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I can imagine that if you didn't actually see the episode in question, you might have reacted to my mention below of Sebastian Bach covering "Hollaback Girl" with something like revulsion. But oh no: oh man, it's really good, and you can watch it at Recidivism. (Thanks Omar!) Though I love Gilmore Girls like a baby animal with whipped cream on top, they've always had slightly questionable musical morals; the indie-centric, anti-disco rants by my fictional crush Lane were apparently heartfelt on the writers' part.

But there's no irony here, no condescension, although I suppose a big part of the appeal of Sebastian Bach and the genre from whence he came is the total lack of irony. He delivers it straight, and really well, considering, you know, it's a Gwen Stefani song. The arrangement is also effective in an unflashy way, and the whole choice of cover is remarkably ahead of the zeitgeist, especially given that it was recorded months ago--for all they knew, by the time it aired every indie band in existence could've covered it. (Although I guess that was unlikely, given the lack of guitars.) As with any good cover, it partially demonstrates just how good the original song was, but it also maybe draws some interesting parallels between the stripped-down Neptunes aesthetic and the similarly stripped-down rock-band model.

The whole scene is great, really, with a bunch of great lines, but that cover, man, that's really good.

(Image from here, which is funny if you translate it.)
posted by Mike B. at 3:16 PM 0 comments