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.