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, July 31st, 2011
Bon Iver covers Feist
YouTubeThis has been shaping up to be a pretty solid year for fans of the more “adult contemporary” end of the indie spectrum. Last month, Bon Iver released their second album of swoony falsetto and heartbreaking romanticism in Bon Iver and after a good number of years of laying low, Feist just this week announced her new record Metals would be coming out on October 4. Between those two records, you’ve got your make-out and/or break-up soundtrack for 2011.
The two acts – or at least one of them and the other’s work – came together in Australian radio station triple-j’s studio back in 2009 when Justin Vernon, he who was and essentially still is Bon Iver, offered up a cover of Feist’s “The Park” as part of an interview and session. Now Bon Iver has done a lot of covers and most of them sound like, well, Bon Iver singing someone else’s song, but this one I liked quite a bit more as Vernon’s delivery enhances the not inconsiderable beauty that Feist crafted into the original.
Bon Iver plays a sold out show at the Sound Academy on August 8. Feist has announced a short US tour to coincide with the release of Metals; I would expect that a Toronto hometown show will come sometime around then as well – I mean, how can one not? In the meantime, you can paint your own version of the Metals album art at her Facebook because that’s almost as good. Obviously.
MP3: Bon Iver – “The Park”
Video: Bon Iver – “The Park” (live on JJJ)
Video: Feist – “The Park” (live)
Sunday, July 24th, 2011
Frightened Rabbit covers The Lemonheads
AV ClubSince kicking off last Summer, The AV Club Undercover series has been a real boon for covers bloggers like myself because, well, they make things so damn easy. Not only do they bring together the artists and the songs and provide high-quality video from which to extract the soundtrack, they get the artist to explain their choice. In this case, you’ve got Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison doing The Lemonheads solo style because, as he puts it, “I’ve always liked the song, you know it kind of fits in with the way that I like to write as well – it’s about a guy and a girl, and that works for me”. A-yup.
Frightened Rabbit should be working on the follow-up to last years’ Winter Of Mixed Drinks, but when Death Cab For Cutie invite you along for a Summer tour of North America’s outdoor amphitheatres, you kinda say yes. They’ll be at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre this Friday evening, July 29. As for The Lemonheads, the current lineup – who has been together since around 2005 so are pretty legit – have opted to dust off It’s A Shame About Ray for one of those complete album performance tours that are de rigeur these days and are taking it on the road this Fall – they hit Lee’s Palace on October 17.
Fun fact: I heard “Confetti” in a bar last night. Clearly a sign. Of something.
MP3: Frightened Rabbit – “Confetti”
Video: Frightened Rabbit – “Confetti”
Video: The Lemonheads – “Confetti”
Sunday, July 17th, 2011
Gillian Welch covers Radiohead
gillianwelch.comThat Gillian Welch is a deft hand with folk and Americana stylings is a bit of an understatement; she and partner David Rawlings are about as good as it gets when it comes to songs evoking the starkness and beauty of the best of their musical roots. And, as it turns out, they’re pretty good at Britrock as well.
For an act with as traditional a sound as theirs, Welch and Rawlings have always had unusually strong ties to the realm of indie rock but when they began adding a version of one of Radiohead’s most unguardedly romantic songs to their repertoire in the mid-aughts, it was still something of a surprise – and a very pleasant one as their version is gorgeous and delicate and I’m the last person who’d want to hear less Jonny Greenwood guitar from back when he was actually into playing guitar, Welch and Rawlings’ acoustic breaks are pretty dang nice. A live version of their version was recorded in Minneapolis in September 2004 and released as a single.
Welch released her first new record in eight years with The Harrow & The Harvest at the end of June; she plays The Phoenix on July 25. There’s features on Welch at The Georgia Straight, Metromix, The Corriere Tandem and USA Today. Radiohead released The King Of Limbs back and March and have spent the months since then releasing live broadcasts, remixes and performing secret one-off shows. Not so much with the touring.
MP3: Gillian Welch – “Black Star”
Video: Gillian Welch – “Black Star” (live at Bonnaroo 2007)
Video: Radiohead – “Black Star” (live)
Sunday, July 10th, 2011
Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold covers Neutral Milk Hotel
Frank Yang2009 was a pretty good year for Seattle’s Fleet Foxes, with their self-titled debut, released the previous Summer, having topped numerous year-end lists worldwide and made the Portland-based folk-rock band one of the hottest things going, touring constantly to adoring crowds in sold-out theatres and concert halls.
Amidst it all, almost two years ago today, frontman Robin Pecknold found the time to step out on his own for a solo club show at Neumo’s in Seattle as part of a benefit for The VERA Project. One of many covers that he included in his set was a rousing rendition of Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Two-Headed Boy”, accompanied on drums by Fleet Foxes drummer J Tillman for some extra oomph and done well enough that you’ll forgive his forgetting the words in the middle there.
Fleet Foxes will be at Massey Hall this Thursday, July 14, in support of their new album Helplessness Blues. Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum has finally returned to active duty and will play two sold-out shows at Trinity-St. Paul’s on August 12 and 13 as the kick-off to a Summer/Fall tour.
The Guardian has a feature piece on Fleet Foxes.
MP3: Robin Pecknold – “Two-Headed Boy” (live at Neumo’s, Seattle – July 11, 2011)
Video: Robin Pecknold – “Two-Headed Boy” (live at Neumo’s, Seattle – July 11, 2011)
Video: Neutral Milk Hotel – “Two-Headed Boy” (live at The Knitting Factory, New York – March 7, 1996)
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011
The Wooden Birds’ Andrew Kenny covers Death Cab For Cutie
dcfc-tour.netThough if I’m being period-correct, the title of this post should probably read “American Analog Set’s Andrew Kenny”, seeing as how when the Home: Volume V EP was released in 2003, he was still fronting his beloved Austin-based atmospheric-pop outfit. Only since putting it in mothballs a half-decade ago has he had The Wooden Birds at the top of his resume. But semantics.
The mini-album was a split release that paired a set of Kenny compositions with a set by Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, done bedroom studio-style, and a bonus of each covering one of the others’ songs. This here is Kenny’s take on the closing track from Death Cab’s emo-tacular debut Something About Airplanes, condensing the original’s drawn-out atmospheric jam to something simpler and more wistful, though Kenny could do a Motorhead cover and it’d feel wistful. For his part, Gibbard covered AmAnSet’s “Choir Vandals” from Know By Heart.
Kenny’s new outfit The Wooden Birds are in town at The Drake next Sunday night, July 11, for their first-ever Toronto show in support of album number two, Two Matchsticks. Death Cab For Cutie bring their latest Codes And Keys to The Molson Amphitheatre on July 29.
MP3: Andrew Kenny – “Line Of Best Fit”
Stream: Death Cab For Cutie – “Line Of Best Fit”
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