Puddle of Mudd’s much-maligned Nirvana cover is even rougher with the high notes at half-speed
Aux Features Puddle of Mudd
Time seems to stretch on interminably right now, with every day feeling like both an eternity and the briefest blip in our lives. Case in point: when did you first hear Puddle of Mudd’s viral (not in a good way) cover of Nirvana’s “About a Girl”? Was it last week? Six months ago? Truly, we can’t seem to pinpoint it. But it haunts us, nonetheless.
And, as if we all haven’t suffered enough, someone recently decided to drag out each of the Mudd singer’s off-pitch “About a Girl” vocal notes by half, resulting in a literal time-dilation of suckage. Experience Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in action for yourself below:
For context: Last year, Puddle of Mudd released Welcome to Galvania, the band’s first album in a decade, which we assume is what prompted the January SiriusXM session that includes this Nirvana cover. The Mudd Sessions, as we insist on referring to them now, slowly built viral momentum after people, y’know, heard it, culminating in a YouTuber named ShonkyWonkyDonkey uploading this gem.
For what it’s worth, Scantlin recently spoke out about the backlash to his cover, vowing to “rise above others who try and take you down. He continued, “I’m at my BEST NOW…and that’s all that matters. I pray for all of you because we care. Jealousy is toxic, and toxic people are a waste of time.”
He’s got a point there, we suppose.
It turns out, though, that not all of Mudd’s Nirvana covers are bad. The nice folks at Consequence of Sound even did a mitzvah for us by compiling some of Scantlin’s less-egregious Nirvana covers. You can listen to over here, if your ears have finally stopped bleeding.
40 Comments
I might be speaking from the copious amount of time I spent in guitar stores in the 90s, but no one should cover Nirvavna.Unless you’re totally reimagining their music as zydeco or whatever, you have nothing to bring to the table. Just don’t.
What if you’re totally reimaging it as a brooding piano ballad?
I like it!!!
I’ll allow it. Just watch your step, counselor.
Nirvavna is Nirvana’s non-union Latvian equivalent, for anyone who didn’t know. Carry on.
I would agree with this, had I not just watched Post Malone’s Nirvana tribute livestream from Friday night, which was surprisingly faithful and rockin’.
I could listen to Deer Tick cover Nirvana forever. Hell I’ve even paid to see them twice do “Deervana”shows
well, if you’re trying to RE-CREATE nirvana that’s a mistake because nirvana’s music is PERSONAL MUSIC written by a person who FEELS a certain way it’s not Manufactured Music For Sale which HAS NO “FEEL”, like rap or hip-hop it’s better to LEARN HOW TO EXPRESS YOURSELF than cover a dead druggie who was running out of ideasface it: he wrote the bleach tunes over THREE YEARS, the nevermind took a full year to finishheart shaped box: HE BARELY COULD GET THE TEN SONGS he needed
BARELY.
This story is useless without noting what the Trapt twitter account thinks about all this.
People who listen to Puddle of Mudd cover Nirvana are right this very minute getting stuffed into trash cans by people who listen to Trapt cover Pearl Jam.
And you don’t even want to know what’s happening to the people who listen to Breaking Benjamin cover Mudhoney.
What about Disturbed covering NiN?
The words “Disturbed” and “covering” reminded me that they covered Simon and Garfunkel and now I’m too traumatized to make a joke. I’m sorry.
Disturbed ALSO covered Tears For Fears and Genesis. Those three songs are their biggest hits.
I always wonder about bands that can only score hits covering other well-known songs. That’s gotta be a harsh (and well-deserved) reality check.
I’ve always felt that way as well. Though “Down with the Sickness,” the song where the guy screeches like a monkey, was a pretty big hit too, wasn’t it?
I’d say their most well-known song is still Down With The Sickness. FWIW. But you’re still on point. Alien Ant Farm, Orgy, Drowning Pool covering Sesame Street, all lousy bands. Ugh, Counting Crows trying to stay relevant with a fucking lousy cover of a lousy Joni Mitchell song.. Some lousy band just covered Zombie, added literally nothing to it at all.. The 90s and early 2000s saw a very marked decline in songwriting ability of the popular rock acts. That’s just what the music industry does, instead of innovation.
in the Music Business that is the ONE SURE WAY to have a Hit Song you look 10-15 years back and cover the biggest hit that makes sense for example: kylie minogue had a huge hit with “Keep Me Hanging On”vanilla fudge had a hit with it, alsoso did diana ross if ariana grande released a version, it’d be a hit, TOO
I don’t want Disturbed covering anything but a late shift at Payless.
Damn that’s quite the burn. I guess I’m not the only one who wasn’t impressed with Disturbed’s cover of “The Sound of Silence” that everyone seemed to fawn over.Also this story is kind of ridiculous. News just in: Intentionally distorting the temp of a slice of music in order to accentuate flaws makes the piece sound even worse than it does at the intended temp!
Has someone ever asked Disturbed to cover anything?
that’s just the neighbor’s dog barking
the Fleet Foxes fans are kicking their collective ASS
Pretty useless regardless.
Well, that’s a weird way of writing Jimmy’s Chicken Shack!
You’re fucking dead to me.
This story is useless without noting what the Trapt twitter account thinks about all this.
Puddle of Mudd: Nickelback, but without any success, money, or fame.
Next, let’s have Third Eye Blind cover the Lemonheads…. ON LETTERMAN!
Kurt Cobain had a particular wail that could have been horrific, just absolutely unlistenable shite, if it didn’t crack in that really authentic heartfelt way. It honestly sounds like an accident and almost no one should ever try it.
The more insane Kurt sounded, the more I loved it personally. Scantlin belongs on the Mount Rushmore of awful Millenium songwriters, along with Chad Kroeger, Scott Stapp, and whoever wrote the music for Backstreet Boys.
The thing that gets me about Scantlin’s cover is that if he didn’t try to specifically imitate Cobain, he’d probably sound fine. It’s the fact he tries to imitate such a unique, iconic voice and fails miserably is what makes it so wretched. And it serves as a harsh reminder “Oh yeah, this is all he had to offer and he could barely do that.”
I cried myself laughing at this and I already had a hard time keeping a straight face at the non-edited effort (just like the guitarist).Also Scantlin’s statement is fucking hilarious. What a douchenozzle.
Oh man I needed a good laugh today. And that nailed it! Whoever did that was genius! My stomach hurts from laughing so hard and I about pissed my pants. I gotta watch it again. I bet he wishes he could pray that video away!! Only thing toxic was his rendition. Hold on, gotta watch it again……😂😂😂😂!! Ok, he needs to fire his manager. But thanks Wes for the gift of laughter after all these years. So needed that.
I started listening to it at work and when I left my car’s Bluetooth automatically connected and started playing it thru my speakers SO LOUDLY. I could barely drive I was laughing so hard.
My old roommate, who used to take a heroic dose of opiates, sounded like this everyday when he tried to pinch off a deuce.
It reminded me of Beavis trying poop.
av club: hey check out this awful thing that sucks
i wonder what hoobastank’s been up to
av club: check out this crap that’s terrible
If you listen on the wind late at night, you can hear Post Malone giggling at Wes Scantlin…