WikipediaDespite their having a great number of great and interesting covers to their name, I genuinely didn’t think I’d have occasion to post any more Luna on account of the fact that they ceased to exist seven years ago as of this past February and the ’90s reunion bandwagon has not yet rolled through Luna-ville, nor is it likely to anytime soon. So with that in mind, the fact that the last two Luna albums – 2002’s Romantica and 2004’s Rendezvous will be getting released on vinyl for the first time this Friday for Record Store Day as part of a reissue campaign is as good an excuse as any.

Not that 1999’s The Days Of Our Nights, which this Guns N’ Roses cover closed, is part of those reissues. I don’t know if there are rights issues to the record, what with it being issued on an imprint of an imprint of a major label that ceased to exist shortly after this album came out or if it’s just not high enough in the hierarchy of popular Luna releases, but I do know that it was hard enough to find when it was technically in print – I had to go all the way to Dean Wareham’s old stomping grounds of Cambridge, Massachusetts to get my copy (okay, I didn’t go expressly to buy it there but that’s where I found it). In any case, it’s a rare occasion of a cover being included on an album proper rather than saved for b-sides, but as the interview with Dean and Sean preceding the live version also included below indicates, it was supposed to catapult the band to fame and fortune. Or not.

The half of Luna that was Dean and Britta carry on as Dean & Britta, and have been busying themselves with their 13 Most Beautiful and Plays Galaxie 500 shows, though one would think that some new material of their own is percolating. Sean Eden and Lee Wall also seem to be keeping busy.

As for GN’R, you’ve probably heard the kerfuffle that ensued when questions of would the original lineup of the band reunite to play the induction ceremony last night were downgraded to would they even show up together and then even those were dashed earlier this week when Axl announced via Facebook that he was declining the induction altogether. They inducted him anyways. I would like to think that if/when Luna are inducted to the Hall Of Fame, they’ll reunite for the occasion. They’re eligible in 2017.

MP3: Luna – “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
MP3: Luna – “Sweet Child O’ Mine” (live on World Cafe)
Video: Guns N’ Roses – “Sweet Child O’ Mine

Jenny MortsellEven when in The Concretes, Victoria Bergsman wrapped her distinctive, sleepy vocals around unexpected cover versions of songs by acts as different as The Rolling Stones and Take That. So when in 2008, under her solo guise as Taken By Trees, she released a 7″ with an a-side rendition of the Guns N’ Roses classic tune, it was less a “WTF?” moment than a, “huh, okay”. Bergsman doesn’t do anything especially revolutionary besides play and sing it in exactly the way you might expect – simply and winsomely, accompanied by piano, acoustic guitar and some spare but effective drums – but that approach is different enough from the bombast of the original to make it distinctive.

Where Bergsman does surprise is on her new album East Of Eden, which is out this week. It was largely recorded in Pakistan and very much bears the sonic imprint of the region on its instrumentation, arrangements and ineffable “vibe” but is still very much recognizable as the gentle folk-pop which she plies. It’s a delicate line to walk, how to incorporate such strong outside influences into one’s own work without losing one’s identity, but Bergsman mostly pulls it off. And it contains yet another cover – Animal Collective’s “My Girls” recast as “My Boys”.

Meanwhile, Guns N’ Roses are still insane.

MP3: Taken By Trees – “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
Video: Guns N’ Roses – “Sweet Child O’ Mine”