Skills are important, but not even skills are necessary sometimes for a good band. I'm gonna get all religious on ya now - I think that what makes a good band is belief. If the band believes in what they're doing, they'll totally go for it and that's when stuff starts to happen. If the band's earnest, the band finds stuff other bands only dream about. The other night I was listening to Forever Changes by Love - hippie classic from the 60's - and two things stood out for me. First, the lyrics really do suck a lot of the time. Second, the band either didn't know that or didn't care and they were just going for it in their own hippie dippie way and the result is outstanding. Listen to Frank Zappa's band circa 1975. Listen to Iggy Pop's band. Those guys believed in what they were doing. They were convinced. Hence, they were convincing.