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, August 30th, 2009
My Morning Jacket covers Pet Shop Boys
AmazonEven though it wasn’t really all that out in left field, many thought My Morning Jacket had lost their marbles when they released their 2005 genre-agnostic opus Z – where was the big, reverb-drenched southern rock that they’d broken out with? Well while the Kentucky outfit certainly acquired a large portion of their fanbase with their hair-whipping, foot-on-monitor rock excursions, they’d been pushing the envelope since their early days, as documented on the two Early Recordings compilations, the second of which – Learning – yielded this unexpected yet rather straight cover of the Pet Shop Boys. Which just goes to show – no matter where you’re from, be it London or Kentucky, the inner-city pressure? Everybody feels it.
My Morning Jacket are on a bit of a break right now but Jim James is busy, both releasing solo material as Yim Yames and as one of the Monsters Of Folk, with whom he’ll be at Massey Hall on November 2. As for Pet Shop Boys, they released Yes earlier this year and will be the penultimate act of the second day of V Fest tonight at the Molson Amphitheatre. Think they’ll play this tonight? Hell, I bet even the Nine Inch Nails fans would riot if they didn’t.
MP3: My Morning Jacket – “West End Girls”
Video: Pet Shop Boys – “West End Girls”
Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
Bry Webb & Casey Mecija cover The Velvet Underground
friendsinbellwoods.comI suppose you can be forgiven if the names above are unfamiliar at first glance, but if you don’t recognize either of Bry Webb or Casey Mecija’s day jobs as frontpersons for Constantines and Ohbijou respectively, then you must be new and not from around here. Welcome, sit a spell. The Cons’ white-knuckle, blue-collar rock and Ohbijou’s sweeping orch-pop don’t have much in common, stylistically, but on this Velvet Underground cover, Webb’s hard-living rasp and Mecija’s honeyed voice come together like the most natural thing in the world, turning the last song on the last proper Velvet’s album into a delectable duet.
The track appeared on the first Friends In Bellwoods compilation, released in the early part of 2007 as a fundraising effort for Toronto’s Daily Bread Food Bank and not only did it succeed admirably in that – over $11,000 has been raised to date – it also served as a time capsule of a period when a new wave of up-and-coming acts based in and around Toronto were set to make their mark on the local, national and for some, international stage. And since that went over so well, they’ve done it again – Friends In Bellwoods 2 will be released this week with an even more stellar lineup of talent collaborating and contributing songs to the double-CD set. The release shows for the collection started last week but the parties go this coming weekend – Friday night at Lee’s Palace with Ohbijou, Bocce, Forest City Lovers and Evening Hymns and then all day Saturday at the Tranzac with many of the artists on the album playing short sets.
A few of the songs from the new comp were previewed last week and Exclaim is streaming Ohbijou’s contribution to the record. Ohbijou talks to Metro about the Friends In Bellwoods project.
MP3: Bry Webb & Casey Mecija – “Oh! Sweet Nuthin'”
Stream: The Velvet Underground – “Oh! Sweet Nuthin'”
Sunday, August 16th, 2009
Arctic Monkeys cover The Strokes
arcticmonkeys.comArctic Monkeys and The Strokes. Two bands from opposite sides of the Atlantic who became huge in their respective homelands despite not bringing anything especially new to the rock’n’roll table. Or perhaps that’s exactly why. Easy to appreciate, hooky pop tunes delivered with a requisite amount of attitude by young men with good cheekbones will never go out of style, I suppose.
But it will go on a break. Arctic Monkeys took a breather following 2007’s Favourite Worst Nightmare to allow singer Alex Turner to work on his arguably more interesting side-project The Last Shadow Puppets, but have since regrouped and will release their third album in Humbug on August 25 with North American touring to follow, including a September 29 date at the Kool Haus in Toronto.
The Strokes have been on the back burner a while longer, having turned out no new music since 2006’s First Impressions Of Earth, but most of the band released solo projects, the latest of which to be announced comes from singer Julian Casablancas – his solo record Phrazes For the Young is due out sometime this Fall. But with all that out of their systems, they are aiming to release a new Strokes record in the early part of 2010.
This cover the Arctic Monkeys did of one of the catchiest tunes from the Strokes’ debut apparently comes from a television performance – note the existence of terrible quality video – but details elude me. I can tell you that they pull it off pretty well, Turner’s accent a more than suitable substitute for Casablancas’ sneer.
Alex Turner talks to Spinner about some of the influences on their latest long-player while Casablancas details some of his ambitious plans for his solo tour to NME.
MP3: Arctic Monkeys – “Take It Or Leave It”
Video: Arctic Monkeys – “Take It Or Leave It” (live)
Video: The Strokes – “Take It Or Leave It” (live)
Sunday, August 9th, 2009
Lightspeed Champion covers Patrick Wolf
Georgia JaggerThis week’s selection is a little more anti-climactic than I’d have liked, but what can you do. Patrick Wolf’s latest album The Bachelor came out in the UK back at the start of June and while the North American release date of this coming Tuesday was also announced at that point, I certainly wasn’t going to wait to grab a copy of what’s almost certain to be one of my favourite releases of the year. Add in to that the fact that Wolf already toured North America at that time, and there’s not a lot of fanfare to surround the domestic physical release of the record.
I had also hoped that by this time I’d be able to report on the details of the new Lightspeed Champion record, Dev Hynes’ 2008 release Falling Off the Lavender Bridge being one of my favourites of last year and the follow-up being previously mentioned as coming out sometime in October 2009 but now set to see the light of day sometime in 2010.
So perhaps I should have saved this track for then, in case its release lined up with the second part of Wolf’s Battle opus The Conqueror, also originally set for a 2009 release and pushed back to next year. It’s a version of a Wolf b-side, circa The Wind In The Wires, which the notoriously cover-happy Hynes recorded at some point… I don’t know when or for what, but I like it. And apparently there’s more Wolf covers – ones of “Tristan” and “Bluebells” – so if you have them, please do share, and maybe I’ll be able to share those when each artist’s next albums do come out next year.
MP3: Lightspeed Champion – “Souvenirs”
Video: Patrick Wolf – “Souvenirs” (live)
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
St Vincent covers The Beatles
Frank YangOkay, so I see why people are excited about the September 9 release of the Beatles remasters, and can also understand that Beatles: Rock Band is a big deal for those who like their Beatles and their Rock Band and think the two go together like chocolate and peanut brittle. But I haven’t been able to comprehend why people have been waiting for the Beatles catalog to come to online digital shops like iTunes for so long. I mean, if someone really wanted to hear The White Album on their iPod, would it really have been so difficult to find someone who owned the CDs – I believe the band was fairly popular in their day – and just rip it? Maybe they just want to be able to legitimately pay for the tracks again? I understand Sir Paul could use the dosh. And yeah, alright, I get that it’ll be the remastered albums that will finally make their way to iTunes at some unspecified future date, but doesn’t going to the trouble of remastering them to sound great and then compressing them to sound like crap seem pointless? No? Just me? Okay.
Far more comprehensible is getting really excited for this coming Saturday’s St Vincent show at the Horseshoe, though I don’t get why it’s not plum sold out by now. She’ll certainly be busting out tracks from both Actor and Marry Me – in far more guitar-prickly form if past experience is any indication – but perhaps she’ll also trot out this terrific Beatles cover, which was a staple of her Fall 2007 tour from which the MP3 and videos were taken, but also made an appearance this weekend when Ms Clark played Al Points West in New Jersey. I’m usually of the mind that the last thing the world needs is another Beatles cover, but when they’re done as interestingly as this one – faithful to the original but fully infused with her own distinct personality – then I’m okay with letting one more into the house.
MP3: St Vincent – “Dig A Pony”
Video: St Vincent – “Dig A Pony” (live at Other Music)
Video: St Vincent – “Dig A Pony” (Black Cab Sessions)
Video: The Beatles – “Dig A Pony”
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