Richman Lekman Yelle

I know this blog is supposed to be about covers, but Jeremy's high level of activity has propelled me to post something music related just so I don't fall terribly behind.

Just realized that Jonathan Richman and Jens Lekman have extremely similar voices!

Jonathan Richman - I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar
Jens Lekman - Into Eternity

I think someone noticed this a while ago and I dismissed it. Whoever that was: I'm sorry.


This is also a great video and song sent by my French friend Diana. It's 'Ce Jeu' by Yelle.

Patient Pre-Room Buffer Area

MP3 Seam / Heroes (David Bowie cover, 1999)

Seam's take on "Heroes" is very eldritch, which the dictionary claims is a real word.

The beeps sound like an EKG. That's a noise you can download for a small fee. Gimme "Hospital Transit-Lounge Beeps" at $4.95, thanks.

Sloppier Than the Sex Pistols

Well, usually they are. This is pretty disciplined by comparison.

MP3 Half Japanese / La Bamba (traditional/Ritchie Valens cover, 1987)

Vote By Texting L-O-U-E-E-E-E

Deep thought: what if "Louie Louie" was totally like written to prepare the universe for Lou Reed... man?

Great versions by the Kingsmen, the Kinks, etc et al of course but the guitar on these two just turs ut up. Plus Iggy's rhyme-'o-the-day: "Well a fine little girl, she's waiting for me / But I'm as bent as Dostoevsky."

MP3 The Sonics / Louie Louie (Richard Berry cover, 1965-ish)

MP3 Iggy Pop / Louie Louie (Richard Berry cover, 1993)

Lew Al: The Magic Man

Of all the songs Lou Reed could cover, 'This Magic Moment' is the obvious choice: 'sweeter than wine, softer than a summer's night'. It also allows me to write the name Doc Pomus. And look at pictures of Doc Pomus. Doc Pomus.

MP3 Lou Reed / This Magic Moment (The Drifters/Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman cover) from the Lost Highway Soundtrack

Do You Hate American Music?

MP3 Sex Pistols / Johnny B. Goode->Road Runner
(Chuck Berry/Jonathan Richman cover)

Allow someone who has a love-hate relationship with Rock 'n Roll to speak for himself...

Oh fuck it it's awful, I 'ate songs like 'at.
I don't know the words.
Eeeeya! Torture!
What's the first line??
Do we know any other fuckin' people's songs?

Vote By Texting O-S-T-R-I-C-H

More Lewis Allan Reed...

MP3 The Primitives (Lou Reed) / The Ostrich (single, 1964)
Reed's proto-Velvet Underground band included John Cale and released one boisterous single meant for airplay on the version of American Bandstand that plays in the third circle of hell. Not a cover but sounds that (that) way.

MP3 The Primitives (1980s) / I'll Be Your Mirror (Velvets cover, 1989)
The latter-day Primitives—named after the above dance-contest spoof troop and most famous for their 1988 single "Crash"—did a version of one of VU's most-covered tunes for their second LP.

MP3 Rainy Day / I'll Be Your Mirror (Velvets cover, 1984)
Different version by everyone's favorite Paisley Underground supergroup. Especially good if ... you... can't... stand... Nico.

All of Her Friends Call Her Alaska

MP3 Angel Corpus Christi / Caroline Says II (Lou Reed cover)

Currently on the Wasilla Alaska Wikipedia page in the "Notable Current or Former Residents" section: "Sarah Palin, female porn star and adult model, grew up in Wasilla."

What is in her mind?

Bossalicious

In the midst of the many female fronted Bruce Springsteen covers (Chromatics, better sounding live Chromatics version, Bat for Lashes, Tori Amos and so on) somebody finally got to a Grammy and Academy Award winner.

MP3 Salem / Brustreet (Bruce Springsteen 'Streets of Philadelphia' cover)

This Video Has Impaired All Brain Function

TUBE Unknown / Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen cover)

The inflatable penis-slide still has its cover; I'm not sure whether that means the kazoo/flatulence rendition of Queen qualifies as one or not. (See post title.) It's like something the Elephant 6 folks would film if they were all pervs.

Thanks to pal Brendan, foreskin-expert-in-training.

Slo-Mo Transmission

If Ian Curtis moved as if he were on opium rather than speed he would daaaaance... daaaaance... daaaance... to the ray- dee- oh...

MP3 Low / Transmission (Joy Division cover)

For the notebooks: on April 18, 1996, while playing a gig in Austin, TX, Low's vocalist Alan Sparhawk relents to audience requests, announcing, "Alright, alright we'll do 'Transmission' but don't ever ask us to do it again [OR I WILL SLOWLY REMOVE ALL THE BLOOD FROM YOUR VEINS LEAVING YOU IMMOBILE AND GREY LIKE ME]." Unquote.

Happy listening!

Cranberry Juice Cocktail

The Cranberries have been on my mind for the past 6 hours. I had a dazzling exchange with them this afternoon on Jack FM 104.3, flying down the Drive, windows open, screaming 'Dreams' at the top of my lungs. Here's their passable cover of The Carpenters' (They Long To Be) Close To You.

The Cranberries - (They Long To Be) Close To You (The Carpenters Cover)

bleep me some bleep bleep bleep

The Police ABBA Beulah Hot Hot Heat Th' Faith Healers and more of your favourites = the saps who've written/covered SOS message in a bottle tunes without even figurin a way to encode the Morse that made it all possible. Neat little guitar sheets bleat three short three long three short all the way home...

MP3 The Favourites / S.O.S. (ABBA cover, 1979)

Check out Little Hits, and verificate fer yourself...

MP3 Morse Code / S.O.S. (4 seconds in the desert of the real)

this song jus fuks shit up!!!

MP3 Judy Nylon / Jailhouse Rock (Elvis cover, 1982)

The people have thought it over for ten full years. Here's what they're currently saying about Vanilla Ice's 1998 comeback. (Remember, on YouTube chatboards everyone spells and grammars like they belong to the "post-ironic bunch," but the conjecturing itself falls along a spectrum.)

Comment by zboy419 (6 days ago)
this a better vannila ice than before no doubt

Comment by chitoz666 (1 week ago)
u can download this jam off of frostwire...this song jus fuks shit up!!!

Comment by ojasb (2 weeks ago)
no problem n__n i just didnt like the fact someone asossiaded korn with vanilla unless it was to say he tried to steal their style

Comment by HIPSTER_ADF (3 days ago)
Can an artist cover him/her/?self(s)?

Comment by posingforlove (1 day ago)
Yr craaaazy ADF. Sweeter than a lameface artist remaking him/herself like the Iceman would be one alter ego covering another... Chris Gains coverin Garth Brooks!! Vik Vaughn parodying King Geedorah?? Yerp!

Comment by Meta-Is-Betta (?)
Is the philosophizing an excuse to listen to Vanilla Ice? Or is Vanilla Ice an excuse to do the philosophizing we're too frightened to do in earnest? Let me rephrase: Why is the current generation most comfortable with aesthetic speculation when the object of attention is sheer rubbish? Have the VH1 specials really hoodwinked us into sympathizing with a hack?

Comment by Anal_lytic (11:43AM Tuesday, September 9, 2008)
Let's be more specific. Is a 50-year-old Elvis impersonator a cover artist? His band a cover band? Should "cover" be reserved for attempts (even those as commercially motivated as Mr. Robert Matthew Van Winkle's) to recreate an original rather than hanker nostalgically after a Platonic ideal? Could some taxonomically-inclined Rainman of pop music provide adequate distinctions between: remake, cover, rendition, impersonation, version, performance, take, interpretation, and so forth? Finally, what makes a for a "good" cover?

Comment by PalJudy (1982)
I pick creepiness.

When I Was A Child

I think Abba is just good/good.

I know this is kind of old, but I've recently been playing it a lot around mi casa just when I'm getting ready or want to get amped for a night out with my amigos.

The Futureheads - Hounds of Love (Kate Bush cover)

untitled franz

With the theoretical upcoming release of Lucid Dreams and the birth of Zuma Nesta Rock, I thought this was appropriate. Live recording, so not the highest sound quality, but props for incorporating 2 (two) songs:

Franz Ferdinand-What You Waiting For

Self-Improvement

Questions for self-reflection in the hopes of self-improvement:

What does the "yr" stand for? Year? Yassir? Young Rapists?

When did hipsters decide ABBA was legitimate music (presumably before the movie version of "Mamma Mia")? And is it supposed to be good-bad or bad-good?

Here's one for the post-ironic bunch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvtDiPt6s24

Vanilla Ice feat. Korn "Too Cold"; cover of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby"

Which leads us down a road of more questions than the answers we seek. Can an artist cover him/her/?self(s)? And does a cover by another name still sound as rap-metallic?

Highs: Rob's creepy whispering of "too cold/too cold", the Morello inspired guitar at the beggining, Rob standing by his long debunked claim of being from the streets of Miami
Lows: Rob's octave-jumping intonation on "ba-by", the standard metal riff that drives the rest of the song, the lack of a hook "inspired" by Queen
Verdict: Rage might have done a better job than Rob, but self-improvement is still a worthy cause!
Bonus: Dig the faux cinema verite. Is it a real fake concert video or a fake real music video?

super dooper

From the Go ABBA split 7" (1993):

Mambo Taxi / Super Trouper (ABBA cover)
Th' Faither Healers / S.O.S. (ABBA cover)

Mambo Taxi's take on "Super Trouper" is different. Less Scottish, less sad, more volume. I'd rather hum Camera Obscura's take, but I'd rather listen to this.