I need someone to take some joy from something I do.

I've been meaning to bring up what I think is thus far my favorite tribute album of the year, the Belle and Sebastian tribute A Century of Covers. I'm a great fan of B&S and there are very few tracks on this tribute that I don't like, and it's turned me on to a slew of international artists I now want to further check out.

Bob Corn "I'm Waking Up to Us" (Belle and Sebastian cover)
This one is my favorite, which sounds as if it's the product of a love child of Will Oldham and Paolo Conte. Heaven!

Billie the Vision and the Dancers "I'm a Cuckoo" (Belle and Sebastian cover)

John Wayne Shot Me "Waiting for the Moon to Rise" (Belle and Sebastian cover)


Oh, and did I mention that, if you like the few tracks I've shared, you can get them along with EVERY OTHER TRACK ON THE ALBUM in .rar form right here from the gal who curated it, who also offers links to the participating bands? Pretty cool, no?

Now, unrelated to B&S, I will present what has become my guiltiest cover pleasure lately. It's been around for years and it's sort of an abomination because I cherish the original so, but I can't help loving it:

Primal Scream feat. Kate Moss "Some Velvet Morning (New Version Extended Mix)" (Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood cover)

The message lost in this machine.

I'm kicking myself for linking to AOL, trust me, but you can stream the Yeah Yeah Yeahs covering the Rentals' "The Love I'm Searching For" here. Would that I were technologically savvy enough to turn it into an MP3, but I'm not. No, that wasn't a hint or anything. Far be it for me to recommend stealing from the AOL overlords.

It's harder than it looks.

Around this time last year, I posted a cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" by Norway's Susanna and the Magical Orchestra that I really loved. (Me love a Scandinavian act who covers songs? Never!) Luckily for me, I learned recently that SATMO (my abbreviation, not theirs) released an all-cover album this year entitled Melody Mountain. Here are a couple featured on said album:

Susanna and the Magical Orchestra "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" (AC/DC cover)
When this track started I had one of those freaky "I know all of the lyrics to this song but I can't place it" moments. Of course, when it got to the chorus, I figured it out, but it's refreshing to hear a cover that isn't nearly identical to the original for a change.

Susanna and the Magical Orchestra "Hallelujah" (Leonard Cohen cover)
The original is probably close to No. 1 on my list of all-time favorite songs, and it's been covered several times by several artists. Even my favorite cover by John Cale doesn't stray far from the original in terms of pace, melody and overall feel of the original, which is near perfect. This version, though, has hit me in a new way. It's unbelievably the saddest version yet, and when it ends I want more.

Susanna and the Magical Orchestra "Enjoy the Silence" (Depeche Mode cover)
By the time Depeche Mode's Violator came out, "alternative" was starting to become a buzz word to describe a lot of the music I was into and my backlash started. "Enjoy the Silence" was my least favorite track on the album, at least partially because everyone and their brother seemed to love it. (Not to mention that my crazy bisexual boyfriend at the time had inexpicably declared it "our song," the concept of which just plain irked me with its lameness.) Surprisingly, I can stomach this version. Maybe I'm just in a stark, ethereal mood lately.

Sail away with me to another world.

I don't mean to get too YouTube-heavy on you here, but my idol Leslie Hall of Leslie and the Ly's (aka The Keeper of Thyn Gems) has finally performed a cover. In a Nashville mall's video karaoke booth. With a guy who is a regular there. Heaven.



P.S. Leslie and the Ly's will be playing at the Abbey Pub on Friday Sept. 29 as part of Estrojam this year with Fannypack and others. My ticket will be waiting for me at Will Call. Will yours?

P.P.S. If you are intrigued by Leslie and a fan of the Internet (and earworming jams about the Internet), do yourself a favor and check out the videos at We Are the Web. Fun work for a great cause.

I'll shoot, you run.

Jesus H! It's taken about 40 hours for me to make this post now that Blogger Beta is making things CRAZY!!!

Orchestre National de Jazz "Black Dog" (Led Zeppelin cover)
From their all-Zeppelin tribute Close to Heaven.

The String Quartet Tribute "A Favor House Atlantic" (Coheed and Cambria cover)
Before you die, there will be a String Quartet Tribute to you.

Siouxsie and the Banshees "You're Lost Little Girl" (The Doors cover)
Kicking it old-school with a classic cover, baby.

The Starting Line "Big Time Sensuality" (Bjork cover)

Cartel "Wonderwall" (Oasis cover)
These are from Punk Goes '90s. Man, if there's an era of music I despise, it's that of the early/mid '90s. But Bjork and Oasis, I liked. And yet I'm posting these covers anyhow. If these bands are "punk," I'll eat my copy of The Ramones. Although a group of preppy-looking emo boys calling themselves Cartel does crack me up.

Sara Noxx "Rent" (Pet Shop Boys cover)

Junobot "What Have I Done to Deserve This" (Pet Shop Boys cover)
These two are from the Pet Shop Boys tribute Always On Our Minds that came out a few months ago. It's hit or miss, as most tributes are, but the Sara Noxx track in particular is strangely compelling to me for some reason.

Mephisto Waltz "Iceblink Luck" (Cocteau Twins cover)
From Dark Treasures: A Gothic Tribute to the Cocteau Twins. Heh. Cleopatra.

Biffy Clyro "Buddy Holly" (Weezer cover)
From the all-cover CD that came with Kerrang!'s 25th Anniversary issue in June.

Jarvis Cocker and Kid Loco "I Just Came to Tell You That I'm Going (Je suis venu que te dire que je m'en vais)" (Serge Gainsbourg cover)
From this year's Monsieur Gainsbourg. Um, Jarvis? I love your scraggly hair (see video below) and I want to make out with you!

Ban you so hard.

I've long thought of having some sort of cover contest a la Songfight / Coverfight where readers could submit a cover of my choosing and I'd pick the best one. Or maybe I'd have readers vote via some kind of poll, but that seems like a lot of work I don't want to do. Heh. I wouldn't have much to offer in the way of prizes anyhow, so I'm okay with surrendering the dream.

But if I were going to host a cover contest, I think I've found the first contender. I'd want English (or Spanish, French or Italian) versions of the following insane song, a parody version of which is inexplicably No. 2 in Netherlands right now (that parody version appears to be about a boat, not a bot, but the bot version rules harder—I'm usure which came first*):



Boat or bot, It's obvious anything can hit the charts in Europe.

No need to submit entries, but you totally know you want to!

*Oh yeah, when in doubt, Wiki!

Do what I please, gonna spread the disease because I wanna.

Cobra Verde "Temptation" (New Order cover)
I forgot to include this in the New Order post a few weeks back, and I like it a lot. It's my favorite on Cobra Verde's all-cover album, Copycat Killers.

Elakelaiset "Humppaa Suomesta (Living in America)" (The Sounds cover in Finnish)
The Finnish humppsters have a new(ish) album of bizarre oompa covers out since the last time I posted anything from/about them. It still seems as if the lyrics of their versions have little, if anything, to do with the lyrics of the originals, but I still don't know Finnish, so I can't be sure. The Sounds's "Living in America" was one of my favorite songs a few years ago, so that's the track from Humppasirkus I chose to share here.

Gavin Castleton "I Still Believe" (Tim Capello cover)*
I think a reader sent this track to me. When I saw the title, I thought it might be a Brenda K. Starr cover. It took me about a minute into the track to figure out where I recognized this song from. It was so familiar, I knew all the words, I knew when to expect the sax solo, but couldn't for the life of me figure out how I could so intimately know a song and not instantly remember the name the original artist. It makes sense though. When a song is from a soundtrack you've listened to a million times in the '80s that was sandwiched between songs by INXS and Echo and the Bunnymen and other artists you'd actually heard of at the time, your ought-era recall will understandably be off. Ahhh, The Lost Boys soundtrack, how could I have forsaken thee? God, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea obscure soundtrack-related covers. Yay, Gavin!

*Edit: Apparently this is originally by The Call and Tim Capello covered it, which makes sense since The Lost Boys soundtrack was chock-full of covers. I plead ignorance, as I was never a fan of the Call and Capello's was the first version I heard and the version I believe Castleton covered.

The Flu "I Hate to Say I Told You So" (The Hives cover)
I swear, if Swedes are covering anything, I'm so there!

Ginger Sling "Can't Stop the World" (The Go-Go's cover)
As a pre-teen/teenager, I listened to Beauty and the Beat more than any other album, I think. It always kind of bothered me that the Go-Go's had such a poppy squeaky-clean image in the mainstream but really wrote such sad, dark songs that weren't making the charts. Granted, those were poppy too, but they were no "We got the Beat." This is one of the Go-Go's's (?) more optimistic tunes covered by some innocuous pop chickadee I've never heard of who really didn't change it up all that much. I still like to see it being covered though. (It's on the Sky High soundtrack, which is full of far worse covers than this, to be sure.)

M.I.A. "Every Day I Love you Less and Less" (The Kaiser Chiefs cover)
From a live performance on a radio show. Shit. Remember all the M.I.A. buzz in the blogosphere back in the day? I feel it was warranted, but I almost forgot all about it.

The Riffs "I'm Waiting for the Man" (Velvet Underground/Lou Reed cover)
Portland, OR, punks whose "riffs" actually remind me more of glam-metal like Poison's than that of anything punk, but whatever. I've certainly heard worse.

Devendra Banhart and Jana Hall "Little Monkey/Step in the Name of Love" (Devendra Banhart original/R. Kelly cover)
The cover part of this track doesn't start until about 3 minutes or so in, but I'm liking it. Because it's Devendra and it's a cover of R. Kelly that isn't "I Believe I Can Fly" or "Ignition." I still wish I could go back in time and relive and better document the R. Kelly/Jay-Z show I went to in 2004. (The first day of their later-defunct 2004 tour, I believe.) That was some crazy shit.

Absolute Body Control "Baby's on Fire" (Brian Eno cover)
Good or bad, this sounds to me what I imagine my friends and I hanging out, messing around with a 4-track and deciding to cover this song would sound like. Hmmm. Maybe I should get on that project, come to think of it.

Brass Band Willebroek "It's My Life" (Bon Jovi cover)
There's a reason this exists. I'm just not certain I've discovered it yet.

Stop whispering, start crunking.

Before a million people comment telling me about it, I should probably go ahead and do what everybody's doing and link you to DJ Gyngyvytus's Skeet Spirit: A Crunk Tribute to Radiohead. [Note: The downloads are .rar files and you will need a program like WinRAR to open it. If you don't have WinRAR, you can get it at www.download.com.]

WHAT?!?!?!?!

All of our time spent keeps us alive.

It doesn't happen very often, but I do get in a hard-rock/metal mood from time to time. As someone who collects covers, this is a good mood to be in, as the ratio of metal covers to non-metal covers is approximately 15:2.

There are details about my past that newer friends are often shocked to learn about me. One of them is my history as a hard-rock/glam-metal fan, which at times overlapped with my new-wave/alternative/indie periods. In high school/college, I saw a slew of concerts performed by the likes of Bon Jovi (four or five times), Poison, Motley Crue, Guns N' Roses. Not to mention seeing Skid Row at least three times opening for said acts. I mean, just look at me my junior year:





My hair could have totally beaten up your hair.

Thy Majestie "In God We Trust" (Stryper cover)
As I'm certain you all well know, sometimes we lovers of irony get so embroiled in making fun of something that before we know it, we actually do wind up kind of loving that which we mock. Such is the history of my relationship with Stryper. Obviously, my hair-band-loving friends and I were quick to laugh at the idea of Christian metal, but dammit if those songs weren't catchy. And I LOVE this cover version. It's a sickness, I know.

Big Country "Paranoid" (Black Sabbath cover)
At first I thought I wasn't going to include this because I was more looking for metal acts covering non-metal songs, but this is surprisingly rocking for Big Country.

Jaded Heart "Larger Than Life" (Backstreet Boys cover)

Sonata Arctica "The Wind Beneath My Wings (comp. Larry Henley/Jeff Silbar, most popularly performed by Bette Midler)

Sun'N'Steel "I'm So Excited" (Pointer Sisters cover)

Strawberry Slaughterhouse "Kids in America" (Kim Wilde cover)

Superbeing "Hungry Like the Wolf" (Duran Duran cover)

Renato Zero "Sgualdrina (Dreamer)" (Supertramp cover in Italian)

No, I've never met anyone quite like you before.

Let's all hope my bandwidth hold up so you can grab today's covers!

New Order covers:

The Arcade Fire "Age of Consent"

Devine & Statton "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Even As We Speak "Bizarre Love Triangle"

Mathilde Santing "Blue Monday"

Xiu Xiu "Ceremony"

Seabound "Confusion"

Bis "Hurt"

Hungry Lucy "Love Vigilantes"

Color Filter "Regret"

Ming "Subculture"

Moby "Temptation"

Flunk "True Faith"

The String Quartet Tribute "True Faith"

(And this was after I narrowed it down to 13!)

All hands on the good ones.

Just a quick heads-up that Blog Soup is currently hosting a handful of live covers by Sleater-Kinney. You know you wanna!

A million lights are dancing and there you are.

Frente "Hounds of Love" (Kate Bush cover)
I was never a really big fan of Frente's covers of "Bizarre Love Triangle," probably because I grew completely sick of that song in the late '80s and because I found it too syrupy, but I really like this.

The Puppini Sisters "Wuthering Heights" (Kate Bush cover)
You knew it was just a matter of time before there were Andrews Sisters-style cover bands, didn't you? Quite adorable.

Negazione "I Think I See the Light" (Cat Stevens cover)
Not exactly the song I'd expect an Italian punk band to cover, but it works.

The Mekons "Alone and Forsaken" (Hank Williams cover)
I love this cover and thought of it last week while watching the 1964 film Your Cheatin' Heart starring George Hamilton as Hank Williams. While the casting confused me a bit and it was quite historically inaccurate, it was great to be reminded of how talented Williams truly was.

18th Dye "Trains and Boats and Planes" (comp. Burt Bacharach)
there was a time in the mid-1990s when I was obsessed with droning, fuzzy guitars and fell in love with German band's 18th Dye's Tribute to a Bus album. I just learned of this cover the other day and was ecstatic in the geekiest way, as I am also a huge Bacharach fan.

Angtoria "Confide In Me" (Kylie Minogue cover)
I'm not the biggest fan of orchestral metal, but I don't hate this. And this chick could totally kick Amy Lee's ass, an idea that appeals to me.

Javier Alvarez "Xanadu" (Olivia Newton-John/ELO cover)
A strange, slow doo-wop/R&B/electronic take on the ONJ/ELO classic, with which I've been obsessed the past few weeks. Thanks to unemployment and insomnia, I've been scouring YouTube for all thing ONJ and happily discovered the Making Xanadu documentary I remember seeing as a child on Channel 32. Heaven, I tell you:
    *Making Xanadu (Part 1)
    *Making Xanadu (Part 2)
    *Making Xanadu (Part 3)
    *Making Xanadu (Part 4)

    *Also on YouTube: Check out Abba, ONJ and Andy Gibb jamming out some Beach Boys songs. A kitsch orgasm, to be sure.

The Popdudes "Waterloo" (Abba cover)
Speaking of Abba, here's a cover by a power-pop supergroup sent in by reader Pete. I'd like it to be a little faster and poppier, but whatever.

And when you wake up it's a new mornin'—the sun is shinin' it's a new morning.

Big Heavy Stuff "Hyper-Ballad" (Bjork cover)
Pretty Australian cover #1.

Martin White "Army of Me" (Bjork cover)
Of course, I have to follow the nice, laid-back Bjork cover with a crazy accordion Bjork cover. You know how I roll.

Foo Fighters "Baker Street" (Gerry Rafferty cover)
When I was a kid, the sax solo from "Baker Street" was one of those earworms that I could never get out of my head. Even if I'd gone months or years without hearing the actual song, the solo would pop into my head on at least a weekly basis. Therefore, I grew to loathe the song. But my respect for soft '70s schmaltz has returned since then, and I can finally handle it.

The Brown U. Derbies "Karma Police" (Radiohead cover)
It's been a while since I've creeped myself (and others?) out with an a cappella track, so here's a new one. (For my inadequate description of my horror/fascination with a cappella, see this super-old post.)

Kasey Chambers "Better Be Home Soon" (Crowded House cover)
Pretty Australian cover #2.

Missy Higgins "Moses" (Patty Griffin cover)
Pretty Australian cover #3.

Luther Wright & the Wrongs "Is There Anybody Out There?" (Pink Floyd cover)
From the LW&TW's country/western/bluegrass/punk Rebuild the Wall album, which is exactly what the title infers: a song-for-song tribute to The Wall. Somebody had to do it, right? Right?

Susperia "The Sun Always Shines on TV" (A-Ha cover)
Most covers of this song—aka one of my favorite songs EVER—fall in either the Hi-NRG techno/trance genre or the Death Metal genre. I'm not sure what's up with that, but this cover is definitely part of the latter.

Emery "Holding Out for a Hero" (Bonnie Tyler cover)
Meh. I'm neither her nor there on soft emo punk covers in general, but I love the original a lot (I recently performed quite a rousing version of my own at karaoke) and this version didn't make me want to hurt anyone or anything.

Because I think some might be interested:

Three pages of KISS covers here.

Lots of Muppet albums available for download here.

The livin' is easy.

Apropos of nothing, I just wanted to say that I really screwed up by not trying out for the World Series of Pop Culture when tryouts were in town. Especially since, as of last week, I'm unemployed and could use the prize money. Whatever, right? Just gives me more time for random cover smatterings, yes?

Montefiori Cocktail "Sunny" (comp. Bobby Hebb)

Friends of Dean Martinez "Summertime" (comp. George Gershwin, from Porgy and Bess)

Claudine Longet "End of the World" (comp. Sylvia Dee/Arthur Kent, most popularly performed by the Carpenters)

Nina Persson (of The Cardigans) "The Bluest Eyes in Texas" (Restless Heart cover)

Richard Cheese "The Rockafellar Skank" (Fatboy Slim cover)

Area 7 "I Want to Break Free" (Queen cover)

Remember when you were young? You shone like the sun.

 

Syd Barrett's "Vegetable Man" as performed by:

Baby Robots (USA)

Bugo (Italy)

Enzima (Italy

Kech (Italy)

Les Little Searchers (France)

Kawabata Makoto (Japan)

Swedish Whistler (Sweden)

Larsen (Italy)

Mandog (Japan)

Tirlindana (Italy)

It's my birthday and I'll only post one song if I want to.

Nouvelle Vague "Let Me Go" (Heaven 17 cover)

I'd like to tell you the way I feel for you, but I'd only be lying to myself.

Ten years ago today Jim Ellison committed suicide, which in turn killed one of my absolute favorite bands of the era. Jim and Material Issue, you are missed.

Material Issue "Jet" (Paul McCartney/Wings cover)

Material Issue "Blockbuster" (Sweet cover)

Material Issue "Bus Stop" (Hollies cover)

Material Issue "Run to Me" (Bee Gees cover)

Material Issue "The Boxer" (Simon & Garfunkel cover)

I'm back in the ring to take another swing.

The Mexicos "Everything I Do" (Bryan Adams cover)

Ohm Guru "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" (Smiths cover)

Bing Ji Ling "You Shook Me All Night Long" (AC/DC cover)

Bis "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Joy Division cover)

Do you suppose they could save my life?

It's this sort of thing that makes me wonder whether I should cherish or regret that I don't have any sort of self-recording skills:

Tom 7's Do-It-Yourself Guided By Voices Cover Band

Truthfully, I respect anyone who likes GBV this much. And I kind of love his "14 Cheerleader Coldfront."

My tattoo has inspired me and I've been listening to GBV nonstop for days. I'll probably post a few GBV covers soon. I'm waiting for a few CDs to arrive via mail first.

Until then, there's also a pretty cover of "Atom Eyes" here on the Bright Paper Werewolves' Sounds Page.

All you ever wanted, all you ever needed, is here in my arms.

This was a bit too massive covers-wise to allow to stay hidden in the comments, so if you're a Depeche Mode fan and you find yourself wishing for more covers of "Enjoy the Silence" than ever needed to exist, head over to this MOKB post.

Also, here's a nice e-mail I received recently from web animator extraordinaire, Scott Bateman, who creates a new web animation every damned day:

Here's how it happened:

A while back you posted Sawa Kobayashi's cover of "Patience." I
listened to it like, all the time, and mentioned it in my blog. Sawa
Googled herself apparently, and left a comment in my blog. I asked her
if I could animate "Patience" as part of my Bateman365 project (I'm
making an animated film every day for a year; today is day 271). She
said yes.

The animation went up this morning at:

http://www.batemania.com/bateman365/day271.html

And it couldn't have happened without you!

Take care,
Scott

Pretty cool, huh?

You can't lie to yourself that it's the chance of a lifetime.

Well, since my last post, I learned that another Internet friend of mine died this week. Those of you with Live Journals (or without) may have known or known of Andrew (aka Andrew Watchmaker, Mandrew, the_passives, andrewpants). He was either the most popular or most unpopular person on the Internet at any given time, but he was never anything but nice to me. When he came to Chicago a few years back, he introduced me to my close friend Ray who, in turn, introduced me to a handful of other fabulous people.

After hearing of his death, I learned that a very new friend of mine was a close friend of Andrew's for years. She and I met up last night at the L&L and invited the friend who introduced us to come out and meet us. A slew of whiskey and beer later, and the next thing you know, we all had brand-new band-related tattoos. Um, we're bad-ass. I think.

Braid "Trompe le Monde" (Pixies cover)



It was Jessica who led us to the tattoo parlor, as she and a few other friends of Andrew had decided to honor his memory by getting uber-emo and tattooing lyrics from Braid (see previous post as well), one of Andrew's favorite bands, on themselves. Oh god, I can picture him laughing his ass off about it right now.

Jawbreaker "Into you Like a Train" (Psychedelic Furs cover)



The other day, Lauren talked to me for about 20 minutes about Jawbreaker, a band I never really paid much attention to. But now I know that the one of the guys is now an English professor at Hunter College. Her contention is that even though he's a teacher now, he will always be "the guy from Jawbreaker." My response? "Yeah, to the minority of people in this country who know who in the fuck Jawbreaker is." (I mean, come on, the bulk of the people in this country actually like that godawful "Bad Day" song by Daniel Powter!!!) What can I say? Punkish stuff isn't usually my bag. But it is Lauren's; thus, her Jawbreaker logo tattoo was born.

Minor Majority "Motor Away" (Guided by Voices cover)



My turn. I've said elsewhere that this is either the coolest decision or the geekiest decision I have ever made. I also implied that it might actually be a powerful combination of the two, the resulting explosive strength of which will ensure I take over the world—or at least my own version of it——this summer. So, we'll see. GB-motherfuckin'-V, people!

The pleasure, the privilege, is mine.

Feeling a touch morose the past few days. First, I learned I will most probably have to have my bone marrow tested next week due to the fact that I inexplicably have a giant spleen. Then I learned that my longtime Internet friend—and passionate music lover—Greg died after battling pulmonary fibrosis for quite some time. Sad news. And there's no band in the world that has helped me wallow and vent more over the past few decades than the Smiths. And no song more than the first Smiths song I ever knew, covers of which follow this paragraph. I have more covers of this, but felt I had to draw the line. I make no claims that any of these are great, although the Ghost Mice version in particular makes me smile, though I know not everyone would say the same.

"There is a Light That Never Goes Out" (Smiths cover) by:

Ally Craig

Braid

Deluxe

Edison Shine

The Ghost Mice

The Lancaster Orchestra (Actually a version of "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want," 'cause I got lazy. I'll leave it though, for those interested.)

Loquat

My Awesome Compilation

Nada Surf

The Ocean Blue

Saloon

Schneider TM - aka "The Light 3000"

Speedstar

Only God knows where I've been.

B.A. Baracus Band "Africa" (Toto cover)
I've recently become a little obsessed with Yacht Rock (I know, I'm TOTALLY late on this), so I've been meaning to hunt out covers of smooth rock. Of course, I already have a lot, but I need new stuff, you know? And lo and behold, this version of the Toto classic hit shuffle the other day and here we are.

H-BLOCKX "Celebrate Youth" (Rick Springfield cover)
Similarly, I've been revisiting my childhood love of Rick Springfield. I believe I thought the lyrics to this song were very deep. The whole "younger man looking at the older man" and "the older man looking at the boy" thing. What can I say, I was a kid. I don't know that it inspired me to celebrate my youth or anything, as it sure depresses me now.

Rick Springfield "I've Done Everything for You" (Sammy Hagar cover)
I was pretty upset when I learned decades ago that this wasn't a Springfield original. Why is it that with mediocre pop stars the covers are always the rockingest?

The Concretes "Miss You" (Rolling Stones cover)
I must admit that I cursed the Concretes for the Target ad using their "Say Something New," thereby allowing it to earworm me with such frequency that I began to despise it. Alas, they are Swedish and I love the Swedes. Not to mention disco-era Stones. So I'm all for this.

Your Eyes are Doves "Blaze of Glory" (Jon Bon Jovi cover)
I'm not remembering who pointed me in the direction of Your Eyes Are Doves, but I wholeheartedly thank you. Or maybe I stumbled on it by myself, in which case I will remind you that I'm fucking awesome.

The BossHoss "Toxic" (Britney Spears cover)

The BossHoss "All the Things She Said" (T.A.T.U. cover)
The Rawhide theme meets today's pop acts in German country/western coverversionen experts The BossHoss' Internashville Urban Hymns album. Listening to it all at once gets a little annoying, but a track here or there thrown onto a crazy mix CD will wow your friends. Trust me.

The Fixx "These Boots are Made for Walking" (Nancy Sinatra cover)
I'm not particularly crazy about this cover, but posting it gives me an opportunity to share one of my favorite stories, so I'm going for it:

When I worked at the Borders on Michigan Avenue back in my retail-whore days, one of my co-workers was a friendly guy named Ted who was about 10 years older than I and who was big on old-school new wave and whatnot. One day, I assisted a very friendly man with an English accent for about 10 minutes or so. When I'd sufficiently located his discs, he descended the escalator and Ted comes up to me excitedly and asks, "Do you know who that was?" I tell him, "No, but he did look slightly familiar." He answers, "That was the keyboard player from the Fixx!!!" Ah. Ted. After giggling delightedly and remarking to Ted that he's probably the only person I know who could possibly recognize the keyboard player from the Fixx—Rupert Greenall, BTW—Ted brings me the Fixx CDs we have in stock and remarks that it's too bad he's gone because he'd like to have the CDs signed. I, of course, heartily admire and respect Ted's new-wave passion and offer to walk around the store and see if I can find him.

I didn't have to go far, he was in line at the cafe. I approach him and say, "I'm sorry to bother you, but my co-worker recognized you and was hoping you might sign a few CDs for him." Well, you can imagine how much Rupert Greenall gets recognized in the States—or anywhere, for that matter—and he happily comes back to the music department with me and meets Ted and signs the discs. He tells us that the Fixx is playing at the House of Blues and he asks if we'd like to be on the guest list, an offer we obviously couldn't refuse. Unfortunately, I was a bit under the weather that day and wasn't able to go, but Ted went and said he got to hang out with the band backstage and had a really cool time with one of his favorite '80s acts. And I'd wish nothing less for him because his love for music was more genuine than that of anyone else I worked with at the time. I wonder what he's up to nowadays.

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.

I have my books and my poetry to protect me.

Magnet with Gemma Hayes "Lay Lady Lay" (Bob Dylan cover)

The Church "I am a Rock" (Simon and Garfunkel cover)

The Doleful Lions "There's no Other (Like my Baby)" (Crystals cover)

Equipe 84 "Bang Bang" (in Italian, comp. Sonny Bono)

Relax and float downstream.

My best pal Ryan told me about this last week or so, and listening to the new Musical Family Tree podcast just now, I was reminded of this downloadable tribute to the Beatles Revolver by Hideki. It's awesome.

Freeze frame, screen kiss, hot heads, lights and power.

Sometimes you just have to post when the mood strikes, even if that mood hits when you're nowhere near your vast catalog of covers. Luckily, I have a few work-accessible tracks sent in by readers that are just waiting for attention.

Rev. Tom Frost "You Belong to Me" (comp. Chilton Price)
Somebody over at Closed for Private Party Records [sorry, I deleted the e-mail and lost your name!] sent me a Zip file of the new Rev. Tom Frost album, which I truly love and which you can purchase here. Like a Frencher Tom Waits. Raunchy and bluesy and magnifique.

My Summer as a Salvation Soldier "Hey Ya" (Outkast cover)
Skotta sent along this track by a Reykjavikian singer-songwriter whose Americanized name would be something like Thorir Georg Jonsson and who recently played SXSW. Very nice. Hey ya, indeed, to our Icelandic brethren!

Spielerfrau "She's in Parties" (Bauhaus cover)
Again, I don't remember who sent this along, but here it is. Or maybe I got it from the band's web site, from whence it's a free web-only download. It's all a blur.

I cry, I pray, and I beg.

Attaque 77 "Un Poco de Respeto (A Little Respect)" (Erasure cover)
I'm all about the Argentines lately, huh? I was watching the GLAAD awards the other day on LOGO and remembering how awesome Erasure could be. While their bigger hits, such as this and "Chains of Love" are not quite my favorites, it's easier to find covers of them on a moment's notice. I only saw Erasure in concert once, opening for Duran Duran on their 1987 Strange Behaviour tour. It was the week after my 15th birthday at the long-gone Poplar Creek Music Theatre and I went with my pal Freya and her dad. I was only vaguely aware of Erasure at the time, having of course read about them via my subscription to Star Hits. Watching them flailing around in tutus in the Chicago suburbs was disconcerting... but completely awesome. I bought Wonderland on cassette shortly thereafter and have been a fan since, although I must admit I haven't kept up with their releases in the past decade or so. If anyone knows of any awesome covers of "Oh, L'Amour," do let me know. I have a few, but none really worth mentioning.

Les Muppets "C'est Bizarre (For What It's Worth)" (French Buffalo Springfield cover)
Oh, French Muppets singing about the Kent State murders! [Edit: Got my facts a bit wrong on this one, but it was a strangely prophetic about many things, no?] Bring it on! (To be fair, I haven't bothered to suss out this French translation enough to see if the message of the English version remains intact, but c'est bizarre either way, n'est-ce pas?

Michael Gum "Lovefool" (Cardigans cover)
Aw. Sweet, sweet, cover-lovin' Michael Gum. You should be checking his LJ regularly, because he does a good job. I worked music retail when this song was all the rage and grew to loathe it with red-hot intensity, but this version makes me smile. A great reminder why I do the whole blog thing, to be sure.

If life's for livin', what's livin' for?

I know a lot of you Yo La Tengo/WFMU fans probably already have bootlegs of the YLT/WFMU cover request sessions, but even so, to better your karma, you might want to buy the compilation they've recently put out: Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics.

Everybody's looking for a new sensation.

As I've stated before*, I believe there are approximately 17 million Depeche Mode tributes out there, and maybe two of them are worth purchasing. I recently got a hold of the Spanish tribute Devocion Por Las Masas and was mostly underwhelmed by the bulk of rote acoustic covers by male artists or bands with male lead singers. Yet a few of the female-sung tracks (the latter two surprisingly electronic) stood out as mildly intriguing. Here they are:

Viena #1 "Sometimes" (Depeche Mode cover)

Dirty Princess "Pleasure, Little Treasure" (Depeche Mode cover)

Luxury "Shake the Disease" (Depeche Mode cover)

*What's up with Haloscan not giving an accurate comment count on older entries, BTW?

Before you know it you'll be on your knees.

The Black Keys "She Said, She Said" (Beatles cover)
I was inexplicably late to hop on the Black Keys train, but now I'm chugging right along.

Giganti "Corri Uomo Corri (Space Oddity)" (Italian David Bowie cover)
Italian prog-garage from the '70s? Where do I sign up?

Bad Astronaut "Solar Sister" (Posies cover)
I'm in the mood for a Posies revival here in my apartment.

Guadalupe "Wonderwall" (Oasis cover)
I'm getting a bit obsessed with non-English speakers singing songs phonetically. Of course, I'm not 100% certain that that's what's happening here, but that first verse was a bit mangled, no? It makes me want to cover the German version of "99 Luftballons," to which I made up my own phonetic version when I was 12. Sigh. Why am I not in a band? Or know how to use any recording equipment?

Sun City Girls "Journey to the Center of the Mind" (Amboy Dukes cover)
How is it possible that I just learned that Ted Nugent was in the Amboy Dukes? Obviously, I'd have never expected him to be involved with such a drug-friendly song, but then again, anti-drug types are pretty clueless about a lot of drug references, I suppose.

The Virginia Hullabahoos "Easy Lover" (Phil Collins/Philip Bailey cover)
It's been a while since I posting anything by an acappella group, so I chose to share this with you. Because "Easy Lover" is the jam!

Liza Minnelli "Use Me" (Bill Withers cover)
The recent release of Liza with a Z on DVD and CD has revitalized my love for my namesake. Holy crap, could that gal entertain! That special was filmed a month before I was born and feels more modern and vital than any performance I've ever seen on TV. And she was only 26, and so damned secure in her sexuality and womanhood. I wish there were 26-year-old female performers nowadays who weren't so fucking stunted by our modern youth culture that they keep acting cutesy or faux-tormented. There is a dearth of female singers who get on stage and own every fucking thing they're doing.

Every day is like survival.

Pauline Easy "Billie Jean" (Michael Jackson cover)
I wracked my brain for a clever pun using "uke" instead of "you" for this ukelele gem. I thought of a million puns but none of them were clever. I surrender.

Baxendale "Come Home with Me Baby" (Dead or Alive cover)
I may be the only person willing to admit this, but I have a thing for Dead or Alive. Not so much the Stock Aitken Waterman-produced stuff, but the album Nude. It's been nearly 20 years since it cam out, and I still pop it on whenever I need high-energy housecleaning music.

Ghost Mice "Sing Out" (Cat Stevens cover)
This was a serendipitous find. I stumbled on it on a general Cat Stevens cover hunt and thought it was really fun. Then I learned that the band is on Bloomington's (Indiana) Plan-It-X records and label head Chris Johnston is in it. I believe Chris was also in the long-defunct Ted Dancin' Machine with my pal Marty (aka my best friend Ryan's younger brother). Chris was also in Operation: Cliff Clavin, whose cover of Liz Phair's "Fuck and Run" I posted ages ago. I was never quite cool (read: young or vegan) enough to click with most of the Bloomington punk go-getters, but I respect the hell out of them.

Christian Kjellvander & Lise Westsynthius "Hand in Glove" (Smiths cover)
Christian Kjellvander has a track (not this one) on a various-artists compilation I recently downloaded entitled Cowboys in Scandinavia. (Who knew? How could I not be intrigued?) I love his voice. Reminds me of a countrier Mark Lanegan. And the 12 Monkeys-sounding accordion creeps me out in the best way.

Kevin Johansen "Karma Chameleon" (Culture Club cover)
My new cover-lovin' Argentine Internet pal LadyHype uploaded this to me and I approve! Johansen was born in Alaska and raised in Argentina, moved to New York for a while and headed back to Argentina. I respect that sort of globe-trotting. And his Jarvis Cockery voice.

Knarf Rellöm "I Wish I Was Him" (Noise Addict—FYI that's Ben Lee's old band—cover)
Ten bucks says that umlaut will only be an umlaut on a few people's browsers, but whatever. I know very little about Knarf Rellöm, except that they appear to be a wacky German band. I'd almost forgotten this song existed, and I thank them for the reminder. They also have a song about writing a letter to Mark E. Smith.

Crüxshadows "Here Comes the Rain Again" (Eurythmics cover)
I can't just post one band with an umlaut in their name, can I? I figured at least one should be metal or goth. This is the latter.

We hear the playback and it seems so long ago.

The latin CD Jazz and '80s might not be the easiest thing to get a hold of at your local record shop, but eBay seems to have quite a few. Check out these tracks to see if these smooth reworkings are up your alley:

Dinah Eastwood "Hungry Like the Wolf" (Duran Duran cover)

Jamie Lancaster "Boys Don't Cry" (Cure cover)

Sawa Kobayashi "Patience" (Guns N' Roses cover)


And while I'm on a hard-to-find foreign '80s comp kick, here are a few non-jazz tracks from the Japanese CD, Fine Time: A Tribute to New Wave, Vol. 1:

Convex Level "Video Killed the Radio Star" (Buggles cover)

Yasuyuki Okamura "Burning Down the House" (Talking Heads cover)

Polysics "Memorabilia" (Soft Cell cover)

If I falter, let me know.

Flare "When It's Cold I'd Like to Die" (Moby cover)
I was once infatuated with Moby's Everything is Wrong. I listened to it nonstop for about six months back in the day. The other night, the original version of this track played as the credits rolled on The Sopranos, and it inspired me to hunt for a few Moby covers. The key seems a little off to me in this version, but I'm happy someone is covering it, so I don't really care. It's rare to find a non-techno/trance Moby cover to say the least.

Steve Velez and Da Capo Players "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters" (Moby cover)
Keeping in the non-techno/trance Everything is Wrong covers theme, here's one of millions of now-ubiquitous string quartet covers. It's pretty enough, although trying to out-pretty the original is futile at best.

Spit me out from your cosmos. Draft me into your troops.

It's been gorgeous and sunny the past few days here in Chicago, albeit a tad chilly here and there, but I've been inside for days thanks to [TMI alert!] debilitating cramps and the fact that the only painkillers I have contain opiates. The cramps are gone, but so is everything else. Are my fingers really attached to my hands? And my brain makes them type? Freaky!!!

First, reader Melanie pointed me to Tiffany's* recent cover of Poison's* "Talk Dirty to Me." Get it while the getting's good, I'm not sure how much longer it will be there.

(*I saw Poison at the Holiday Star Plaza in Merrillville, Indiana, for $5 in 1987 or 1988. It was a Toys for Tots benefit and it ruled. I was once also supposed to see Tiffany at the Star Plaza, along with Glass Tiger and The Outfield, I believe, but I dissed my friend who bought the tickets and went to a school dance instead. Do I regret my decision? Sometimes.)

Also, singer/songwriter Arif has some covers up by acts such as the Smiths, Tears for Fears and Bob Marley that you can download here.

Devin and the Straights "My All" (Mariah Carey cover)
This was sent to me via a reader named Landon, a friend of this local [Chicago, in case you didn't know] act. It really is the year of the gay cowboys, and I approve! I'm definitely going to try to check them out live, as their MySpace site proves they are not only talented but adorable!

Cadmium Orange "Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox" (live Guided by Voices cover)
Sadly, this Bloomington [Indiana, in case you didn't know] band's heyday began just after I departed for greener pastures. Or, more accurately, no pastures. I did have the good fortune of seeing them play once at a Who tribute set during a visit, and they were quite fun. Really, any band that covers my favorite GBV song is okay by me. If you like what you hear, they have a few other covers and a slew of originals over at Musical Family Tree, one of my favorite sites ever.

Fresh Cherries from Yakima "Communist Daughter" (Neutral Milk Hotel cover)
Here's another MySpace cutie who sent a track my way that I like.

Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends "With a Little Help from My Friends" (Beatles cover)
Sunshine pop on a sunshine day? Don't mind if I do.

Damien Rice "Talking About a Revolution" (Tracy Chapman cover)
I'm a big fan of this Irish singer's covers, and St. Patrick's Day is near, so I'm tacking this one on as well. That Tracy Chapman album was pretty damned good, come to think of it. I should pull that baby out soon.

She is gone, but the joke's the same.

Jose Gonzalez "Heartbeats" (The Knife cover)
A while ago, I heard this track in that Sony Bravia commercial (Google it, yo, I'm not linking to Sony) with all the superballs flying through San Francisco and was shocked that A) someone covered this song and B) that it was so damned good. I really like the original, but I really love this version. Sadcore at its finest. Or something.

The Portsmouth Sinfonia "Pinball Wizard" (Who cover)
Somewhat dissonant and very odd. Love it. Or something.

The Jazz Butcher "Everybody's Talking" (Fred Neil cover—performed most popularly by Harry Nilsson)
I want to take a time machine back to the early 1990s and make out with the bands on the Creation label. Or something.

The Guano Apes "Big in Japan" (Alphaville cover)
Germany rules for so many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it's not as uncommon there for women to front alt-rock bands as it is here. Or something.

The Free Design "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" (comp. Burt Bacharach/Hal David)
This song was my introduction to The Free Design, a late-'60s/early-'70s baroque pop act who are so awesome you just know that everyone at Elephant 6 and Minty Fresh and the like wish they were them. Or something.

The Dresden Dolls "Pretty in Pink" (Psychedelic Furs cover)
Song I Love + Band I Love = Meh. Or something.

Exit light. Enter night.

Here's another "I can't believe I waited a week for this" random smattering of songs that hit my shuffle play recently. Enjoy. Or whatever it is you do with the songs I post.

Anal Cunt "Three's Company Theme" (TV theme cover)
Don't worry. It's only 35 seconds long.

The Brakes "Jackson" (comp. Gaby Rodgers/Billy Edd Wheeler)
I know it's probably some sort of country blasphemy, but I've always preferred the Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazlewood version to the Johnny Cash/June Carter version. I love Nancy and Lee.

Neuroticfish "There Is a Light" (Smiths cover)
I'm always for making Smiths songs gayer. Always.

Die Krupps "Enter Sandman" (Metallica cover)

Trespassers William "Left of Center" (Suzanne Vega cover, from Pretty in Pink soundtrack)
From Isn't She Still... The Pretty in Pink soundtrack Revisited, which is on sale right now over at CD Baby.

The following four are from a covers comp put outby Homesleep Records a while back:

Fuck "Oops... I Did it Again" (Britney Spears cover)

Lenola "Box of Rain" (Grateful Dead cover)

Mirabilia "Walking with Jesus" (Spacemen 3 cover)

Yuppie Flu "Plainsong" (Cure cover)

My eyes are so cloudy I can't see you.

Fastbacker had a recent post full of covers, about half I've posted before and half I haven't. Check it out.

Also check Music for Ants, which posts covers pretty frequently.

One more thing: Everyone can stop begging me to repost the Freedom of Choice album right about now. It was up more than a week and now it's down. I DO NOT REPOST SONGS. However, THE ALBUM IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE. Buy it on eBay or Amazon, new or used. Or check a local store. Or something. Thanks.

I only know I never want to let you go.

Apocalypso "Man, It's So Loud in Here" (They Might Be Giants cover)
I bought Apocalypso's CD primarily for this track. I initially couldn't believe that TMBG wrote something so dancefloor ready, but it grew on me and I now love it. Then when I heard that a steel-drum calypso band had covered it, of course I had to make it mine. Pass the pina colada, please.

Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins "Handle with Care" (Traveling Wilburys cover)
You know those earwormy songs that you were never really into but that get stuck in your head on a regular basis? Well, the Traveling Wilburys' "Handle with Care" is one of mine. (Along with Celine Dion's "That's the Way it Is" and the Perfect Strangers theme song, among many others.) Perhaps now I'll think of this version instead.

Foo Fighters "I Feel Free" (Cream cover)
I'm not naming any names, but a reader once sent this in as a "Belinda Carlisle cover." Um. Uh. No. Belinda did her own version of this, but I don't think that's to whom my beloved Foos were paying homage.

Noes Descamps "Ma Non E Giusto (She's Not There)" (Zombies cover in Italian)
In case you're interested, ma non e giusto actually translates to "but it's not fair." Also if you're interested, I'm a big fan of foreign garage/psych covers. Therefore, I endorse this as "awesome."

The Flirts "I Only Want to Be with You" (Dusty Springfield cover)
Whoa. There's a reason many one-hit wonders are one-hit wonders, n'est-ce pas? Don't get me wrong, I definitely think there's a place for talked-not-sung middle-of-the-road '80s covers. I just don't know where that is. I never thought I'd say that Samantha Fox's version, despite being one of my high-school-era guilty pleasures, was 100 times better than anything. I was wrong.

Lene Lovich "I Think We're Alone Now" (Tommy James & the Shondells cover)
It may seem hypocritical to enjoy this track but not the previous one, but I have to back up my wacky new-wave Yugoslavian sista. I might not find half of her work listenable, but I respect it. And the screechy harmonies grow on you. Really.

Glass Eye "Minnie the Moocher" (Cab Calloway cover)
Someone e-mailed once that they were collecting a slew of "Minnie the Moocher" covers. I can't find evidence of that comment or e-mail, but here's one of the many versions I have—aka one that isn't absolutely horrific. (If that was you making the request, e-mail me again with your info and I'll send along a few others.)

Strawberry ice cream! Raspberry ice cream!

Sorry, no cover in this post. I just wanted to talk for a very short moment about how awesome Paste magazine is. If you are really interested in music or filmmaking as a craft or an art, I highly recommend it. And their online radio is pretty much my new favorite thing ever, even though I can't use Firefox to use it.

While I'm rambling about things not particularly related to covers, I guess I'll finally fulfill my good friend Matt's request to post a non-cover, which I've never purposely done before. But he seems to think my readership would be amused by it, and I can't say he's likely wrong about that. From an e-mail he sent:

Holy Mother of Causality - I just bought a bunch of test pressings at the Salvation Army in Evanston. I'll usually buy test pressings of stuff, but they had a ton of early 80's Alligator Records (reggae label) so I figured someone who worked at Alligator just dumped off their junk, ergo, more reggae albums. I do not currently have any reggae, bonus for me.

On the 2nd blank test pressing, I got a song about junk food. And Ice Cream. And how this guy fucking hates it.

Matt D.

We have know idea who the artist is, but yeah, he really hates junk food:

Unknown Artist "Unknown Title [The Ice Cream/Junk Food Song]" (not a cover, but perhaps one day...)
I love when my friends and I stumble on bizarre outsider stuff. Recently, I went with Matt and his wife Sarah, also my good friend, to Milwaukee (see pictures here), and at least 100 times during the weekend, if not more, one of us would yell out "Strawberry ice cream! Raspberry ice cream!" in homage to this gem. And to think it never saw the light of day ... until now. Or maybe it did and we're just ignorant about anti-junk-food reggae singers. If you have any idea who this is, PLEASE let us know!

Well, I talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, talk about it.

Q: What does a busy gal who can't find the time to post from home do when she realizes she HAS to post something soon?

A: She raids her Yahoo inbox for tracks of varying quality/merit that were sent in by readers and quickly posts them before getting back to work. Thanks, readers!

Note: Some of these files are large, as the computer I'm using currently has no music converter.

Dandiwind "Safety Dance" (Men Without Hats cover)

J Viewz "Smooth Criminal" (Michael Jackson cover)

The Millions "Beautiful" (Christina Aguilera cover)

Zen for Primates "Funky Town" (Lipps, Inc. cover)

The Black Eg "I Will Survive" (French Gloria Gaynor cover)

A quick heads-up/disclaimer/pointers: Unfortunately, as someone who can barely find the time some weeks to post at all, I simply cannot oblige all of you who comment or e-mail asking me to repost tracks I've posted in the past. If I did this, I'd spend what little blogging time I have reposting things I've already posted and never get a chance to post anything new. If there is a track or two that you feel you simply have to have and you have exhausted your options elsewhere (you know you're supposed to be spending your $$ on some of these artists, yes?), feel free to e-mail your request to me at bigfatprettyface AT yahoo DOT com and I will do my best to get it to you. Please keep in mind that I have to weed through about 500 e-mails a week or more, so there might be a delayed response. But I will do my best.

If you're curious to know whether I've posted a specific song or artist before but can't wait until I respond to your comment or e-mail to find out, the best way to check is to Google "copy right" [two words, not one, in quotations] along with whatever artist/song title you're checking on. The first results that pop up are usually my site. In theory you should be able to use Blogger's search function at the top of my page, but quite frankly, it just isn't accurate at all.

So, yeah, that's my long-winded request for now. I do appreciate all of my readers, but I'm only one person, you know? Hmmm. Maybe I'll write a post soon on some of my cover-hunting tricks and favorite sites to help those of you who just aren't getting the results you want. I'll make a mental note of that.

Aaaaaaaaaanyhow, I appreciate the attention and I'm glad you're reading. Love, Liza.

Other places.

I wish I had the time to more frequently point you all in the direction of other blogs featuring covers, but I don't. However, I will tell you that Mocking Music does have an all-cover post up today. Check it out!

You're everything that I've imagined.

There's a new tribute album out there to high school movies of the 1980s called High School Reunion, and I really wanted to like it. It's chock-full of people I like, such as Kristen Hersh, Matthew Sweet, the Dresden Dolls and John P. Strohm. And yet it's quite possibly one of the most boring albums I've ever subjected myself to. The tracks aren't different enough to excite me and I'd much rather listen to the originals. Plus, the whole "let's do songs from '80s movies" schtick has been done and done and done and done. And all of those are better and far more interesting.

[While I'm linking to CD Baby—see last "done" link above—I should probably mention that you die-hard covers fans are missing out if you're not shopping there pretty regularly. Just type the word "tribute" or "cover" into their search engine, and let the good times roll. They're having a sale on a handful of items right now and you can preview tracks before buying and it's a just plain awesome covers resource.]

Aaanyhoooo, the pointlessness of High School Reunion got me thinking about one of my favorite '80s tribute albums, Tannis Root Presents: Freedom of Choice. This was a Planned Parenthood benefit album that came out during my sophomore year of college that I wore the hell out of. I was not a big fan of the grunge movement, per se, but I appreciated the fact that most of the bands were able to take songs with which I was very familiar and make them their own without mauling them completely.

I've posted a track or two from Freedom of Choice in the past, but I couldn't narrow down which to include here. Therefore I'm doing two things I've never done: reposting tracks I'd previously posted AND posting an entire album at once. I doubt it will be here very long, so get it while you can. And, really, it wouldn't kill you to buy it somewhere either new or used. It's a great addition to any tribute collection and is also a great "blare while you're cleaning your apartment" CD.

01 Sonic Youth "Ca Plane Pour Moi" (Plastic Bertrand cover)

02 The Muffs "Rock and Roll Girl" ([Paul Collins'] Beat cover)

03 Erectus Monotone "Destination Unknown" (Missing Persons cover)

04 Redd Kross "How Much More" (Go-Go's cover)

05 Tiny Lights "5'1"" (Iggy Pop cover)

06 Mudhoney "Pump it Up" (Elvis Costello cover)

07 Das Damen "The Wait" (Pretenders cover)

08 Finger "Tainted Love" (Soft Cell cover)

09 It's OK "Wishing" (Flock of Seagulls cover)

10 Yo La Tengo "Dreaming" (Blondie cover)

11 White Flag "Wuthering Heights" (Kate Bush cover)

12 The Connells "I Got You" (Split Enz cover)

13 Big Dipper "Homosapien" (Pete Shelley cover)

14 Polvo "Mexican Radio" (Wall of Voodoo cover)

15 Hypnolovewheel "Antmusic" (Adam and the Ants cover)

16 Chia Pet "Don't You Want Me Baby" (Human League cover)

17 Permanent Green Light "Hero Worship" (B-52's cover)

18 Superchunk "Girl U Want" (Devo cover)

I never thought I'd be the one breaking down.

I was in a really bad mood last night when I got home from work, but when I got to my computer the clouds lifted. For there's no reason to be down when you have Kidz Bop 8 on your side!!! I'm a dork.

Kidz Bop Kids "Take Me Out" (Franz Ferdinand cover)

Kidz Bop Kids "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" (Green Day cover)

Kidz Bop Kids "Caught Up" (Usher cover)

And, as promised, a few more French covers from good Copy, Right? friend Emojk:

Dionysos "I Did Acid With Caroline" (Daniel Johnston cover, in French accent)
I would say that the original of this is my third favorite song with the word acid in the title. First is "The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane" by Jeffrey Lewis (who's playing at The Glass House Gallery in Brooklyn on Sunday night, if any New Yorkers are interested). (I also enjoy the follow-up "No LSD Tonight.") The second is "I Sit on Acid" by the Lords of Acid. And then this, despite its repetitive drone. Daniel was wacky, but we loved him for it. Right?

Feist "L'Amour Ne Dure Pas Toujours" (Francoise Hardy cover)
I know I'm supposed to be creaming my jeans over Feist, but I just can't. I mean, her songs are pretty and all, but I don't get the extent of the hype. I like this though. And I LOVE Francoise Hardy.

Les Georges Leningrad "Comment Te Dire Adieu" (comp. Serge Gainsbourg/Arnold Goland/Jack Gold)
Where has this band been? Not something I'd listen to every day, but if Animal Collective can be all the rage with the indie hipsters (am I one of those?), I don't see why these cats (or chats) couldn't be as well.

This is for my people. My ecstasy people.

The first three French tracks here were sent my way by reader Emojk. I've been in a foreign cover mood. Pardon the lack of proper French accent marks in the following. I'm lazy. I may post a few more from the Frenchies later this week.

Etienne de Crecy "Sexy Boy" (Air cover, which doesn't really have enough lyrics to bother translating into French)
Edit: Just learned this is a remix, not a cover. I guess I'll keep it up for a bit in case anyone's interested.

-M- "Close to Me" (Cure cover, in French)
Not to be confused with the M that gave us "Pop Muzik" nor with the slew of other artists who appear to use M as a name, the -M- here is Mathieu Chedid, son of singer-songwriter Louis Chedid. This starts off sounding a bit more like George Michael's "Faith," but we know which came first.

Quincannon "Send Me the Pillow that You Dream On" (Hank Locklin cover, with thick French accent)
I've heard lots of country greats cover this: The Louvin Brothers, Loretta, Dolly, etc. This is not like any of them, but I kinda love it.

Dear Popchor Berlin: I am in love with you. If I ever become a filmmaker, my soundtracks will be rife with your dreary, eerie brilliance. Highly recommended to those who enjoyed TV on the Radio's cover of the Pixies' "Mr. Grieves."

Popchor Berlin "4 My People" (Missy Elliott cover)

Popchor Berlin "How Soon is Now" (Smiths cover)

Popchor Berlin "Grinding Halt" (Cure cover)

You can do what you want to; there's no one to stop you.

Richard Anthony "Toi L'Ami (All my Loving)" (French Beatles cover)
Monday is always a good day for Beatles chanson-style.

Warmen "Somebody's Watching Me" (Rockwell cover)
Some of the guys from Children of Bodom who sound like a heavy metal Weird Al.

The Thermals "Ballad of Big Nothing"(Elliott Smith cover)
Nearly anytime in the past few weeks I've listened to WOXY, they've played this. Granted, I like it and a few of the other tracks on the latest Smith tribute album (To Elliott from Portland) more than I usually like Smith covers*, but WOXY really needs to shake up its playlists.

*Because the majority are so much like the originals I'm not sure why they bother.

Kelley Deal "Fucking Hostile" (Pantera cover)
My favorite track on the Free the West Memphis 3 disc, which is chock-full of covers of metal classics.

Juliana Hatfield "Tomorrow Never Comes" (Dot Allison cover)
Pretty.

Second Run feat. Ramone "Seasons in the Sun" (Terry Jacks [comp. Jacques Brel] cover)
As a child, the original intrigued me because it was so poppy for a song about death. I wouldn't say I liked it though. Since the early 1990s, whenever I hear any version of it, it reminds me of an experimental film an acquaintance of mine named Dara made ages ago that starred my friend Bart, who aired it on his show, Rox. [See the episode here.] This version is insane and pointless, as most trance covers are.

Wolfcry "Enola Gay" (Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark [OMD] cover)
I'm always interested when heavy metal acts cover '80s synth classics I first heard in gay bars. For a minute or two anyhow.

Diamanda Galas "My World is Empty Without You" (Supremes cover)
Not for everyone's taste, but if you like, say, Antony and the Johnsons, you might want to check out someone who paved his way.

Turn our golden faces into the sun.

It looks as if 2006 may well be the year of the random, quick, no-time-for-banter, "look what hit my shuffle play" post. Every time I think I'm going to get on track and create a life schedule that includes a decent chunk of blog time a few times a week, work or TV or *gasp* social engagements keep me from it. But I'm going to try to try. It's the least I can do.

Axel Rudi Pell "Forever Young" (Alphaville cover)
German heavy metal guitar virtuoso attacks nostalgic ballad while apparently taking a painful dump. What is it with guitar virtuosos and their gravelly, constipated-sounding voices?

The White Stripes "Walking with a Ghost" (Tegan and Sara cover)
I saw Tegan and Sara open for Rufus Wainwright eons ago and I hated them. HATED. Of course, that was before they shed their tired lesbian folk schtick and turned into the spritely lesbian pop goddesses of So Jealous. Now I think they totally rule, as does this cover.

The Lucksmiths "There is a Light that Never Goes Out" (Smiths cover)
To quote Elle magazine's Nina Garcia on Project Runway: "Sometimes pretty can be boring."

Rockell and Collage "Can't We Try" (Dan Hill feat. Vonda Shepard cover)
I tell ya, if you're a freshman in high school in the process of breaking up with the first of many boyfriends who'll eventually come out of the closet, hearing the original on the radio really will tear you up inside. But if you're a 33-year-old fag hag spinster in the year 2006, this version will make you spit out your Diet A&W in laughter. And then you'll dance, dance, dance!

Hell is for Heroes "Boy's Don't Cry" (The Cure cover)
I'm always slightly annoyed by punk covers of anything, let alone my beloved Cure, but I must admit there are a few interesting choices in this.

The Bravery "It's All I Can Do" (The Cars cover)
I haven't embraced the Bravery as I have many of the other nu new-wave acts, but this is a serviceable cover, I suppose. If you can get over this guy's overly Morrisseyian whiny drawl.

I go through all this before you wake up.

Here's a very quick pre-lunchtime update. I've been on a live cover kick lately and these are all live covers that have intrigued (aka hit my shuffle play) me of late.

The Dresden Dolls "No One Knows" (Queens of the Stone Age cover)
A few sour notes here and there, but I love the Dolls so much it doesn't matter. Now they just need to come to Chicago on a night I don't already have plans. I swear, I have the worst timing when they come around.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs "Hyperballad" (Bjork cover)

The Jesus and Mary Chain "My Girl" (Temptations cover)

Also, as evidenced in my last post, interesting things can be found over at Google Video. Sure, searching the word "cover" brings up a lot of kids lip-synching to the Backstreet Boys and whatnot, but every so often you'll stumble on something interesting and/or worthwhile. Such as:

Final Fantasy covering Bloc Party's "This Modern Love"

VIDEO: Jenny Wilson and Robyn cover Saul Williams's "List of Demands [Reparations]"

Don't tell me what it's all about.

Sorry, kids, I've been busy and grumpy for the past few weeks. Really grumpy. So I did my best to steer clear of the Internets. But now I'm back and so is my shuffle play, so here's today's random smattering of covery goodness.

Anthrax "The Bends" (Radiohead cover)
Two great tastes that taste great together. Or something like that.

Belaire "Through the Wire" (Kanye West cover)
I say yes.

English Beat "Tears of a Clown" (Smokey Robinson and the Miracles cover)
I'm going a bit old school here, and I approve. I always loved this.

Sarah Brightman "Who Wants to Live Forever?" (Queen cover)
Though not particularly my cup of tea, this is pretty. I tell ya, if you ever want to make your parents freak out with excitement, give 'em tickets to see Sarah Brightman. I got a couple of free tickets once from a label rep and passed them along to my mom and for at least a week I was definitely the Best Daughter in the World TM.

Scooter "Eyes Without a Face" (Billy Idol cover)
I wish I were joking, but it was this song that made me want to learn French. Little did I know then that I'd study it for more than a decade and then do absolutely nothing with it.

Splitsville "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" (comp. Burt Bacharach and Hal David)
Down with love! Too many germs! I love this song and I like this version.

Xentrix "Ghostbusters" (Ray Parker Jr. cover)
I just saw the video for the original the other day and I'd forgotten that all the big stars of the day had cameos in it. Teri Garr, I miss you!

Xiu Xiu "Fast Car" (Tracy Chapman cover)
My longtime best friend Julie had a precocious little brother named Brad who once, during the heyday of "Fast Car," crafted his own version of this song with the following lyrics:

"We had a fast car /
But Liza drove it into a brick wall/
We had to make a decision /
Should we take her to the hospital?"

Awesome.

I keep my distance, but you still catch my eye.

O. M. G.

 

You people are total freaks! For every person that mocked the bulk of the "Last Christmas" covers I put up the other day, there were 10 others clamoring for more. I kept getting "do you have the such-and-such version???" e-mails. Well, here's another Whamful installment. Again, there are still more in my collection, but I really doubt I'll be hunting them out between now and the holiday, so get these while the getting's good. Let's all cross our fingers that my bandwidth holds up.

The Revolvers' track is my favorite here, despite the fact that I usually hate "punk" covers.

Wham's "Last Christmas" as covered by:

Airpanel feat. Karyn White Techno/Trance

Alexia "Oi Kambanes Htypoun (Greek)" Pop

Beatmas/Rubber Band Beatles

Busted Whiny Pop-Punk

Collage Freestyle

DJ Glowy and Snoopie Breakbeat

Fonda Indie Dream Pop

Julsanger Techno/Trance/Hi-NRG

KE4 "Last Christmas I Gave You Acid" Chilled-Out Electronic Mash-Up

Keisha Chante Urban R&B

Yuji Oda feat. Butch Walker J-Pop/Rock

Pas/Cal Indie Chamber Pop

Rap All-Stars Rap

Revolvers Powerpop-punk

Sarge Indie

Soulwax Alternative?

Yoko Watanabe J- Pop (from an opera singer, I believe)

Zecchino D'Oro "Questo Natale (Italian)" Kidz Bop d'Italia

But it's not like Christmas at all.

Aaahhhhh, freestyle*. How innocuous and fun you could be. Sometimes.

Brenda K Starr "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" (Darlene Love/Phil Spector cover)

Sammy C "Little Drummer Boy" (comp. Katherine Davis/Henry Onorati/Harry Simeone)

Denine "Jingle Bell Rock" (comp. Joe Beal/Jim Boothe)

Miguel Reyes "Silent Night"

*NOT RAP!

Come and behold.

Halfby "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"

Tatsuki Hashimoto "Jingle Bells"

Toshi Akigoto "The Christmas Song"
These three tracks are from a 2003 Japanese bossanova album called Christmas Wonderland, which I surprisingly really like.

Hybrid Kids (Morgan Fisher) "O, Come All Ye Faithful"
I know I just posted a Hybrid Kids track a few entries back, but I find myself trapped like a deer in headlights when I hear Morgan Fisher's covers. This one sounds like the soundtrack to a nightmare in which I'm trapped in a mechanical Christmas funhouse running away from an army of demonic robotic elves. Demonic robotic elves singing about adoring the Christ child, that is, which is even more frightening.

The SmashUp "Coventry Carol"
This just plain cracks me up, and the sad thing is that I can't tell whether my joy is ironic or not.

"Dude, are you being sarcastic?"
"I don't even know anymore."

Banaroo "Bling Bling Here, Bling Bling There (Jingle Bells)"
Oh my. Um. Yeah. Let's make a New Year's Resolution today: No more Aquaesque/Vengaboysian German teen pop acts. "Bling bling in the air," indeed.

Careful what you wish for!

So, a few people have e-mailed or commented that they want Christmas covers. Admittedly, I was quite gung-ho about Christmas covers last December. This year, I just haven't been feeling the same holiday energy. (Seasonal Affective Disorder, anyone?) But far be it for me to deny the masses what they crave. Of course, asking me for ANY covers will run you the risk that I you will hate most of what I post, but you knew that already, I hope.



Wham's "Last Christmas" as covered by:

Asmodi Bizarr

Atomic Kitten

Crazy Frog
There are things even I can't believe have gained popularity anywhere ever, and Crazy Frog is certainly one of them.

Dexter Freebish

Erlend Oye
The best of the lot, by far.

Hawk Nelson

Hilary Duff

Human Nature

Jamelia

Noorkuu

Physical Motion

Raphael "La Ultima Navidad" (That means it's in Spanish!)

Rod Dodd and V/Vm

Roses are Red

Vasco and Millboy feat. Thomas B.

Note: This is representative of only about a quarter of the "Last Christmas" covers I have.

Secret, secret, I've got a secret.

Hey, kids. Just a heads-up that The Monolators have a cover of Eartha Kitt's "Cha Cha Heels" on their main page and a slew of other bizarre covers on their Audio page. Check it out, yo.

Unlike the others, I'll do anything. I'm not afraid. I have no shame.

Themes are cool and all, but I must admit today's selection brought to you by my shuffle play.

Wisecracker "When the Rain Begins to Fall" (Jermaine Jackson & Pia Zadora cover)
There are some covers that don't even have to come close to being good for me to love them. Usually these are covers of songs that are my longtime guiltiest pleasures and I get so excited that ANYONE has covered them that I blind myself into actually loving the cover versions. And, with that said, please allow me to introduce you to this completely awesome German ska cover of this, um, classic by a band who describes their sound as "Madness meets Iron Maiden." Uh, yeah.

The Meat Purveyors "The Madonna Trilogy (Like a Virgin/Lucky Star/Burning Up)" (Madonna covers)
Nothing wrong with a little toe-tapping alt.country Madge style, says I.

Halifax "Straight Up" (Paula Abdul cover)
There's no good defense for someone my age actually watching the horror that was The Real World: Austin, but I did. Ugh. Worst season ever. But it did warm my heart to see holier-than-thou Lacey badmouth Halifax only to wind up wearing a Halifax hoodie a few episodes later. Nothing quite like an indie elitist coming to terms with the fact that it's easier to accept emo punk than fight it. 'Cause nothing's sadder than wasting your time beleaguering the necessity for emo punk when you could be badmouthing your drunken whore roommates.

If you like this track, there's a surprisingly Hot Topic-esque shirt over at Threadless this week you should get to warn everyone how angry-yet-sensitive you are. Click pic below to check it out:



Blah, blah, blah, I think teenagers who think they're "punk" are lame. Blah, blah, blah, emo sucks. Blah, blah, blah, I'm going to go buy a Gang of Four record and prove how cool I am. Whatever. Boys wearing eyeliner are sexy and this song holds a special place in my heart because the first time I ever got totally plastered, this song was popular and my best friend Julie tried to make me sing it the entire ride home in the hopes that it would make me sober up. It was an admirable goal, really, but one that failed miserably.

Dick Rivers "Ces Mots Qu'On Oublie Un Jour (The Things We Said Today)" (Beatles cover in French)
Kind of sounds like a French Elvis album playing at the wrong speed. Also reminds me of Edwyn Collins "A Girl Like You," again at the wrong speed.

Grope "Army of Me" (Bjork cover)
something tells me that this is less a cover of Bjork and more a cover of Helmet covering Bjork, which is one of my least favorite types of covers ever.

Put him in the scuppers with a hosepipe on him.

I started commenting on these tracks last night and thought I might get a chance to finish today, but it's been so long since I posted that I thought I should just go ahead and leave some with paltry information and insights. Basically, these are a handful of experimental/electronic tracks—some more avant-garde than others, some simply electroclash, some just using one or two effects here and there. All potentially insane.

[The Threadless sale ends Thursday, just so you know. They just printed a few new shirts in addition to reprinting a few, one of which I'd peen pining for for ages! Yay!]

Fifty Foot Hose "God Bless the Child" (Billie Holiday cover)
This band from the psych era would actually pretty mainstream and jazz-folky if it weren't for the bizarre electronic noises they chose to throw in over the vocals. Ah, the experimentation of the '60s!

Claude Denjean & the Moog Synthesizer "Big Yellow Taxi" (Joni Mitchell cover)
Wow. It was definitely difficult to narrow it down to one track by this Moog pioneer, but this track definitely makes me the happiest. In fact, I played this for my friends Ray and Eric a week or so ago and we giggled throughout the whole thing. Reminds me of a Casio demo track. Or the soundtrack to my nightmares involving clowns. "Oooooh ... chop, chop, chop!"

Elektric Music "Baby Come Back" (The Equals cover)
Hmm. So this guy once played with Kraftwerk and Electronic, huh? I'd expect this to be far more palatable than it is. Still, it's nice to be reminded of pre-"Electric Avenue" Eddy Grant.

Cylob "Drunken Sailor" (Traditional)
Um. Okay.

Fragments "Nutbush City Limits" (Ike & Tina Turner cover)
I can't find out anything about Fragments except they had a few 7-inches in 1980. Anyone know anything else?

The Droyds "Take Me I'm Yours" (Squeeze cover)

The Droyds "Take Me I'm Yours (Simian Mobile Disco Remix)" (Squeeze cover)
I think I like the remix better, if for no other reason than the "I come across my camel" line makes me giggle.

Hybrid Kids (Morgan Fisher) "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" (Righteous Brothers cover)
If I saw this at an open-mic poetry night, I'd be intrigued. For a minute. Then annoyed. Not unlike Blixa Bargeld reading hardware catalogs.

Brad Walsh feat. Kathy C. "100 Percent Pure Love" (Crystal Waters cover)
I heart Brad Walsh. Visit his music page for some remixes as well as his cover of Stacey Q's "Two of Hearts," which I'm certain I posted or linked to a while back.

Ladytron "Oops, Oh My" (Tweet cover)
I love masturbation jams, so I'm all about this.

Attic Plant "Sexx Laws" (Beck cover)
Again, I don't know anything about Attic Plant, nor can I find any proof that they exist except for the fact that this track somehow wound up in my shuffle play.

Happy December.

I've been sick, hence the lack of posts. Perhaps I'll find the energy tonight.

Until then, David F has a handful of Seu Jorge Bowie covers up.