Similar sounding bands.


Television. "Marquee Moon" vs. Talking Heads.

Your call...
128x128slaw
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All Celtic groups. The songs have different titles but they're all the same song played 12 times on the same recording.
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Onhwy61:

To each his own. For me, listening to this lp, especially side two, even more specifically "Elevation", sounds almost exactly like Talking Heads. Here TV's voice is almost a perfect match for David Byrnes' IMO, it is eerily similar. I was pointing out "Marquee Moon" as the lp to make this judgement.
Agree with David99. Maybe it was the harmonies.

And if you were to listen just to their versions of "I'd Feel a Whole Lot Better", I'd add Tom Petty and the original Byrds.
Rcprince:

I've often thought about Tom Petty, his vocals. I came to the conclusion the Bob Dylan had to have been his mentor in some form or fashion. As you know, they have worked together often.
I thought Petty's vocals reminded me of Roger (formerly Jim) McGuinn of the Byrds, but I can see the Dylan connection too.
I'll grant you that Verlaine and Byrne kinda' sound the same as vocalist, but Television was a guitar driven rock band. I can't even recall a guitar solo in any of the early Talking Heads albums.
Check out Chuck Prophet, especially "Soap & Water" and tell me you don't hear Tom Petty? The vocal styling, the familiar tempo of the guitar? The basic driving beat/undertone of the songs here. Huh?

Onhwy61: I've listened quite a lot to my comparison of Television vs. Talking Heads, The 1st @ 3rd songs on side two of "Marquee Moon" make (me) scratch my head and say, "which came first"? There has to be a correlation here? As far as the overall output of the bands are concerned, you may be correct. My point here is, how can two bands sound so eerily similar and not have some kind of connection? Maybe It's Divine Intervention?
Dido "No Angel" vs. Beth Orton "Central Reservation"?

To me, the similarities are striking.
"Marquee Moon" and "Talking Heads '77" both came out in the same year with the Television record being released first. Both bands were regular performers at CBGBs and were probably well acquainted with each others' music.
Agree that Television Talking Heads is odd, but for me Feelies and The Velvets also seems odd, slow tempos vs hyper fast tempos and too cool for school vs hyper nerd sensibility. Maybe later period Feelies bumps up a bit closer

I'll nominate post 1974 Bob Seager and Bruce Springsteen
Damned if that Dyson Dc35 vacuum cleaner doesn't look just like a giant pink and silver tone arm.
Beatles-Oasis very obviously;

Alman Brothers -- Greateful Dead -- Steppenwolf -- Doobie Brothers -- ARS -- Kansas -- Don McClean -- Harry Chapin -- Bob Seger and most of the most of the southern rock;

Boston -- John Bon Jovi
Czarivey - Seriously? If I'm reading it right, your last list contains some VERY
strange pairings. Even on the Oasis/Beatles link, seems I've read or heard that
comparison before. Have to say, wasn't following Oasis when they were
"happening" and being raved about. Went back way after the fact to listen to
some of their discography and it was definitely "huh?". Way underwhelming.
Beatles was definitely not something that came to mind. If you will. cite me a
couple of examples where they sound like the Beatles. I'm very curious.
Oasis doesn't really sound like the Beatles. They do sound a little like post-Beatles John Lennon or George Harrison. Few bands can ever live up to the hype and Oasis is no exception, but they put out some good music.
I've found many of the suggested pairings here a little hard to understand, but it's even harder to understand how anyone would question the Beatles-Oasis connection. I'm not a giant fan of Oasis and can't pretend to know their catalog very well, but the stuff that hit the radio (Wonderwall, etc.) just dripped with Beatles' influences. Not to mention that whichever Gallagher brother sang lead, he always sounded like a parody of John Lennon.

I'm not suggesting that Oasis was a GOOD knock-off of The Beatles, but they were unquestionably a knock-off. I even seem to remember that they were sued by Paul McCartney for plagiarism - but I might be mistaken there. Either way, I completely agree with Czarivey's description of the connection ...."very obviously".
Ghosthouse,

Your post prompted me to visit Wikipedia to see if there was anything there on the connection. Oasis (among a handful of other bands) is prominently featured in their article devoted to The Beatles' cultural impact. Here's the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles%27_influence_on_popular_culture#Beatlesque

BTW, there are many other bands that I might have pointed to first, but the Oasis-Beatles connection apparently seems evident to a lot of folks. FWIW.
Klaatu and the Beatles.

When Klaatu's first album came out, it famously rode the buzz at the time from those who heard it that The Beatles had secretly regrouped and released a new record.

Stackridge is another Beatles sound-alike from the seventies that comes to mind. I used to know them all....
Hi Martyk1 - always good to hear from you. I'm no Oasis aficionado either and do realize others have made that connection to the Beatles. Maybe I didn't listen to the right stuff by them. Beatlesque or not, what I did hear didn't leave me with a strong desire to hear more (was kind of disapointed). I would note that "being influenced by" does not automatically mean "similar sounding". At any rate, I'll check the Wikipedia entry you provided. Have to say my skepticism about the O/B connection was very definitely increased by the other "similar sounding" bands Czarivey listed.
Ghost,

Of course you're right that influences do not necessarily "sound-alikes" make. In this case, tho - the musical similarity between these bands struck me immediately (particularly given the vocal aping of John Lennon). As I indicated in my post (above), I'm not familiar with most of Oasis' music, but (for me) their radio play just suggested a straight Beatles knock-off, kind of a minor league Badfinger. That's one reason why their popularity among music-nerd types always surprised me: Oasis' music seemed to go past "influenced" and straight into "imitation"....to my ear. Obviously, that difference in assessing their music means that I heard more similarity than did many other careful listeners, so your point is taken....opinions will vary on the subject.

BTW, per Wikipedia, it appears that I was mistaken about the law suit. It appears that the Beatles parody band The Ruttles successfully sued Oasis for ripping off one of their songs after McCartney had successfully sued the Ruttles on the same basis. In any event, I guess it's safe to say that many folks (at least one of them a judge) hear a similarity, tho not everyone.
Geoff - Good call. Black Crowes & Stones similarity - that I can absolutely hear.
BUT I'll see your Stones and raise you a Humble Pie with Chris R. absolutely
channeling Steve Marriott. Leastways in the first couple of LPs.

Hey Marty - I respect your judgement! Do me a favor (I'm really not issuing a
challenge) tell me what Oasis tracks might best show that Beatles connection. As
I said, I was way late to the Oasis party so must have missed them. I'm very
curious about it.
Ghost,

Probably the quickest way to hear similarities is to check out the video mash-ups from the time of Oasis' moment in the sun, when wags were bashing them for their pilfering of Beatles material. I'd guess that some of them are probably still available on YouTube. I know that there was one called "A Day in The Wonderwall" which overlayed the vocals from "A Day In The Life" atop the instrumentals from Wonderwall.

There was also a popular one that IIRC mixed Let It Be with Don't Look Back in Anger and another one that mixed an Oasis song (can't recall the title) with the vocals from "I Should Have Known Better". There are a bunch of these videos out there, they're occasionally amusing, and they tend to illustrate the point at hand. See for yourself if you find them convincing.

Happy Listening.
Ozzy,

Personally, I'd go with Yoko Ono and NYC subway train making tight turn at high speed.
Hey, anyone called their gig Chalkboard?
Here's more to laugh:
Kenny G -- Celine Dion
Aretha Franklin -- Teddy Pendergrass
Hall and Oates -- Linda Ronstadt
Nina Hagen -- Yma Sumac
Yanni -- Carmen Cavallaro
Nina Simone -- MLK
Robin Trower did Hendrix
Starcastle did Yes
Tom Petty did the Byrds, Dylan and everything in between
Czarivey  said  "All blue grass bands by default"

Time to turn in your music card. :)

Music lovers - lookup Sierra Hull and Balsam Range and spend a night with acoustic music.  
You will need a quality system to appreciate the mastery of these musicians. 

Any genre can sound "all the same" to a listener not into that genre, including Bluegrass. It takes some listening experience to develop the discernment necessary to discriminate between the practitioners of some music. If one doesn't like a particular genre, he or she won't invest the time necessary to do so. LOTS of people don't like Bluegrass, or even Country.
I like all styles including country. I also realize the skill you need to have to perform bluegrass! I can spend a time to listen to one or couple of bluegrass songs and tunes and even enjoy that, but after being at bluegrass festival, I realized all songs and bands sound same and bass can be done via computer for all bluegrass songs. Same notes, same rhythm, same harmonies, same instruments and very very often SAME WORDS too. It doesn't need to be into or not into it just same all over.  
Susan Tedeschi and Bonnie Raitt have similar sounding vocals and vocal styles, IMO.
Well then czarivey, you should know that The Del McCoury Band sounds quite unlike The Steeldrivers, that The Delmore Brothers sounded nothing like The Dillards, that Ricky Skaggs sounds very different Tony Rice, that Alison Krauss sounds little like Rhonda Vincent, that no one sounds like Iris Dement or Dolly Parton (she's been doing Bluegrass for about fifteen years now, as apposed to her Country-Pop schlock), and etc. I would say that any two white "Blues-Rockers" sound more alike than any of my Bluegrass examples. There are many, many more of such I could (and will, upon request ;-) cite.
Blue-grass song structure:

Variation A(for woman):
He's bad, he left (her) for another woman and she's alone and blue and crying

Variation B(for men)
She's bad, she left (him) for another man and he's alone and blue
Probably covered already;

AC/DC = DIRTY LOOKS = RHINO BUCKET. 

three killer bands!!



david99
1,460 posts
08-31-2014 2:11pm
Beatles-Badfinger
I would have bet money that Badfinger was the Beatles in disguise.
Beatles->Loving Spoonful -> Jefferson Starship/Airplane -> Badfinger -> Monkees