Tube or not depends on what you want to do.
Crap amps are crap amps...you can find cheap trash tube amps as easily as cheap trash solid state amps. Even "bad" sounds can be good depending on what you want your sound to be. Dimebag played mostly solid state amps in Pantera. Most people on the site here don't really like Kurt Cobain but I like his tone and he played through crap gear.
Roland's JC-120 is solid state and is a fantastic clean sounding amp.
Cobain used SOME crappy gear, but the majority of it was actually rather good, or at least some of the "standard" stuff (like some of his pedals) that everyone uses.
But on the point that crap amps are crap amps, I agree. You can definitely find solid state amps out there that sound better than some tube amps. The thing about solid state amps is that they're viewed by us players generally as low end, cheap, practice kind of amps when the reality is there are also expensive ones, great sounding ones, and gig-worthy ones.
If I had the choice of absolutely any amp in the world, it would be a toss up between a line 6 vetta II, or a fender deluxe reverb. Why the vetta? Sure, it's solid state. But it's really GOOD solid state, plus it's an extremely versatile and interesting amp.
When it comes down to it, tube amps are better, overall. But solid state amps can sound almost as good, can be more versatile, and can also be more rugged and dependable. I'll go with what tommyboy said, just be wary of going down that road