Musicians covering each others work has been as longstanding a staple in music culture as substance abuse and misogyny. While the motivation to do so is often the child of an unholy marriage between lazy opportunism and musical sacrilege, in worthy hands it can be the most respectful of endeavors, often providing a useful roadmap to the covering artists influences. With emphasis on the latter, the following post is a mix of some of the more interesting cover versions I’ve collected on my travels.
Glass Candy – Iko (Dixie Cups) Vampire Weekend – Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac) Magic Arm – Daft Punk Is Playing In My House (LCD Soundsystem) The Flaming Lips – Money (Pink Floyd) JJ – Ecstacy (Lil’ Wayne) 3 Teens Kill 4 – Tell Me Something Good (Rufus & Chaka Khan) Peter Bjorn & John – Summer Breeze (Seals & Croft) The Cloud Room – Blue Monday (New Order) Plaintains – I Feel Love (Donna Summer) Monsters Are Waiting – I Wanna Be Adored (Stone Roses) The Go! Team – Bull in the Heather (Sonic Youth) California Poppy Pickers – Why Don’t We Do It In the Road (The Beatles) My Brightest Diamond – Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey (The Beatles) The Puppini Sisters – Walk Like an Egyptian (The Bangles) Clare and the Reasons – That’s All (Genesis) Thao – You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me (Smokey Robinson) Chromatic Flights – I Am a Rock (Simon & Garfunkel) Casiotone For the Painfully Alone – Streets of Philadelphia (Bruce Springsteen) You Say Party! We Say Die! – Nightswimming (R.E.M.) The Chromatics – Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush) Hot Chip – Transmission (Joy Division) Fischerspooner – The 15th (Wire) Theophilus London feat. Lykke Li – Computer Love (Kraftwerk) White Hinterland – My Love (Justin Timberlake) Idiot Glee – Ain’t No Sunshine (Bill Withers) Ryan Adams – Everything In It’s Right Place (Radiohead) Phoenix – Playground Love (Air) Annie Hart and Slow Club – Killing Moon (Echo & the Bunnymen) The Last Town Chorus – Do You Really Wanna Hurt Me? (Culture Club) Taken By Trees – Sweet Child of Mine (Guns & Roses) The Old Believers – This Must Be the Place (Talking Heads) Kevin Davis – Fuck Tha Police (NWA Cover) Antony and the Johnsons – Crazy In Love (Beyonce) Susanna and the Magical Orchestra – Condition of the Heart (Prince)
Electric Adolescence – The Cover Up(right click to download) 80 mins/ 256 kbps/ 146MB
Depending on how this year pans out, I think we should all consider moving to Detroit.
Sure, the unemployment rate of the state of Michigan rivals that of war-torn Afghanistan, and the justice system is starting to resemble that of a spaghetti Western, lest we forget this is still the city of Motown, of techno and of Axel Foley, and it’s going for a steal.
The impact of a global financial crisis striking a manufacturing city within a country that doesn’t make anything has caused housing prices to plummet to three figure sums, bringing home ownership within grasp of even the least prosperous among us. In November, an unknown Canadian company purchased the 80 thousand capacity Silverdome stadium for about the price of a one bedroom condo in Vancouver. Of course, finding a job or a store that sells fresh fruit would be akin to finding the clitoris on a mermaid, but so goes the life of a new pioneer.
Written on the precipice of the city’s decline, Gil Scott’s Heron’s open -letter to Ronald Reagan offers an earnest response to an accident at a nuclear power planet that threatened to wipe Detroit from the map.
Gil Scott Heron – We Almost Lost Detroit(right click to download) 5:18 mins/ 160 kbps/ 6.08MB
As a bonus, take this Moodyman engineered radio skit set in the shadows of the fallen city.
The turning over a new year can feel a little jarring, like the moment after a record skips when a confused room attempts to regain their collective rhythm. With the mayhem of the holidays now shrinking in the rearview mirror, ‘tis now the season for exercise regiments marked with a shorter shelf life than that of the bushels of fresh produce bought in earnest, but destined to rot in the crisper drawer. As scores of people line up to start a race that few will ever finish, I stand boldly apart, letting myself off the hook in the area of physical improvement, even if my body is starting to resemble something one might find hanging in the window of a Chinese restaurant.
Instead, my delightfully achievable New Years resolution involves a shift to more organic music, if that word still has any meaning. Having spent the better part of last year compiling mixes of obsessively arranged electronic music, I now find myself craving some audio roughage. In that spirit, this month’s mix forgoes laptops and synthesizers for a deliberately inconsistent blend of punk, funk, soul and psych; sounds to fill the silence as we sit with baited breath, waiting to see what the New Year might bring.
Eddy Current Suppression Ring – You Let Me Be Honest With You Yuya Uchida & the Flowers – Intruder The Pixies – Hey Underworld feat. Brian Eno & Karl Blau – Beebop Hurry WU LYF – Heavy Pop Om – Cremation Ghat I Andwella’s Dream – Cocaine Mandre – Masked Music Man Ofege – It’s Not Easy Mister Holmes and the Brotherhood – Thrift Store Find Soulphiction – Intermission 13th Floor Elevators – Blue and Peaceful Paul Parrish – English Sparrow Idiot Glee – All Packed Up Nite Jewel – The Kamera Song Airport One – Two Days Gil Scott Heron – Where Did the Night Go Ian France – High Places David Shrigley – Don’t From Bits and Bobs The Knife feat Mt. Sims and PlanningtoRock – Coloring of Pigeons Prince – People Without (Live) Sarah Webster Fabio – Juju For Grandma Skull Snaps – It’s a New Day The South Side Movement – Everlasting Thrill Bob James – Nautilus The Crystal Mansion – Somebody Oughta Turn Your Head Around Moodymann – The Day We Lost the Soul O.V. Wright – Motherless Child The Persuasions – Another Night With the Boys Black Merda – Think of Me 24 Carat Black – I Want to Make Up Jackie McLean – Soul Sam Cooke – Medley: It’s All Right/ For Sentimental Reasons
Electric Adolescence – Baited Breath(right click to download) 80 mins/ 256 kbps/ 146MB
The strongest single from this polymorphous kiwi band comes from their original incarnation of their 1986 debut album, Kaleidoscope World. Band leader Martin Phillips wears UK influences such as Joy Division and Wire plainly on his sleeve, at the same time innovating what would later be called the Dunedin Sound.
The Chills – Pink Frost(right click to download) 4:01 mins/ 192 kbps/ 5.52MB
Half Cousin’s MySpace page, describes the band’s sound as “Acousmatic”, the sort of made-up term I’d tend to deride if it weren’t so accurate. Their recent single release includes an entry by Brighton-based Fujiya & Miyagi, who successfully claim the song in their own sonic terms.
Sweet Songs is a track I’ve only just managed to get my hands on again, concluding a long-running search made difficult by my failing to remember the names of either the song or the artist, thus requiring me to recite pieces of seventies sassy-black-girl slam poetry over and over, an embarrassing experience that inadvertently degrades both black and white people in equal measure.
Sarah Webster Fabio – Sweet Songs(right click to download) 5:10 mins/ 160 kbps/ 5.92MB
But the ends more than justify the means as my successful hunt not only yielded the afro-picked funk jam that alluded me for so many years, I was also introduced to another gem from the album- a lush and passionate piece of blues poetry that makes me feel like I’ve just tracked down a long lost love only to fall in love with her deep and sultry sister.
Sarah Webster Fabio – If We Come Soft as Rain(right click to download) 3:18 mins/ 160 kbps/ 3.77MB
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