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 19th, 2010
Holy Fuck covers Foals covers Holy Fuck
Young TurksAt first blush, neither Foals nor Holy Fuck have much in common with the other. One is an Oxford, UK-based post-punk outfit built on stabby guitars and tense vocals, the other is a Toronto, Canada-bred electronic-rock band based on squelching synths and no vocals. But both have been nominated for prestigious, astrologically-named awards in their respective countries, are likely to induce dancing – though while Holy Fuck can soundtrack proper grooving, Foals are more likely to induce nervous twitching – and the two toured the UK together back in 2007.
It was an experience which seemed positive enough that they released a now out-of-print split 12″ wherein each covered one of the others’ songs – Foals tackling the opening track from Holy Fuck’s debut LP and Holy Fuck transmuting one of the singles from Foals’ first record Antidotes. Neither sounds much like the original but sound pretty cool in their own right, and that’s really kind of the point, isn’t it?
Both Foals and Holy Fuck have released new records this year – Foals with Total Life Forever and Holy Fuck with Latin – and both are touring North America (though not together this time) and their paths will almost cross in Toronto next week – Foals are at Lee’s Palace on September 27 and Holy Fuck at the Phoenix on September 29. Red & Black has an interview with Holy Fuck.
MP3: Foals – “Super Inuit”
MP3: Holy Fuck – “Balloons”
Video: Holy Fuck – “Super Inuit”
Video: Foals – “Balloons”
Sunday, September 12th, 2010
Florence & The Machine covers Mystery Jets
recordstore.co.ukBy the time they released their third record Twenty-One in 2008, the United Kingdom’s Mystery Jets were already a relatively big deal at home, consistently charting with their records and singles and ranking well in the club and festival hierarchies. So when it came time to round up some b-sides for “Half in Love with Elizabeth”, they solicited a cover of another song off that record by a then-mostly unknown singer-songwriter name Florence Welch, who plied her trade under the name Florence & The Machine.
Given the opportunity, she left the song’s spare, jangle-blues balladic structure mostly alone while replacing Blaine Harrison’s strong but sensitive vocals with her own sultry, edge-of-overpowering belting. And while the single itself failed to chart especially well, it certainly didn’t hurt Florence’s career – she would embark on a meteoric rise to stardom with her debut album Lungs in 2009… not that the Jets are doing poorly themselves, their latest record Serotonin being well-received at home and abroad.
Still, you can’t help but marvel at the fact that Florence is appearing at the MTV Video Music Awards tonight and embarking on her third North American tour this Fall, including a November 3 at Toronto’s cavernous Sound Academy, while Mystery Jets are coming over for a rare appearance on this side of the Atlantic with four shows in three cities, one of them being the cozy Horseshoe Tavern tomorrow night, September 13. If Florence wins a VMA, do you think she’ll thank Mystery Jets for giving her a leg up back in the day? Probably not.
People and HitFix talk to Florence Welch. Mystery Jets are performing on CBC’s George Strombolopolous Presents tomorrow afternoon, in-studio in Toronto at 1PM – tickets are free!
MP3: Florence & The Machine – “Flakes”
Video: Mystery Jets – “Flakes”
Sunday, September 5th, 2010
Manic Street Preachers cover Rihanna
WikipediaOne of the perks, if you could call it that, of not having cable or a working terrestrial radio, is that it’s very easy to be completely tuned out of mainstream popular culture and whatever the inescapable song du jour might be. The only time they seep onto my radar is when they’re slowed down 8000% and become internet memes or are covered – ironically or not – by artists I do like. And so it was that the first time I heard Rihanna’s “Umbrella”, which was apparently one of the monster jams of 2007, was when Coeur De Pirate covered it beautifully at Virgin Festival last year (her version).
The second time was when I found this version by Manic Street Preachers, recorded for an NME CD released in conjunction with the NME Awards in 2008, wherein they got artists of the moment to cover other artists of the moment, the Manics’ moment at that point being their 2007 album Send Away The Tigers. It’s a typically Manics big rock treatment, trading the original’s slinkiness for stadium scale, but you can still hear James Dean Bradfield smile as he gets to that chorus. Who wouldn’t?
The Manics’ new record Postcards From A Young Man is out September 28. Rihanna is set to release a new album, as yet untitled, on November 2.
MP3: Manic Street Preachers – “Umbrella”
Video: Rihanna – “Umbrella”
Sunday, August 29th, 2010
Laura Marling covers Mumford & Sons
Frank YangI can’t count the number of times (okay, I suppose via a text search I could) I’ve looked back to the evening of October 4, 2008 and shaken my head at the quality of the bill that played the Rivoli that night. Amongst the van full of exhausted young British folk revivalists wrapping up a North American tour were Laura Marling, at the time the marquee name on the bill with having her debut Alas I Cannot Swim being shortlisted for a Mercury Prize, headliner Johnny Flynn riding a well-received debut of his own in A Larum and the third act on the bill were there as Marling’s backing band, but had a few songs of their own they wanted to show off – that was Mumford & Sons.
Fast-forward a couple of years – Flynn has a second album in Been Listening, though it still awaits a North American release. Marling has gone two-for-two in Mercury Prize nominations with this year’s I Speak Because I Can and already has a third album in the can. And the boys in Mumford & Sons? Even though they had nothing released at the time of that Rivoli show save for an impossible-to-find EP, their anthemic bluegrass-rock has clearly struck a chord as they’ve gone on to be bigger than either of their tourmates, at least on this side of the Atlantic, where they’ve gone from unheralded opener to filling venues the capacity of Toronto’s Sound Academy, as they’ll almost certainly do on November 13. And oh yeah, their debut Sigh No More is also up for a Mercury Prize, which will be awarded next Tuesday, September 7.
So if Marling was looking to give her bandmates a bit of a leg up in terms of exposure when she covered “Roll Away Your Stone” months and months in advance of Sigh No More‘s release when she played a World Cafe session for NPR… I’d say it worked.
The Independent talks to a number of this year’s Mercury nominees, including Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons about the honour.
MP3 Laura Marling – “Roll Away Your Stone”
Video: Mumford & Sons – “Roll Away Your Stone”
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010
The Clientele cover M.I.A.
AV ClubThe Onion-powered A/V Club is wonderful for countless reasons, but of late one of the best is their Undercover series, which kicked off back in the Spring and has been rolling out a new episode every week. Its premise is having 25 pre-selected classic(ish) songs of the indie rock variety and as bands come through their studios, they choose one form the list to cover. While a few of the results have been poorly conceived or executed, most have ranged from entertaining to sublime, and of course have been a boon to covers bloggers like myself who aren’t above creating an audio rip or two from the videos.
Falling squarely into the “sublime” and “rippable” categories are English chamber-pop outfit The Clientele, who clearly went way outside their comfort zone in selecting M.I.A.’s Clash-sampling, Slumdog-soundtracking breakout hit, “Paper Planes” for their go and come up smelling like roses. Note the excellent use of Mel Draisey’s violin in lieu of the original’s stabbing “Straight To Hell” guitar lines and sly include of lyrics from their own “Since K Got Over Me” in the bridge. Loverly.
The Clientele, who made noises about retiring following the release of last year’s Bonfires On the Heath, haven’t made good on that yet with the impending release of their Minotaur mini-album next week. M.I.A., who also declared she was retiring following touring for Kala in Summer 2008 but the success of Slumdog Millionaire and its soundtrack kept her properly attending to her knitting and after having a baby, she returned with album number three /\/\/\Y/\ earlier this year and will be at the Sound Academy in Toronto on September 22.
MP3: The Clientele – “Paper Planes”
Video: M.I.A. – “Paper Planes”
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