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.
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Sunday, September 4th, 2011
R.E.M. covers Richard Thompson
MusicstackWhen Richard Thompson is discussed, it’s usually in the context of being grossly unknown or underappreciated relative to what the folk-rock pioneer has achieved in his forty-plus year career. He did get a bit of his due with 1994’s high-powered tribute album Beat The Retreat, which featured such wide-ranging acts as X, Shawn Colvin, Bonnie Raitt, J Mascis and R.E.M..
Though at the time the Athens, Georgia quartet were neck-deep in re-establishing their rock’n’roll credentials via Monster, they opted to dial back to a distinctly Out Of Time acoustic style for their bright and strummy take on the closing track from Thompson’s arguably most famous record (with then-wife Linda Thompson) Shoot Out The Lights. And if you’re wondering what the Wall Of Death is – as I did for a long time – Wikipedia has the answer; it’s a carnival attraction wherein a motorcyclist rides horizontally and performs stunts on the inside of a large wooden drum. Let it never be said you never learned anything here.
R.E.M. released their fifteenth studio album in Collapse Into Now earlier this year. Thompson’s last album of original material Dream Attic was released last year but can’t rightly be called a studio album – it was recorded live on tour. Thompson will be in Toronto for a solo show at Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music this Thursday evening. The Hartford Courant has an interview with the man, who was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire earlier this year – okay, maybe he is getting some respect.
MP3: R.E.M. – “Wall Of Death”
Video: Richard Thompson – “Wall Of Death” (live in Toronto 1991)
Video: Richard Thompson – “Wall Of Death” (live)
Sunday, August 28th, 2011
Future Bible Heroes and The 6ths with Lloyd Cole cover The Human League
WikipediaIt’s no error that the just-released Obscurities collection of rarities and ephemera came out credited to Stephin Merritt, considering that it drew material from all of many projects such as The Magnetic Fields, Future Bible Heroes, Gothic Archies or The 6ths in addition to works released under his own name. And considering how prolific Merritt is, it’s also no surprise that a lot of material that would have qualified for inclusion got left out – gotta keep something in reserve for the multi-volume box set, after all.
One credit on his vast resume that would require some extra liner notes would be Reproductions, a 2001 tribute album to British synth-pop pioneers The Human League, which he produced and appeared on thrice – once as Stephin Merritt credit “covering” a 30-second instrumental, once as Future Bible Heroes and once as The 6ths, both of those covering some of the Human League’s biggest hits but also with Merritt taking a backseat as the mandate of those projects dictated. On the former, it’s Claudia Gonson taking Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley’s parts while Merritt naturally stands in for Philip Oakey. On the latter, it’s Commotions frontman Lloyd Cole playing mandatory guest vocalist and handling Oakey’s leads while Merritt takes over Catherall’s parts in the bridge. He’s nothing if not versatile.
Obscurities marks Merritt’s return to Merge Records, for whom he’ll be recording the next Magnetic Fields record, due out next year. Lloyd Cole’s last solo album Broken Record came out last Fall and he toured it through North America earlier this Summer. Despite being synonymous with the ’80s, The Human League never stopped releasing albums, though their latest Credo is only their second in sixteen years. It’s still excuse enough for their first North American tour in who knows how long – they’ll be at The Guvernment in Toronto on September 18; Examiner.com has an interview with Oakey.
MP3: Future Bible Heroes – “Don’t You Want Me”
MP3: The 6ths – “Human”
Video: The Human League – “Don’t You Want Me”
Video: The Human League – “Human”
Sunday, August 21st, 2011
Stephen Malkmus covers The Replacements
John ClarkStephen Malkmus can rightfully lay claim to “legend” status thanks to his works both fronting Pavement and his prolific solo career, but on a tour stop at First Avenue in Minneapolis in April 2003, circa his Pig Lib album, he honoured some of his college rock forebears – The Replacements – in their hometown with a spirited cover of the leadoff track from their greatest album Let It Be. Not the tidiest rendition, but the Mats were never about tidiness now, were they?
Stephen Malkmus’ new album with The Jicks – Mirror Traffic – is out this Tuesday, August 23, and they play The Phoenix on September 21. After a minor flurry of activity in the form of digital releases in 2008 and 2009, Paul Westerberg has been quiet, creatively. Mats bassist Tommy Stinson more than picks up the slack, however, being bassist of record in both Guns’N’Roses and Soul Asylum and will be releasing his second solo record in One Man Mutiny on August 30. Rolling Stone talks to Stinson about the album and has an MP3 from it available to download. Philly.com also has a chat and Deleware.com floats the inevitable reunion question.
And PS I’m just on vacation – regular posting will be back tomorrow or Tuesday, latest.
MP3: Stephen Malkmus – “I Will Dare”
Stream: The Replacements – “I Will Dare”
Sunday, August 14th, 2011
Emmy The Great covers Ash and Sleater-Kinney
FacebookI usually try to time these selections so as to have some relevance either on a local scale – ie a show or tour coming through the Toronto area – or a cosmic one – as in an album release or other artist-related news. This week’s is only relevant to me and to folks in Philadephia and New York as that’s where Emmy The Great will be starting and concluding an exhaustive two-night North American tour (I will be at the latter of these), though one can only hope that they’re part of a broader mission to get her excellent second album Virtue a North American release.
It’s enough pretence, however, to dust off a few covers that I’d probably not have opportunity to air out otherwise. The first, which is her and collaborator Euan Hinshelwood of Younghusband trading verses on Ash’s “Burn Baby Burn” with some gleeful cussing overtop, dates from prior to the release of First Love; Clash featured it back in Fall 2008 and I’m pretty sure it was pulled off her MySpace so… ancient.
For the second, we fast-forward to this past July when Ms Moss was promoting album number two via a radio session on Radio Ulster; another cover with vocal assistance from a male foil but this time it was Tim Wheeler of Ash – who wrote that last track – and is also now Emmy The Great’s boyfriend. How cute is that. Their selection was a take on one of Sleater-Kinney’s last singles off their final (so far) album, 2005’s The Woods, a somewhat unexpected choice but Emmy does a pretty fine job of emulating Carrie Brownstein’s distinctively vibratoed singing style.
Ash abandoned the conventional album release cycle following 2007’s Twilight of the Innocents, instead dedicating 2009-10 to their A-Z Series, a series of 26 singles released bi-weekly for a year. They will be doing things the old-fashioned way this Fall, though, with the release not only of The Best Of Ash come October 17 but a series of Free All Angels recital shows with departed guitarist Charlotte Hatherley back along for that short ride. Clash has some details on the release and Manchester Confidential an interview with Wheeler.
Sleater-Kinney have remained on hiatus for the past half-decade, but all the princpals are back at work – The Corin Tucker Band released their debut 1,000 Years last Fall while the Janet Weiss and Carrie Brownstein-powered Wild Flag release their self-titled debut on September 13 and play Lee’s Palace on October 11. Captain’s Dead has just posted MP3s of some of Sleater-Kinney’s BBC session recordings over the run of their career and Metro has a quick interview with Brownstein.
Emmy The Great plays The Studio at Webster Hall in Manhattan this Thursday night, August 18.
MP3: Emmy The Great – “Burn Baby Burn”
MP3: Emmy The Great – “Modern Girl”
Video: Emmy The Great – “Burn Baby Burn” (live)
Video: Ash – “Burn Baby Burn”
Video: Sleater-Kinney – “Modern Girl”
Sunday, August 7th, 2011
Wilco covers Neutral Milk Hotel
WilcobaseOh this tricky business of bootlegs. You might reasonably expect that a band with as fervent a fanbase as Wilco would have an exceptionally well-documented tape trading network and if you’re talking about the past decade or so, then they absolutely do. But go back to when not everything in existence was instantly documented on the internet and things can get a bit hazier.
For instance, as long as I can recall, a double-disc collection of live and demo covers by the band has circulated as Someone Else’s Songs and included on that is a live recording of Wilco covering the opening song on Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and it’s explicitly noted as coming from the final show at Chicago’s Lounge Ax, dated January 9, 2000. The set list recorded at the usually very thorough WilcoBase makes no mention of this, however, nor does it appear on any of the bootlegs for that show which also circulate. Mind you, WilcoBase only documents the song ever being performed once by any Wilco project and that’s a solo Jeff Tweedy show – obviously incorrect. So what’s the truth of it? I dunno. But that’s most definitely Ken Coomer on trumpet and Edward B Hargrove on the acoustic guitar. And it’s pretty sloppy.
Update: So some sources have clarified that this was technically The Minus 5 covering Neutral Milk Hotel on that evening as support for Wilco, but that band was really Scott McCaughey backed by Wilco and Peter Buck and who knows who else. And Tweedy still took lead vocals on that one. So.
Wilco’s next album The Whole Love is out September 27 and they play Massey Hall on September 16 and 17. Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum begins his return from the wilderness with two sold-out shows at Trinity-St. Paul’s this week, August 12 and 13.
MP3: Wilco – “King Of Carrot Flowers Part 1” (live)
Video: Neutral Milk Hotel – “King Of Carrot Flowers Part 1” (live)