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, October 24th, 2010
Superchunk covers David Bowie
AmazonI was originally going to save this for next week so that it could go up ON Hallowe’en, but then realized that if I did that, it’d only be timely for a day and then be like the jack o’lantern that sits on the porch from November 1, slowly mouldering and having bits of its face eaten by raccoons. Okay, that’s not quite what I meant to say but it’s going up today so you can add it to Hallowe’en mixes, play it at parties, what have you.
“It” being Superchunk’s cover of the title track from David Bowie’s 1980 album, originally released as a b-side to the “1000 Pounds” single, circa Come Pick Me Up, and again on their 2004 b-sides compilation Cup Of Sand. I don’t know if there was any compelling reason to choose this particular Bowie tune, but they rip it up so why not?
Superchunk returned to active duty this year after nine years away with the excellent Majesty Shredding and will make a long-awaited return to Toronto on December 9 in a supporting slot for Broken Social Scene at the Sound Academy. David Bowie has been unofficially retired since 2003’s Reality, not touring since heart surgery cut short the promo jaunt for said record in 2004. In the interim, his legend has only grown as a new generation of indie kids discover his work and if/when he ever makes a new record or tours, the news would break Twitter in half. In the meantime, he is happily being David Bowie and probably ignoring calls from Coachella to come play their festival daily, if not hourly.
MP3: Superchunk – “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)”
Video: David Bowie – “Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)” (live)
Sunday, October 17th, 2010
Sky Larkin covers Heart
Frank YangKatie Harkin can sing and she can play a hell of a guitar – these are things that Sky Larkin’s 2009 debut album The Golden Spike demonstrated quite handily, wrapping both of these qualities in exuberant, punchy pop tunes. As sophomore efforts are wont to do, this year’s Kaleide traded in a degree of the pep for thoughtfulness but still retained most of the vigor that make the Leeds trio so exciting.
But this cover of Heart’s classic “Barracuda”, recorded in a day and a half, as documented in this nice little making-of video, for Drowned In Sound, still comes as a bit of a revelation. On it, Harkin covers the parts of both Wilson sisters and does it with aplomb, using a range of her voice that hasn’t been explored much with Sky Larkin and really should – she sounds great up there. The song’s chugga-chugga riff and guitar harmonics are also impressively represented but the requisite ’70s classic rocking solo – which you know she totally could have done – is deferred in favour of a big-time horn breakdown and damn if it doesn’t sound great.
Kaleide was released in the UK in August and in North America just this month. The band are opening up for Blood Red Shoes on a North American tour that kicks off this week and hits the Horseshoe in Toronto next Wednesday, October 27. Heart released their first new studio album in six years in August, entitled Red Velvet Car.
MP3: Sky Larkin – “Barracuda”
Video: Sky Larkin / The Making of “Barracuda”
Video: Heart – “Barracuda”
Sunday, October 10th, 2010
Belle & Sebastian cover The Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson
Frank YangFlashback to November 2003 and Belle & Sebastian’s second last visit to Toronto and first at Massey Hall – an eminently memorable show for both reasons bad and good. The bad being an invitation to have an audience member come up and sing a song with the band backfiring when she demanded they play one of HER own songs (which they did, politely and awkwardly) and the good being pretty much everything else but particularly their impromptu (at hollered audience request) cover of The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back”, which began with Bob Kildea goofing on the bassline, the rest of the band looking at each other, shrugging and joining in with Stuart Murdoch showing off his falsetto.
It was a magical moment that still stands out in a magical show, and one that since it came before camera phones with video and audio capability became ubiquitous, one that I thought was undocumented except by anecdote and a handful of blurry photos. As it turns out, I just haven’t been looking hard enough, because an audience recording of that Massey show – or at least that one song – has been circulating in live bootleg circles for some time and only just came into my possession. The audio quality is pretty dire, as to be expected of anything of that vintage, but it’s listenable and more importantly triggers the right memory synapses. But since I prefer to have the stuff I post here be of a certain aural standard, I’m making this week’s post a twofer with a slightly better-sounding MJ cover of undetermined origins.
Belle & Sebastian return – triumphantly, I’m sure – to Massey Hall on Tuesday night in support of their new record Write About Love. And, if they do anything interesting – or anything at all – I’m sure a million videos will appear on YouTube within 30 seconds. Ah, technology.
MP3: Belle & Sebastian – “I Want You Back” (live in Toronto)
MP3: Belle & Sebastian – “Billie Jean” (live)
Video: The Jackson 5 – “I Want You Back” (live on American Bandstand)
Video: Michael Jackson – “Billie Jean”
Sunday, October 3rd, 2010
Everyone covers Guided By Voices
Michael LavineWhen Guided By Voices announced they were calling it a day back in Summer of 2004, I marked the occasion with a tribute cover of the week which basically consisted of me scraping together all of the GBV covers I could find and tossing them onto the internet (where they mostly came from in the first place). So it seems appropriate that as Guided By Voices have reunited and will play tonight as the grand finale of Matador at 21 in Las Vegas, I should bust out some/most of those same tracks to, again, mark the occasion.
And interestingly, many of the artists who are represented are also returning to active duty following long breaks. The Strokes, after an extended hiatus and countless solo projects, are back in the studio and Julian Casablancas has announced their fourth album will be released on March 11, 2011 though it’s doubtful anyone will actually try to hold them to that. Spoon have become one of the biggest and most reliable rock acts in indiedom, releasing Transference earlier this year and also appearing at Matador @ 21. For many years, Portastatic was Mac McCaughan’s primary creative outlet but now that Superchunk is back with Majesty Shredding. their first album in a decade – they too are celebrating their tenure on Matador in Vegas this weekend. Vancouver’s Salteens are putting out their first album in seven years in Grey Eyes, due October 12. Jimmy Eat World’s new record Invented is their first in three years; they’re at the Kool Haus in Toronto on October 17. And finally, Jon Auer’ Posies have just released Blood/Candy, their second post-reunion record but still first in five years.
Odds of any more Guided By Voices remain slim to none, but Robert Pollard will surely keep putting out at least a dozen records a year. Give or take.
MP3: The Strokes – “A Salty Salute”
MP3: Spoon – “Melted Pat”
MP3: Portastatic – “Echoes Myron”
MP3: The Salteens – “Motor Away”
MP3: Jimmy Eat World – “Game Of Pricks”
MP3: Jon Auer – “Gold Star For Robot Boy”
Video: Guided By Voices – “A Salty Salute” (live, 2007)
Video: Guided By Voices – “Auditorium/Motor Away”
Video: Guided By Voices – “Game Of Pricks” (live)
Video: Guided By Voices – “Gold Star For Robot Boy” (live)
Stream: Guided By Voices – “Echoes Myron”
Sunday, September 26th, 2010
Bettie Serveert covers Belle & Sebastian
MySpaceWhen the Matador 21 was announced back in the Summer along with the fact that it would feature performances from label alumni past and present, I thought for sure that Holland’s Bettie Serveert would be part of it. Though never one of Matador’s flagship bands, they had a good, three-album run with them in the ’90s and with the release of their latest Pharmacy Of Love, were planning their first US tour in many years for this Fall – surely the two would be intersecting.
It was not to be, however – though visa issues have rejigged their itinerary such that this Tuesday night’s show at the Drake in Toronto is the kick-off, they still don’t hit the southwest US until a week after Matador’s “Lost Weekend” is over. It’s probably too much to have asked to have been able to see them twice in the span of a week, alongside all of the other great acts who’ll be at the Palms in Vegas, and considering I get to see Belle & Sebastian twice in a fortnight – once in Vegas and once in Toronto at Massey Hall on October 12, the day their new record Belle & Sebastian Write About Love comes out – I have no grounds for complaint.
The Betties and Belles do cross paths on the Matador At 21 charity box set that’s coming out on Tuesday and also on this tune, though, which dates back to who knows when – I think I got it off Napster for god’s sake. It’s Bettie Serveert frontwoman Carol Van Dijk strumming the Sinster tune solo and acoustic.
MP3: Bettie Serveert – “Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying”
Video: Belle & Sebastian – “Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying” (live)
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