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, March 13th, 2011
Jeff Tweedy covers Neil Young
Austin NelsonWilco shows tend to be pretty planned-out affairs – it’s hard to be too spontaneous with song selection with six band members and attendant gear and sound changes – but get frontman Jeff Tweedy out on his own and apparently it’s a much more open-ended affair.
Witness this live solo recording – undated but I suspect it may come from an acoustic 1999 show at Chicago’s now-departed Lounge Ax, confirmation or other info welcome – he indulges some audience requests for a Neil Young cover by going back to 1975’s Zuma, if just to silence them. It will be interesting to see if he’s so patient or obliging when he sets out on a short solo tour next week, kicking off with two nights at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto on March 22 and 23. You think anyone in Toronto would want to request some Neil Young?
Wilco are wrapping up work on album number eight, due out later this year. Neil Young is getting ready to tour last year’s Le Noise and while that doesn’t include a T.O. stop, he will be in town on March 27 to pick up a special humanitarian award at this year’s Junos, where he’s also nominated for Artist Of The Year and Adult Alternative Album Of The Year.
MP3: Jeff Tweedy – “Lookin’ For A Love”
Stream: Neil Young – “Lookin’ For A Love”
Sunday, March 6th, 2011
Elbow covers U2
War ChildI don’t know why it came as a surprise that Elbow would list U2 as a major influence. Certainly both acts have a flair for grandiose musical statements, though U2 favours the more conventional “big rock” way of phrasing them as opposed to Elbow’s more stately approach. Maybe it’s just because Guy Garvey seems like such a fine, modest gentleman and Bono is so… Bono.
But apparently the Irish band were huge for the Mancunians, so much that Garvey said that “Running To Stand Still”, arguably the best song on The Joshua Tree, was “the first thing we ever played together as nippers”. So it’s seems completely logical that for their contribution to the 2009 War Child: Heroes compilation, wherein artists covered their influences to raise money for the War Child organization, they’d choose to do a proper take of said tune.
It’s a faithful rendering, perhaps more spacious and thoughtful, with Garvey’s husky voice providing the greatest contrast with the original and for my money, emphasizing even more the inherent beauty of the tune. Contrast that with the fact that digging around on YouTube for a live video of U2 doing it – there was no official video since it was never a single – and I couldn’t find any where the song wasn’t undermined by either Bono’s hamminess or just the band’s inherent bigness. But still, props must go to the band for writing the song in the first place and for inspiring great(er) bands like Elbow to do what they do.
Elbow’s new record build a rocket boys! is out this week in Europe and Canada, the US will apparently have to wait until April 12 but hopefully the extra patience will be rewarded with the band’s first headlining tour dates in far too long – they’re already going to be at Coachella on April 16. U2 are making up for their aborted Summer 2010 tour with dates this Summer, including July 11 at the Rogers Centre. They are also rumoured to be releasing a new record, perhaps in time for said dates. What is certain is that Bono will at no point take his sunglasses off in public.
Both Elbow and U2 will be appearing at this year’s Glastonbury, with the former as the lead-in for the latter.
MP3: Elbow – “Running To Stand Still”
Video: U2 – “Running To Stand Still” (live)
Sunday, February 27th, 2011
Adele covers The Strokes
Alex SturrockAdele Adkins was 13 when The Strokes put out their first album Is This It back in the Fall of 2001 and 17 when their last album First Impressions Of Earth came out in January 0f 2006. And in the half-decade since, she’s dropped the last name to be known just as Adele, released her debut album 19 in 2008, won a couple Grammy awards for it, and has just followed it up with the possibly even better and probably chart-topping 21, making her one of the hottest commodities in music right now.
That success is thanks to her emotionally resonant songwriting and rich, soulful vocals but it’s worth noting that she was a teenager when The Strokes were in their heyday, and teenagers do love their rock’n’roll. So it’s not so surprising that her cover selection for a January 2008 appearance on Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio One Live Lounge, she opted to tackle The Strokes’ very first single and prove that yeah, she’s great at the heartbreak-y stuff, but she can rock, too. And while it’d be nice to think that she’s handling guitar duties on the cover, that’s probably a bit much to ask.
The Strokes as a unit have been pretty quiet while Adele has ascended, but have also managed to somehow have an upwards career trajectory over the past five years -they’ve now graduated to major festival headliner status without actually doing anything. But now they’re officially back in action with their fourth album Angles due out on March 22. Adele has North American tour dates set for this May, and expect The Strokes to be back on the road this Summer as well.
MP3: Adele – “Last Nite”
Video: The Strokes – “Last Nite”
Sunday, February 20th, 2011
Radiohead covers The Smiths
YouTubeThose scamps in Radiohead did it again. After ambushing music fans with their last album In Rainbows, the existence of which was revealed just 10 days before it was put up for sale at a pay-what-you-will price, the band did the same for their new record The King Of Limbs, announcing last Monday that it’d be available to download as of Saturday and then surprising yet again by moving the release ahead 24 hours, allowing fans to devour and digest the eight-song offering as of Friday morning.
The release of In Rainbows was followed almost exactly a month later on November 9, 2007 with a webcast of a live studio performance by the band for producer Nigel Godrich’s From The Basement television series and amidst performances of all of In Rainbows, they threw in a couple of covers that were like manna from heaven for fans of their old pop-structured, guitar-driven sound – one of Joy Division’s “Ceremony” and this one of The Smiths. A reminder that they’re perfectly capable of sounding like their old, twentieth-century selves… they’re simply choosing not to.
It remains to be seen if Radiohead have any such plans to follow The King Of Limbs – history certainly implies that they’ll do something interesting and unexpected, and a fresh world tour seem inevitable. As for The Smiths, the closest they’ve come to a reunion is Morrissey and Marr teaming up to agree that cruelty to animals is bad. The Huffington Post had a chat with former bassist Andy Rourke.
MP3: Radiohead – “The Headmaster Ritual”
Video: Radiohead – “The Headmaster Ritual” (on From The Basement)
Video: The Smiths – “The Headmaster Ritual”
Sunday, February 13th, 2011
Bjork & PJ Harvey cover The Rolling Stones
YouTubeSeventeen years. Seven. Teen. Now don’t get me wrong, I knew that this performance by Bjork and PJ Harvey was old – I’ve had it as long as I can remember – but I didn’t realize it was that old. I’d thought it came from around the turn of the century and that having the two of them perform together at the Brit Awards was meant to be a summit of two of the premiere artists of the day, but instead it comes from 1994 and was a showcase for two of the music world’s most promising new acts – Bjork was only one record into her solo career with 1993’s Debut and Harvey had just turned PJ Harvey from a trio into a solo act following 1993’s Rid Of Me.
Of course both of them would turn out to have stellar careers and remain vital artists. Anyone who thought that Debut was out in left field had no idea just how far out there Bjork could and would go and Harvey has reinvented herself and her sound with pretty much every record impressing all the while. So it’s probably a good thing that a recording of the two of them performing a Rolling Stones cover together – Harvey handling the slow-building blues seethe while Bjork gets all unhinged overtop – was captured for posterity because I don’t think it’ll ever happen again.
Harvey’s new record Let England Shake is out this week and her live webcast performance of the record takes place tomorrow afternoon at 3PM EST at deezer.com. Bjork hasn’t released a new studio album since 2007’s Volta, every indication is that she’ll have something new out before the year is out. The Rolling Stones are releasing a massive box set entitled The Rolling Stones Singles (1971-2006) on April 11 and may or may not tour for the millionth time this year. This year’s edition of The Brit Awards takes place in London on Tuesday.
Seventeen years. Damnation.
MP3: Bjork & PJ Harvey – “Satisfaction”
Video: Bjork & PJ Harvey – “Satisfaction”
Video: The Rolling Stones – “Satisfaction” (live on The Ed Sullivan Show)
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