It ain't the way that you shake me.

Eileen "Ces Bottes sont Faites pour Marcher (These Boots are Made for Walking)" (French Nancy Sinatra cover)
This sounds exactly as you would imagine it might: It's a perfect ye-ye girl version, nearly identical to the original except in French. Delightful.

The Futureheads "The Hounds of Love" (Kate Bush cover)
This far surpasses all of the other covers of this song I've heard. Granted, I'm a sucker for this post-punk/new-wave renaissance we've been in the past year or two, but even if you're not, you have to be pretty impressed by how perfectly timed the "woah ohs" are. Also, you can check out the video here.

Mansfield feat. Yukari Fresh "The New Pollution" (Beck cover)
One of my favorite covers I ever posted here was Low IQ 01 & Yukari Fresh's version of "Anarchy in the UK," so I was overjoyed to stumble on another cover involving Yukari Fresh. Of course, unlike "Anarchy," Beck's original "New Pollution" is already a little pastiche of bossa and samba, so it's not much of a stretch to run with that, but it's a fun reworking nonetheless.

Johnny Socko "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" (Night Ranger cover)
We all have our local guilty pleasure bar bands when we're in college, yes? Well, Johnny Socko was mine. I always felt I shouldn't have liked them, but I just couldn't help myself. Of course, this was in the early '90s just before the pseudo-ska wave really hit big. And Johnny Socko was a fun pseudo-ska band full of fun guys who did a lot of covers, as well as quirky originals. The covers I remember them doing regularly back in the day were classics such as Lou Rawls' "You'll Never Find" and the Charlie Daniels Band's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." They used to have prizes for audience members who danced the most, and I won on several occasions, which seems completely foreign to me now. Once I won an awesome jackpot prize that included a giant Christmas stocking full of tacky Coors Light promo junk (wall clocks, foam things to keep your beers cold, cushions for sporting event seats, etc.) and, more importantly, a free year pass to the Bluebird, a bar at which Socko frequently played. (Seriously, there is no better present to a poor gal who just turned 21 than a free pass to one of the most prominent bars in town.) I had a good rapport with the lead singer at the time, Mike Wiltrout (pictured here), and openly lusted after Charlie the trombonist. (Where are you, my love???) Another prize-winning night involved me getting on stage and Mike daring me to lather up my face and shave it with a razor they happened to have handy for some reason. Of course, I complied. And, for a while there, the band included the phenomenal bass playing of Brent Olds (later of Poi Dog Pondering and Wanamaker), who was amazing to watch. They were super-nice people.

All of that said ... while I'm sure they're still nice guys, the Johnny Socko you hear here is not the Socko of my youth. Yeah, a few of the members are original, but as far as I can tell they have nowhere near the talent or charisma as the Socko cast of yore. This is your standard case of a college band turning itself, like the Mike & Joes and Mr. Blottos before them, into a frat-bar franchise and not realizing when to call it quits. So, you've been warned. (Know, however, that this track is far better than the original songs modern-day Socko churns out.) This track comes from Metalliska, a "ska" tribute to metal bands (is Night Ranger metal?) that had a few decent tracks on it. Like it or leave it. I just wanted to reminisce a bit.