Monday, April 21, 2008

Catching sparks.

  • Ben Sollee "A Change is Gonna Come" (Sam Cooke cover)
    Usually when a record label sends me a track to promote, I download it and forget about it for a while. Especially if the word "jazz" is anywhere in the press release. But even jaded ol' jazz-fearing Liza has a heart that will melt via R&B-influenced bluegrass and a smooth-voiced cellist with glasses, So I'm posting this nearly immediately. I'm a human being here, people!

  • Brand New "Oh, Comely" (Neutral Milk Hotel cover)
    This is a live radio recording whose post-song banter references sports or something toward the end. Just so you know.

  • Candy Planet "You Just Haven't Earned it Yet, Baby" (The Smiths cover)
    Unrelated to this song at all: I went to Rory Lake's Karaoke Dreams at the American Legion in Bucktown last weekend and saw a guy do a rendition of Kirsty MacColl's "In These Shoes." Talk about songs you never thought you'd A) see on a karaoke list and B) see anyone actually perform.

  • Guitar ft. Ayako Akashiba "Just Like Honey" (The Jesus and Mary Chain cover)
    I'm a sucker for vocals by Japanese gals, what can I say?

  • Ida "For Shame of Doing Wrong" (Richard & Linda Thompson cover)
    I forgot how much I love Ida. Then I listen to nearly every track they've ever done and I'm instantly reminded.

  • Ledaswan "Head On" (The Jesus and Mary Chain cover)
    JAMC was big with my shuffle play today.

  • MarthaV "To Sir with Love" (Lulu cover)
    I like to sing this at karaoke because it's creepy. Okay, it's sentimental. But in the creepiest of ways.

  • Mirror Ball Associates "Promise of a New Day" (Paula Abdul cover)
    There are some songs that get covered that make me think "even if I don't wind up liking this, I'm ecstatic someone covered it." The existence of a cover of this makes me happy, but mostly because I always pretended she was saying "evil's calling and it's calling your name" instead of "eagle's calling...".

  • Star 61 "Polegada Irada (Angry Inch)" (Portuguese cover, song from the soundtrack of Hedwig and the Angry Inch)
    I think I've been meaning to post this every time I blog, yet I always forgot. That trend ends today.

  • The Guts "Different Drum" (Stone Poneys cover, comp. Mike Nesmith)
    This is another song that I like to belt out at karaoke. It's right in my range and I love the "you're great and all, but let's not commit" message of it, which was pretty rare in the form of poppy hits sung by women in the '60s.
     
  • 2 comments:

    2fs said...

    Talk about unlikely cover songs: a bunch of us were at some karaoke bar on the outskirts of Columbus, Ohio...and one of the songs on their menu was Liz Phair's "Fuck and Run." I really, really wanted to do that one (I'm a guy, btw), but The Rule is that at a karaoke bar, my first song has to be "MacArthur Park" (don't ask), and my second go-round never came up. I wonder if anyone had ever actually done that song there - my friend Miles did "This Monkey's Gone to Heaven," and clearly the woman running things had never heard it before: she bluntly asked him if this was the right song (of course it was!).

    Lobstar said...

    I've done both "Fuck and Run" AND "Monkey Gone to Heaven" at karaoke. And both performances ruled, natch.