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

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

We're all in the mood for a melody.

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

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

I like kites!

If you were curious about the Yo Gabba Gabba clip of the Parallelograms covering Free Design's "Kites Are Fun" I mentioned an entry or two ago, you can now see it here.

In other news, yes, I will post a new entry or two soon. I've been busy with job interviews and weather-shift-related colds and whatnot.

They could knock me off my feet until I'm flat on the floor.

A little over a year ago I posted a great country cover of Mariah Carey's "My All" by Chicago band Devin & The Straights and said that I couldn't wait to see them live. Well, I did wait quite a long time. I had just missed their set the night I saw Textbook Committee and Farewell Captain at the Beat Kitchen, so my next option was to head to Chicago's big gay street festival, Northalsted Market Days, in August to see them. Besides, their adorable former band member and longtime Copy, Right? reader and subsequent Internet friend Landon joined them on vocals and harmonica, so I felt particularly driven toward my goal. They did not disappoint. Charming, funny, gay, straight, talented and prone to performing covers? If that's not up my alley, I'm not sure what is. Luckily, I got some video. Hooray for modern technology and digital cameras with halfway decent video recording capabilities!

D&TS covering "Jackson" (comp. Lieber/Wheeler):



D&TS covering Cher's "Just Like Jesse James":

What up, Brobee?

You know how I said a couple of posts back that I didn't know much about the Aquabats aside from their wackiness? Well, since then, I've become mildly obsessed with Nick Jr.'s new kids show Yo Gabba Gabba, which was created by one of the Aquabats. Weird how that sort of information serendipity happens, innit? Those of you unfamiliar with Yo Gabba Gabba, it's basically a show for preschoolers that features some pretty inventive characters and cool, often deliciously retro animation and awesome indie pop. (Here's an article about it.) Today's episode, for instance, included a performance by the adorable Salteens (who've been featured here in the past) and a freaking brilliant animated piece by Nick Cross set to a dreamy cover of Free Design's "Kites Are Fun" by the Parallelograms. And Mark Mothersbaugh often shows up to draw things like potato bugs on skateboards.

Sadly, I currently have no cover-related Yo Gabba Gabba music or video to offer you— though there is a slew of non-cover YGG stuff to be found on YouTube, including the Aggrolites singing about bananas and Elijah Wood doing the slightly creepy "Puppetmaster" dancey dance—but I felt like confessing that I record YGG every day now to watch with my imaginary hipster toddler.

I could go on forever, but I won't.

The Silverfish covers Jellyfish's "Bedspring Kiss":


McFly, aka whiny emo power-pop boy band band with annoying name, covers Jellyfish's "Baby's Coming Back":



JTG Implosion awesomely covers ELO's "Turn To Stone" at International Pop Overthrow Atlanta 2007


The Smokin' Baloneys (?) cover "Starry Eyes" by The Records—a great, energetic live cover with poor video/sound quality.



Debbie looking hotter than ever in the video for the song most people don't realize is a cover (see previous entry):

Your voice across the line gives me a strange sensation.

I had a dream last night that if I went record shopping today I'd find something by old-school Bloomington arty popsters Arson Garden on vinyl. My dreams never come true. That's okay, though, because they've covered a power pop classic and that suits my mood. (Thanks, as always, to Musical Family Tree for their extensive collection of Indiana-related bands old and new.)

Arson Garden "Hanging on the Telephone" (Nerves cover)
This is from a show they performed at Jake's in 1991. I wasn't there because I wasn't quite old enough to go to Jake's in 1991. I used to be young!
 

Labour of lust.

What a post delay, huh? I'm very much the type of person whose interests come in waves and the blog wave just didn't hit me for a while there. Longtime readers are accustomed to this pattern, so I won't necessarily apologize, but I felt a warning was necessary for newer readers. Blah, blah, blah, but now the weather smacks of fall (and fall's my favorite) and the wave crashed into me today and here I am.

Another wave that's pummeled me (aside from a momentary desire to use annoying Internet abbreviations) the past week is the delightfully crushing force of power pop both old and new—hence the theme of today's post and, quite possibly, the next few posts to come. Let's all live in fear (and glee!) of a probable future of an all-"Without You" post, shall we? And an onslaught of YouTube-found videos of varying quality. (See below.)

The covers you'll find will either be A) power pop acts covering non-powerpoppers B) non-powerpoppers covering power pop acts or, in many cases, C) power pop acts covering other power pop acts. You know how I roll.

The Diodes "Red Rubber Ball" (Cyrkle cover, comp. Paul Simon)
"Red Rubber Ball" is near the top of my very long list of favorite songs of all time. You never suspected I was an optimist, did you?

Candy "She Loves You" (Beatles cover)
Ah. LA. Power pop and big glam-rock hair. It sometimes makes me wish I was born on the West Coast.

The Lambrettas "Somebody to Love" (Jefferson Airplane cover)
Leaning a bit more into new wave than power pop, IMHO, but they have their moments.

The Cokes "Cheri" (20/20 cover, comp. Paul Collins)
Dear Japanese power pop act: Please be the band in my dream prom that enters through the fog on a team of black unicorns with silver reins and glittery rainbow-striped horns. KTHNXBYE!

Velvet Crush "Remember the Lightning" (20/20 cover)
I'm getting tired of writing and can't think of anything to say about Velvet Crush or 20/20 except that I like the former and I love the latter. But the cover art for VC's Teenage Symphonies to God is on a list of my favorites. I want to date that cartoon boy. If he's straight.

The Rubinoos "Little Willy" (Sweet cover)
I never write these silly snippets in the order the tracks are listed and it's almost 5 a.m. and I can't sleep so I've nothing to say here except that it's a good thing I'm not wealthy because, if I were, my house would be full of insane "I can't believe this exists" crap like this. As my current financial situation stands, it's not in the cards for me. But, hey, there are still about 102 shopping days until Christmas, you know...

Lush "I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend" (Rubinoos cover)
I would let the Lush gals be my girlfriends. I miss them.

Note to Avril Lavigne: Hey! (Hey!) You! (You!) This sounds exactly like that song you and your co-songsmith "wrote"! Oh, that trend-setting Kelly Osbourne/Linda Perry collabo!

Dar Williams "All Men are Liars" (Nick Lowe cover)
Nick Lowe's acerbic lyrics? Check. Dar Williams's similarly sardonic glint and irresistible charm? Check. Rick Astley getting pwned? Check. What more could you need? Srsly.

The 27 Various "Great Big World" (Plimsouls cover)
Kicking off this creamy Plimsouls-related center is a track I only remembered existed after I started thinking about The 27 Various for another reason. Earlier today I went to the local used record shop and spotted their album Approximately for $4.99 and I didn't buy it because I thought I already had it on vinyl. On the walk home I thought to myself, "Wait... I have that one, right?" When I returned, I checked my records and, duh, it's the only vinyl LP of theirs I don't have (not to mention one I realize I didn't even think was on vinyl at all)! Well, I know where I'm headed tomorrow afternoon.

Anyhow, I've mentioned before that I love The 27 Various, a band most people have never heard of, and this cover is simple but pleases me immensely. It seems to come from a radio show performance replete with witty pre-song banter, which makes the early 90s fangirl in me even more giddy about its existence.

The Aquabats "Zero Hour" (Plimsouls cover)
I don't know much about the Aquabats except they're a ska band in the jam-packed "my, aren't we wacky?!?" subset of the genre. Therefore I will share a conversation with myself that took place in my head earlier.

Liza: I wonder where this resurgence in my love for power pop began.
Liza: It was probably Labor Day weekend when Encore was showing all of those crappy-but-awesome '80s movies.
Liza: Yeah, I think the soundtrack music seeped into my head and made me long to be a Los Angelean teen trying desperately to party and get laid.
Liza: Ah, to be in a scene with Eric Stoltz or Andrew McCarthy with the Plimsouls or the Nerves playing in the background!
Liza: Right? That would rule, but you know what?
Liza: What?
Liza: You're too old for that now. I mean, you're about the same age now as the Jacqueline Bisset character is supposed to be in Class.
Liza: Holy crap!
Liza: Not exactly related, but isn't it weird that REM had a song on the Bachelor Party soundtrack?
Liza: Yeah, that is weird. But that REM song doesn't even really sound like REM in retrospect. It's actually perfect for the Bachelor Party soundtrack.
Liza: Hmm. I just thought of something: Maybe the obsession with power pop happened because it seems as if Peter Case is suddenly everywhere in magazines.
Liza: Yeah, isn't he though?
Liza: Well, maybe not everywhere. Maybe only in the past few issues Paste.
Liza: Heh. Yeah. That doesn't exactly constitute everywhere, but Paste certainly had a hand in it.
Liza: Word.

Scene.

Ingram Hill "A Million Miles Away" (Plimsouls cover)
Ingram Hill sounds like the name of the name of the fictional publishing company where the chubby, sassy heroine of the chick lit book I'll never write works. The band Ingram Hill sounds like a roots rock/country/adult contemporary blend with just a slight aftertaste of emo. (Speaking of blends and aftertastes, I could totally imagine them as one of many Starbucks featured performers.) I'm afraid Ingram Hill—which is the name of the band, not the name of a person in the band—might not be enough of either to fit in anywhere. But good luck to them in their market (which is unsurprisingly admittedly not my thing) as I was very surprised to enjoy this cover far more than I thought I would.

The Plimsouls "Time Won't Let Me" (Outsiders cover)
Oh, wait. This is the last snippet I have to write. Damn, just when I was about to finally go to sleep. Like many gals and guys of my generation, I was introduced to the music of the Plimsouls through the new wave/power poptacular movie, "Valley Girl. Hooray for that.

Unrelated to music but related to my long-running obsession with Valley Girl, last month I could have seen this remake of "Valley Girl," at the Chicago Underground Flim Festival but I didn't because I just learned today that it existed. I'm so fired. Those interested can see the a snippet of it around the 23-minute mark here. If you have an hour to kill, you can also view snippets of the artist's Velvet Underground and Runaways mini, um, biopics and hear her talk about her process and other stuff interesting to art students. She's doing the kind of stuff I always talk about doing but never do because I thought no one but my friends and I would find it worthwhile or amusing. Apparently I overestimated the taste of the powers that be in the art world. So, yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. You'll either find the videos annoying or hilarious or both. You've been warned. (Note to self and anyone willing to take on the endeavor: 1. Try to find out the bands covering the soundtrack songs and acquire them somehow AND 2. Get to work on that all-sock-puppet version of Solarbabies.)

The Records "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?" (Rolling Stones cover)
The British Big Star. (I'm not coining that, FYI. It's how people have described them and my use does not imply my endorsement as such.)

Material Issue "I'd Wait a Million Years" (Grass Roots cover)
It kills me that I somehow never managed to see Material Issue live. Hopefully Jim will serenade me when I get to Blogger heaven.

She Blonde Swede "Crazy" (Material Issue cover)
I know nothing about She Blonde Swede except you can download a slew of live covers they've done at various gigs over at the Internet Archive and that they seem to have good taste. Have I mentioned lately how much the Internet rulz?

Bowling for Soup "Sick of Myself" (Matthew Sweet cover)
I have to admit the few anachronisms in the song and video for their cheesy hit "1985" still annoy me because I'm a geek, but it was a pleasant surprise to find they're MS fans.


It's kind to be cruel*, so I now subject you to this:




*Preemptive strikes: 1. Please no e-mails correcting this wording. I did it on purpose. 2. I know this is not a list of every cover ever of or by every power pop band in history. I can only do so much at a time.
 

Music in a musical? How can they go wrong?

There's a hiccup in my web hosting right now that should be fixed shortly and will result in a real post soon. Really.

Until then, allow me to bring out my inner musical theatre dork. (You know I'm a dork, because I spell it with an "r-e" and not an "e-r.") Now, with the exception of my role as Mother Jaguar teaching her son how to hunt tortoises and hedgehogs in a Kipling-based Bloomington, IN, community theatre children's musical, I don't have any experience in the genre. Although that's probably more than a lot of people have, I suppose, but I digress.

That said, nearly all the women I know who are my age went through a phase in which they wished they were in Grease or Annie or whatever regardless of their level of talent. It's right up there with the "princess wedding" dream we're fed, although much cooler, IMO. This applies for most of the men into musical theatre too, I think. (Note: It's only "cooler" to those who didn't actually want the "princess" wedding" once they were grown up, of course.) It is also my theory that many of the best of those women secretly wished they were gay men. Or maybe that was just me, but enough of my geeky and sordid psychological issues.

Aaaaaanyhow, that long overly self-conscious introduction background paragraph exists so I can display the following video of Baldwin-Wallace musical theatre grads rehearsing their version of the opening song from the overly self-conscious (but in a good way) off-Broadway musical [title of show]. My Internet friend Duncan from New York (who's sung lots of covers at the Ukulele Cabaret over the years) turned me on to [tos], a funny musical about writing a funny musical, and my inner musical theatre dork is hooked. I'm reading their blog, watching informational snippets, and loving the "toscast" path-to-Broadway videos: 1, 2, 3. If it sounds like your type of inner musical dork kind of thing, then click all these links, baby. If not, keep your snarky comments to yourself!

It's a good time for Superman to lift the sun into the sky.

First: Threadless is having its $10 Back to School Sale, which ends Sept. 3.


Second, from my best pal Ryan:

I picked up Jim Derogatis' Flaming Lips bio at the bookstore on a whim yesterday. Reading it has prompted me to look for old Lips footage on you tube. Before I made any progress with that I ran across this nice video of a girl playing "Waiting for a Superman". I really like it.

Dear boy, I'm gonna make you a man.

In celebration of the fact that the storm-related blockwide (or more) brownout affecting my neighborhood for the past 24 hours hasn't affected my Internet access, here is a post! I figure posting for the first time in weeks is a good way to pass the time while I wait for everything in my refrigerator to melt and spoil.

The Raincoats "Lola" (Kinks cover)
For a while there, everyone seemed to want to know my opinion of the NY Post's "Best 100 Cover Songs of All Time" thing. Um, yeah. Let's just say that I scan all "Best Cover" lists for the Raincoats' version of "Lola." If I'm unable to locate it, I don't really pay much attention to the rest of what's there. I mean, Orgy's version of "Blue Monday" made the list? Are you kidding me?

Shampoo "House of Love" (East 17 cover)
Hell, even this is better than most of the covers on that list!

The Belles "Melvin (Gloria)" (Them cover)

Nico "The End" (Doors cover)

Luminous Orange "Sunday Morning" (Velvet Undeground cover)

Rachel Z "Tonight, Tonight" (Smashing Pumpkins cover)

Jason Falkner "This Will Be Our Year" (Zombies cover)

Angels Of Epistemology "Fiction Romance" (Buzzcocks cover)

Silent League "Can't Get It Out OF My Head" (ELO cover)

Sarah Blasko "Don't Dream It's Over" (Crowded House cover)

The Walls "Ain't Nobody" (Chaka Khan cover)

Alice Wonders "Here Comes Your Man" (Pixies cover)
 

He was a stranger in our land.

I've been slacking on my blog reading for the past month or two, so I was shocked to learn a few days ago of Lee Hazlewood's death on August 4. I know that there have been a slew of celebrity deaths in the past week or two, but it's unfathomable that I didn't read or hear mention of Hazlewood's passing via ANY mainstream media outlet until I specifically hunted them out after reading of his death via bloggers. A shame. I loved him. RIP, Lee.

Lee Hazlewood "It Was a Very Good Year" (Frank Sinatra cover, comp. Ervin Drake)
Thank you, Lee, for many very good years of music. I, for one, will sorely miss you and your talent.

Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood "Jackson" (comp. Lieber/Wheeler)
I get that the Johnny Cash/June Carter version won a Grammy, but I still don't see why theirs is the most popular version of this song. (Although Cash's duet with Miss Piggy is one of my favorites.) Honestly, I think Johnny and June's version lacks the sense of deadpan snarky resignation that Nancy and Lee's has. Theirs is coyer. Grittier. Angrier. Sexier. And it's one of my favorite songs of all time.

OP8 "Sand" (Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood cover, comp. Lee Hazlewood)
OP8 was a project featuring Lisa Germano, Howe Gelb (Giant Sand) and Joey Burns and John Convertino (Giant Sand/Calexico). Their sole album Slush—which features a cover of Neil Young's "Round and Round" as well as a slew of lush originals—is one of my favorite albums of the 1990s.

Calexico feat. Valerie Leulliot "Sundown, Sundown" (Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood cover, comp. Lee Hazlewood)
Speaking of Calexico, here's another of their Hazlewood covers. This and the following track come from Total Lee! A Tribute to Lee Hazlewood album.

Lambchop "I'm Glad I Never..." (Lee Hazlewood cover)
I'm not the hugest fan of alt-country or Americana, but when it's done well I'm all for it. I discovered Lambchop, a Nashville band, via the handful of covers they've done, but I'm now a fan of their originals as well. It makes me sad that this track is so short.

Caroline Williams and Spectre "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" (Nancy Sinatra cover, comp. Lee Hazlewood)
I have so many covers of this that I just put them on shuffle and picked the first one that hit that I hadn't already posted in the past. And here it is!

Steve Wynn Quintet "Summer Wine" (Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood cover, comp. Lee Hazlewood)
Steve Wynn's post-Dream Syndicate catalog is so immense that I've weaved in and out of it for years never deciding whether I was into it or not. I do know, however, that I really like the stuff the quintet has put out.

Have a drink, have a drive, go out and see what you can find.

I totally meant to mention this the other day when its first airing on ErrorFM.com occurred, but luckily the podcast era ensures later listenings: The Waiting Room (Hope Eternal & Drunk Country) presents Drunk Covers III.

Legs are required for jumping, dancing.

OMG, I hate the new Blogger deal where you have to be signed in on your linked Gmail account and whatnot. I didn't realize how much I hated it until, in the middle of writing this post, I logged into a different Gmail account but kept updating the blog only to have Blogger NOT SAVE any of my updates as I made them. So, just know that I initially spent a good deal of time writing little accompanying snippets to each of the following tracks but only a few were written before the e-mail gaffe and now I'm too annoyed to rewrite the others—including the one in which I confess to having sung "Ultimate" at karaoke.

Enjoy!

Lil' Dave Merriman "I Palindrome I" (They Might Be Giants cover)
Dave is a good friend of my pal Jessica and acquaintance of mine because he fronts both the Arrivals and the local GBV tribute band, Textbook Committee. I used to be quite the TMBG fan, although I haven't advertised it so much in recent years.

Jay Buchanan "Lemon" (U2 cover)
When my friend Ryan (who is/was a pretty big U2 fan back in the day, depending on the era) visited a few weeks ago, I believe we were making fun of "Lemon." Or maybe I was making fun of it and he and my other friend Brent chimed in. Regardless, it reminded me that I didn't hate this '60s-esque blue-eyed soul/R&B cover of it.

Palomar "I'll Come Running" (Brian Eno cover)

Fabienne Louves "She Works Hard for the Money" (Donna Summer cover in Swiss German)
The Swiss are allowed to have pop stars too, I suppose.

Jared Louche and the Aliens "Search and Destroy" (Iggy and the Stooges cover)

Takeshi Terauchi & The Bunnys "One Fine Day (aria from Madame Butterfly)" (comp. Puccini)
I didn't realize how much I needed Japanese Ventures-style surf-rock covers of famous classical pieces until now.

Skye Sweetnam "Part of Your World" (from The Little Mermaid, comp. Menken/Ashman)

Nerina Pallot "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Joy Division cover)

Animal Jazz "Frozen" (Madonna cover)

Karen Jo Fields "Famous Blue Raincoat" (Leonard Cohen cover)

Spoon "Decora" (Yo La Tengo cover)

Astrud "With Whom to Dance" (Magnetic Fields cover)
 

It's what you do to me.

I vow to try to have new songs for you tomorrow. Until then, please enjoy this animatronic bear "covering" the new emo smash ballad (that I hate, particularly thanks to the crappy "poetic" backward sentence structure of "even more in love with me you'd fall"), "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's:



Somehow the song improves when bear-sung.

Extra thick, extra long, the way we were wasted.

I was MIA there for a while, huh? I guess my plan to accept all affordable social invitations in the face of perhaps being forced to leave Chicago due to lack of viable employment is in full effect. So, yeah, in the midst of Pride weekend, "celebrating" my birthday, trying to get/preparing to go to interviews and having friends cool enough to buy tons and tons of drinks, I almost forgot about the blog. Sorry, kids.

One of the cool things I did recently (as recently as last night, even), was attend the aforementioned cover-fest at the Beat Kitchen. And while the awesome GBV tributalicious Textbook Committee delivered as usual, I was also extremely pleasantly surprised by the musical prowess of a band I'd never seen before: Farewell Captain. Seriously, their all-cover set was so awesome that I remarked to my friend Jessica (who I have to thank profusely because I was initially waffling on whether to go out into the sweltering night with very little pocket money and she offered to be my sugar daddy and encouraged me to go) that if they were a real indie cover band that played every week, I would go see them every time. (Of course, even if they don't play covers, I will check out their non-cover sets should the opportunity arise.)

Among many other favorite moments, their rendition of Teenage Fanclub's "The Concept" was particularly phenomenal. Sadly, I missed the first half the song because we came late, but whatever. What I saw the rest of their set ruled as well. Such as this cover of "Web in Front" by the Archers of Loaf that features a few extra vocals from my new friend John Sellers, author of Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life, which you should totally buy:



A good drunken time indeed!

I'll be busy this week as well with job interviews, a visiting friend, Sonic Youth at Pitchfork and karaoke, but I'll try to post a few tracks in the next day or two.
 

When the sun shines we'll shine together.

I got one of the most shocking and unexpected birthday gifts today in my e-mail: a message from a label rep who actually sent me a link to a cover song! Therefore, I felt only right in pointing you all in the direction of Scott Simons (ex-The Argument, whose cover of the Cars' "Hello Again" was pretty good and was posted here a few years back) and his version of Rihanna's spring/summer jam, "Umbrella." You can download it here or over at his MySpace page. Man, these dreamy solo male indie singer/songwriters are practically tripping over themselves to turn crunk and/or R&B hits into sensitive ballads lately, aren't they? Whatever. I'm down.

Within the reach of my hands.

Yesterday I had the somewhat lame idea to do a two-for-Tuesday type of thing today and, in the middle of figuring out what songs to use, I realized that it was already Tuesday and I wouldn't actually be posting until Wednesday. The best-laid plans, eh? Here were a few that were on my "maybe" list.

Lampshade "Good Day Sunshine" (Beatles cover)
I didn't think I'd ever see the day when a Danish/Swedish twee cover of anything might be too sickly sweet for even me. Seriously, this is by far not the worst cover I've heard of this, nor is it all that bad if twee Scandinavian covers are your bag, but it makes my teeth hurt.

Roy Redmond "Good Day Sunshine" (Beatles cover)
Man, talk about channeling Otis for an awesomely soulful cover. I can't find out too much about this Roy Redmond character, but I'm guessing one Otis Redding was enough for everybody.

Kunamaka "Hunting High and Low" (A-ha cover)
In an alternate reality, Mike Patton is French and this is one of his many projects.

Sissel Vera Pettersen and Nikolaj Hess "Hunting High and Low" (A-ha cover)
I can't say that ethereal vocal/piano jazz is necessarily my thing, but I am pleasantly surprised by By This River, the collaboration cover album from Danish piano/composer Nikolaj Hess and Norwegian vocalist/saxophonist/composer Sissel Vera Pettersen. Eno? A-ha? Blur? Depeche Mode? I'd rather hear those acts covered by jazz and/or classical musicians with technical skill than by a punk band full of 18-year-olds who can barely play.

EverEve "Fade to Grey" (Visage cover)
Aside from a Nouvelle Vague here and a Konki Duet there, most covers of "Fade to Grey" are synthy, dancey tracks that sound like little more than Hi-NRG remixes of the original. This, at least, is a gothy, metally, synthy version replete with an introductory quote from Babylon 5.

The Gregorian Masters of Chant "Fade to Grey" (Visage cover)
Remember when chant tributes were more poplar than bluegrass tributes? Those were the days, my friends.

Chrome "Here Come the Warm Jets" (Brian Eno cover)
Ah, Chrome. The band so many people have never heard of who influenced so many of the same people's favorite bands. Isn't that always the way? I'm not sure which later incarnation of Chrome this is. Is it just Damon Edge? Is it just Helios Creed? I don't know, but it's still 100 times better than most of the stuff you find on electronic tribute albums.

Arturo Stalteri "Here Come the Warm Jets" (Brian Eno cover)
Another jazz/classical instrumental piano arrangement perfect for my imaginary coffee shop.

Union 13 "Roots Radicals" (Spanish-language Rancid cover)
I'm currently experiencing a bit of guilty pleasure in the form of the Tim Armstrong/Skye Sweetnam ska/pop "Into Action." Why guilty? I don't know exactly. Despite liking many ska, ska/punk, ska/pop songs, I never felt comfortable aligning myself with it. I never felt punk or mod or cool or lame or whatever enough. I didn't have enough tattoos or a poor enough work ethic or something to fit in with the die-hard fans. My hesitance to commit today is probably just lingers from the '90s when I cared far more about what other people thought of me than I do now. Aaaanyhow, Tim Armstrong's new "guilty" pleasure reminded me that I once considered a few Rancid songs to be my "guilty" pleasures. This Spanish-language version by Los Angeles's Union 13 makes me happy, although I suspect that if it were in English I wouldn't like it as much.

The Covert Agency "Roots Radicals" (Rancid cover)
See? These guys don't sound guilty about it in the least.


Also, in honor of my good friend Eric's birthday today—which is always a pleasant stepping stone into my own birthday tomorrow—here's some video of a live cover of Clutch's "Big News" as performed by Dozer and featuring Troy and Bill from Mastodon also—aka people from bands I might appreciate a little more if I were a big angry man. But, hey, Dozer's from Sweden, so I can't be completely disinterested in them.

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

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

Picture my amazement.

There are a slew of Guided by Voices tribute acts out there, and most of them have MySpace pages, but for some odd reason I just found about the Girl Guides, who describe themselves as a "girls only!!" GBV covers project. I'm suspicious that that isn't true since there are male vocals on the cover of "Motor Away," but whatever. The stuff there is still delicious. Sadly, my favorite cover of the three on their MySpace page, "Always Crush Me," is the only one that's unavailable for download, but you should head over there to hear it anyway and to download the other tracks. Edit: "Always Crush Me" is now downloadable there thanks to Sarah of Girl Guides. We all win!