My mind is definitely made up.

If a tad embarrassing at times, my love for covers often creates a love for new artists. Many is the time that a cover I've hunted out introduces me to talents with which I'd been theretofore unaware. Such was the case with Glen Hansard and the Frames. Had it not been for the tracks below (the second of which I posted about 3 years back and I would rank somewhere in my personal Top 20 of favorite covers), I wouldn't have been lucky enough to become familiar with his work before the Academy Award nomination. What a well-deserved accolade! His and Marketa Irglova's performances there and at the Independent Spirit Awards were two of the best, most heartfelt and passionate award-show performances I've ever seen.

I'm keeping it old school here with the first covers I'd heard him do, but you can still hear a couple of more recent Bob Dylan and Van Morrison covers he's performed with Marketa Irglova via Hype Machine.

Glen Hansard "Cry Me a River" (Justin Timberlake cover)

Glen Hansard & Colm MacConlomaire of The Frames "Every Time" (Britney Spears cover)
 

Better, better, better, BETTER!

If you've seen this elsewhere, my apologies, but frankly? It's far better than a lot of "Hey, Jude" covers.

Nearing the 15th minute.

Many thanks to Clinton from WFMU's Beware of the Blog for including my opinions in the latest MP3 Truffles installment. Feel free to check it out to see my recommendations, as well as those of the other featured bloggers.

Didn't even know I needed it.

If all goes according to plan, in a few hours there will appear here a love-themed post, despite the fact that I'm one of those bitter spinsters with a cat who whines about Hallmark holidays. (Clarification on ambiguous sentence structure: I whine, the cat doesn't.) Until said post surfaces, please enjoy this animated video (as featured on today's episode of Yo Gabba Gabba), which is set to a cover of Free Design's "I Found Love" as performed by the Trembling Blue Stars.
 

They both went down to Berlin, joined the Ice Capades.

Apparently my blogging fingers have been frozen by the never-ending Chicago winter! Still, before I forget, I wanted to let you know that there is a great little downloadable cover of The Ramones' "Judy is a Punk" over at the MySpace page of The Pawners' Society, a band featuring members of The Grackles and Scotland Yard Gospel Choir (among others). And, if you're in Chicago, you can check them out this Friday the 15th at Subterranean.

Oh, and you can download and/or listen to the most recent Drunk Covers show by the Waiting Room here.