Each week I'm posting a random or not-so-random cover song. Only the current week's track will be available but if you see a past one you'd like, contact me and we'll make arrangements.
If you are the copyright holder of the current track and wish it to be taken down please contact me to do so.
Sunday, November 13th, 2011
The Decemberists cover R.E.M.
Frank YangI opened the year with a Decemberists covering R.E.M. post, and oh what an 11 months it’s been for both bands since then. Back then, Colin Meloy and company were readying the release of their sixth album The King Is Dead, while R.E.M. were known to have finished their fifteenth album Collapse Into Now and would eventually put it out at the start of March.
And in February, while touring and promoting The King Is Dead, The Decemberists stopped in for a session with KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic. In addition to playing some of the new record, they offered a cover of R.E.M.’s “Cuyahoga” – after all, Peter Buck guested on a few tracks on their new record and the band were an obvious influence. And coincidentally, Life’s Rich Pageant, the album from which said song was taken, was also set to re-released that Summer in double-disc, remastered and expanded format.
And now, The Decemberists are about to go on an extended hiatus – one on the span of years – to decompress and pursue other creative interests and R.E.M. have disbanded entirely, capping a 30-year career. But they don’t depart without leaving gifts in the form of new releases; The Decemberists put out an EP of King session outtakes in Long Live The King a couple weeks ago and R.E.M. will put out a career-spanning compilation – which includes their final recordings as a band – in Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage 1982-2011 this week.
R.E.M. is dead; long live R.E.M. The Decemberists will be back. No worries.
MP3: The Decemberists – “Cuyahoga”
Video: R.E.M. – “Cuyahoga” (live on MTV Unplugged)
Sunday, November 6th, 2011
Coeur de Pirate covers The Weeknd
Frank YangMontrealler Béatrice Martin is also known as Coeur de Pirate but is best known for her lovely, piano-led Francophone pop, the likes of which populated her 2008 self-titled debut and made her a bit of an international star in the process.
But if you’ve seen her live, you’d know that she’s fluently bilingual and that she likes to show off both her English skills and knowledge of contemporary pop music with covers. Lots of them. From the stage she’s offered her take on the likes of Rihanna, Katy Perry and Phoenix, amongst others, and this Summer, while working on her second album Blonde, she took the time out to not only record a version of Toronto R&B sensations The Weeknd’s curse-filled, self-loathing “Wicked Games” from their House Of Balloons mixtape, but make a video for it as well.
Blonde is set for release this Tuesday, and Coeur de Pirate is at The Mod Club in Toronto this Friday, November 11, to celebrate its release. Who knows what cover she’ll have planned for the occasion. The Montreal Gazette, Montreal Mirror, and Beatroute have interviews with Béatrice Martin. The Weeknd released the second part in their mixtape trilogy – Thursday – in August and the final instalment, Echoes of Silence, is due out this Autumn.
MP3: Coeur de Pirate – “Wicked Games”
Video: Coeur de Pirate – “Wicked Games”
MP3: The Weeknd – “Wicked Games”
Sunday, October 30th, 2011
Ryan Adams covers Oasis
Frank YangOasis had more than a few hits back in the day, but if you were to have to pick a signature tune – for all the rock and bombast in their repertoire – you’d probably have to pick their acoustic 1995 single, “Wonderwall”. And yet its been a rather mutable song; never mind the million versions that’ve graced coffee houses and open mics around the world, even Oasis fans would be split between favouring the original (What’s The Story) Morning Glory version with Liam Gallagher on vocals or the Noel-sung version that was frequently performed live.
Ryan Adams has done a pretty good job of making it his own as well. He included it on his 2003 Love Is Hell, Part 1 EP and it became a staple of live sets, both solo and with The Cardinals, for years to come. His reading didn’t differ wildly from the original – mainly a looser, more boozy phrasing and tempo – but it was enough to make it feel his own and influence Noel Gallagher to adjust his own performance style to mirror it, at least for a while. Two live Adams recordings – one in-studio at BBC Radio 1 in 2004 and one at the Telluride Blues Festival in Colorado with The Cardinals circa 2008 – demonstrate his take on the tune and a stream of a Noel Gallagher & Gem Archer performance in a 2005 radio session show how it affected the original.
Ryan Adams released Ashes & Fire earlier this month and will be at the Winter Garden Theatre on December 10. Noel Gallagher has two dates at Massey Hall next week on November 7 and 8 and though his solo debut Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds is ostensibly the reason for the visit, there’s pretty much no way you won’t be hearing the elder Gallagher play this song at the shows. No way at all.
MP3: Ryan Adams – “Wonderwall” (live at BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, January 15, 2004)
MP3: Ryan Adams – “Wonderwall” (live at Telluride Bluegrass Festival, June 19, 2008)
Video: Oasis – “Wonderwall”
Stream: Noel Gallagher & Gem Archer – “Wonderwall” (Ryan Adams arrangement)
Sunday, October 23rd, 2011
Death From Above 1979 covers Bloc Party
WikipediaAs recently as a year ago, it didn’t look like this cover would ever get a chance to be aired out again in a legitimate manner. Sure, I posted it back in 2007 when Sebastien Grainger’s new band The Mountains opened up for Bloc Party, but that was tenuous at best – Death From Above 1979 had been inactive since 2006 and Bloc Party were formally on hiatus as of Summer 2009.
And yet here we are, with both sides of the equation back in action. DFA1979’s return to performance was unexpected and improbable, considering the terms on which the original run ended (check out the original farewell note) but time heals all and if not, money makes a pretty good bandage and DFA1979 has been doing the festival circuit all year and are finally doing some Canadian dates, including two hometown nights at the Sound Academy on October 27 and 28.
As for Bloc Party, they got back to business this Fall and garnered some headlines with both Kele Okereke and Russell Lissack “took the piss”, as the Brits say, with the media and started a little firestorm about Okereke having been kicked out of the band and the other three auditioning new singers (Grainger has a little fun with that on Twitter). But with the dust settled and the transcripts and recordings made a matter of public record, the net take-away is that Bloc Party remains Bloc Party and are working on a fourth record. Just like they always said they would.
As for this track, it originally showed up as the b-side to DFA1979’s “Black History Month” single and was then included in the Silent Alarm Remixed album because, well, it was pretty great.
MP3: Death From Above 1979 – “Luno”
Video: Bloc Party – “Luno” (live)
Sunday, October 16th, 2011
Dum Dum Girls cover The Smiths
Sub PopEverything about Dum Dum Girls is pretty danged American, from their California garage rock-meets-’60s girl-group sound to their vintage biker pin-up aesthetic, but hearing them take on arch-English mope-masters The Smiths as they did for the closing track on their He Gets Me High EP earlier this year, you can easily imagine an adolescent Kristen Gundred swooning over romanticized notions of rainy Manchester as much as SoCal’s sunny beaches. But maybe it shouldn’t be any kind of surprise – their band name does come half from The Vaselines’ debut album.
On the same note, it’s not surprising that Gundred would look to another American gone Anglo for inspiration for their new album Only In Dreams; the way she evokes Chrissie Hynde’s vibrato all over that record is uncanny. Look to hear it live when they play Lee’s Palace tonight. And while The Smiths won’t be playing anywhere live anytime soon, fanatics can shell out for the exorbitantly fancy Complete box set, which is out this week.
MP3: Dum Dum Girls – “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”
Video: The Smiths – “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out”
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