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Following up on last week’s white-boy-gangsta-rap cover, here’s Nina Gordon’s take on N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton”. You may remember Gordon as part of 90’s rockers Veruca Salt. Now she’s a solo artist, more in the singer/songwriter vein. There’s something strangely hot about a woman using this much profanity, and doing it so casually…
Thanks to Gareth at Analogue for reminding me of this.
I love it when white boys cover gangsta rap. Who didn’t love Dynamite Hack’s cover of Eazy-E’s “Boyz N the Hood”? Here’s Ben Folds, who in case you hadn’t noticed is very white, covering Dr. Dre’s “Bitches Ain’t Shit”. It’s become a staple of his live shows over the years, but this performance is especially cool because of the audience participation.
This week’s random cover is yet another take on Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”. This time it’s not a robot playing a theremin. Or a Jack White-led supergroup. It’s a simple, heartfelt rendition from a simple, heartfelt musician. Here’s Ray LaMontagne’s and his acoustic guitar deconstructing the song and rebuilding it better than ever.
Everyone’s favorite incredibly overrated band, Radiohead, recently held a video remix contest for their song “Nude” (from the bafflingly overrated album In Rainbows). James Houston wanted to enter the contest and came up with a great idea: use old and busted computer equipment to cover the song. So he rigged up an old scanner, a printer, some bad hard drives (for speakers), and a Sinclair ZX Spectrum pc to play all the parts a created this video:
The result sounds like a Nintendo version of the song, and almost actually improves on it. Nice work!
Here’s another in our continuing series of covers of Britney Spears’ “Toxic”. This one is performed by Dutch singer Stevie Ann, live in a radio studio. It’s a slow, sultry version, and yet another example of how this is actually a good song once you remove Britney from the equation…
No kooky covers this week. Just a great musician’s take on a great song. Here’s Eric Clapton covering Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”:
Prince, the enigmatic Minnesotan, covers Radiohead, the enigmatic Brits. His take on “Creep” is slightly different from the original, but no less effective.
Punk sounds so much sunnier when it’s played on a ukulele…
Here’s a cover of The Ramones’ “Blitzkreig Bop” by Gus and Fin, two guys with ukes.
I’ll admit, I’m cheating a little bit this week. It’s not technically a cover; it’s a remix. But it’s different enough that I’m counting it. Plus it’s one Sunday Music Spotlight alum remixing another. How could I pass it up?
Bon Iver’s debut album For Emma, Forever Ago is quiet and introspective. The Rosebuds “Get Up Get Out” is a full on disco-pop song. So you wouldn’t expect Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon to remix the song, would you?
Well he did. And it’s good. Real good. Vernon strips down the instrumentation and adds his own unique backing vocals. The result is a completely different take on the song than the original.
Bon Iver Vs Rosebuds - Get Up Get Out
The remix is part of the collection Sweet Beats, Troubled Sleep. It’s remixes of each song on The Rosebuds Night of the Furies and it was commissioned by Merge Records to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the album’s release. The best part? It’s available for free from their website.
Our favorite ukulele player Molly, aka SweetAfton23, is back with a new direct-to-internet performance. This time she “covers” The Moldy Peaches song “Anyone Else Buy You” (the song featured in the movie Juno). I put “covers” in quotes because she kind of veers off course a couple of verses in, substituting other songs’ lyrics for the verses. See if you can spot the artists she pays homage to here:
I came up with (in no particular order): The Bloodhound Gang, Kanye West, Vanilla Ice, Eminem, Lady Sovereign, Nirvana, Tom Lehrer, Avril Lavigne, and Led Zeppelin. Brilliant!
I figured I’d pick something topical this week for the Random Cover of the Week. And since both The Raconteurs and Gnarls Barkely made headlines for pushing up the release dates of their respective albums (with The Raconteurs’ Consolers of the Lonely coming out next Tuesday and Gnarls Barkely’s The Odd Couple already out). So what better way to celebrate that with The Raconteurs covering Gnarls Barkley’s ubiquitous “Crazy”?
The New Pornographers have a new live album out today exclusively at iTunes. The album was recorded live at the Apple Store in SoHo, and features a bunch of tracks from the band’s past albums. It also features a cover of ELO’s classic “Don’t Bring Me Down”. Check out the NPs grabbing a hold of the tune and throwing it down on French TV:
There’s a lot of energy in this song, and everything about it just works. In fact, the only problem I can see is that Neko Case isn’t with the band on it. Ah, Neko. One day you’ll realize you’re going to marry me…
Can’t wait to see these guys live in April. Keep posted for a review of the show.
If you told me I would enjoy a chilled-out acoustic cover of The Beastie Boys’ classic “Fight For Right” I would have thought you wnt off your meds. But oddly enough, that’s exactly what this is, and it actually kind of works. Instead of a shout of protest it’s more of an intense whisper of dissent. Or it’s just a really mellow version of a protest song. You take your pick.
You can find more information about singer Andrew Paul Woodworth at his MySpace page.
Ah, Valentines Day. The day that greeting card companies, florists, chocolatiers love. Well, I’m not a fan. And not just because I’m a bitter single person. I feel like it’s all a little contrived. Shouldn’t we show love and appreciation for our significant others every day? Anyway, my hatred of Valentines Day aside, it does inspire some good covers. So on with the show:
Images from Be My Anti-Valentine, and the Josh Ritter cover is part of You Ain’t No Picasso’s ongoing list of “Tonight You Belong to Me”. Go check it out.
For some reason I’m drawn to covers of glossy, over-produced pop songs. I like hearing the songs’ potential revealed as layers are stripped away. This is why I keep coming back to covers of Britney Spears’ “Toxic”. The song has a great melody, but all the shit piled on top of it make the glossy pop poster girl’s version unlistenable. Not so for this version by French/Isreali singer Yael Naïm.
Naim’s version a bazillion times better than Britney’s, but who would win a cat fight? Naim was in the Isreali Defence Force. Britney’s completely bat shit crazy. So I don’t know. But I know I’d pay to see it…
For this week’s random cover we go to a hip hop artist, with the help of a legend of industrial music, covering one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. Pretty standard really.
Saul Williams is a pretty interesting dude. In addition to being an accomplished musician he’s a well-respected actor and poet. He holds a master’s degree in acting and starred in the independent movie Slam before turning to music full time. He opened for Nine Inch Nails on their 2006 tour, and started collaborating with Trent Reznor shortly after that. Williams appeared on the Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero, then Trent Reznor produced his 2007 album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust. Williams gave away the album in DRM-less MP3 form to the first 100,000 people to request it from niggytardust.com (you can still get it but it will cost you $5, a reasonable price for sure).
On the album is Williams’ take on the U2 classic “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. Check out the video and the full song below:
Saul Williams - Sunday Bloody Sunday
Williams is hitting the road to tour behind the new album. Check the dates after the jump
Read the rest of this entry »
A great song can take on many different interpretations and still hold up. So this week’s random cover focuses on two very different versions of Prince’s classic “When Doves Cry”.
The song was the first single off of the Purple Rain soundtrack, and held the top spot on the charts for five weeks in 1984. Prince’s version is an mid-tempo dance number. The two versions I’ve got here are not. I don’t really see anyone getting up to dance to these, but the song still works.
This version, by The Be Good Tanyas, is about as close to the original as a country version can get. It keeps the same basic drum line and the tempo, but adds a bass line and switches up the guitar part.
The Be Good Tanyas - When Doves Cry
Damien Rice, on the other hand, pretty much disposes of everything from the original except the melody. It’s just him and an acoustic guitar, and that’s all he needs.
Damien Rice - When Doves Cry
I’ve been on a big Jeff Buckley kick lately. I just finished reading a book about him in general, and specifically about the making of Grace
Here’s Buckley covering Ali Khan’s “Yeh Jo Halka Halka Saroor Hai”, from Live at Sin-é
This may hurt my indie street cred, but I have a confession to make. I was once, and deep down still am, a big Dave Matthews fan. I’ve lost track of the number of his concerts I’ve been to, have every disc he’s ever released, and spent countless hours listening to live bootlegs. There, I got it off my chest. I feel better now.
Now that you know my dirty little secret, imagine my excitement when I found that Willie Nelson had covered one of my favorite Dave songs. Apparently Willie has a new CD coming out, and he does several covers on it, including this cover of “Gravedigger”, one of the few good songs from Dave’s solo album, Some Devil. Is this Willie’s attempt to make the equivalent of Johnny Cash’s American Recordings series? Well this cover can’t match Johnny’s take on “Hurt”, but it ain’t half bad. Check out the video, where Willie plays the tour guide to a cemetery:
It seemed like this week might be a good time for a Christmas-themed cover. So here are Bono, Edge, Larry, and Adam covering John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”. U2’s the perfect band to cover a protest song, and their version is thankfully devoid of any of Yoko’s shrieking…
Just because I’m in a Jonathan Coulton kind of mood today, here are a couple folks covering JoCo on ukuleles.
First up is YouTube user sweetafton23 (who you may remember from her cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic”) taking on “Tom Cruise Crazy”:
Next is YouTube user JohnRockwell, who put some production values into his cover of the modern office zombie drama that is “re: Your Brain”:
Sunday Music Spotlight alums Rilo Kiley cover Pete Townshend’s “Let My Love Open the Door”, along with fellow alum Feist and Death Cab for Cutie’s frontman Ben Gibbard. Jenny Lewis is cute when she’s drunk…
There’s just something about The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” that lends itself to being covered. Here’s a lo-fi soul/funk cover by Nostalgia 77 with Alice Russell on vocals:
Nostalgia 77 - Seven Nation Army
And here’s Alice with her band performing it live:
Read the rest of this entry »
Punk cover mavens Me First and the Gimme Gimmes take on two Dolly Parton classics in this week’s Random Covers. First they take on the oft-covered “Jolene”, the lament of a housewife whose husband is being tempted by a beautiful seductress.
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes - Jolene
Then they take on “I Will Always Love You”
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes - I Will Always Love You
(no Whitney fans, she didn’t do the song first, and the Dolly version is way more tolerable anyway)
For good measure, here’s The White Stripes covering “Jolene” as well:
This is probably the most random of the Random Covers. It’s a manualist named Gerry Phillips performing the theme from Super Mario Brothers. What’s a manualist? It’s a person who makes music by squeezing their hands together, forcing air out in the process. It sounds kind of like farting in tune…
If you’ve got some time to kill I highly recommend checking out Gerry’s full YouTube page. He has 62 videos up there, ranging from covers of Britney Spears, Journey, and Ozzy Osbourne to his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel performing “Bohemian Rhapsody”. I’m gobsmacked.
Rachel Ries is from South Dakota. That’s pretty far geographically, and about as far as possible culturally, from Atlanta. Yet Rachel manages to put together a very compelling cover of “Elevators”, by the ATL’s finest, Outkast.
Visit Rachel on MySpace or on her Official Site
You may remember Peter, Bjorn, and John’s “Young Folks” as the mental super glue I posted in an old Sunday Music Spotlight. Well here’s a bluegrass cover by Dawn Landes. As much as I like the original, this might just be better…
Boy do I love a good cover song. The fine folks over at My Old Kentucky Blog do a periodic feature called MKOB Covers Project, where they pick a classic song and highlight the best (and worst) covers of it. The latest entry is “Always on My Mind”, originally recorded by Brenda Lee (I always assumed it was Willie Nelson…guess I learned something today). One of the covers they highlight is Iron & Wine with Calexico, from an NPR recording of a live show. Kick. Ass.
Iron And Wine W Calexico - Always On My Mind
When you’re done listening, head on over to MKOB to check out the other covers, including The Pet Shop Boys version, which is miles away from Willie.
I’m not sure whether this clip condemns beauty pageants or justifies their existence. Contestant Stacy Hedger has a great routine planned. She got her black leotard, bedazzled in silver, with sparkly fringe. She’s got her choreography, which includes a nice little Charlie Chaplin impersonation. And she’s got her trusty trumpet. Everything seems great.
Until it actually starts. Then it’s just a train wreck. Go ahead, watch it. I guarantee you’ll stare at it, mouth agape, alternating between disbelief and abject horror. Ah, I love the internet…
It’s like Marvin Gaye and Jack Johnson had a rather large love child… All kidding aside, it’s actually quite good. Just a little strange.
Meet Lev. He’s a robot specially built to play theremin. Who doesn’t want one of those? Here Lev takes on Patsy Cline’s unforgetable “Crazy”:
Ok, so Lev’s not very good. But cut him a little slack. He’s a robot made out of an old floor lamp, some plumbing supplies, a few empty mint tins, and some microprocessors. Undeterred by his lack of skill, Lev joins his buddy Thumpbot to cover another “Crazy”: Gnarles Barkely’s version. (Does that make this a cover of a cover?)
.
This, um, odd looking feller manages to put together a perfectly decent cover of Charles Mingus’ “Better Git it in Your Soul” (the opening track to one of jazz’s greatest albums, Mingus Ah Um).
This kid plays us a cover of The Beatles’ “Blackbird” (from The White Album) on a banjo. And surprisingly it works somehow…
Oh KT, how you keep surprising me. Here is a positively kick ass looped cover of The Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back”:
A few fun facts about Ms. Tunstall:
…by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. That’s right, the punk rockers that have taken the role of cover band to it’s highest form tackle the country masterpiece that’s best known as the theme to Smokey and the Bandit
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes - East Bound And Down
From their album Love Their Country
This time it’s by a dude, which makes it slightly creepy…
This could become a regular feature here at PCWEI. I really enjoy wacky and offbeat covers. The wackier the better. Last week it was the cover of “I Will Survive” on the banjo ukulele. This week we’re sticking with a similar instrument, with a cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” on the regular uke. Enjoy!
I know it sounds strange. Just watch it. Trust me. It’s worth it. This chick’s bringing banjo back…
Brace yourself. You’re about to hear a Darth Vader impersonator cover a song by a YouTube sensation.
If you don’t know what Chocolate Rain is all about, here’s the original:
Yes, that’s his real voice…and it gives me nightmares.
For more about Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager check out http://www.blamesociety.net.
Props to Crazy Joe for the tip
So apparently that ageless wonder Tom Jones was on the bill at a Princess Diana tribute concert at London’s Wembley Stadium yesterday. For his second song he busted out a cover. But not just any cover. An Arctic Monkeys cover. And a good one at that. He belted out a surprisingly good rendition of “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”. With Joe Perry on guitar. And a horn section. That’s almost head-spinningly surreal. Well I guess the horn section isn’t surreal; it’s Tom Jones after all. Check out all the Jonsian goodness below:
Tom Jones - I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor
And for comparison’s sake, here’s the original:
Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
This in one of the more interesting covers I’ve seen recently. It’s Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” with all of the melody parts played on Theremins. Kooky. And surprisingly not terrible.
This is just weird, yet oddly funny. The folks over at SadKermit.com have put together a video of Kermit covering Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt”. Very strange. As they explain on their site:
Soon after the death of Jim Henson, Kermit the Frog turned to a life full of drugs, alcohol and sex. His fall to rock-bottom was quick and unrelenting. These songs document Kermit’s pain during these years…and years to come.
Also check out the Audio section of their site for more goodies, including this little update of a classic:
Sad Kermit - Rainbow Connection
Have you ever had one of those moments when you’re watching TV but only really half paying attention? Well tonight during American Idol during a commercial break I was chatting with my roommate when an ad for Target came on. Normally I ignore or fast forward through the ads but this one caught my ear. Playing in the back ground was a phenomenal cover of “Hello, Goodbye” by The Beatles. The original version of the song is great but this cover version blew my mind. It’s really, really good and the singer has a great voice, and well anytime you can find a way to get a vibraphone into the mix it’s all good. I searched on iTunes for the song but came up empty. However the artist’s name is Sophia Shorai. I’ve never heard of her, but based on the cover of that song, I’d like to hear more. Anyhow here’s the commerical courtesy of YouTube:
Through the magic of YouTube I bring you new-skool pop mavens The Decemberists performing a cover of old-skool pop mavens ELO’s “Mr Blue Sky” live at a concert:
“Mr Blue Sky” (or Señor Cielo Azul in Spanish) was originally released in 1977 as the closing track of the “Concerto For A Rainy Day” side of Out of the Blue (it served as the sun coming out at the end of the rainy day). Read the rest of this entry »
I think Col. Kurtz said it best with “The horror. The horror”. Here’s Celine Dion (with help from ShakiraAnastacia), covering AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long”. I love how she tries to copy Angus‘ duck walk. She a badass! Now if you’ll excuse me I need to jab a pen in my ear…
