Oooh. I'd totally back you up on both of those, Liese. And I think there's important technical and stylistic artistry being displayed in both those forms of music.

And then there are The Roots who transcend it all!

The music, definitely. Really good lyrics will lift a song for me and really bad ones will bring it down, but there's a huge swath in the middle where I barely even notice them.

Heck, I've played IN bands where I didn't notice the lyrics to some songs for months after learning the music.

Jon B. is me. I have to concentrate to hear lyrics. I can just let the music happen to me. That includes the singers voice. It can just be an instrument to my ears.

In other news, that kamikaze guy Joe Stack was in a band. His bandmates excised him from their web page yesterday, but thanks to the wonder of the Wayback Machine, you can view what once was.

So, when it comes to music, what to you appreciate more, the music or the lyrics?

The music has to be there for me. I love and can appreciate good lyrics on their own, but if the music doesn't work for me, I can't listen.

And there's plenty of music I love, that makes me move or whatever, where they lyrics are just throwaways, and it doesn't matter. But it's best when they're both wonderful.

Luna has an album out that's entirely covers called Lunafied. Most or all the songs were previously released, for example, "Season of the Witch" was on the I Shot Andy Warhol soundtrack. Anyway, Linafied has a cover of Suicide's "Dream Baby Dream" that I like a lot, perhaps more than the original.

Um, what's the point of this post? There should be more Suicide covers? I guess....

eta: This album also has an excellent cover of Wire's "Outdoor Miner." And of a song I'm not familiar with called "La Poupee Qui Fait Non."

This album also has an excellent cover of Wire's "Outdoor Miner."

Someday I ought to do a two hour show of different bands covering that tune. It wouldn't be too difficult to fill the time.

And of a song I'm not familiar with called "La Poupee Qui Fait Non."

That appeared originally on a comp called "Pop Romantique" of indie bands doing French pop hits.

"La Poupee Qui Fait Non."

That's a Polnareff song. We wrote about him in Lost in the Grooves.

He's on the short list of cool French popstars of the sixties along with Serge, Francoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc.

I was waiting for you to chime in, David! There's a French show on WMBR called "French Toast" that's played the original: [link]