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.

Can you tell I'm slightly addicted?

Threadless has reprinted/added a handful of shirts and the sale's still going on, so...

Thank you for the music.

I meant to post this entry on Thanksgiving, but I'm not surprised I'm two days behind. Simply put, much like Depeche Mode or Black Sabbath or David Bowie and the like, Abba simply has a million tribute albums dedicated to them and have influenced artists of nearly every genre. As I've stated before here and here, this could become an all-Abba cover blog and I could post multiple tracks a day for decades and still not repeat any tracks. Therefore, assembling the following list involved heading deep into my discs and giving up when I couldn't find what I wanted and trying to find them *cough* elsewhere. I've had Abba on the brain since catching their 30th anniversary documentary on Ovation the other day and realizing how fantastically talented they were, which, really, I knew long ago. And because I've been listing to Madonna's "Hung Up" on a loop for weeks, which I'm pretty sure now is more for the "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" sample than anything else.

Anyhow, I've finally managed to escape from days of foraging for Abba covers (falling into the A-Hole?) and I bring the following nuts and berries your way. Thanks to Abba for a cornucopia of hits and thanks to all of you for paying attention to my obsessions. I really appreciate the fact that I have an audience at all, let alone such a friendly, knowledgeable and supportive one. You guys rule.

Any Trouble "The Name of the Game" (Abba cover)
RIYL: Live old-school Elvis Costello

Five Iron Frenzy "Mamma Mia" (Abba cover)
RIYL: Reel Big Fish, Hot Topic, "Stacy's Mom"

The Nils Landgren Funk Unit "Voulez-Vous" (Abba cover)
RIYL: Rufus, Swedish trombonists (Landgren performed on many of Abba's originals, "Voulez-Vous" included.)

Arno "Knowing Me, Knowing You" (Abba cover)
RIYL: Paolo Conte, Tom Waits

Steven Wilson "The Day Before You Came" (Abba cover)
RIYL: Porcupine Tree, Hermann Dune, the Travis version of "...Baby, One More Time"

Erasure "Take a Chance (On Me)" (Abba cover)
RIYL: Um, Erasure and really lame, out of place "reggae" bridges

Eldissa "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" (Abba cover)
RIYL: the Eldissa track I posted in the last entry

Redd Kross "Dancing Queen" (Abba cover)
RIYL: The Runaways, '70s glam rock

Gabba "S.O.S." (Abba cover)
RIYL: Beatallica-style hybrids, Ramones, .5.6.7.8's

Bananarama "Waterloo" (Abba cover)
RIYL: Over-produced pap

Wing "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" (Abba cover)
RIYL: Miss Piggy, B.J. Snowden, seizures

Information Society "Lay All Your Love on Me" (Abba cover)
RIYL: Living in a Box, Sa-Fire

Queen of Japan "The Winner Takes it All" (Abba cover)
RIYL: Stereo Total, Ladytron

Gore Gore Gays "Tal y Como Es (Does Your Mother Know?)" (Spanish Abba cover)
RIYL: Billy Idol, Pansy Division, Doo-Wop (I'd be interested to find out from Spanish speakers if the Spanish lyrics even come close to the meaning of the original.)

Metalium "Thank you for the Music" (Abba cover)
RIYL: Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stryper

This is what we'll do.

Eldissa "Go West" (Village People cover)
Um. I'm not big on lounge-y Caribbean-sounding bossa-nova, really, but I am in-fucking-love with Eldissa's What a Difference, which is billed as "classic music from the disco era reworked as bossa nova and acoustic lounge." This one is the most insanely delectable to me. I'll include another in the Thanksgiving post I'm working on for tomorrow.

Oh, no. Not me. I never lost control.

CJ Sleez "Cool Rider" (from Grease 2)
This is sort of how I always imagined this song should sound. I totally believe that Canadian hard-rocker CJ Sleez really wants a cool rider. Michelle Pfeiffer? Not so much.

Des de Moor and Russell Churney "The Man Who Sold the World" (David Bowie cover)
Thanks to one of my favorite SoulSeekers who recommended the Darkness and Disgrace album of Bowie covers to me. I'm a fan of acts that convincingly pull off cabaret covers without making them overwrought.

Suicide "96 Tears" (? and the Mysterians cover)
The most recent (here in the States anyhow) issue of Wire magazine features a cover story on covers focusing on those that were somehow made greater or changed significantly by those doing the covering. Frankly, a lot of stuff mentioned seemed to be esoteric for esotericism's sake, but what can you expect from UK music critics? They know a lot of stuff and why not prove it from time to time. Anyhow, reading the article did serve to remind me of a few things I've been meaning to post (such as this track) and introduced me to a few things I'd not heard previously, so check it out if you can.

Unrelated: The Threadless $10 Holiday Sale is still going on. They're out of a lot of shirts, but a few new shirts were printed this week.

If we could start anew, I wouldn't hesitate.

I've been really disappointed lately with many of the hyped tribute/cover albums geared specifically toward the indie crowd. The soundtrack to the video game Stubbs the Zombie is no exception. Death Cab For Cutie's "Earth Angel" is like nails on a chalkboard to me, although I don't particularly have anything against DCFC most days. Ben Kweller's cutesy "Lollipop" makes me want to punch him. I'm not sure why. And don't get me started on the Dandy Warhols' godawful "All I Have to Do is Dream." Owning lots of guitar pedals is not reason enough to use them. Die, all of you! Heh. These violent reactions may be a result of the requisite emo/indie backlash we all get once in a while, or it may be that the songs actually suck. It's so hard for me to tell in these heady days of irony. Anyhow, here are a few that don't necessarily make me want to shove pencils in my ears. I guess.

Rogue Wave "Everyday" (Buddy Holly cover)
Here's yet another song that uses the adjective everyday when it really needs to use adjective/noun combo every day. I know it's rock, people, but come on! The intro to this reminds me of "Welcome to the Cheap Seats" by the Wonderstuff. And Pat Spurgeon is a a great drummer (though I'm not sure this track is the best example of it since it's so subdued) and is a really nice guy. Here's a dark, blurry picture I took of him last weekend playing with Antenna:

Oranger "Mr. Sandman" (comp. Pat Ballard)
Though my predilection toward acts heavily influenced by the Beach Boys has dwindled since the mid-'90s, I do tend to enjoy it when an Oranger track hits my iPod's shuffle once in a while.

Clem Snide "Tears on my Pillow" (Little Anthony & the Imperials cover)
Hmm. Clem Snide has taken a step away from alt.country and immersed themselves in indie pop, eh? Good for them. I believe I once read a review in which the singer's voice was described as "Muppety." I like Muppets.

It's that time again.

Not music related except that all the cool kids at concerts wear 'em: The Threadless $10 Holiday Sale is upon us. I love dressing my friends in Threadless tees, so I just thought I'd mention it. I'll post actual songs later today.

I know what you think and what's in your mind.

I meant to post these before I left for the Musical Family Tree Fest last week—which was awesome and nostalgia-riffic, by the way—but I couldn't remember which server they were on and I had mistyped the track names and whatnot. Heh. I suck. Anyhow, the following tracks are actually submissions sent to me via readers of the site who have their own bands/projects. This happens quite frequently, but I'm usually quite afraid of the results. Not so in this case.

Luxxury "I Know There's Something Going On" (Frida cover)
This is my new favorite new-wavey cover, sent by Baron Von Luxxury. I sang this song at a karaoke bar a few months ago, and no one in the audience who wasn't part of my group seemed to have any idea what it was. But I'm a long-time Abba fan (Super Trouper was one of the first non-kiddie LPs I bought for myself as a child), and Frida rocks my world. And this version is the fucking jam. Seriously.

Mr. Hopkinson's Computer Sings "Where is My Mind" (Pixies cover)
Mr. Hopkinson, how I love you. You always comment and teach me about new things. And now that I know that in performances "you" are just a TV on a stick, I'm even more happy to have you around.