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, June 21st, 2009
Frank YangI went digging for a Sonic Youth cover for this week, to mark not only the release of their latest album The Eternal a couple weeks ago but also their sold-out show at Massey Hall next Tuesday, but as it turns out I didn’t have any that I really liked. I did, however, find this live Raveonettes cover which I didn’t even realize I had and quite liked.
Having the Danish duo take on this particular Sonic Youth track doesn’t require a real stretch of imagination – it being one of the more straightforward selections from their oeuvre and well-suited to the Raveonettes’ stripped-down aesthetic. But even though it’s no reinvention, it’s still a good rendition and snarly in all the right places.
The Raveonettes are at work on their next album and are making it an interactive process, posting demos to their Twitter account and soliciting feedback from their fans. They talked to Spinner about their decision to demystify the writing process. The new album is expected sometime in the Fall.
MP3: The Raveonettes – “100%”
Video: The Raveonettes – “100%” (live)
Video: Sonic Youth – “100%” (live)
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
Amazon.comThat Patrick Wolf is a bit of a unique character isn’t really up for debate, his unique personality apparent to anyone who’s ever read an interview or followed his Twitter and his music also refusing to submit to easy categorization. So thematically, having him cover The Beach Boys’ “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times” for the 2006 Pet Sounds tribute album Do It Again made good sense, but stylistically you had to wonder if pairing such a dramatically inclined singer with one of Brian Wilson’s most vulnerable and wistful compositions was a good idea. Happily, Wolf is able to dial it down enough to keep its poignancy yet still impart his personality on it.
“Dialed down” are not words you’d use in conjunction with Wolf’s latest album The Bachelor, but the grandiosity why his fans love him. He’s at the Mod Club in Toronto this Wednesday night, June 17, to support. PopMatters has a feature piece and Clash the second part of their interview with Wolf. Brian Wilson released a new solo record in That Lucky Old Sun in late 2008 and more recently, Summer Love Songs was the umpteenth Beach Boys compilation to hit the market, seeking to set itself apart by offering new stereo mixes of a half-dozen songs as well as a previously unreleased Dennis Wilson composition.
MP3: Patrick Wolf – “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times”
Video: Brian Wilson – “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times”
Sunday, June 7th, 2009
amazon.comYesterday afternoon at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square, 1623 people gathered to try and break the Guinness World Record for largest guitar ensemble by playing Neil Young’s “Helpless”, en masse, as part of the Luminato arts festival, the song chosen via a poll to determine the festival’s “Great Canadian Tune”. They failed.
Obviously in pure quantitative terms, Nick Cave would have only made the shortfall 178 bodies rather than 179, but in terms of pure cool, Cave would easily have counted for a couple hundred normal people. But then, Nick only sang on his contribution to the 1989 tribute album to Young, The Bridge – it was a couple of now-former Bad Seeds, Kid Congo Powers and Mick Harvey, who handled the instrumentation. Still, Nick knows his way around a guitar and probably could have strummed along with the others.
Neil’s Archives, Volume One finally – at long last – was released last week and implausibly yet inevitably, it appears to have been both worth the wait and the price. Cave is going through a reissue program of his own, the first three of his albums with the Bad Seeds having been remastered and rereleased with bonus goodies back in March and the rest of his catalog to follow in the near future.
MP3: Nick Cave – “Helpless”
Video: Neil Young & The Band – “Helpless”
Video: 1623 would-be world record holders – “Helpless”
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
Frank YangIt’s almost laughable how Belle & Sebastian spent the first part of its career shrouded in mystery and eschewing live performance because as anyone who’s ever seen the Scots onstage can attest, they are no wallflowers. Both Stuart Murdoch and Stevie Jackson are fine frontmen, charismatic in their own ways and perfect foils for one another and they’re a very tight and polished musical group, prone to spontaneous covers that, for how off the cuff they seem to be, generally come off much better than they should.
I recall their 2003 Toronto show at Massey Hall where during a break between songs, an audience member called out a request for the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” and rather than shrug it off, they actually started to jam it out and before you knew it, they were covering it and doing it pretty dam well. I can imagine that’s how this Elvis Costello cover came about, considering how initially hesitant they are going into it but then pulling it off with goofy gusto.
With B&S on indefinite hiatus, Stuart Murdoch will be releasing the album from his God Help The Girl project on June 23 and while B&S fans will no doubt find much to enjoy in it, it doesn’t quite manage to fill that Belle & Sebastian-shaped hole in this indie kid’s soul. Elvis Costello, on the other hand, never really goes away even when he says he’s going away. He releases his second album in as many years this week with Secret, Profane & Sugarcane and will play Massey Hall on August 28. I will bet that if someone calls out a request for, “I Want You Back”, Declan will ignore it.
I miss Belle & Sebastian.
MP3: Belle & Sebastian – “Oliver’s Army”
Video: Elvis Costello & The Attractions – “Oliver’s Army”
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
DovesSo the great and powerful Moz turned the big 5-0 last week – do you think that when being presented with gifts, he thought, “please, please, please let me get what I want this time”? No, probably not. But even if I personally don’t care for much of what he’s done post-Smiths, I salute the man on the occasion of his half-century.
And I’m sure his fellow Mancunians in Doves do likewise. No strangers themselves to the mopey end of rock, Doves paid tribute to their hometown hero back in 2002 for a BBC2 special – it’s a pretty straight version and the first line of the lyrics is cut off in the recording, apologies, but it’s a nice delicate moment from the band.
Doves’ North American tour in support of Kingdom Of Rust is now underway and includes a date at the Kool Haus in Toronto next Monday night, June 1. There’s features on the band at The Corrie Tandem and The Georgia Straight. Morrissey released his latest solo record Years Of Refusal earlier this year.
And since it’s a birthday and what’s a birthday without a party, here’s a handful more covers of “Please, Please”. Yes, I ran most of these back in 2004, but that was a different time – Moz was a sprightly 45 and still willing to play shows in Canada. So here’s covers from from The Jealous Girlfriends (taken from their Comfortably Uncomfortable album), Muse (from the Not Another Teen Movie soundtrack) and versions of indeterminate origin from Josh Rouse, Halo Benders and Swearing At Motorists.
MP3:Doves – “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”
MP3: The Jealous Girlfriends – “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”
MP3: Muse – “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”
MP3: Josh Rouse – “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”
MP3: Swearing At Motorists – “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”
MP3: Halo Benders – “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want”
Video: Morrissey – “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” (live)
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