listening to every masterpiece that labeled a geration to say "I told you so." I hope that Pete Best, the guy Ringo Starr replaced as drummer in the Beatles, is also pissed. Those sad, forsaken souls invested with the responsibility of cleaning up the environmental mess left behind at Bamboozle will have themselves a Hard Day's Night.
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