CB Mixtape #06: Roundball Rap (2010 NBA Playoffs Edition)

John Tesh draped in his vast overabundance of glory...



TITLE/DOWNLOAD: Roundball Rap (2010 NBA Playoffs Edition)
CONSTRAINT: Each song must reference the game of basketball.
TRACKLIST:

1. Roundball Rock / John Tesh
2. Basketball / Kurtis Blow
3. Never Seen Before / EPMD
4. It Ain't Hard to Tell (ft Large Professor) / Nas
5. Soul In The Hole / Wu All-Stars
6. Giving You the Best That I Got / Anita Baker
7. Chicago Bulls Theme (ft Ray Clay's 1995 Lineup Intro) / Chicago Bulls
8. (I Wanna) Be Like Mike / Gatorade
9. Sum Shit I Wrote / Common
10. Pennies / The Cool Kids
11. Lay It on Me / Beastie Boys
12. Basket Ball Get Your Groove Back / Deerhoof
13. Hit 'Em High (The Monstars' Anthem) / Method Man, LL Cool J, etc.
14. Dough Is What I Got / Lil Wayne
15. Hoop Dreams (He Got Game) / Snoop Dogg
16. I Got a Story to Tell / The Notorious B.I.G.
17. The Infamous Date Rape / A Tribe Called Quest
18. Back Like That (remix ft Kanye West/Ne-Yo) / Ghostface
19. Pop Bottles (Death To The Throne Remix ft Lil Wayne) / Birdman
20. Gay Human Bones / Harlem
21. He Got Game / Public Enemy
22. It Was a Good Day / Ice Cube
23. B-Ball / Master P [Bonus]

GO BULLS

Michael Jordan &, um, Gatorade / Be Like Mike (ft rap)

Both the jam and the commercial are from 1992.

Low Supply #17: Four Tet

4TET SINGLES (DISC 1)

1998
Thirtysixtwentyfive

1998
Field

1999
Glasshead
Calamine (Radio Mix)
Glasshead (DJ Food Remix)

Read more »

Low Supply #16: Alex Chilton

CHILTONES: Sevens, EPs, etc. (1:17:04)

RARITIES
1. [on the upside of death] / Live on KUT in Austin, Texas (1978)
2. Take Me Home and Make Me Like It / Bach's Bottom LP (1975)

BANGKOK 7" (1978)
3. Bangkok / Bangkok 7"
4. Can't Seem To Make You Mine (The Seeds cover)

FEUDALIST TARTS EP (1985)
5. Tee Ni Nee Ni Noo/Tip On In (Slim Harpo cover)
6. Stuff
7. B-A-B-Y (David Porter/Isaac Hayes cover)
8. Thank You John (Willie Turbinton cover)
9. Lost My Job
10. Paradise

NO SEX EP (1986)
11. No Sex
12. Under Class
13. Wild Kingdom

BLACK LIST EP (1989)
14. Little GTO (Ronny and the Daytonas cover)
15. Guantanamerik
16. Jailbait
17. Baby Baby Baby
18. Nice And Easy Does It (Frank Sinatra cover)
19. I Will Turn Your Money Green (Furry Lewis cover)

COMPILATION TRACKS
20. With a Girl Like You (Troggs cover) / 19 Years (1991)
21. The Happy Song / 1970 (1996)
22. Sugar Sugar/I Got The Feelin' (Heavy Medley) [Archies/James Brown cover] / 1970 (1996)
23. Downs [Demo] / Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story (2007)

BONUS: Big Star + Teenage Fanclub Collaborative 7"
1. Mine Exclusively (Sherlie Mae Matthews cover)
2. Patti Girl (Gary And The Hornets cover)

CB Mixtape #05: Sic-Disco

Mix: In the Rambow Room (Sic-Disco)
Password: pw

01 / Backwell / Beak
02 / You Are Here (Four Tet Remix) / Nathan Fake
03 / Truck Stop / Hamilton Bohannon
04 / E.V.A. / Jean-Jacques Perrey
05 / Pay the Price / R. Stevie Moore
06 / Contact / Nudge
07 / Savanna Prance / The Missing Brazilians
08 / Bicycle / Memory Tapes
09 / Signs / Jay Dee
10 / Ripped Open by Metal Explosions / Galt Macdermot
11 / Catch (Dub Version) / Sun La Shan
12 / Oxygene 5 / Jean Michel Jarre
13 / Slipping Away / Jane
14 / Last Exit (Fennesz Remix) / Junior Boys
15 / Andaza / Julian Lynch

Low Supply #15: Ruby Suns B-Sides

Out soon: Therub By Suns's Fights Lowly El-Pee.

Out now:

2005 "Sister Brother" [Australian 7"]

2005 "Michi Ni Mayoimashita" [Japanese bonus track from S/T LP]

2007 Lichen Ears [six-song EP]

2008 "Palmitos Park" [El Guincho cover from Para Que Celebren Todos 7"]

2010 "Olympics on Pot" [final track from Fight Slowly]

Low Supply #14: Fennesz eats Junior Boys

Of the 5 bonustrackextras from the Junior Boys' 2004 debut LP Last Exit, the 1 worth the time it is is...

Junior Boys / Last Exit (Fennesz Mix)
Shorts Attention Span Second: 3:07

For collectaholics, a zipper of the full fiver...

Junior Boys / Last Exit Extras

1. Unbirthday
2. Last Exit (Fennesz Mix)
3. Birthday (Manitoda Mix)
4. A Certain Association
5. Teach Me How to Fight (Instrumental Version)

CB Mixtape #04: Birthdays

RULE

All songs must have the word "birthday" in the title.

FILE

We're Having a Party (111 MB, 22 tracks, 77 min).

TRACKLIST

01. Happy Birthday 1975 / Joni Mitchell & Charles Mingus
02. Birthday / The Beatles
03. Happy Birthday / Altered Images
04. Birthday Party (single edit) / Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five
05. Birthday / Junior Boys
06. It's Kate's Birthday / Washed Out
07. Every Time She Turns Round It's Her Birthday / Manitoba
08. Birthday / The Jesus & Mary Chain
09. Birthday / Mission of Burma
10. Unhappy Birthday / The Smiths
11. Birthday / Home & Garden
12. Happy Birthday / Marilyn Monroe
13. Birthday (Beatles cover) / People
14. The Happy Birthday Song / Andrew Bird
15. Sad Birthday / Bombadil
16. Happy Birthday / The Birthday Party
17. Birthday (Icelandic version) / The Sugarcubes
18. Happy Birthday, Dear Friend Lisa / Jens Lekman
19. Birthday on Mars / The Ruby Suns
20. Hushabye (live cover) & Happy Birthday Four Freshmen / The Beach Boys
21. Happy Birthday / Sufjan Stevens
22. Birthday Present (edit) / Mirah

CB Mixtape #03: 2009

RULE

One beloved 2009 song for each minute of linear time, 0-10. Eleven (thirteen) songs total.


FILE

Favorite 13 Songs, 2009 (117 MB, 63 min). Or nab 'em one-by-one below.


TRACKLIST

00 micachu / sweetheart (0:53)
best happy meal

01 broadcast & focus group / how do you get along, sir? (1:11)
best #1 hidden stomp party

02 ariel pink / rama ya (2:12)
best rock 'n' roll, thanks chris!

03 wonder wheel / alright, okay (3:21)
best lyrics

04 electric six / egyptian cowboy (4:20)
best epic, thanks gene!

05 cam'ron / i hate my job (4:46, sorry)
best social realism, thanks killa cam!

06 matias aguayo / rollerskate (6:09)
best exercise

07 charles spearin / vanessa (7:52)
best saw-this-literally-hypnotize-a-guy-live

08 blues control / tangier (8:00)
best ost for making sweet love to w.s. burroughs

09 four tet & burial / wolf (9:02)
best sense of creeping dread/doom

10 freddie gibbs / higher learning + smoke the pain away (10:43)
best CST love (and best line: "i just want a piece a / sticky stanky chunky country hunky funky reefa")


BONUS TRACKS

02 alternate #1: ty segall / universal momma (2:28)
best utopian phrase, beachtowel

02 alternate #2: back to you / the test patterns (2:36)
best first half-second, thanks glenn!



MORE

pointless listing here and here

2009, 1 text

FAVORITE 1 PIECE OF MUSIC CRITICISM, 2009

01 some dude reviewing ducktails's bpp 7"


more pointless listing here and here

2009, 10 albums

FAVORITE 10 ALBUMS, 2009

01 ariel pink / grandes exitos - greatest hits
02 ariel pink / reminiscences e
03 javelin / jamz and jemz
04 test patterns / blackout ep
05 wonder wheel / splitting response
06 yo la tengo / popular songs
07 micachu / jewellery
08 ducktails / landscapes
09 julian lynch / orange you glad
10 bibio / ambivalence avenue

spend dollars on mr pink via here

more pointless listing here and here

Low Supply #13: JANE - Discography

Buy orders of trainfelt angermobs: Supermod specialty bite-diggers CEASE/DESIST bonkerin for Aminal's Cracker Collections of electreecitys.
{Ceptin the po'pocaleptic Bach Boyzisms of PandEar's Persons Itch (2047) course.

{They dozin.}}

Skip alotta the ole staysis and the orders or dont. Eat the fat. Buns, buns etheror membrane 1 key singthing:

J-A-N-E is sweet and says hardwood sockless alonings in sad nyApt. from list by-byer; furkin with pedals gears butts ons offs ups. Disco (sic). Writing. 'Til bamback at the prebomb timezonera, braindanclings.

Cocos? Solid AU walL?? Rockula!! Best = slips>berserks>wait. Nu ferns for new revulas, non-Marionettis. Sos. Here be the goodins, Misses and Misters bite-diggin kiddoskies...

PS: Mo? Le me no. P.S.S. Soonabomba:: No confusins with thees o dis.


PART 1 / JANE / PARADISE EP + COCONUTS EP (no mo)

PARADISE EP 2004
1. Slipping Away (Without Bass)
2. Wait
3. Solid Gold Wall

COCONUTS EP 2005
1. Coconuts
2. Ossie


PART 2 / JANE / BERSERKER EP + HOT CHIP RMX (no no no mo)

BERSERKER EP 2005
1. Berserker
2. Agg Report
3. Slipping Away
4. Swan
5. Berserker (Bonus 12" Version)

HOT CHIP: BOY FROM SCHOOL (THE MIXES) EP 2006
1. And I Was a Boy from School (JANE's Queens Remix)

nyc tales, of epical variety

turns out this is a cover. who knew?

Built to Spill / She's Real (Kicking Giant/Ronettes cover)

Kicking Giant / She's Real (7" Original)

Kicking Giant / She's Real (LP Original)

Buy BTS/Caustic Resin
Buy KG

Low Supply #12: Henry's Dress - Complete Discography

Twelfth in a series of kindasortahardtofind albums of pizmotal rent-a-riots.

Henry's Dress / Complete Discography Zip

5 albums, 23 songs total:

1620 7" (1993)
Astronautical Music Festival 7" (1994)
Henry's Dress 10" (1995)
Bust 'em Green LP (1996)
Henry's Dress/Rocketship Split 7" (1996)

Buy the HD

Low Supply #11: Dump - International Airport EP

Dump = James McNew of Yo La Tengo.

try...
Dump / International Airport EP

buy...

CB Mixtape #02: Halloweening

RULE

All 31 songs must be certified Halloween bangers.

FILE

The Skeletons Puh-rancing: Lord Sutch, His Ancestors & Descendants

TRACKLIST

1. How Do You Get Along Sir? / Broadcast / 2009
2. Til the Following Night / Screaming Lord Sutch / 1961
3. She's Fallen in Love (With the Monster Man) / Screaming Lord Sutch / 1961
4. Rockin' Bones / The Cramps / 1981
5. Alligator Wine (SJH cover) / Johnny Thunders & Patti Palladin / 1988
6. Little Demon / Screamin' Jay Hawkins / 1957
7. I Am Gonna Unmask The Batman / Sun Ra / 1954
8. Zombies / King Khan & BBQ Show / 2006
9. Goo Goo Muck / Ronnie Cook / 1978
10. The Lord's Prayer (ft William S. Burroughs) / Sonic Youth / 1990
11. Freakshow / The Gothic Archies / 2006
12. Frankenstein Pt 1 / Chuck Osbourne / 1975
13. Skeleton / Elf Power / 2000
14. Zombie Graveyard Party / Be Your Own Pet / 2008
15. Berzerker 1 / Olaf Oleeson / 1994
16. Halloween Song / DQE / 1996
17. Dracula / Marbles / 2005
18. I'm a Vampire / Future Bible Heroes / 2002
19. Dracula’s Wedding (ft Kelis) / Outkast / 2003
20. Heartbeats / The Knife / 2004
21. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) / David Bowie / 1980
22. Werewolf / The Frantics / 1960
23. What's a Girl to Do? / Bat for Lashes / 2006
24. Brian the Vampire / Xiu Xiu / 2004
25. Vampire Beats / The Mae Shi / 2005
26. Skeletons / Inflatable Boy Clams / 1980
27. Cemetery Polka / Tom Waits / 1985
28. Equally Damaged / Blonde Redhead / 2000
29. Saved by Old Times / Deerhunter / 2008
30. Vampire / Lee Scratch Perry & Devon Irons / 1979
31. Ghost of Frankenstein / Scientist / 1981

Bonus: Salem / Brustreet

Low Supply #11: Fridge - Sevens & Twelves

Eleventh in a series of kindasortahardtofind albums of cucumbered fleer ('n' gleeks!).

Hard-to-find compilation of early singles from Fridge, the post-rock outfit led by Kieran Hebden/Four Tet. Released in 1998 by Output Recordings. Way neat.

try
Fridge / Sevens and Twelves / Disc 1

try
Fridge / Sevens and Twelves / Disc 2

buy
7/12s

D1
1. Anglepoised (15:03)
2. For Force (4:28)
3. Astrozero (6:36)
4. Jessica (4:34)
5. Simple Harmonic Motion (5:22)
6. Lign (Extended Mix) (0:37)
7. It's All On (3:42)
8. EH4-800 Phase Shifter (2:24)
9. Sequoia (13:01)

D2
10. Orko (8:40)
11. The Traps (5:53)
12. Concert In Your House (2:11)
13. Must Be Magic (5:20)
14. Asthma (6:53)
15. Fisa (3:24)
16. Config (6:22)
17. Lojen (4:08)
18. Distance (10:42)

CB Mixtape #01: Girls!

RULE

All songs must contain a list of women's names or a list of "types" of women.

FILE

Girls! Girls! Girls!: A Brief History of the Macro-Blazon

TRACKLIST

1. To All the Girls / Beastie Boys / 1989
2. Too Many Girls / Billy Dee M.C. / 1989
3. Butter / A Tribe Called Quest / 1991
4. California Girls / The Beach Boys / 1965
5. Back in the U.S.S.R. / The Beatles / 1968
6. Calling All Girls / Half Japanese / 1977
7. Swimsuit Issue / Sonic Youth / 1992
8. Tired of Sex / Weezer / 1996
9. 52 Girls / B-52's / 1978
10. Hot Topic / Le Tigre / 1999
11. Around the Way Girl / LL Cool J / 1997
12. What These B*****s Want [ft Sisqo] / DMX / 1999
13. Smart Girls / Brian Wilson / 1990
14. Girls Girls Girls (Part II) / The Coasters / 1954
15. Some Girls / The Rolling Stones / 1978
16. The Girls / Calvin Harris / 2007
17. 88 Lines About 44 Women / The Nails / 1984
18. And a Bang on the Ear / The Waterboys / 1991
19. Electric Relaxation / A Tribe Called Quest / 1993
20. Mambo No. 5 / Lou Bega / 1999
21. Supermodel / Rupaul / 1993
22. California Girls / The Magnetic Fields / 2008

BONUS

Mighty Casey / White Girls / 2003

NOTES

Collated with inputs from Stylus. Apologies for embedded sexism and track 20.

Bat for Lashes Do The Boss

Happy 60th, Bruce!

Synopsis #3: Waxidermatology

Below is a stack of thirty-seven songs from the incredible WAXIDERMY. I've linked directly to the files so they can be effortlessly taken, stored, possessed, & petted rather than merely sampled at the site. About half of these are amazing; the rest are merely intriguing. The first five are all very highly recommended.

ORIGINAL 37

raymond-columbus-cmon-and-swim

joe-cobb-its-LB-time

jay-walker-paper-dolls

various-god-is-for-real

spooky2-shake-that-thang

Read more »

likalonganeckagoosa

CLIKLICLIQ R. Stevie Moore / Chantilly Lace (bigboppercover)

BUY his amazing comp at othermusic

segalling

i enjoy the harmonies on this song very much.

Click Ty Segall / You're Not Me

Buy from Ty (or the Wiz)

Low Supply #10: Home & Garden - History & Geography

Tenth in a series of kindasortahardtofind albums of smellevistic crenellations.

Pere Ubu spinoff Home and Garden released one LP, "History and Geography." It's a world-beater; it burns reversible jackets for a living. Do homework with Bowers.

TRY Home & Garden / History & Geography

BUY HG's HG

Low Supply #9: Disco Inferno - 5 EPs

Ninth in a series of kindasortahardtofind albums of lymphing technostructures... Psst-rockers and early sound-collagists Disco Inferno released fifteen tracks across five EPs and singles from 1992 to 1994. Careful research has shown them to be faultless weapon rod 60". Do homework with Reynolds and Abebe... Buy here or try below...

CLICK Disco Inferno / The 5 EPs

TRACKLIST

Summer's Last Sound (1992)

Summer's Last Sound
Love Stepping Out

A Rock To Cling To (1993)

From the Devil to the Deep Blue Sky
A Rock to Cling To

The Last Dance (1993)

The Last Dance
D.I. Go Pop
The Long Dance
Scattered Showers

Second Language (1994)

Second Language
The Atheist's Burden
At the End of the Line
A Little Something

It's A Kid's World (1994)

It's a Kid's World
A Night on the Tiles
Lost in Fog

All-Request Line #2

The New Pornographers should cover the song "Waterloo" by ABBA.

All-Request Line #1

A funk band should cover the song "Kids" by MGMT.

(echo on the bass (echo on the bass (echo on the bass)))))

Synopsis #2: 2-D HYPETASTIC HYPETOWN CYNOPS

Following on last month's Mutant Sounds synopsis, here's a stab at another time-sucking super-archive: Hyped To Death. H2D specializes in compiling and selling forgotten U.S. and U.K. punk, post-punk, and power-pop from the 1970s-'80s. The following is a vain attempt at a 20-track best-of variety pack. It's culled from the Teenline (U.S. power-pop, 11 tracks), Homework (U.S. DIY, 5 tracks), and Messthetics (U.K. DIY, 3 tracks) series and the Performing Ferrets (U.K. "band," 1 track) compilation.

All in all: sweltering, like the soundtrack from an unmade softcore directed by John Hughes.

CLICK: Let's Glow / Craig Bevan (MP3)

CLICK: H2D SYNOPSIS (Zip file, 20 tracks)

01. I'm A Square / Anorexia
02. Popstar / Armed Force
03. Tight Jeans / Astrobeats
04. Where Did The Girls Go / Astrosurf
05. You Were an Optimist / Band of Susans
06. Boys Town Work Song / Christmas
07. American Neutron / Citizen 23
08. Let's Glow / Craig Bevan
09. Kiss and Tell / J.D. Buhl
10. Trak (ft lyrics by William Burroughs) / Marc Thor*
11. The Rush / Performing Ferrets
12. Turn Me On / Riff Doctors
13. Break the Ice / Scruffs
14. Walking On The Roof / Sgt. Arms
15. Teen Line / Shivvers
16. Something on My Mind / Speedies
17. Let Me Take Your Foto / Speedies
18. Girl On The Bus / Thin Yoghurts
19. Americommandos / Zodio Doze
20. Giving It All To You / 20-20

*Note from H2D: "Marc Thor's second single, 'Trak,' is also from 1979. It's a typical Boston/Rat-scene gtrrock chug, but the lyrics are a fictional cigarette ad penned by none other than William Burroughs."

BUY from Hyped to Death's sto.

Low Supply #8: Damian & the Criterions - Avant Garde EP

Eighth in a series of kindasortahardtofind albums of damaged euphoria.

MP3 Damian and the Criterions / Give Me More (1983?)

EP Damian and the Criterions / Avant Garde (1982)

EP TRACKLIST
1. I Need Bread
2. Gee Leo USA (aka Giglio USA)
3. Witches Brew
4. My Sweet Angel
5. Atlantic City USA
6. The Slam

This record is unavailable for purchase. Thanks to Nevver and the now-defunct Blank Dogs site (check out the wily BDs on MySpace).

Low Supply #7: Experiments in Affect

less ness.

1. with the Flying Lizards, who run the oldies countdown thru with an electric Turkey-knife. Try first: "Sex Machine" (Marvin Gaye cover).

2. with the Flying Lizards, who run a set of dub tapes thru with numberless Sierpinski triangles on The Secret Dub Life.

3. with the Flying Lizards, who have one original included in the MS pack.

4. with the Flying Lizards, who appear in forms various and sundry at Mutant Sounds.

This post is the seventh in a series of kindasortahardtofind albums of economonomistic enoughness.

Please BUY some OF these AT inSOUND.

Low Supply #6: Judy Nylon - Pal Judy

Sixth in a series of kindasortahardtofind albums of crypto-militaristic lust.

CLICK Judy Nylon & Crucial / Pal Judy LP (1982)

TRACKLIST

1. Information Rain
2. Dateline Miami
3. Live In A Lift
4. Jailhouse Rock (Elvis cover)
5. Trial By Fire
6. Sleepless Nights
7. Others
8. The Dice
9. Room Without A View

CLICK for FULL DISCOGRAPHY of Judy Nylon and Snatch (Judy Nylon + Patti Palladin)

CLICK for SNATCH LP and SNATCH EP

BUY a related compilation! at emusic or the LPs for mucho dinero at discogs

Low Supply #5: Seam - B-Sides

Fifth in a series of kindasortahardtofind albums of murky mollycoddle.

CLICK Seam / B-Sides (1991-99) [password = pw]

Includes all of Seam's non-LP tracks from various singles, EPs, and comps. Also a good idea to acquire all four of Seam's LPs. In fact it's probably best to purchase at least three copies each of 1993's The Problem With Me and 1995's Are You Driving Me Crazy? I love this band they are awesome.

19 TRACKS

DAYS OF THUNDER 7" (1991)
Days of Thunder
Grain
Which Way To Go

GRANNY 9x 7" (1992)
Granny 9x
Look Back In Anger (Television Personalities cover)

KERNAL 12" (1993)
Kernel
Sweet Pea
Feather
Shame
Driving the Dynamite Truck (Breaking Circus cover)

OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE CD compilation (1994)
This Ain't No Picnic (Minutemen cover)

HEY LATASHA 7" (1995)
Mellow Noise U.S.A.

SUKIYAKI 7" (1999)
Sukiyaki (Kyu Sakamoto cover ft Yan Pan on vocals)
Heroes (David Bowie cover)

DAYS OF THUNDER 7" (1991) - ALT
Days of Thunder ALT
Grain ALT
Which Way to Go (Big Boys cover) ALT

KERNAL 7" (1993)
Kernel ALT
Sweet Pea ALT

A Girl Like You Without the Rest of the Boys

TV on the Radioless Dave Sitek covers The Troggs on the Dark Was The Night compilation, hanging on to some of those funky horns from Dear Science.

Mp3 Dave Sitek / With a Girl Like You (Troggs Cover)

Synopsis #1: MONSTER MUTANT CYCLOPS SYNOPS

Mutant Sounds specializes in early- and mid-'80s obscuranti, though not exclusively. I've wasted approximately one full month (720 hours) of my life over the past year scouring its depths. The result is this synopsis, which might be thought of as The Best of Mutant Sounds Lite or Mutant Sounds Goes Pop!. It ignores the improvisational avant-noise psych-jazz side of the archive in favor of jams that manage to be simultaneously catchy and deranged.

Below is a two-part compilation of the Top 30 Songs from across all of Mutant Sounds (objectively speaking). Sub-below are links to the Top 5 Albums available for free download via Mutant Sounds (objectively speaking). The singles on the compilations are mostly gourd-whacked pop gems; the LPs tend to be far farther out, more droney. The whole caboodle includes at least three covers.

Lastly, some cringe-worthy sincerity: THESE SONGS ARE ALL RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING TRUST ME NO EXCLAMATION MARKS.


TOP 30 SONGS

CLICK: MUTANT SOUNDS CYCLOPS SYNOPS [password = pw]
 
01 / Langst Vorbei? / A5
02 / Do Zeu Twist / ADN' Ckrystall (see below)
03 / Strawberry Cheesecake / Algebra Mothers
04 / Talk Talk Video / Berlin
05 / Bone Shake Ska / C.U.B.S.
06 / A Bus for a Bus on the Bus / Cardiac Arrest
07 / Killing Time / Celibate Rifles
08 / Yes Please! / Confetti
09 / Televisöo / Corpo Diplomatico
10 / A Big Dead Man [live] / Deep Freeze Mice
11 / Shaking All Over / Drinking Electricity
12 / Move On Up / The Flying Lizards
13 / Portugal Na Cee / Grupo Novo Rock
14 / Trains vs. Planes / Human Hands

15 / She Was My Girl / Innocent Vicars
16 / Synthesizer Man / Invisible Zoo
17 / Look Again / The Last
18 / Time To Get Up / Los Microwaves
19 / Track 09 / Magma
20 / Video Lizards / Mickey Bliss
21 / A Lump In Your Throat Pt. 2 / A Mouse Orchestra
22 / Strychnine [Sonics cover] / Nazis From Mars
23 / Wine World / Pink Section
24 / Glendora / Going All The Way & The Slickee Boys
25 / The Girl with the Patent Leather Face / Soft Cell
26 / Carne del Sol / Steaming Coils
27 / Garbage / Student Nurse
28 / Janitor / Suburban Lawns
29 / Milk Rock / Takako Minekawa
30 / 01-01-212 / Vice Creems


TOP 5 ALBUMS

CLICK: Mutant Sounds TOP 5 LPs [password = pw] 

01 / Red Shark / Le Fin EP (1986, tape)
A stretched out tough-guy version of the Feelies at their most Velvety. Seven tracks, including a VU cover and a Billie Holiday cover. 650 out of 10.

02 / Null & Void / Happiness & Contempt EP (1980, vinyl)
Sleazy robots burning cigarettes into their palms, playing synths with both feet.

03 / Neue Krankenscheine / S/T EP (1983, tape)
Snappy, pocket-sized, epic-free version of Kraftwerk.

04 / Skating for Cover / Rituals EP (1983, tape)
Extended theme-song for a superhero named Melancholy Man as s/he flies with arms outstretched, fists lightly clenched, from the cityscape to the countryside during the credit sequence of the sequel.
05 / Sympathy Nervous / Apple Head LP (released 1995)
Stunning spook-synth of the m i n i m a l i s t rain from Japan. Other releases include: S/T LP (1980), Polaroid 7" (1980), OUTPUT Vol 1 7" (1981).


TOP 5 RUNNERS-UP

CLICK: Mutant Sounds NEXT 5 LPs - PART A / PART B [pw = password]

06 / Blue Orchids / A Darker Bloom (1980-92, CD comp)
Minimal post-punk dexterously fashioned for the countless young Turks who know we should like The Fall but just barely do or don't.

07 / The Fates / Furia LP (1985)Skyclad Irish pagantry in the form of an offshoot of the Mark-E-Smith-offshoot Blue Orchids (see above).

08 / Kim Jung Mi / Now LP (1973)Windy Korean folk = grgs, gorgs, gorges, gorgeos, gorgeous.

09 / ADN' Ckrystall / Jazz Mad LP (1982)
Psych-wave electronica. "WE ARE ALL MADE OF ADN' CKRYSTALL" indeed. See also: Track 02 above, the extended version of Cocaine Vitamina, and the Arabesketch single from 1985.

10 / Fiction / Overdrive LP (1980, tape)
Loose, femme-fataled NDW. Slightly better than the more polished The Last Dream of Phoebe Zeitgeist.

Thanks MutantS!

80s on 70s Bowie, or Swimming with Dolphins is Cool

These are all sort of odd. I'll leave it at that.

Mp3 Culture Club / Starman (David Bowie Cover)

Mp3 Duran Duran / Fame (Bowie Cover)

Mp3 Blondie / Heroes (Bowie Cover)

There's a lot more where that came from...

"the beach is big"

Pushurge in the direction of Said the Gramophone for Nobunny's um-cover of the Isley Brothers' "Nobody But Me" (1963), best known in its garagerockclassic version recorded by the otherwise forgotten Human Beinz in 1968.

The StG capsule about the song is neat and neatly written, though it does make me picture the tubby open-mic poet/host from the only truly brilliant episode of the Sarah Silverman show reading Blake's "To Nobodaddy" in his forceful monotone.

In case the jam goes offline, here it is along with the appropriate documentation.

CLICK1 Nobunny / Nobunny Loves You (Isley Brothers cover, 2008)

CLICK2 The Human Beinz / Nobody But Me (Isley Brothers cover, 1968)

CLICK3 The Isley Brothers / Nobody But Me (1963)

POETRY

Host: This next one is called "The Beach is Big."

The beach is big, where's our blanket? Where's our blanket?
A thousand faces. A sea of faces.
Where's our blanket? Where's our blanket?
Oh, there it is

Low Supply #4: Opal - Happy Nightmare Baby LP

Fourth in a series of kindasortahardtofind albums of windswept angularity.

TRY Opal / Happy Nightmare Baby LP (1987)

Anachronistic but fact: Opal = Judy Nylon + Black Mountain.

BUY Opal used at discogs

Showdown Pt. 1: Covering Crotch Man

I don't like Bruce Springsteen at all, and yet I keep posting covers of his songs... Why is the vest-wearing, crotch nailin' Boss so damn coverable?

MP3 Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (w/Concern) / Born in the USA (Bruce Springsteen Cover)

Who wins, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone or Arcade Fire? I say Casiotone, easily.

MP3 Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (w/Concern) / Streets of Philadelphia (Bruce Springsteen Cover)

Who wins, Casiotone or Salem? I say Salem, but in a much closer contest.

And, just to move out from under (or from in front of?) the Boss' crotch:

MP3 Casiotone for the Painfully Alone / Graceland (Paul Simon Cover) (way better than the original)

Low Supply #3: Sonic Youth - Ciccone Youth LP

Third in a series of kindasortahardtofind albums of shimmering luminescence.

Try...

LP SONIC YOUTH AKA CICCONE YOUTH / THE WHITEY ALBUM
(1988)

MP3 Madonna / Into the Groove
(1985)

MP3 Madonna / Into the Groove Rmx
(Sidechains remix, 2008)

MP3 Sonic Youth / Into the Groovey
(Madonna cover, 1986/88)

MP3 Sonic Youth / Into the Groovey Rmx
(Madonna cover, Cut Copy remix, 2006)

BUY the re-release.

Born in Canada

Arcade Fire / Born in the USA (Bruce Springsteen Cover)

"teddy ruxpin buckskin"

wen i c u x 5, inspired by this which i pretty much like all the way [rap +/≈ poetry = duh] even if "This white fetishism of the crack-rap [and purple drank] movement is getting weird"

in order from best to worst (objectively speaking)...

1. Mike Jones / When I See U (Fantasia cover)
vocals by Mike Jones, from Running 4 President 2k8, 2007
note: R4P2k8 observes inaugurationary protocols, attends multiple balls

2. Mike Jones / When I See U (alt Fantasia cover)
vocals by ??, from Running 4 President 2k8, 2007
note: just the above version slowed to a craaaaawl?

3. Fantasia / When I See U (remix 1)
Polow Da Don Rmx ft Young Jeezy
note: xxxhottt club JAM!

4. Fantasia / When I See U (original)
s/t album version, 2006
note: "fully breaks... free of her American Idol persona" according to allmusic. FINALLY.

5. Fantasia / When I See U (remix 2)
Lil Wayne/Young Jeezy remix ft B.G./Remy Ma, 2007
note: lil wayne=very special rhymer, this remix = ok

"babybabybaby"

CLICK (diana ross &) the supremes / where did our love go? (quarterbar re-do/remix)

how much was there before (1964)? how much is only there now (2006)? who can tell us? what kind of spectrometer do we NEED?

find more sad-pleasure at the quarterbar site, and order the salt 'n' pepa remix.

Low Supply #2: Futurisk - Army Now 7"

Second in a series of hard-to-find albums of jittery genius.

Futurisk / The Sound of Futurism 7" (1980, Clark Humphrey)

1. Army Now
2. What We Have to Have

Here's the boys from South F-L-A performing "Army Now" in 1982 on the Ed Rich Rock Show. On vocals: Ian Curtis with terrible hair dancing as if his business school application depended on it. On Moog: Jonah Hill.

get the vinyl reissue

"superlative superlative superlative"

click WAVVES / No Hope Kids

best death scene

also click WAVVES / So Bored

Not not a -cover, as yet unreleased, to appear on the forthcoming follow-up LP, read here.

"the plural is broose"

...and to set up against it as it were the Goon Show of their humour.

A wobbulable impulse.

--"Dr Jeremias Müller"

CLICK The Blankket / I'm on Fire [Bruce Springsteen cover, 2007]

And click.

CLICK The Blankket / This Time [Celine Dion cover, 2008]

And click.

Low Supply #1: North Korea - Radio Pyongyang

First in a series of kindasortahardtofind albums of yepic lunacy.

This one's 47 minutes of transmissions taped from North Korea's Radio Pyongyang. It was released by Sublime Frequencies but is now out of print. Remember, in the DPRK the radios are modified to receive only government broadcasts. And they have no ON/OFF switches.


CLICK FOR LP
Radio Pyongyang / Commie Funk & Agit Pop from the Hermit Kingdom

CLICK FOR MP3
Radio Pyongyang / Track 2: New Model Army

TRY TO BUY BUT SO OUT OF PRINTSTOCK

FF

THANKS XM/Sirius Radio, for introducing me to Fleet Foxes and helping me "get" the "net" just before 2008 runs out.

wilco with fleet foxes - i shall be released (live)

Taken By GNR

CLiCK Taken By Trees / Sweet Child O' Mine (GNR cover)

Thanks to Barbara for keying me into Taken By Trees who do a nice cover of Guns N Roses' Sweet Child O Mine. Also listen HERE!!!

Contains Bonus Track (An Exercise in Tone)

This picture is great. (You can tell just by looking at it!) It's so great that it relates to everything. For instance, it relates to this 16-minute cover song by the mostly-instrumental Korean psych-rock troupe, HE 6. These two things relate because the song is about the garden of Eden and the guy in the picture (his name is Herbie Mann) is nude (probably) and is holding a flute (that's a phallic image). They relate A SECOND TIME because the song has a flute solo and the guy in the picture (The Mann—get it?!) is holding a flute (phallic image, remember). Go HE 6!

MP3 HE 6 / In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Iron Butterfly cover, 1971)

This other picture is neat too. Thanks, Mutant! And thanks to all my friends who love the first picture as much as I do!!

Here, just for kicks, is a song you might actually want to listen to. My other friend keeps talking about this song because he's smart. It's Yo La Tengo covering themselves, taking the pretty-but-pretty-sleepy track "Today Is the Day" from the 2003 Summer Sun LP and making it both pretty and super-awesome. It was released later in 2003 on the Today Is the Day EP. Nice work guys!

MP3 Yo La Tengo / Today Is the Day (rockin' version)

Max: The French Everyman

In 1966, the same year as the Jimi Hendrix Experience cover, Antoine meets Les Problemes and records a garagey French version of Hey Joe; only Joe becomes Max...and perhaps a bit more friendly?

Mp3 Antoine Rencontre Les Problemes / Hey Max (Cover of 'Hey Joe' / Billy Roberts, The Leaves, etc. 1966)

Here's a few non-cover tracks from Antoine Recontre Les Problemes.

Mp3 Antoine Rencontre Les Problemes / Je Ne Vois Rien (1966)

Wes Anderson, you should probably go ahead and use this one in your next film:

Mp3 Antoine Rencontre Les Problemes / Des Lendemains (1966)

Hoot Loove

The third girl I slept with used to call my penis my raison d'être.
--Haruki Murakami, Hear the Wind Sing, 76

MP3 Justus Kohncke / Hot Love
(remix of Wolfgang Voigt's T. Rex cover ft Meloboy, 2004)

MP3 Wolfgang Voigt / Hot Love (T. Rex instrumental cover, 2003)

MP3 Elf Power / Hot Love (T. Rex cover, 2002)

MP3 T. Rex / Hot Love (1972)

8th Grade Dance

IN SWEDEN
Jens Lekman - Water Runs Dry (Boyz II Men Cover)

If I Have A Cold and Long Milkshake and You Have A Cold and Long Milkshake

Am I cheating by posting a cover from a new album composed exclusively of covers? Probably... nonetheless, here's The Postmarks' version of 'Five Years' from By the Numbers... Hangovers inspire the apocalyptic...

Mp3 The Postmarks / Five Years (David Bowie Cover)

And, as a bonus, my baby and soul are crushed for your listening pleasure.

Mp3 The Postmarks / 7-11 (Ramones Cover)

This Mortal Coil

We David Lynch augury...

from Modern English / Mesh & Lace LP (1981)
MP3 Gathering Dust
MP3 Sixteen Days

full This Mortal Coil / Sixteen Days-Gathering Dust EP (1983)
MP3 Sixteen Days-Gathering Dust (Modern English medley cover)
MP3 Song to the Siren (Tim Buckley cover)
MP3 Sixteen Days (Modern English cover)

uniqa in ya speaka

MP3 MF Doom / All Outta Ale (Blockhead remix, 2004)

Close your legs and open your mind.
--conventional wisdom quoted on KXLU's Demolisten 2008-06-06

If you will it...

MP3 Hazel Nuts Chocolate / Wild Wild Summer (Flipper's Guitar cover)

"The chocolate city is no dream!"

--DJ during a funky ass set on KCRW 99.9 FM at 12:05AM on 2008-11-07

May the power of power compel you.

MP3 The Fugs / Exorcising the Evils Spirits out of the Pentagon
(1967-10-21)

MP3 The Fugs / Mutant Stomp
(cover of Charles Olson's "I Want to Know," 1966)

MP3 Dump / Morning Morning
(Fugs cover, 1995)

"At the beginning of Discourse Networks 1800/1900 stood the Fugs with their song 'Exorcizing the Evils Spirits out of the Pentagon.' At the end stand words that have brought other words onto a screen.

"There is no end to the writing of books, wrote the preacher. Even books written to bring about the end of books and of their ordering submit to this pronouncement."
--Friedrich Kittler, "Afterword," Discourse Networks 1800/1900

"For the first time in the history of the Pentagon, there will be a grope-in within a hundred feet of this place."
--Tuli Kupferberg, "Exorcising the Evils Spirits out of the Pentagon"

Daniel: 'But Gaawwwdd, I don't wanna be in the lion's den'

A little of that old time religion (seemed logical after the New York Dolls), I pray it's good enough for you.

Mp3 Prof. Johnson & His Gospel Singers / Give Me That Old Time Religion (Cover of ? Possibly the Fisk Jubilee Singers)

Halloween 365

We want you to know that for Dorothy and I it is Halloween 365 days a year, but for you Sam we know that October 31st is Halloween, and we want to invite you and all your friends to our Halloween party... at the Waldorf Astoria!

--David Johansen, All Dolled Up

MP3 New York Dolls / Stranded in the Jungle (Cadets cover)

Beetch Boyz Redux

MP3 Jesus & Mary Chain / Surfin' USA (Outtake) [Chuck Berry/Beach Boys cover]

MP3 Melt-Banana / Surfin' USA [Chuck Berry/Beach Boys cover]

READ THIS WORD THEN READ THIS WORD READ THIS WORD NEXT READ THIS WORD NOW SEE ONE WORD SEE ONE WORD NEXT SEE ONE WORD NOW AND THEN SEE ONE WORD AGAIN LOOK AT THREE WORDS HERE LOOK AT THREE WORDS NOW LOOK AT THREE WORDS NOW TOO TAKE IN FIVE WORDS AGAIN TAKE IN FIVE WORDS SO TAKE IN FIVE WORDS DO IT NOW SEE THESE WORDS AT A GLANCE SEE THESE WORDS AT THIS GLANCE AT THIS GLANCE HOLD THIS LINE IN VIEW HOLD THIS LINE IN ANOTHER VIEW AND IN A THIRD VIEW SPOT SEVEN LINES AT ONCE THEN TWICE THEN THRICE THEN A FOURTH TIME A FIFTH A SIXTH A SEVENTH AN EIGHTH

--"READ THIS WORD" by Vito Acconci

She's So Much Heavier

MP3 Eddie Hazel / I Want You (She's So Heavy) [Beatles cover, 2004]

Who thought it could get any more indulgent? The original—after layer upon layer of creamy guitar—clocks in at nearly 8 minutes; this version takes that cake plus two more. The parenthetical is slang, of course (unlike in the Smiths's "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" and U2's "Big Girls Are Best"), but shoot me in the back in front of the Dakota if this cover doesn't sound like She's been packing away chocolate mousse and eggs Benedict with sides of whip-cream and butter. Like breakfast at the Madonna Inn.

(Yes, funky sounds do always coax mediocre food comparisons out of me. And, yes, that makes me a bad person.)

The Antonym of Excitations

Personally, I find 'Good Vibrations' extremely annoying. I always have, and I'm fairly confident that I always will. His involvement with such an excruciating song is without question the primary reason for Brian Wilson's mental problems, and only the TLC of Charles Manson could help him overcome the song. I thank you, Psychedelic Horseshit (clearly the ideal name for a band to rework 'Good Vibrations'), for pointing out that these vibrations are very bad indeed.

Mp3 Psychedelic Horseshit / Bad Vibrations (Beach Boys 'Good Vibrations' sort of cover)

Lego My Ego

MP3 Mercury Rev / If You Want Me to Stay [Sly & The Family Stone cover, 1992]

Funk is an essentially goofy genre. It's a big music complete with big hair and giant basslines, oversized clothes and supersized fun. Mercury Rev takes the goofiness that resides at the chewy center of "If You Want Me to Stay" and sprinkles it all over the outside and edges. Delicious.

(And different somehow from a too-easy "ironic" cover of, say, ABBA or Alanis or Whitney.)

Dolly v Whitney

MP3 Viking Moses / I Will Always Love You (Dolly Parton cover, 2006)

Another Catherine-response, this to the Bowie/Whitney dancegasm.

Does Mr Moses imagine himself singing to Ms Parton or to Ms Houston? Would a lovechild named Viking Dolly Houston-Moses the IIIrd get beat up or do the beating? Answer: he'd hire bully-protection for the price of two Fruit Roll-Ups per recess.

All the Unborn Chicken Voices in My Head...

While moving to jazz could be offshore drilling in a bottomless well of covers, I'll restrict myself to jazz covers of rock songs, beginning with the astounding Brad Mehldau.

One of Mehldau's many versions of Paranoid Android (thought I should add to the small number of Radiohead covers). He has a few recordings of the track that are over twenty minutes, but I'll go with one under ten.

Mp3 Brad Mehldau / Paranoid Android (Radiohead Cover)

Here's a video of Brad with his trio doing Exit Music (For a Film):



And a solo cover of Elliott Smith...

Mp3 Brad Mehldau / Bottle Up and Explode (Elliot Smith Cover)

Do The Clean Teeth Jive

MP3 The Bobbettes / Mr. Lee (1957)

MP3 The Diskettes / Mr. Lee (Bobbettes cover, 2002)

MP3 The Fabulettes (2000s) / Mr. Lee (Bobbettes cover)

There must be a commercial or music video with dancing teeth but I can't think of it. Instead I give you a doo-woppy girl-group classic that has the sound for it. The Diskettes cover, with the male harmonies and the way the lead yelps www-ho! (at :22, :25, :27, etc.), is even funner. South Korea's new national anthem?

Shakey and the Honey Slides

I have feared posting, lest I somehow manage to post something else which can later be used to link me to murderous British record producers (you would be surprised at how many of my potential post topics ran this risk). Anyway, retreating to safe territory: I've spent the last week (er, well, or the better part of most weeks) listening only to Neil Young and thinking about how I shouldn't have cheaped out on buying tickets (although, who really wants to go to the Forum. Not this girl). Anyhow, in an attempt to shake things up, I've also been listening to a lot of Neil Young covers.

Arguably the most prolific of all Neil Young cover-ers (and there are many), Thom Yorke and that band of his have really managed to do a version of almost every song worth doing a version of. Their cover of "On the Beach" (from the terribly underrated 1974 album of the same name--I mean, it's great and is totally without the horrific orchestral numbers that drag down the much more popular "Harvest." Seriously, it guest stars Levon Helm and Rick Danko. I call for an "On the Beach" revival, right now) might be the strongest.

MP3 Radiohead / On the Beach (Neil Young Cover)

For good measure, I thought I'd also throw in a Radiohead cover, a band that, really surprisingly, doesn't seem to get covered all that often. Is everyone too scared off by their popularity? Anyway, Gillian Welch does a kind of lovely version of my favorite of that band's songs (yes, I am a cliche, thanks).

MP3 Gillian Welch / Black Star (Radiohead Cover)

I'm gonna steal your daughter. I'm gonna be your son.

MP3 Rodger Collins / Foxy Girls in Oakland (1970)

MP3 Wilson Pickett / She's Lookin' Good (Rodger Collins cover, 1968)

Rodddddger's original of "She's Lookin' Good" is available here. No one's been stupid enough to attempt topping "Foxy Girls," which puts the d in funk'd up.

dreembebydreem

MP3 Suicide / Dream Baby Dream (1980)

MP3 Luna / Dream Baby Dream (Suicide cover, 1997)

This. This is like one of those matching games you get on your paper placemat with the crayons at a Big Boy restaurant. Or Photohunt. The differences are few and hard to find, and that makes all the difference.

Mega Man: Fully Clothed, Still Badass

Sally Shapiro free Johan Agebjörn remixes Mega Man 2.

Mp3 Johan Agebjörn / Mega Man 2 (Remix)

And someone had enough free time to make a video...



And someone had the time to make a mash-up video for Girl Talk's "Shut the Club Down'... and the rest of the tracks on Feed the Animals (not included, but all on youtube).

new newd

MP3 Radiohead / Nude (Big Ideas) [Holy Fuck remix, 2008]

nu nude? noooooo nooooooooooooood??

north is up, up is soul

QUOTE "we been broken down to the lowest term"

CLICK Otis Clay / The Only Way Is Up
(written by G. Jackson & J. Henderson, 1980)

HAIKU
the cover by yazz
& plastic population
is lame. this is not.

KazooKeylele-The Final Countdown

I won't insult this by pretending my language deserves association with it...

Pocketfox (Awesome Dude) / The Final Countdown (Europe Cover)

Bathtubs for Jeremy (Unfortunately Without Rod Stewart) Complete With Prostitutes

Anglo-Iranian electronica maestra Leila's rendition of a British sitar song about a British wood named Norwegian featuring, presumably, an Italian man. From Blood Looms and Blooms (great album, great title).

Mp3 Leila feat. Luca Santucci / Norwegian Wood (Beatles Cover)

Great story around the song (from Wikipedia). Maybe Lennon and McCartney can compete with Rod in the sleaze challenge:

The lyrics of the song sketch an encounter between the singer and an unnamed girl. They drink wine in her room and talk into the night. However, at 2 A.M. the unnamed girl ceases their flirtation, which the speaker may have been hoping to end in consummation, declaring "it's time for bed", leaving him to crawl off to "sleep in the bath" alone.
"Norwegian Wood" refers to the cheap pinewood that often finished the interiors of working class British flats. The last verse states that the singer lights a fire, the implication being that the singer in fact sets fire to the girl's flat, presumably as revenge for not sleeping with the singer.
McCartney himself states the final line of the song indicates that the singer burned the home of the girl. As he explained:

Peter Asher [brother of McCartney's then-girlfriend Jane Asher] had just done his room out in wood, and a lot of people were decorating their places in wood. Norwegian wood. It was pine, really, just cheap pine. But it's not as good a title, is it, "Cheap Pine"? It was a little parody, really, on those kind of girls who, when you'd get back to their flat, there would be a lot of Norwegian wood. It was completely imaginary from my point of view, but not from John's. It was based on an affair he had. She made him sleep in the bath and then, finally, in the last verse, I had this idea to set the Norwegian wood on fire as a revenge. She led him on and said, "You'd better sleep in the bath." And in our world, that meant the guy having some sort of revenge, so it meant burning the place down....

This exchange took place in a press conference in Los Angeles:

Reporter: I'd like to direct this question to messrs. Lennon and McCartney. In a recent article, Time magazine put down pop music. And they referred to "Day Tripper" as being about a prostitute...

Paul: Oh yeah.

Reporter: ...and "Norwegian Wood" as being about a lesbian.

Paul: Oh yeah.

Reporter: I just wanted to know what your intent was when you wrote it, and what your feeling is about the Time magazine criticism of the music that is being written today.

Paul: We were just trying to write songs about prostitutes and lesbians, that's all.

And, as for the Beatles, Ringo is still the sexiest.

The Prophets of Overmuchness, or, Kevin Shields Controls the Skies ≈ Jon Hamm?

Upon hearing [Rod] Stewart sing, [Joe] Meek rushed into the studio, put his fingers in his ears and screamed until Stewart had left.

MP3 The Tornados / Telstar (1962)
MP3 Hans Annéllsson / Telstar (Tornados cover, 1990)

Read more »

Byrne-ing Down The House (Because No One Has Ever Made That Pun Before)

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing David Byrne (along with some highly questionable (and I sincerely hope ironic) interpretive dancers) at the Greek Theater. He didn't play this cover (or any covers for that matter), but maybe he should have. Two of my favorite things? David Byrne and songs to which one might throw an impromptu dance party.

MP3 David Byrne / I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Whitney Houston Cover)

Speaking of impromptu dance parties and songs that Mr. Byrne did play, Austin-based Voxtrot does an attempt at at a Talking Heads impersonation with "Heaven." Maybe it doesn't need to be said, but Ramesh Srivastava? No David Byrne.

MP3 Voxtrot / Heaven (Talking Heads Cover)

Paradise Lost In Translation

Pre-sobriety Chan Marshall is undoubtedly responsible for some of the greatest covers of recent years ('Moonshiner' and before, The Covers Record, 'Werewolf' and 'Keep on Runnin'', live 'House of the Rising Sun', etc.); post-sobriety Jukebox disappoints, but this awkward, translated Serge Gainsbourg /Jane Birkin cover with Karen Elson simultaneously inhabits the irritating and the sublime. Elson's odd, breathy 'you go and I come' sounds kind of tasty--like Birkin in the original--whereas Cat Gainsbourg should probably lay off the Lucky Strikes and get a little sleazier. Nonetheless, 'I love you ...me either' clearly enunciates E.T. and Elliot's suppressed call for crosspollination. You're a coward Spielberg--let love...me either declare itself.

Mp3 Cat Power and Karen Elson / 'I Love You ... Me Either' (Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin Cover 'Je t'aime...moi non plus')

Also, here's a French boy band, 2be3, redoing the bliss of Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up':

Rod Stewart, Great Under the Covers

I'm not sure if this is one of those commonly known facts about me or if I've long kept it hidden out of fear of attack, but I'm kind of indifferent about the Beatles. I mean, really entirely indifferent. It would be a very strange moment for me to ever actually put on a Beatles album. So it's even stranger that lately I've been obsessively playing not the Beatles, but solo Paul McCartney, which, across the board, is basically terrible (terrible!). That said, "Maybe I'm Amazed" is a great song.

To make me feel moderately better about this, I've rediscovered a cover of said great song by the Faces, a band I've always found really surprisingly underrated. Okay, maybe not so surprisingly. Rod Stewart is terrifying. But two Ronnies! Anyway, the cover might not quite be the original, but it's pretty swell.

MP3 The Faces / Maybe I'm Amazed (Paul McCartney Cover)

And since apparently the Faces were equal opportunity cover-ers, they also have a pretty solid cover of John Lennon.

MP3 The Faces / Jealous Guy (John Lennon Cover)

While I'm at it (and trying to play blog catch up): This stab-yourself-with-a-kitchen-utensil sad version of the same song is maybe the complete and utter opposite of Rod Stewart, who you know was never feeling insecure. Oh, Elliott.

MP3 Elliott Smith / Jealous Guy (John Lennon Cover)

Earmarked Pork Barrel Eagles

Kevin Barnes and Glenn Danzig united at last. And, fortunately, neither one is a goddamn son of a bitch.

Mp3 Of Montreal / Nupital Eagles Sharpened (Misfits Cover 'Where Eagles Dare')

Also, here's Of Montreal covering nearly everything ever live. Especially like 'Moonage Daydream' and the Prince covers ('I Would Die 4 U', "Raspberry Beret', etc.), but am deeply saddened that "The Final Countdown' lasts less than a minute...

Midnite Vultures, Osama Remix Edition

MP3 Beck / Diamond Dogs (David Bowie cover, 2001)

Exquisite sleaze-funk—plays in the X-rated version of E.T. as he's bumpingrindin' his sexy wrinkled way out of that yellow tent. The elevator's broke. So? He slides down a rope...

I miss the belle and sebastian, spy music, etc. name

Too Soon?

Is it too soon for a Vampire Weekend cover? I didn't think so either. Especially when it sounds as awesome as this Banjo or Freakout one.

I put a mediocre Townes Van Zandt cover in there just for good measure.

Thanks for sending these along Erin. UR my soul.

It is unable to title

Take On Me: Literal Video Version

Covers Theory #3.33333333

Is a song a cover when it has the same title as one of the most well known (and most frequently covered) songs ever written? Even if it has seemingly nothing to do with the song? I ask you, Cornelius, twice.

Mp3 Cornelius / Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan, etc. Not Cover?)

God Only Knows that God Only Knows...

Mp3 Cornelius / God Only Knows (Beach Boys Not Cover?)

Covers Theory #3

MP3 Galaxie 500 / Listen, The Snow Is Falling (Yoko Ono cover, 1990)

MP3 Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescalleet / Listen, The Snow Is Falling (Yoko Ono cover?, 2008)

Is a cover still a cover if only the (statistically improbable) name is the same? Multiple songs titled "I Want You" (by the Beatles, the Troggs, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Third Eye Blind) a cover do not make. Multiple songs titled "Listen, The Snow Is Falling" are another matter.

Covers Theory #2

MP3 Galaxie 500 / Cheese and Onions (The Rutles cover)

Band #1 is a real band. Band #2 is a fake band. Band #3 is a real band. Band #2 is a parody of Band #1. Band #3 covers a spoof of Band #1 written, performed, and recorded by Band #2. What is the ontologico-aesthetic status of the third-wave version of the song? Is it wiped free of spoof?

If you make fun of someone making fun are you being serious?

Please Apply Additional Pressure

At some point during (or perhaps prior to) the recording process of the otherwise decent Women As Lovers, Jamie Stewart decided to invite Michael Gira over for this rather unfortunate cover of Under Pressure. Complete with gross sounding saxophone (see here on why the sax should often be avoided) the song raises a rather simple question: why?

Mp3 Xiu Xiu featuring Michael Gira / Under Pressure (Queen and David Bowie cover)

And to compensate for that rather unfortunate infliction, see King David himself on how to cover songs well.

Mp3 David Bowie / Let's Spend the Night Together (Rolling Stones Cover)

Creole Computer Candy Love

If Italians do it better, then why do they do German and Creole (both in English)? Does anyone do it better than Kraftwerk? Is covering doing it better? Glass Candy attempts to answer all and none of these questions...only Jack Schmidt knows the truth.

Mp3 Glass Candy / Computer Love (Kraftwerk Cover)

Mp3 Glass Candy / Iko Iko (James "Sugar Boy" Crawford Cover "Jock-A-Mo"

Covers Theory #1

MP3 New Order / Ceremony (Joy Division cover, 1980) [beginner]

MP3 Luna / Fourth of July (live Galaxie 500 cover, 2001) [advanced]

Band #1 writes and performs Song A, dies. Band #2 rises from the ashes, covers Song A or (Song A). Who song is it? Is Song A' a cover?

MP3 Galaxie 500 / Ceremony (JD-NO cover, 1989) [just right]

Is Galaxie 500 covering Joy Division, or is he/she/it covering New Order covering Joy division? If Luna performed "Ceremony" would the universe implode or explode?

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.

Beams Are Gonna Blind Me

My recent obsession: Camera Obscura's cover of Abba's Super Trouper. It's so pretty and sad and Scottish.

LET'S F

MP3 Paul Westerberg / Let's Do It (Cole Porter cover ft. Joan Jett)

Peaks
@ 0:07 when Jett snarls "spring"
@ 2:08 when she drowns out Paul on the closing couplet, "I'm sure sometimes on the sly you do it / Maybe even you and I might do it"

This one's from the bizarrerie that is the Tank Girl OST (1995). More Paul and Replacements b-sides at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends.

Give Paul cash tunecore.