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.)