Thursday, July 29, 2004

Uh oh, we're in trouble.

  • Nouvelle Vague "Too Drunk to Fuck" (Dead Kennedys cover)
    Very similar to the Dominique A track I posted here and not unlike the LB track I posted here, this French bossa-lounge cover of a "new wave" (as the band's name would suggest) hit comes from an all bossa-lounge/new wave cover album by French supergroup (okay, I don't know if that's true) Nouvelle Vague that apparently sees its US release next week. It's pretty cool stuff.


  • Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine "Trouble" (Shampoo cover)
    In the History of Music As My Subconscious Sees It, Carter USM has the role of an extra only visible 20 seconds. You know, they're buried somewhere deep inside the Ned's Atomic Dustbin in my mind. And while no one was looking, they managed to remain together for nearly a decade releasing MOR album after MOR album of, uh, rocky-but-dancey crap. Shampoo, on the other hand, has at least two full minutes on my mind's screen. Anytime a punk-looking-but-bubblegum-sounding girl-fronted group (you know, your Alisha's Attics, K's Choices, Murmurs, Letters to Cleos and the like) comes around, I find myself at least temporarily mesmerized while trying to figure out what's going on and whether or not I like it. I mean, innocuous pop can have its place even when sung by purple-haired girls in babydoll dresses and striped tights, right? Maybe. Trash pop, I believe it's called. Anyhow, this is about all you can expect from a mashing of mediocre rock with mediocre pop. But if you like mediocrity and kitch for kitsch's sake, as I often do, this is the track to download.


  • U Penn Off the Beat "Be My Lover" (La Bouche cover)
    Oh, collegiate acappella groups ... how you frighten me with some of your selections. I find I often have this La Bouche song annoyingly running through my head randomly throughout the day (along with that total jam by the solo Sporty Spice) thanks to the fact that I see commercials for Fired Up! constantly on late-night TV. The past few days, it's been this version instead, which includes its ultra-geeky little homage d'Boyz II Men toward the end. Heh. Whatever, you crazy coeds! I might not appreciate your work fully, but who am I to judge? At least you're not spending your weekends giving strangers head in the laundry rooms of frat houses.
  • Wednesday, July 28, 2004

    I'm slipping under.

    I recently stumbled on a pretty cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic" that I quite enjoyed. The artist's name is Michael Gum, and from what I can tell via a quick Google search, he's someone who posts a lot over on Songfight. Also, he has set up a Live Journal to share his music. Go here to download his covers, including the aforementioned Spears classic. Heh. "Classic."

    Monday, July 26, 2004

    We would scream together songs unsung.

    Guess who found out she's starting a job next week and might soon (I'm thinking in a month or so) be able to afford real web space and subsequently post more frequently and allow songs to stay longer so people can actually catch them while they're here? Yeah, it's me. (I know you know it was rhetorical, but still.) And who knows? Maybe have enough space that I'll be able to post more non-Japanese covers. No promises, of course.

    Aaanyhow, until then, it's just little crumbs here and there. And speaking of "there," Stereogum has the Postal Service singing Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" right here, among others. Check out its "Favorite New Covers" section on the right. Also, I can't remember who posted it, but that French Jodie Foster track, "La Vie C'est Chouette, " which was on the 365 Days Project back in the day, is currently my most-played song of the summer. I can't get enough of that shit!

    So, let's see. I recently deleted tons of stuff from my hard drive because I remain convinced that this computer's going to bite it any day, but let's see what's still there. (I don't feel like hunting out stuff from my growing towers of mp3 data discs.)

  • Spangle Call Lilli Line & Spanova "Heat of the Moment" (Asia cover) 7MB
    Drum 'n' bass is, to put it politely, generally not my thing. But pairing it with a Japanese female vocal and adding that all to an Asia song? I'm all for it. They did a twist on it. There's such a fine line between stupid and clever.
  • Thursday, July 22, 2004

    People, places, things.

  • Low IQ 01 feat. Yukari Fresh "Anarchy in the UK" (Sex Pistols cover) 3.9MB
    I can't find much out about Low IQ 01 besides the fact that they're a Japanese punk band, but aside from the track they're covering, you'd never know that. Teaming up with Yukari Fresh (think Pizzicato Five, Takako Minekawa or Kahimi Karie but less known overseas), they've created the perfect track for aging hipsters like myself: A punk anthem that's easy on the ears. If you liked "Paradise City" from Akiko the other day, this might be right up your alley.

  • Ballboy "Born in the USA" (Bruce Springsteen cover) 5MB
    Ballboy is the witty little Scottish low-fi band that could, and I'm glad they covered this. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for this song because it proved to me what I was just learning at the time it came out: A lot of Americans are stupid as hell. Here's a song about a kid who grew up in poverty and winds up in Vietnam killing people for no good reason and comes back and can't find work, right? Still, so many people at the time (Reagan included) chose not to listen to the lyrics and assumed it was pro-America based on the chorus. Um, try again, suckers.

  • James "China Girl" (Iggy Pop [but probably more likely, David Bowie] cover) 3.7MB
    Meh, this is neither here nor there. I can so take or leave this. Although, I will take this chance to say that the only time I saw James live was as part of this really bizarre multi-artist tour that came to my college town in the early '90s, which featured James, The Black Sheep, The Soupdragons and the Tom Tom Club (who I'd also seen a year or two before that as part of the Escape From New York Tour, which featured The Ramones, Debbie Harry and the Tom Tom Club). My friend Aaron wound up playing football (read: soccer) with some of the Soupdragons before the show and, after the show, I found myself backstage with Aaron and his friends and talking to Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz about I don't even know what.

  • Rufus Wainwright "On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away" (Composed by Paul Dresser) 4.4MB
    From the movie soundtrack to the dark indie flick The Myth of Fingerprints, comes this cover of the Indiana state song as performed by my fantastically talented gay boyfriend Rufus Wainwright. (With whom I also hung out once after a show he played at Martyrs a few years ago and whose sister Martha told me story after story about their tour, which she made me swear not to tell anyone.) Anyhow, this version omits both the first verse in which Indiana is actually mentioned (and omits the second verse as well), but I know it's the state song because my high school freshman English teacher made us memorize it. It stuck with me for a while because the lyrics really freaked me out because, at the time, I could never figure out why a state would choose a song about unrequited love and imminent death as its anthem. Having since spent the bulk of my formative years in Indiana, however, I now get it.
  • Monday, July 19, 2004

    Rewritten by machine and new technology.

    Sorry about the file sizes on these, but I didn't want to decrease the quality by shrinking them.

  • Hi-Posi "Video Killed the Radio Star" (Buggles cover) 9.7MB
    Ladies and gentleman, welcome to my current favorite cover on my hard drive. Holy God, I love this. What a happy surprise. Usually when I stumble on a new cover of this song, it turns out to be 1,000 times less listenable than the original, which I'm sadly beyond sick of despite my love for it as a kid. Hi-Posi has now replaced Cornelius and Fantastic Plastic Machine as my favorite weirdo eclectic Japanese pop outfit. Okay, or as one of the three weirdo eclectic Japanese pop outfits whose names and songs I actually know. The mechanical vocals, the lounge intro, the hypnotizing Casio tune running throughout, the unexpected samba (or is it bossa nova? or rumba?) that hits about two minutes in, the general strangeness of it all? Heaven. There's a futuristic movie playing in my head in which this is the soundtrack for a scene in which androids strip and subsequently pole dance and make out. It's really hot. Yet cold at the same time, of course. I'm hoping for an R instead of an NC-17.

  • Akiko "Paradise City" (Guns N Roses cover) 7.9MB
    It's so weird when my least favorite song from a longtime favorite album can be covered in a style I generally don't like (think a smoother-jazz Swing Out Sister) and still intrigue me. Yet, here's further proof that the Japanese are just that fucking good sometimes. Or, if not good, at the very least way more experimental than 90% of their European and/or American cover-loving counterparts.
  • Saturday, July 17, 2004

    Heads up, ears open.

    There's a quartet of covers over at Womenfolk, including one of my old-school favorites (everything's old school now that I Love the '90s is on the scene, right?), Bran Van 3000 covering Slade's "Cum on Feel the Noize." It also features a cover of "We Don't Need Another Hero" I'd not heard previously and that isn't half bad. I love when that happens.

    Friday, July 16, 2004

    C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, the club is open!

  • The Salteens "Motor Away" (Guided by Voices cover) 3.3MB
    Did you know that GBV is my favorite band? And that I've seen them more than any other band? And that my pals Ryan, Gerry and I once hung out with a very drunk (and possibly coked-up?), somewhat unintelligible Bob Pollard after a show at The Patio in Indy well before Alien Lanes was released? And that I was at The Patio again at the show where the Jellyfish Reflector bootleg was recorded? And that I want to suck Nate Farley's cock? And that I think Nate Farley is dreamy? Yeah. Sorry for the geek-out, but the boys just announced their last tour dates ever, and lucky for me they culminate with two New Year's Eve shows right here in my hometown. (And I'm seriously considering heading down to my former hometown of Bloomington, IN, as well for the show there two months before that.)

    In honor of my excitement, here is a decent little tweemo cover of one of the many awesome songs on the aforementioned Alien Lanes that I stumbled on a few months ago, which introduced me to the cheery little Canadian pop outfit that is The Salteens and which is by far better than any of the covers on the Blatant Doom Trip tribute disc. Download it now, broomhead!

  • Franz Ferdinand "Mis-shapes" (Pulp cover) 3.4MB

  • It's a law that all MP3 blogs have to post Franz Ferdinand songs, covers or remixes this month, right? Right. I'm simply doing my civic duty as a citizen of the Internet.

    Pulp is another of my favorite bands, but one that, sadly, I've never seen live and now probably never will. Sigh. At least some people, like our good friends FF, are still performing competent live acoustic versions of Pulp hits.

  • Bad Manners "Show Me the Way to Go Home" (composed by Irving King) 0.7MB

  • I swear, when I wasn't looking, Bravo became the all-Jaws network. I must have stumbled on it 20 times in the past month or so, and always seem to find myself smack in the middle, before the big shark attack when the Robert Shaw character tells Scheider and Dreyfuss that he was on the USS Indianapolis when it was torpedoed and that he watched many of his friends perish in the subsequent shark attacks. To break the tension of his tale (and the tension of hunting a great white shark in a tiny boat with only two other guys, I suppose), the Dreyfuss character leads them in a rousing version of this folk standard, which consists of the same 70 or so words sung over and over again. Then the shark wisely punches his head into the boat repeatedly, presumably in an attempt to get this fucking song out of it. Here's the shortest version I could find.

    In other news: My most recent cover hunt yielded many strange and rare gems, mostly of Japanese or European descent, which I can't wait to share. And I want to start sharing songs on a more consistent basis and to be able to keep them available for a longer time. Man, I wish I had more web space and more reliable hosts. The whole Hikashu debacle last week has me reticent to attempt using my GeoCities account (which a Yahoo customer service rep assures me should work) anymore, but it's all I have except for the space my ISP gives me. Unfortunately, I'm currently between jobs and quite poor, so buying a domain and space is a ways off for me, but just in case it's able to happen soon, does anyone have any recommendations of reasonably priced, reliable hosts?

    Wednesday, July 14, 2004

    Elsewhere.

  • Aaaaaaaaaaargh! All Music Guide's new interface is fucking killing me. Yeah, it needed an overhaul, but not if it means that it's going to be even slower than it was before, which was pretty damned slow. But I'd grown accustomed to its slowness. Now I have an all new slowness to deal with—not to mention broken links and errors upon errors. As you can tell, it's driving me nuts. On average, I use AMG approximately 500 times a day to aid my cover hunts and give me background on shit that's new to me. Today, I've only successfully used it twice. It's putting me way behind schedule. Bastards! < /end rant >

  • Everyone should head on over to Herman Dune's site and snatch all the covers the band and its members have available on the Media page, such as all of Yayahoni's covers and the live cover of Nick Cave's "As I Sat Idly By Her Side."

  • Music for Robots is currently featuring Sesame Street's Grover singing a blues song you can download here. Not technically a cover, as far as I know, but amusing nonetheless.
  • Tuesday, July 13, 2004

    It's all good, especially when it saves my bandwidth.

    I'm always getting scooped by the cool kids. I swear, I was an hour away from posting the cover of Leonard Cohen's "The Partisan" as performed by Noir Desir and Sixteen Horsepower when I saw that Said the Gramophone had beaten me to it.

    Monday, July 12, 2004

    Where is all you angels?

    I desperately need to clean my apartment and here I am at the computer slacking. Here are some songs that hit my shuffle play today that made me laugh (or, at the very least, smile) for various reasons. Sorry, I can't spare more than 17 syllables each on these; I'm a slob.

  • Bobby Conn "Without You" (Badfinger cover) 5.4MB
    Local favorite.
    An acquired taste, to be sure.
    Live show is worthwhile.

  • Hermann H. & The Pacemakers "In the Garage" (Weezer cover) 3.6MB
    Japanese ska band,
    your strange cover cheers me up.
    E-reek-tree guitar.

  • Manfred Mann "When Will I Be Loved" (Everly Brothers cover) 2MB
    No Linda Ronstadt,
    but fun pop nevertheless.
    Let's go back in time.

  • Atrocity "Wild Boys" (Duran Duran cover) 6.1MB
    Death metal cover
    that makes me clean much faster.
    Doesn't mean it's good.
  • Thursday, July 08, 2004

    Hey, remember me?

    Sorry about the week-long hiatus, kids. My computer is still iffy and the purchase of a new one has been pushed back thanks to circumstances beyond my control. Also, everyone I know, myself included, seems to have been born in late June/early July and I've been kept busy at event after event. But enough about me, let's get on with the show. And by "show," I mean covers of new wave songs about the modeling industry.

  • Billy Preston "Girls on Film" (Duran Duran cover) 6.2MB
    There's nothing quite like a R&B gospel legend singing a song about masturbating to pictures of models. (That's what it's about, right?) File under: Strange for strangeness' sake.


  • Chris Whitley "The Model" (Kraftwerk cover) 2.2MB
    Sorry, I know my new Kraftwerk obsession is getting old, but I figured since most of you weren't able to download the last version of "The Model" offered, I'd slide this one in. I want to like this one a little more than I do, but its country/blues banjo schtick gets old to me about halfway in. It is intriguing enough to me, however, to make me think that if better artists like 16 Horsepower were ever to record version of this song, it would be fucking fantastic.
  •