Monday, March 29, 2004

I hated you ... I loved you too.

  • Cinerama "All the Things She Said" (T.A.T.U. cover)
    I really don't care what anyone says, I think T.A.T.U. songs are brilliant and that they were one of the best pop acts of the whole modern bubblegum wave. Their cover of the Smiths' "How Soon is Now" (which may or may not surface here at some point) aside, of course. Man, that was bad. If you're unfamiliar with Cinerama, you should know that it's a guy from the Wedding Present and his girlfriend. If you're unfamiliar with the Wedding Present, don't worry. Lots of people are.

  • White Flag" Wuthering Heights" (Kate Bush cover)
    This one's from my favorite cover album, Freedom of Choice: Yesterday's Hits as Performed by Today's Stars. While I certianly hope the creators were using the term "stars" ironically, it's pretty solid as far as cover albums go. I stumbled on it in 1992 at The Den in Bloomington and it remained in my player for about eight months. What can I say? The '80s were only gone for two years and I was already nostalgic. Little did I know that a mere 10 years later half of the hot indie bands would be wearing bobby socks with fluorescent pumps and ripping off Gary Numan and The Cars.

  • The Softies "Together Forever" (Rick Astley cover)
    Okay, I admit it: I'm a real sucker for a couple of cute indie gals with a keyboard and a guitar harmonizing an '80s dance hit into a sad, hopeful ballad.

  • System of a Down "The Metro" (Berlin cover)
    Most '80s covers you find online are performed by industrial, ska, "punk" or alt-metal bands. Most also make me want to peel my skin off because they're so fucking terrible. This one? I can keep my skin on as long as I don't picture Serj Tankian singing it. There's just something about that guy that completely creeps me out.

  • Mary Lou Lord "Jump" (Van Halen cover)
    See the comment about Softies song above. Of course, they never sucked Kurt's cock.

  • Young Fresh Fellows "Shake Your Love" (Debbie Gibson cover)
    I read about this in a magazine in the late '80s and heard it on some radio show soon thereafter, possibly on WXRT before it started to really suck (aka pre-Poi dog Pondering and Dave Matthews Band). I hunted for the bootleg LP for years to no avail. Then I forgot about it until a month ago when I added it to my Soulseek Wishlist. About two days ago, it finally surfaced thanks to some geek somewhere who took the time to record the vinyl version and turn it into an mp3. And now here it is, nearly 15 years after I first learned of it. Was it worth the wait? Meh. It's fine.

  • "Shock the Monkey" (Peter Gabriel cover)
    This is the only Peter Gabriel solo song that doesn't make me want to retch and it's okay, I guess. I wish Ozzy Osbourne weren't practically Howdy Doody now, it would be infinitely cooler. As much as I initially liked that show when it began, I admit I had no idea what a negative impact its success would have on my opinion of how much Ozzy rocked in the past.
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