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The Perils of Authenticity

Kriston was playing The Vaselines this morning, which reminded me that though I like “Jesus Don’t Want Me For a Sunbeam,” “Molly’s Lips,”and (especiallly) “Son of a Gun” that in all three instances I think the Nirvana cover (the former on Unplugged the latter two on Incesticide) is superior to the original and this also strikes me as a crappy opinion to have. Even worse, as a general matter, I tend to really prefer Vaselines-style bands with woman singers. Now and again, I’ll try to convince myself that this is wrong I really do like the more authentic originals better, but it’s just not true, damnit. At the end of the day, I just really, really, really like Nirvana, which also seems like a pretty lame view to me.

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