Canadian Cover Content #4: Barenaked Ladies

The big news earlier this week is that I booked my Ben Folds Cruise for next February. I would never had predicted it, but this Ben Folds cruise is the concert I've been unconsciously waiting the last ten years for. Since his Ben Folds Five days, he's been my favourite artist/band yet I've only had the opportunity to see him perform once, 2 years ago just outside of Seattle while I was living in Vancouver. Other than that, he's never toured anywhere near Edmonton. I figure (probably exaggerating) that this cruise costs about the same as me travelling to one of his regular gigs. In some sort of crazy wish fulfilment in my little world, Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls was also announced as an onboard guest for the festivities. In a word: UNBELIEVABLE.

I try not to do shameless plugs too often, but here's an exception. If anyone out there is also planning to go on this Ben Folds cruise too, please use my Sixthman ID SXM-029727 as a referral when you book. The reason I ask is because if I refer somebody, I would get to go to an exclusive intimate acoustic performance by Ben Folds. Yes, for purely selfish reasons, I make this plea to LET ME REFER YOU! Um, if Eef Barzelay (of Clem Snide) is your thing, he's coming. Corn Mo is aboard too. Not official yet, but Ben said The Streets is coming (and no, that is not grammatically incorrect). And of course, Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls, who is reason enough on her own to attend. More artists to come over the next 8 months including comedians apparently, but in any case it should be an event for the ages to be sure. So if anyone out there decides to take me up on this offer, let me know via e-mail because I can be easily persuaded to send you a stack of some of my cover CD collection (oh dear, I've resorted to bribery). Public sale starts June 11th. End plea.

In anticipation of the pre-sale which started Tuesday, I was reading up on the Barenaked Ladies' Ships & Dips cruise that took place earlier this year and already has a follow-up in place for next year. In fact, Ben's touring this summer with John Mayer who recently announced his own cruise vacation too... now it's just getting out of hand. All of these experiences are organized by a great, great company called Sixthman, who genuinely seem to be working hard to fulfil everybody's music dreams. They supposedly have 16 events in the works for next year... I cannot even imagine.

Anyway, while perusing the Barenaked Ladies forums, I stumbled upon a link to The Bathroom Sessions, a whole series hitherto unbeknownst to me of youtube videos that BNL Ed Robertson (and sometimes Steven Page) recorded in Ed's bathroom. One of my favourite BNL songs The King of Bedside Manor gets the Bathroom treatment with a brilliant acoustic performance by Ed and Steven (even a couple cover snippets sneak in there). Check it out here. Man, that whole performance just cracks me up!


Barenaked Ladies - The King of Bedside Manor
The original from 1992's Gordon.


I feel goofy when I do these "Canadian Cover Content" posts and Barenaked Ladies covers pop up by default, so I thought I'd post a few choice covers and lay off them for while.

Barenaked Ladies - Psycho Killer [originally by Talking Heads]
Years ago I had heard the Moxy Früvous cover of Psycho Killer (one of my favs!) from their Live Noise album that I borrowed from the library. After I got my iPod and was attempting to amass my mp3 collection over again, I tried tracking down that cover but mistakingly thought it was the Barenaked Ladies. See, when I was 9 years old I first heard Moxy Früvous' King of Spain on the radio and had thought it was Barenaked Ladies, so this initial confusion has plagued me since. Interesting trivia I just read (thank you wikipedia!): King of Spain was the second Canadian independent #1 hit in Canadian history, preceded only a few months earlier by BNL's Be My Yoko Ono. Coincidentally (or not?), the Barenaked Ladies DID do a cover of Psycho Killer and this just confused matters further since I knew it wasn't the same version I had heard years earlier. That is, until I re-discovered the Früvous Live Noise album about five years ago. And until that point I didn't even realize this was a cover song (embarrassing but true). Since then I've of course heard the Talking Heads original and fell in love with that too. Great song with lots of covers.

Barenaked Ladies - Careless Whisper (live) [originally by Wham!]
There also seem to be a lot of covers of this song cropping up lately. Ben Folds also semi-regularly covers this live...

Ben Folds & Rufus Wainwright - Careless Whisper (live) [originally by Wham!]
...and there you go. Canadian content provided by Mr. Wainwright.

Barenaked Ladies - When Doves Cry (live) [originally by Prince]

Barenaked Ladies - Do They Know It's Christmas? [originally by Band Aid]

Barenaked Ladies - Legal Age Life at Variety Store (live) [originally by the Rheostatics]
Canadians covering Canadians.

Captain Tractor - Legal Age Life at Variety Store [originally by the Rheostatics]
A little bit of Edmonton cover content too for ya. This was the first time I had heard this song ever.

Brian Wilson - Brian Wilson [originally by Barenaked Ladies]
Possibly the most conceptually surreal cover ever: Brian Wilson performing Brian Wilson. Ack, brain meltdown!MalkovichMalkovichMalkovichMalkovich!

The Bathroom Sessions have even inspired a youtube user by the name of tornadocanemusic to post his own series of Odes to the Bathroom Sessions. And wow, this guy can actually play and sing. Check out his cover of BNL's Brian Wilson here. The best thing is that Ed Robertson leaves this comment on one of his other videos: "Your voice is better than mine... but my bathroom's better."