Thursday, June 21, 2007

Perfect from now on.

For various reasons, I'd been thinking pretty seriously the past 24 hours about deleting this blog entirely or going on a hiatus. But then I thought how messed-up it would be for me to abandon one of the few things in my life that consistently brings both me and thousands of others—according to reviews, stats, comments and e-mail inbox—joy. Screw that. If any of you in my "real life" reading have nothing better to do with your lives that you spend part of it cataloging the things I say and do that piss you off so you can later attempt to lord it over me, that's your glitch, not mine. In the immortal words of Popeye, I am what I am. Take it or leave it.

Please, faithful readers, no need to leave supportive (or otherwise) comments on this topic. I don't want to waste any more time thinking about or discussing it. I'm not going anywhere for now. I know most of you reading like what I do here and think I'm cool. And I like what I do here and think I'm cool. That's all that matters here.

Now, let's get on with the show, shall we?

  • Speaking of shows, all of you Chicago indie rockers may be interested to know that my new e-acquaintance and fellow Guided By Voices fanatic, author John Sellers, is going to be in town soon for a few events. He's promoting his book Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life, which I'm very much looking forward to reading. He'll be reading, signing, meeting and greeting at the Book Cellar at 7PM on Monday, July 2. Rumor has it there's wine involved, which is always exciting. If you can't make that event or you need a little more rock with your lit and liquor, he'll also be reading at the Beat Kitchen at 10:30PM on Saturday, July 7, followed/accompanied by Dayton's Billy Catfish and local faves Farewell Captain (who, rumor has it, are planning to perform an all-cover set of indie standards) and headlining hooligans extraordinaire, the premier Chicago-area (and beyond?) Guided By Voices tribute band, Textbook Committee. Should be a good time, provided you don't get so GBV-style drunk you don't remember where you were.

    And speaking of covers of indie staples...

  • Tom 7 "14 Cheerleader Coldfront" (Guided By Voices cover)
    My favorite track from Tom 7's downloadable tribute to GBV.

  • Nickel Creek "Spit on a Stranger" (Pavement cover)
    This made the rounds on the MP3 blog circuit about a year ago, and I say rightfully so. I'm all for twee bluegrass.

  • Rheinallt H. Rowlands "Gwawr Newydd Yn Cilio (New Dawn Fades)" (Welsh Joy Division cover)
    A reader (sorry, I don't remember who!) sent me this a while back, and I'm indebted. What other Welsh covers out there should I/we know about?

  • Richard Hawley "Some Candy Talking" (The Jesus & Mary Chain cover)
    Definitely one of the most worthwhile tracks on that Q cover sampler that came out a year or two ago.

  • Straylight Run "Velvet Waltz" (Built to Spill cover)
    Apparently there's some emo drama surrounding this band, but even I'm not bored enough to look up what it is.

  • Ruby Isle "Teen Age Riot" (Sonic Youth cover)
    How cute and poppy is that intro? I'm hoping to post an all-Sonic Youth post soon to celebrate that my best friend Ryan is visiting me next month and taking me to see Sonic Youth perform Daydream Nation at the Pitchfork fest. I've inexplicably never seen Sonic youth live before, but I figure that's the thing to see... even if it means I have to be outside for a few hours in a dusty field full of hipsters during sweltering mid-July.

  • Geoff Keezer "Lose My Breath" (My Bloody Valentine cover)
    You know that imaginary coffee shop of mine? Jazz piano versions of shoegaze classics will definitely be on the menu.

  • Axton Kincaid "I Wanna Be Adored" (The Stone Roses cover)
    One of the few Stone Roses covers that didn't make it into my Brit Pop-themed posts a few months back. And another twee bluegrass cover, since apparently that's what the kids are craving.

  • Maydrïm "Shakespeare's Sister" (The Smiths cover)
    Pretty, electronic, Spanish. Why not?

  • Brother Love Canal "Gigantic" (The Pixies cover)
    This is my homage to the soon approaching Pride festivities here in the city. I can totally see most people, especially die-hard Pixies fans, loathing this, but I have to admit it makes me laugh and I'd totally dance to its chill Vengaboysian rhythms. (This marks the third time in the blog's history that I've described a song as Vengaboysian, and I'm certain all the kids are eventually going to allow it to permeate their lexicon. Watch your etymological back, Rachael Ray!!!)

  • Dirt Bike Annie "Are you Ready for the Summer" (Meatballs theme, comp. Bernstein/Gimbel)
    Okay, this isn't an indie staple. It's just my way for saying Happy Summer to everyone out there who, unlike me, actually likes it and wants to celebrate it. And because Meatballs rules. Chris Makepeace, I miss you!!!
     
  • 20 comments:

    RA! said...

    i love ya + yur blog =)

    SweJens said...

    Maydrim - Shakespeares Sister. She speaks Swedish there in the beginning, not Spanish.

    Lobstar said...

    The vocalist might be speaking Swedish, but it's my understanding that the band is from Spain. This comes from a Spanish Smiths tribute album, Una Luz Que Nunca Se Apagará.

    Anonymous said...

    So, yeah, I know we don't need to leave supportive comments, but I want to anyway. Well, I'll skip "supportive" and go straight to "grateful": your blog is terrific. Even though the covers occasionally aren't (that black metal "Holding Out For a Hero" comes to mind). But I really love what you do, and thank you for pointing me to people like Timo Räisänen that I'd never have heard of otherwise.

    Actually, I think it was this blog that caused me to tag things in iTunes with the comment "cover", so that I could set up a playlist specifically of cover songs. So you've genuinely changed the way I look at music.

    And hey, just today I learned that that Nickel Creek song I like so much is actually by Pavement. Who knew?

    Anonymous said...

    Thank you for posting the Rheinhallt H Rowlands track.
    Oz the main man in the group was a close friend of mine in North Wales. He would've been very proud to know that his music was getting a global ear thanks to your site.
    Sadly Oz was knocked over and killed by a pissed driver on Christmas Eve 2005.
    It's good to know that his music lives on.
    Thank you.

    Pete

    Anonymous said...

    I'm desperately trying to think of other Welsh-language covers of English songs (presumably that's the implication of 'Welsh covers', aye?), but so far only coming up with songs that were originally in Welsh anyway, or Welsh bands singing in the original English. I'm asking around and will get back to yis.
    Also, I know you said not to comment on this, but I'm extremely glad you're sticking around in spite of this being the first time I've bothered to comment.

    s said...

    i am really loving the Smiths cover.

    and although I've never left a comment, I thought I should today, because if you deleted your blog, my happy music covers time would be finite.

    I visit this blog every single day, and love it :)

    Anonymous said...

    I love all the covers you post - dont stop!!
    I'm so glad I found the blog.

    thanks

    Lobstar said...

    Heh. Yeah, that black metal Bonnie Tyler cover was iffy. But the iffy amuses me, and sometimes I just can't ignore it.

    Anonymous said...

    I love Pavement covers!

    Charles C Stirk Jr said...

    Shakespeare's Sister (featuring Annika Carita Boronska)

    Carita Annika Boronska was born in Uppsala, Sweden. She works as a Singer, Songwriter, Composer and music/vocal teacher in Madrid. Since 2002 she composed music for several TV-programs and 2 Films; "Eres mi heroe" (You're my hero),2003 and the other a TV-Movie(Comedy)"Un difunto, 6 mujeres y 1 taller" (A dead man, 6 woman and a garage)2005. She also worked as a singer in various music festivals (mainly Jazz)and sang/acted in a movie called "La gran Vida" (Living it up) ...... & thanks for the covers

    Unknown said...

    Liza,

    We'll get back to you re: Welsh Language covers of English angauge songs with a proper list so you can go a-hunting.

    To kick off, though:

    Cerrig Melys: Dwi Iso Bod Yngi / I Wanna Be Your Dog (Iggy & The Stooges)

    Profiad Rhys Lloyd: Dim Cwsg Tan Cwrwys (No Sleep Till Culverhouse) / No Sleep Till Brooklyn (Beastie Boys)

    Rhiannion Tomos A'R Band: Diawl / Silver Machine (Hawkwind)

    The last two are strictly not covers, more re-workings. But the certainly contain enough of the originals to qualify.

    Ciao bella.

    x DC

    p.s. we have no kind words for your stupendously darling l'il ol' blooeroo here, spesh as you said we ain't to say owt. you'll have to compensate yourself with a big shout out on last Wednesday's 'The Waiting Room' following a meatie selection of Cover Versions (some gleaned from these formerly praise-able pages o'yours). That is all.

    Anonymous said...

    Since you asked us not to leave supportive comments, I won't.

    I'll just say that Meatballs is one of my favorite flicks. I saw it at a drive-in when it first came out, and they guy I saw it with actually had one of those plastic spaceman helmets, exactly like the one Bill Murray wore in the movie, in the car at the time (don't ask...).

    Anonymous said...

    I love the covers you post on your blog, some of them are fantastic. I noticed you check out some MySpace sites sometimes, I found this one while surfing wondered what you thought of the very odd covers on it:-
    http://www.myspace.com/kizlode

    Anonymous said...

    Love the Meatballs theme (and Chris Makepeace back then), now all we need is a great cover of David Naughton's "Makin' It."
    Love the blog! Thanks!
    Max

    Lobstar said...

    David- RE: Kizlode

    Whoa. Um. Yeah. I couldn't make it very far into the tracks because I kept doing that "hurry it up, already" hand motion.

    Anonymous said...

    Thanks for the Richard Hawley track! I love that man so much I'm considering becoming gay.



    http://monkeybastard.blog.com

    Unknown said...

    L.,

    I believe I have somewhere (I haver to go dif it out then transfer to digital/mp3) a Welsh band called Pop Negatif Wastad doing a cover of "Kerosene" by Big Black.

    If I have it, would you like it?

    Chrissy said...

    ugh!


    your feed on livejournal is like ages behind i'm going to have to add you to a real feed reader so i dont miss welsh joy division covers again!

    Unknown said...

    Chrissy- It's not that the feed on LJ is any different than its feed elsewhere, it's just that when I go back to delete the links and republish the entries, they sometimes show up as new entries. I read my feed via LJ and all of the entries show up in a very timely fashion.