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, April 17th, 2011
Mogwai covers Pixies
AmazonFor two bands whose aesthetic can reductively be summed up as “loud QUIET loud” (or “QUIET loud QUIET”), Pixies and Mogwai don’t have all that much in common. For the former, the dynamic shifts were a means towards the end of groundbreakingly fractured pop, delivered in compact packages and defined by Black Francis’ throat-shredding vocals. The latter’s post-rock action, on the other hand, required them to stretch things out, all tension and release, and largely had no use for vocals of any kind.
The Scots do their best Bostonian impersonations on the 2007 tribute album Dig For Fire: A Tribute To Pixies, though, managing to turn in a version of the Doolittle finale that’s even shorter and fuzzier than the original with Stuart Braithwaite stepping up to the mic for the required screaming. It’s less unhinged than the Pixies version, instead affecting an air of determined menace but hey – it wouldn’t be Mogwai if it didn’t threaten to punch you in the face at any given moment.
Pixies are in town tomorrow and Tuesday at Massey Hall doing their Doolittle album recital, while Mogwai are at The Phoenix next Tuesday night, April 26, in support of their new record Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will. Relix and Illinois Entertainer have interviews with members of Mogwai while The Montreal Gazette and Echo have features on Pixies. Update: Visa issues have forced Mogwai to postpone the first five dates of the Spring tour, to be rescheduled for October. The Toronto date is still on.
MP3: Mogwai – “Gouge Away”
Video: Pixies – “Gouge Away” (live)
Sunday, April 10th, 2011
TV On The Radio cover Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Frank YangIf there’s anyone who has the know-how to cover Yeah Yeah Yeahs, it’d be fellow Brooklynites TV On The Radio. Both emerged as leaders of the Brooklyn scene around the turn of the century and TVOTR axeman David Sitek produced all of their albums, including their debut Fever To Tell, which closed with the stark and meditative “Modern Romance”.
So it’s not surprising that their 2004 single for New Health Rock, taken from their full-length debut Blood Thirsty Babes, would simultaneously stay faithful to the original while sounding distinctively TVOTR – if anyone could pull that off, it would be the man behind the boards for each band.
TV On The Radio’s new record Nine Types Of Light is out this week and the band are following up with a tour that hits the Sound Academy in Toronto on April 18. Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been quiet since the release and tour cycle for 2009’s It’s Blitz, but they’re not on any kind of official hiatus so one would expect some new material coming from them hopefully sooner rather than later.
MP3: TV On The Radio – “Modern Romance”
Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Modern Romance” (live)
Sunday, April 3rd, 2011
The D’Urbervilles cover Timber Timbre
Friends In BellwoodsGetting kind of hyper-local for this week’s selection. About a week ago, Toronto post-punk stalwarts The D’Urbervilles appeared ready to be calling it a day, putting a cryptic “The D’Urbs are dead” message on their website along with a countdown clock. Many were disappointed but not surprised if this was indeed the case, given frontman John O’Reagan’s successes with electro-pop side-project Diamond Rings. But as it turned out, that was just marking time until the band emerged from their chrysalis, butterfly-style, in their new guise as Matters – an outfit with the same members, same tense and hooky musical stylings and presumably same great taste. Just now with an 80% less Google-able name.
So to mark the occasion, here is what I believe is was The D’Urbs’ last officially-released recording, a Timber Timbre cover that came out on the Friends In Bellwoods 2 charity compilation circa Summer 2009. In it, they take their labelmates’ dark and swampy blues and completely transform it, digging through the gloom to detonate an anxious and glammy energy bomb into its ghostly atmosphere. If it had appeared on their 2008 debut We Are The Hunters, it’d have been a highlight.
Matters officially release their debut single this coming Thursday at The Garrison when they open up for PS I Love You. Timber Timbre release their new record Creep On Creepin’ On this Tuesday and follow up with a sold-out show at Trinity-St. Paul’s on Friday night, April 8. Toro has an interview with frontman Taylor Kirk. There don’t appear to be immediate plans for a Friends In Bellwoods volume three, but donations to the Daily Bread Food Bank, for which the compilations were raising funds, is always a good idea.
MP3: The D’Urbervilles – “Magic Arrow”
Video: The D’Urbervilles – “Magic Arrow” (live in Ottawa)
Stream: Timber Timbre – “Magic Arrow”
Sunday, March 27th, 2011
The Raveonettes cover The Stone Roses
Vice RecordsThough they formed a decade ago, The Raveonettes are still a couple years from being able to mark the 10-year anniversary of their first album Chain Gang Of Love, the duo have been called on to mark some other notable anniversaries of late. Last Summer, they were one of a number of acts tapped to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martens and their iconic shoes by way of a cover.
For their selection they chose the first single from The Stone Roses, whose self-titled debut had itself just turned 20 the year before. It’s a pretty straight reading, though there’s no mistaking Sharin Foo’s icy coo for Ian Brown’s… Ian Brown-ness. And though she doesn’t appear in the video they made for the track – they go for an updated Harold & Maude-type narrative – I would imagine she’s a better dancer as well.
The Raveonettes’ new record Raven In The Grave came out last week and they’ll be in town on April 2 for both a free acoustic in-store at Sonic Boom at 6PM and a fully electrified and surely deafening show at The Phoenix later that same evening. The Stone Roses will, thankfully, probably never reunite and their legacy will remain intact. And though I’m generally loathe to recommend people re-buy records they should already own, I will say the John Leckie-remastered The Stone Roses that came out in 2009 is absolutely worth picking up as the sonic improvements are vast. There is actually some low end now! And Doc Martens remain great shoes.
MP3: The Raveonettes – “I Wanna Be Adored”
Video: The Raveonettes – “I Wanna Be Adored”
Video: The Stone Roses – “I Wanna Be Adored”
Sunday, March 20th, 2011
Basia Bulat covers The Strokes
Frank YangIt’s hardly a polished recording, but this rehearsal space recording of Basia Bulat and her bandmates trying – maybe for the first time – a harmony-laden and plucked violin-enhanced cover of The Strokes’ “Someday” has a certain delightful charm that still brings a smile to my face no matter how many times I’ve listened to it.
And I’ve listened to it a lot, seeing as how I think it dates back to if not before her 2007 debut Oh My Darling. After all, I recall them breaking it out live for the album’s record release show at the Music Gallery in September 2007 when they had completely run out of material but the audience kept calling them back for more.
Clearly they’ve no shortage of material these days, what with last year’s Heart Of My Own doubling her recorded repertoire – not that being two albums into a career has stopped the Juno Awards for nominating her this year for “Best New Artist”. Odd, but an honour nonetheless and it allows her to play a smaller-than-normal show at The Great Hall on March 26 as part of Juno Fest.
As for The Strokes, they’re back this week after a half-decade hiatus with album number four, Angles.
MP3: Basia Bulat – “Someday”
Video: The Strokes – “Someday”
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