Like the sun, chasing all of the rain away.

I've been posting lots of YouTube videos lately, but it's become my insomnia-fueled, late-night pastime to randomly browse for covers by everyday people. This one was a pleasant surprise:



And remember adorable Anthony Hill, whose videos I posted about a year ago? Well, he's covered my favorite Syd Barrett song (I'm in a weird Pink Floyd et. al. phase lately), and he's charming as ever. Someone sign this guy already!

It's not a bad thing. It's not a good thing.

Hey, kids, I'm here to announce my participation in NaNoCoMo. Yes, considering I just made that up, that does mean I'm the sole participant. Basically, my plan is to post at least two covers a day every day in November. And while NaNoCoMo won't officially begin until tomorrow, today I will point those clamoring for downloadable DIY Guided By Voices tribute albums created by GBV fans from the Postal Blowfish mailing list to the Monumental Box.

We're all in the mood for a melody.

Hey, New Yorkers! If you're looking for something different to do tomorrow on the LES, why not head out to a free all-covers show performed by rock pianist (and environmentalist!) Danny Ross? I mean, seriously, you know it's been ages since your last all-covers piano-rock show. Am I right? If it were happening here, I know I'd go.

Who: Danny Ross
What: Covers Show
When: Friday October 26th, 8PM, FREE!, Ages 21+
Where: Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen St just south of Houston in Manhattan's Lower East Side

You miss too much these days if you stop and think.

Judge me harshly if you must, but I've never been much of a U2 fan. Therefore—although I have many—covers of U2 songs tend not to excite me very much. All of that said, I'm kind of in love with SongFight regular Jeff Fal's Add Musical Program podcast (which is often chock-full of covers) and his free downloadable tribute, Add Covers Achtung Baby. And if you like what you hear, you can download a slew of his originals as well directly from the ADD Home Page. I've been meaning to bring all of this up for a while, so why not now?

You must not know 'bout him.

Just when the original managed to escape the constant playlist in my head, here comes a cover that puts it right back there. Thanks to reader Jill who pointed me in the direction of a guy named D and his cover of Beyonce's "Irreplaceable," which you can download over at his MySpace page. I'm loving it.

You want to see whatever common people see.

As you all know, YouTube is rife with covers by people no one has ever heard of who happen to have webcams, but every now and again you'll stumble on something/someone who isn't total crap and is just plain charming and cute. It doesn't seem remotely possible that it would be legal for me to find someone born in 1987 so damned adorable, but it is. I cannot believe 1987 was 20 years ago.

Anthony Hill covers Pulp and Lily Allen, respectively:

Some cat was layin' down some rock 'n' roll, lotta soul.

I'm probably going to throw up (?) a handful of Bowie covers tomorrow, but until I do, you can get a pretty decent cover of "Starman" from Austin singer-songwriter Justin Wiles's Music Page. I also recommend that fans of Elliott Smith, Nilsson, Donovan, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, Simon & Garfunkel, Jose Gonzalez, Dear 23-era Posies, etc. check out the slew of original stuff there as well. Some of the songs—including but not limited to "Triple Hotel" and "Expecting a Song"—kind of freak me out because they sound like Elliott Smith came back and collaborated with him. And, if you're in Austin, you can see him play at the showcase on Tuesday the 17th at B.B. Rovers. No, he's not a friend of mine or anything. He's just a cute talented young artist I stumbled on recently whose work impressed me far more than that of a lot of signed artists in the same genre. It's very rare for me to randomly find artists on the Internet sharing nearly 50 of their songs for free that are actually worth listening to.