3 Mulligans

I don’t like picking on my favorite theater in the world, but I just got this from the Michigan Theater, advertising an upcoming concert. The email begins:

“VULFPECK is a primarily instrumental, Los Angeles-based band inspired by the classic R&B rhythms recorded by the Funk Brothers,The Meters, and quite possibly Booker T. & the MG’s.”

First of all, “quite possibly Booker T. & the MG’s”? All I’m getting from that comment is assuredly NOT Booker T. & the MG’s. Either this really is an inspiration but you won’t directly say so (“The ingredients are sugar, water, and quite possibly something extra.”) or it’s not an inspiration but you want to appear as if it were (“I played gigs with Ratgrind, Easy Company, and quite possibly Metallica.”) If you did play with Metallica, you would say so.

Second of all, who cares? Starting out an announcement for a concert with a list of bands that are influences (or here “inspirations”) reminds me of all the band interviews I read in punk zines that began with “What are your inspirations?” Is music writing so depleted that it has to resort to a list of similar sounding bands when referring to some other band? Or is music just so derivative that influences are that important and obvious?