Decibel Magazine: Pentagram Cover Wars: Dead Weather vs RTX

Pentagram Cover Wars: Dead Weather vs RTX

Posted July 14 by Jeanne F

Bobby Liebling is in the middle of a tug of war. On one side we have the Dead Weather's cover of Pentagram's "Forever My Queen," featuring Alison Mosshart (The Kills) on vocals. Yanking away on the other side is RTX, specifically singer Jennifer Herrema—who grew up attending Pentagram concerts—who have been representing Pentagram for years on their cover of "Vampyre Love." We're not one to pit singer against singer and we're all for youngbloods coming in and shaking things up, but since 90 percent of reviews of Mosshart's other band The Kills compare her to Herrema, we're not saying anything new. But damn if it doesn't bear repeating. From the beginning of the Kills' career, Mosshart's shtick has been a very poorly veiled, well, "cover" of Herrema: the junkie-chic chain-smoking noise-blooze rock bitch. (Mosshart's initial image was very different). How does Herrema feel about all this? Click on through for the answer, plus live videos of both bands doing their respective Pentagram covers.

"Check out this shit!" Herrema (we're assuming it's her) writes on a recent RTX myspace blog. She links to the tug-of-war blog post above. If you read into those little smiley face "mood" indicators on myspace pages, Herrema is less than pleased with the Pentagram competition. Her mood is "aggravated." Ms. Mosshart, good luck to you if you think you can unseat Jennifer Herrema from the Pentagram Cover Throne, or any other throne for that matter.

Posted 7/14/2009 4:27 PM by Danny

DAMN!!! Right-on for posting this!! RTX! hands down!!!!

Posted 7/14/2009 5:12 PM by Quintana

Yup! Jennifer is an OG, she cut you and than stitch yo ass back up...

Posted 7/15/2009 1:29 AM by astral zombie

uhh, so Jack White playing Pentagram songs rules, I don't care how you cut it. 2, does anyone really care that Allison Mosshart was in a pop punk/ska band when she was 20? 3, Bobby probably appreciates the interest that may be generated in his general direction. 4, is there some exclusive hipster Pentagram cover rule that we didn't get the memo for?

Posted 7/15/2009 11:02 AM by Aaron

haaaaa....... astral zombie, This isn't the "Pitchfork" site! you don't have to justify jack white or the chick. Any way you cut it......Dead Weather stink up the joint!! nice try

Posted 7/15/2009 12:25 PM by Foglitarian

yup thats AZ for ya

Posted 7/15/2009 1:21 PM by Wolf's Blood

" does anyone really care that Allison Mosshart was in a pop punk/ska band" That Discount video was from 10 years ago... 10 years before that Jennifer started Royal Trux at 16 years old... so YES I care about the difference between the real deal and a fugazy. Pop punk sucks too!!!!

Posted 7/15/2009 1:46 PM by mr ed

Wow, I totally remember that crappy Discount band. I had no idea that was Allison Mosshart. I'm not gonna hate though, because I actually dig the first Kills EP and LP ("Cat Claw" rules!). That Dead Weather record, however, is painfully boring... just like pretty much all post-"Elephant" White Stripes material.

Posted 7/15/2009 1:54 PM by mr ed

Ok, I just watched this and I take it all back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k085ZtX6P0Q What a pair of awful, douchebag, wannabe hipsters.

Posted 7/15/2009 5:25 PM by laurie

RTX ! Brian shreds Deans ass, rumble is right!

Posted 7/15/2009 6:30 PM by unclesherm

If anyone really wants to hear either one of these songs, go buy a Pentagram record.

Posted 7/15/2009 7:58 PM by tru dat

"If anyone really wants to hear either one of these songs, go buy a Pentagram record." YES!!!! can't go wrong with that!!! They are all great.

Posted 7/17/2009 11:54 AM by Erin

The kills are a menace to music..........much like haircut 100; a low res blip on the high dpi screen.......the blur obscures the ruse; no chops, no tunes and an unabashed grab at copping the sincere moves of true rockers. All the money that's spent on their buy-ins, buy-outs, comps, ads, and pay to plays will never sustain the sickly growth that is the kills as they have no roots....they'll gladly boost the flower but have no guts to fuel or feed it......they will always be needy and lacking

Posted 7/29/2009 4:04 AM by Listen 101

Where's the originality? Why rip off Royal Trux a band that worked hard to be original in the 1990s. Have these people no shame? At least the kills bring some kind of new dynamic as a duo. They are not a complete rip off.

Posted 7/29/2009 4:12 PM by tru dat

Some kind of new dynamic... really??? I guess if you mean a new dynamic of lameness in their faux sexuality or whatever their schtick is supposed to be.

Posted 8/12/2009 5:48 PM by Jeff

their both good. quit hating. get over yourselves. theres plenty of pentagram to go around. it sounds like u only want pentagram to be covered by rtx. who cares if someone else covers them.

Posted 10/29/2009 3:25 PM by welll

first of all i would just like to state that this whole arguement is somewhat crazy. they are both good bands. and obviously jennifer herrema likes alison mosshart and the dead weather or else she would not have recorded their record on her label adam and eve. yeah.

Posted 11/5/2009 2:27 AM by Nat

They both look like Patti Smith during the 70s, there's nothing new

Posted 11/13/2009 11:09 PM by regg

this whole thing is fucking ridiculous. dead weather's pentagram cover is fucking ace. Alison is badass no matter what band she's in.

Posted 12/18/2009 6:26 PM by the-bottom-line

Those who grew up listening to DC-101 get it better than those who didn't. And they play it better too.

Posted 1/14/2010 4:18 PM by the-scarlet-fox

People, all this hatin' here...I mean we rockers complain on rappers when we hear that they are saying shit on one another, well you guys are not different...no offense really...both groups are good and artistic in my opinion, both groups did great on the covers in my opinion..hearing that this is sh*t and that is lacking, if you really appreciate music than don't make differences, you like A I like B someone else likes C or even D...who gives a shit?

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