Everyone knows I do love me a good cover song, so I was pleased to see Copy, Right? devote a complete post to covers of The Magnetic Fields. And I have to say I completely agree with Liza that the Arcade Fire cover of “Born On A Train” is uninspiring at best. The arrangement is pedestrian and Win’s voice is absolutely shot (this is in reference to the KCRW radio session version that was circulating – I’ve no idea if there are others). If you’ve not heard it, you can watch a video of their session and judge for yourself.

If I may be so bold, I much prefer the version that my old band did on one of our old EPs (you can listen to the whole thing here, courtesy of Five Seventeen. Though I haven’t heard the finished version of the album we recorded over a year ago (it should be out, uh, someday), I think this was the best-sounding recording we ever did. Take that as you will. Maybe we should have submitted the track to It’s Meaningless, the online Magnetic Fields tribute project. I actually haven’t gone through any of the submissions here – what’s worthwhile?

There’s not too much actual Magnetic Fields news to report on – the promotional cycle for last year’s I is done and Stephin Merritt appears to be devoting his time to stage projects. There’s full details on the MF website, but particularly interesting is the fact that he’s working on a musical adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s children’s book Coraline with an eye towards a Fall 2006 release. That could be quite interesting.

Some bits from the land of Broken Social – Broken Social Scene has leaked and Kevin Drew is philosophical about the fact that it’s out there over a month before its October 4 release date. That’s right, everyone. Scurry to your P2P networks. Scurry! Elsewhere, Stars are interviewed by Incendiary, Gothamist talks to BSS guitarist John Crossingham’s Raising The Fawn and in the “no big surprise” deptartment, Metric have added a second show at the Phoenix on September 28 to go along with the sold-out show there on the 29th. Their new one, Live It Out, is out the day before, on the 27th. Expect it to leak aaaany day now.

Though still untitled and not looking very likely for the originally planned Fall release, Rainer Maria have posted a Quicktime stream of one of their new songs, called “Burn”. Hmm, the album was produced by Malcolm Burn – wonder if the song’s named after him? Either way – it’s nice. Hard to believe this is the same band that made Look Now, Look Again. They’ve… mellowed. It suits them. Aside – I had no idea that in The Sound Of Music, Maria’s maiden name is “Rainer”. Maria Rainer. Weird.

Junkmedia and Pulse Of The Twin Cities have words with Joe Pernice, but no fisticuffs ensue.

I bought a set of these at Ikea last week. They’re brilliant. I’ve never been so excited to grate cheese in my life.

np – Yo La Tengo / Prisoners Of Love