Merry Christmas! And what's more Christmas-y than a Tom Waits cover? Tom's just like Santa. A skinny, weird-ass Santa.. Neko Case contributed this track to the New Coat Of Paint tribute album from a few years ago (well, five). Waits is one of those guys who I can't really stand to listen to, but who I suspect I'd like to hear covered. Come on, everyone has someone like that. Don't judge me. Neko is playing a show at the Rivoli next Wednesday to preview her new album The Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, out March 7.

That's it for MP3 of the week for 2005 - see you next year.

Originally by : Tom Waits

Now it's time for some festive selections - Stars covered The Pogues' classic Christmas carol "Fairytale Of New York" as the b-side to their Your Ex-Lover Is Dead 7" in the UK for City Slang, who have graciously offered this MP3 for free downloading. Amy covers Kirsty MacColl's parts beautifully but Torq's clean, arch delivery is just no comparison to Shane MacGowan's glorious wreckage. Still, good effort - there's no doubt that this song will have made the setlist for their four-night, six-show stand at Lee's Palace this weekend, maybe some more recordings will surface. They also performed this on Gideon Coe's show for the BBC last week - listen here. This one comes courtesy of Blogging Rodney.

Originally by : The Pogues

Nina Persson's A Camp project in 2001 was more than a stylistic detour from The Cardigans' sound, it was a sign of things to come. Their next album, Long Gone Before Daylight, continued in the contrified vein before swinging back to a more eclectic pop sound on their sixth album Super Extra Gravity, released in October in almost all territories except North America. This Neil Young cover comes from an undated live performance at some European festival... I used to have the correct info for this, but no longer. Sorry. Neil's latest album Prairie Wind came out in September and was nominated for a couple of Grammy awards this week. I'm sure Neil is tickled about that.

Originally by : Neil Young

The Calexico/Iron & Wine travelling sideshow pulls into town this week for a show at The Docks on Friday. In addition to the material from their collaborative EP In The Reins, they are also trotting out some great covers, including this unexpected but excellent Velvet Underground tune. This version was recorded on October 22 at the Triple Door in Seattle. Also check out So Much Silence's recent posts - he's ripped a show in DC that was streamed on NPR last week.

Originally by : The Velvet Underground

UK pop classicists The Magic Numbers wrap up their first North American tour this Thursday with their Toronto debut at Lee's Palace. This almost a-capella, surely non-ironic cover of Beyonce's ubiquitous anthem was recorded in live in Amsterdam this past September, and comes courtesy of Revolution In The Head. Sadly (or perhaps thankfully), no one attempts the Jay-Z rap.

Originally by : Beyonce featuring Jay-Z

Though somewhat maligned during their active careers, Slowdive have been making a real critical revival in recent years, with their later works - primarily swansong Pygmalion - being hailed as landmarks in ambient and electronic music. Long out of print (Creation deleted it just weeks after it was released) and fetching high prices on eBay, it was finally reissued last week by Sanctuary in remastered form (Just For A Day and Souvlaki were also reissued with bonus discs).

One artist who owes Slowdive a great debt is German Ulrich Schnauss, who still carries the shoegaze torch, albeit with a laptop rather than Jazzmaster and bank of pedals. He covered Pygmalion's "Crazy For You" on Blue Skied An' Clear, a tribute CD to Slowdive released by the electronic-centric Morr Music label in 2002.

Originally by : Slowdive

The Galaxie 500 box set released a few years ago was supposed to be the comprehensive, final word on their recorded output but it omitted their two BBC sessions recorded for John Peel in 1989 and 1990. Those sessions have now been compiled and released by Damon & Naomi's own label. It's 8 tracks and pretty covers-heavy, including this Sex Pistols tune. You can order the Galaxie 500 Peel Sessions here.

Originally by : The Sex Pistols

As this mp3 goes live at midnight on November 5, Elbow should be taking the stage for what will hopefully be a terriffic headlining set at the Ukula Bright Lights Festival down at the Distillery District in Toronto. They're here in North America for a couple dates to promote their new album Leaders Of The Free World. This Massive Attack cover appeared as the b-side to their Not A Job single, taken from their second album Cast Of Thousands.

Originally by : Massive Attack

Folks in attendance at Wilco's Hallowe'en show at the Auditorium in Chicago last year got a special treat to start off the first encore - a cover of Blue Oyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", though I have to say - in this recording I'm not sure I'm hearing enough cowbell... NEEDS MORE COWBELL. The song would become an occasional feature in Wilco's live sets for the rest of the Fall and the Spring of 2005. Wilco's first live album Kicking Television is out in a couple weeks. For a full setlist and some pics from that Hallowe'en show, check out Wilcobase. Happy Hallowe'en!

Note - here's another recording from the New Year's Eve show in Madison Square Garden last December. You can hear the cowbell in this one!

Originally by : Blue Oyster Cult

Beatles covers inevtiably have a wicked hard time measuring up to the originals - but that has never, ever deterred anyone. Case in point, the This Bird Has Flown tribute album, compiled in honour of the 40th anniversary of Rubber Soul. On it, an all-star, indie-centric lineup cover every track on Rubber Soul including Ms Nellie McKay contributing a cigar lounge-approved version of "If I Needed Someone". Her sophomore album Pretty Little Head is out in a couple months at the end of December and This Bird Has Flown is out on Tuesday. Is it any good? Check out my review on Sunday to see what I think.

Originally by : The Beatles

I have Lindsay to thank for this live Steve Earle track, sent to me in exchange for some of my archived covers. The audio quality is only okay and Steve takes some serious liberties with the phrasing on the vocals, but I guess when you're Steve Earle you get to do what you want. And anyway, it's one of the only Son Volt covers I know of - certainly the only one I have. The song was a set list staple during Earle's El Corazon tour back in 1997. Son Volt are in town for a show at the Opera House tomorrow night.

Originally by : Son Volt

This track was recorded in August of last year at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC, as My Morning Jacket paid tribute to the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death with this version of my favourite Elvis tune, performed solo by Jim James in that high, lonesome voice. My Morning Jacket released their eclectic new album Z last week and they're at the Guverment in a week and a half.

Originally by : Elvis Presley

So while I'm personally pretty much over Franz Ferdinand, a lot of folks are getting worked up over the release of their sophomore album You Could Have It So Much Better With Franz Ferdinand this coming Tuesday. That's fine. I actually quite like this cover of Pulp's "Mis-Shapes" which they recorded live for a radio show in 2004. It's not especially tight or even on-pitch, but FF's arched-eyebrow delivery suits the song perfectly.

Originally by : Pulp

Part two! The Calexico/Iron & Wine collaboration In The Reins came out last week and as promised, here's a track from the other half of that project. I understand this Leonard Cohen cover dates back to way early in Sam Beam's career, circa around 2002. The rough, demo-like audio quality would back that up. Walkman-fidelity works well for Iron & Wine though, it makes it sound that much more intimate.

Originally by : Leonard Cohen

Calexico/Iron & Wine collaboration In The Reins finally comes out this week, so I'm doing a double-header this week and next with both acts. First up is Tuscon, Arizona's Calexico doing Elliott Smith's "Rose Parade". It was performed for St Louis's KDHX public television in September of last year. KDHX also has the video footage of the performance online to watch and other songs from the performance as well. Next week - Iron & Wine.

Originally by : Elliott Smith

Sufjan Stevens and his Illinoisemakers played a marvelous show at Trinity-St Paul's last night. But unlike their last show at Lee's Palace in November and some other shows on this tour, they didn't play their "cover" of the American national anthem. A shame, because their arrangement of it is a real show-stopper. You can hear it in this recording which came from their show July 1, 2004 at South Street Seaport in New York, and is courtesy of Brooklynvegan.

And yeah, I know what today's date is.

Originally by : Francis Scott Key

Death Cab's Ben Gibbard and American Analog Set's Andrew Kenny each provided four new acoustic tracks for the fifth volume of Post Parlo's Home series of split-albums. As part of their contributions, each artist covered one of the others' songs - here, Kenny offers up a beautifully meditative reading of the closing track from DCFC's debut album Something About Airplanes. The new American Analog Set album Set Free comes out in a couple weeks, while Death Cab's Plans was released last week.

Originally by : Death Cab For Cutie

Death Cab For Cutie's frontman Ben Gibbard has earned himself a bit of a reputation for being a champion of the cheesy- and- ironic- to- everyone- else- but- deathly- sincere- to- him- cover, recording and performing songs by Phil Collins, Cyndi Lauper, Avril Lavinge, etc etc when performing solo or with The Postal Service. Death Cab as a unit have usually made sounder choices in material to reinterpret, often favouring tracks with a British indie heritage (and for this, I give credit to Chris Walla). This cover of the Stone Roses classic was recorded live at an unknown place and time and done very straight. Not what you'd call essential, but nice enough. Death Cab's major label debut Plans is out on Tuesday.

Originally by : The Stone Roses

Twin Cinema, the third album from The New Pornographers, hits stores this Tuesday. They've done a few covers in their time but they've been somewhat hard to track down… This one came from the soundtrack to a Canadian film called Fubar, which was a mockumentary of sorts focusing on the sterotypical white trash, small town metal-loving redneck headbanger. I haven't seen the film, but it's much beloved amongst those I know who came from such towns as depicted in the film... Me, I'm from Toronto, the namesake of the 80s no-hit wonder rock band who originally wrote the song in question. And you can see the awesome video here.

Originally by : Toronto

I'm not really a big Black Rebel Motorcycle Club fan. I don't like the White Stripes much either. But this live White Stripes cover is pretty rocking - maybe my indifference for both acts cancelled each other out, thus compelling me to post this one this week? Anyway, BRMC's third album Howl comes out next week and they're playing The Phoenix on September 24 while the White Stripes are in town at the Molson Amphitheatre a week previous to that on September 16.

Originally by : The White Stripes

A segue from last week's selection - I'm not usually an advocate of the ironic cover, but goddammit Richard Thompson can do whatever the hell he wants - and I don't think this is actually meant ironically. Taken from his 1000 Years Of Popular Music album, wherein he compiled some of his selections for the greatest songs of the past millenia. He then took the list one step further, staging a series of shows wherein he performed selections from his list. It's amazing to me how much Thompson manages to make this normally vapid Britney tune sound like one of his own dark compositions. RT's latest album Front Parlour Ballads comes out this week.

Originally by : Britney Spears

Bob Mould released his first proper guitar rock record in eight years last week with his Body Of Song. A guitar hero to many, one of Mould's own idols is English folksinger Richard Thompson. He contributed this cover to a Thompson tribute album, Beat The Retreat, which came out over a decade ago. Thompson is still a vital creative force, and will release his new album Front Parlour Ballads next week. Mould also covered Thompson's signature "Shoot Out The Lights" on his Poison Years compilation, which I don't have but is so cheap I really don't have an excuse not to.

Originally by : Richard Thompson

Away for far too long, Scotland's pop godfathers Teenage Fanclub finally return to Toronto tomorrow for a show at the Mod Club in support of their latest, Man-Made. I've posted so many covers BY the Fannies, here's one OF the Fannies.

North Carolina's Comas contributed this track to a 2002 Teenage Fanclub tribute album called Is This Music?. Head Coma Andy Herod has a little background on the track here.

Originally by : Teenage Fanclub

The reunited original-lineup Dinosaur Jr are at the Phoenix tonight, and honestly I'm starting to get 11th hour itchings to go. It's STILL not a cheap ticket, but... Oh well, we shall see. Whether or not I'm in attendance, this event deserves a salute, so here I go. In keeping with their promise of playing "ear bleeding country", this cover of Gram Parson's Flying Burrito Boys is appropriately sludged up yet maintains its country-rock soul and comes from the Get Me single. This track doesn't actually feature the reunion lineup, but everyone's already heard "Show Me The Way" and "Just Like Heaven" a zillion times. But if anyone has a live recording of either of those tracks from the current tour... hit me up?

Originally by : The Flying Burrito Brothers

Sufjan Stevens' Illinois came out this week. Sort of. The Superman kerfuffle is now a thing of indie legend - read about it here if you've been living in a hole the past week.

I don't have much information about this R.E.M. cover performed live at some point in the past. I think Sufjan solo could make ANYTHING sound beautifully eerie and meditative. Interestingly, R.E.M. have a song "Superman" off their Life's Rich Pageant album which, itself, is a cover of an old song by The Clique.

This track comes courtesy of Copy, Right?

Originally by : R.E.M.

Before recording and releasing her breakthrough Let It Die album, Feist collaborated with Norway's soft-pop masters, Kings Of Convenience, lending vocals to several tracks on their Riot On An Empty Street album (Full story here) and no doubt picking up a trick or two on how to smoulder. The Kings paid tribute to Feist with this gloriously smooth cover of her "Gatekeeper" at a gig in Hamburg. Feist paid tribute to her home and native land this past Friday with a gloriously sexy Canada Day gig at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.

Originally by : Feist

Seattle's once- and- future- kings of power pop, The Posies, will release Every Kind Of Light (check out the ecard), their first album of new material in seven years, this Tuesday. Though they technically split after 1998's Success, band principals Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer continued to play together both formally and informally in the years that followed, including recording this Beatles cover for the soundtrack of The Royal Tennenbaums. While it didn't end up being used in the film or the soundtrack, it did finally see release in 2002 on the CD that came with one of the fourteen-billion Beatles tribute issues that Mojo puts out every year.

Originally by : The Beatles

Nashville-via-New York's Laura Cantrell releases Humming By The Flowered Vine, her third album (and first for Matador) this Tuesday. As stellar a re-interpreter of other peoples' works as she is a songwriter, here she gives this Elvis Costello number from King Of America a lighter, more playful tone. It was recorded for the World Cafe radio program in New York City and is taken from the downloads section of her website.

Originally by : Elvis Costello

New York's Ivy have long been a reliable source of excellent covers, though that's not hard when you have a frontwoman like Dominique Durand who can transform anything she sings into gorgeous Euro-pop. They released a covers album, Guestroom, in 2002 which collected previously released cover b-sides with newly recorded material. The track selection was superb, including songs originally by The Go-Betweens, Papas Fritas and this one, one of my favourite House Of Love songs. It's stripped down but still shines, as does most of this album. The light production really suits the band's sound better than the heavier gloss that their proper albums receive. But I digress.

Ivy play Lee's Palace tonight in support of their latest album, In The Clear.

Originally by : The House Of Love

This Tuesday see's the release of Teenage Fanclub's new album Man-Made in North America. The Fannies covered this Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd tune some 15 years ago for their mini-album The King which has a fun story behind it that I recapped in the February 1, 2004 mp3 of the week writeup. Read about it there. The band touring North America to support the new record starting in early July, though exact dates are yet to be confirmed.

Originally by : Pink Floyd

This was supposed to be one of those wonderful convergence weeks. Robyn Hitchcock was supposed to have played Lee's Palace last night and Six By Seven were supposed to have released their new album Artists Cannibals Poets Thieves in the UK last week and their last album, :04, was supposed to come out in North America this month as well.

Well as it turns out, Hitchcock postponed (broken foot), Artists has been pushed back until next week and :04 won't be available on these shores until August 16. But as a silver lining, Artists will be getting a domestic release this coming Winter and the band is hoping to stage their first North American tour in five years this Fall. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, this Soft Boys cover originally appeared as a b-side to the All My New Best Friends single.

Originally by : The Soft Boys

Another Decemberists cover, again without Colin Meloy on vocals. I don't think I would have wanted to hear him try to tackle this Kate Bush song anyway - newest Decemberist Petra Haden does such an amazing job with it. The Decemberists were in town last night on tour for Picaresque and they performed this song - the pic is actually of Petra singing it at the Toronto show. This recording, however, comes from their May 4 show at Irving Plaza in New York City.

Originally by : Kate Bush

Mercury Rev release The Secret Migration domestically on Tuesday and play the Kool Haus with Doves on Monday. It's so hard to reconcile the happy astronauts that appear on the new record with the sonic anarchists that created their first two albums or even the Appalachian ghosts of Deserter's Songs. I still like what they're doing now, but I do miss the chaos. I wish they'd maybe get a little bit seedier - perhaps they should hang out with Lou Reed some more, or at least his repetoire.

Originally by : Lou Reed

It's my 30th birthday on Wednesday, so "Growin' Up" is rather the theme for the week. You know, I could use a life-altering conversation with Bruce Springsteen right about now, a la John Cusack in High Fidelity. Oh well, I'll settle for Mac McCaughan speaking for the Boss. Portastatic recorded this cover live and a studio version appears on 2004's Autumn Was A Lark mini-album. And as a birthday present from me to you, here's Superchunk doing a live cover of "Born To Run". Dig the sax solo.

Originally by : Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

Ryan Adams new album, Cold Roses, hits on Tuesday and he'll be in Toronto for a show that same day. It's the first of three albums scheduled to come out this year - a stunt Adams almost pulled in 2002 when he was due to release four albums but which were instead compiled into the Demolition album. The complete albums managed to stay mostly under wraps until a couple months ago when they leaked to the interweb en masse. This track comes from the Destroyer sessions, and feature Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, who helped make Heartbreaker such a great record. It's actually a Welch song but here it's given a real Neil Young-ian makeover - shame about the messy edit, though.

Originally by : Gillian Welch

The new Mountain Goats album The Sunset Tree hits stores on Tuesday and they play Lee's Palace in two weeks. It'll be their first Toronto show, like EVER, so it's not really accurate to say "the boys are back in town" because the boys have never been in town... but anyway. I think this Thin Lizzy classic cover is from a Dutch radio broadcast - I love the announcer at the end. He makes me laugh.

Originally by : Thin Lizzy

The Shins return to Toronto tonight! Their last time through town, they were including this Jesus & Mary Chain cover in their set. I don't expect that it will still be on the set list almost three years later, but maybe something equally fun will have taken it's place? James Mercer trots out all sorts of interesting covers when he plays solo - I'll be posting some of those in the future. In the meantime, check out these two live recordings. The first was recorded at TT The Bears in Boston in July 2002 , and this one comes from a show at the Troubadour in LA, also probably from around '02.

Originally by : The Jesus & Mary Chain

Last week, The Delgados announced that after 10 years and five albums, they were splitting up. I had another track pencilled in for this week but a tribute is in order. They played this Electric Light Orchestra cover in the encores of their tour for Hate - Alun said he hated it, I guess the rest of the band outvoted him. It's taken from an October 2002 Peel session.

Originally by : The Electric Light Orchestra

The deluxe reissue of Elvis Costello's King Of America comes out in a couple weeks and Radiohead began work on their seventh album with Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood performing a new track at a recent live show. I believe this cover, taken from KoA, comes from the Tibetan Freedom Concert in 1999 (though the pic is from 1998, from Henry Wagner).

Originally by : Elvis Costello

It's probably easy to think of The Decemberists as a bunch of over- edumacated highbrow types, but as this live cover of '80s one-hit wonders The Outfield shows, they can also (soft) rock out and curse with the best of them, at least with guitarist Chris Funk on lead vocals. Their latest album Picaresque came out last week.

Originally by : The Outfield

The Yo La Tengo Prisoners of Love compilation comes out this week, and Man-Made, the first new Teenage Fanclub album in too many years, is out in the UK in just over a month (two months for North America). What better way to celebrate than with the Fannies covering Yo La Tengo? This instrumental version of "I Heard You Looking" appeared on one of the Neil Jung singles, circa Grand Prix. Note the size of the file - this is by far the largest download I've ever offered.

Originally by : Yo La Tengo

The final date of the Mark Olson/Gary Louris tour went down in Chicago last night, and with it the book is closed on The Jayhawks for the time being. I'm not sure when this live track dates from - possibly 1997 or 1998, circa Sound Of Lies - but I sort of like how they say goodbye to the crowd before playing the Chris Bell (of Big Star) tune but still hope to see them again tomorrow. Seems fitting, somehow.

Originally by : Chris Bell

Manchester's Doves released their record Some Cities last week - I only picked it up yesterday so there's no real opinions formulated at the time of this writing, but I do like this cover of The Beatles' "Blackbird" that they contributed to the soundtrack of that old WB soap opera Roswell, you remember, it was like The O.C., but with aliens.

Originally by : The Beatles

Iron & Wine, who released the Woman King EP last week, recorded a unique take on this Stereolab tune for a compilation CD that came with the second issue of Yeti magazine. The track also appeared on the Rough Trade Shops Counter Culture 03 compilation. I admit it took me a little while, but I think I love Iron & Wine more and more every day.

Originally by : Stereolab

M Ward's newest, Transistor Radio, is out this Tuesday and by all accounts it's excellent. His folk-based music has a terrific timeless quality that really lends itself to distinctive cover versions, such as this one of American Music Club's "Fearless", taken from the Come On Beautiful tribute album. M Ward also plays the El Mocambo next Sunday night.

Originally by : American Music Club

The Wedding Present, who release their first album under that name in years on Tuesday, have always been game for a good cover. In 1992 when they went on their record-setting single-a-month run, they recorded a cover as a b-side for each one. This uniquely Gedge take on Isaac Hayes' classic "Theme From Shaft" appeared on the August release. All 24 tracks were eventually collected on the Hit Parade releases.

Originally by : Isaac Hayes

The Netherlands' Bettie Serveert make a long-overdue return to Toronto this week, so they get the mp3 of the week spotlight. The band released a live album a few years back from a show consisting of all Velvet Underground covers, maybe as a nod and wink to all the VU comparisons they got early in their career (which I never really understood, but whatever). The set closer was, naturally enough, "Rock And Roll", complete with extended fuzzed-out solos. While their recent material has been more "mature", I hope they rock out like this on Thursday.

Originally by : The Velvet Underground

Ryan Adams announced this week that he'd be releasing three new albums in 2005. It's probably futile to hope that he'll have re-discovered the touch that made the Whiskeytown material so good, but we can hope. Maybe DRA should listen to this live version of the title track from the Gram Parsons tribute album, Return Of The Grievous Angel, that his old band cut with Emmylou Harris at the tribute concert for some inspiration.

Originally by : Gram Parsons

Two Low tracks in a month? Not intentional, but it happens - This time it's to celebrate the release of their new album The Great Destroyer on Tuesday. And while the new album takes the band in a new direction, I'm going to pay tribute to their signature sound with this live Smiths cover from Brussells, Belgium sometime in 2001. They also recorded a studio version for a 2001 EP, which I posted almost exactly two years ago and have put up again for this week only.

Originally by : The Smiths

I'm going to see Neko Case tonight, so I'm using this week's track to get primed. Neko & Her Boyfriends first recorded this old Everly Brothers tune for her 1997 debut album The Virginian, which was predominantly covers. This version was recorded for John Peel's radio show in September of 2000 at the BBC's Maida Vale studios, and features frequent cohort Carolyn Mark on vocals.

Originally by : The Everly Brothers

Instructions for selecting a cover of the week: Peruse blog posts from the past week, identify two artists who have been mentioned and find out if there is any cover song linking the two in your collection. If so, post and don't worry about it for another seven days. This week: The Boo Radleys fuzzifying New Order's "True Faith", cheekily retitled "Boo! Faith". From their Learning To Walk compilation album.

Originally by : New Order

I am on a J Spaceman kick, if you hadn't noticed. Low contributed this sparse cover of Spacemen 3's "Lord Can You Hear Me?" from Playing With Fire to the Tribute To Spacemen 3 album, and then Jason Pierce re-recorded the song for Spiritualized's 2001 album, Let It Come Down with none other than Low's Mimi Parker guesting on vocals.

Originally by : Spacemen 3