As random as I wanna be.

I figured I'd better post something this week, seeing as my mystery illness debilitated me last week and this week I'm headed to Memphis. I haven't stopped loving you. Promise.

The Kooks "Crazy" (Gnarls Barkley cover)
I have to sheepishly admit I don't really get the whole Gnarls Barkley craze. I think their cover of "Gone Daddy Gone" is zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. But here's a cover I'm sure you've seen elsewhere because I'm not very cutting-edge.

The Danes "Off Your Face" (My Bloody Valentine cover)
My favorite MBV track covered by a Dallas-area band I thought was defunct, but apparently isn't.

Glambeats Corp. "She's So Cold" (Rolling Stones cover)
From Volume 2 of the Bossa N' Stones series.

Optiganally Yours "Wichita Lineman" (Jimmy Webb cover)
All hail the Optigan.

Helena Noguerra "Can't Get You Out of My Head" (Kylie Minogue cover)
Breathy French bossa, baby.

Raf "Self Control" (Laura Brannigan cover)
Um, you know how I am. Edit: Apparently, this is the original artist. Whatever. I'll leave it up.

The All Seeing I "The Beat Goes On" (Sonny & Cher cover)
This hits my shuffle play more than any other cover. I'm not certain why.

I miss you, Kirsty!

I'm pretty addicted to YouTube for its virtual cornucopia of '80s music videos, among other things. I had Kirsty MacColl's "There's a Guy Works at the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis" in my head all day so I thought I'd case out what videos I could find. Here are the covers in the collection:

Kirsty MacColl's version of Billy Bragg's "New England":


Tracey Ullman's version of Kirsty MacColl's "They Don't Know":

Consider this.

No time to chat. Enjoy the Swedes!!!

Junip "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (Bruce Springsteen cover)

Nina Persson [Cardigans] "Losing My Religion" (REM cover)

Souls "Take Me With U" (Prince cover)

Stina Nordenstam "Bird on a Wire" (Leonard Cohen cover)

Stina Nordenstam "People are Strange" (Doors cover)

Yeah, give it to me now.

If you missed it when I posted Travis Morrison's cover of Ludacris' "What's Your Fantasy," Ben has it up here.

Unrelated: I'm currently obsessed with Scandinavian artists. I'm ODing on Robyn, Jenny Wilson, The Knife, Christian Kjellvander, Komeda, etc. Whom else should I be checking out?

Tell me: We both matter, don't we?

I'm not sure if it's the fact that the piano-heavy music and experimental vocals of Jenny Wilson and Regina Spektor keep hitting my iPod's shuffle play lately, but last night I was consumed with the need to listen to some Claudia Brücken (formerly of '80s gothy new-wave bands Propaganda and Act). I know I once posted Propaganda's cover of "Femme Fatale," which I love, but Brücken has paid homage to many artists, especially most recently on her collaboration with minimalist composer Andrew Poppy on their 2005 album Another Language—which was one of my favorite nearly all-cover albums of last year. Fans of Siouxsie, Tori, Kate Bush, the Art of Noise and Yoko Ono (and the aforementioned Wilson and Spektor) and the like: Commence to downloading posthaste.

Propaganda "Sorry for Laughing" (Josef K cover)

Act "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" (Smiths cover)
I wasn't aware of the existence of Act until a few years ago, but I stumbled on this cover and was duly impressed with its decidedly strange but intriguing arrangement.

Claudia Brücken and Andrew Poppy "Lipstick Vogue" (Elvis Costello cover)

Claudia Brücken and Andrew Poppy "Running Up that Hill" (Kate Bush cover)
Claudia already sounds so much like Kate that I wasn't sure what her point of covering this was... until I heard it. Poppy's arrangement completely shakes it up and I'm left a little awestruck by it.