I'm back & Happy 100th B-day, Alberta

Got back yesterday morning after over 20 hours of driving during the last 2 days.

I was vaguely disappointed by last Friday's Ben Folds show. The music was great and all, but he barely played for an hour with no encore and quickly had to vacate the stage for Rufus Wainwright since the whole outdoor show apparently had to wrap up before 10pm (noise bylaws, I reckon). A lot of the people there weren't even there to see Ben Folds, but to either see Rufus or sit and drink wine. Did I mention this concert was at a winery? I think the older folk were clueless about the performers but had some sort of season pass to the Summer Concert Series which includes (later) the likes of Mark Knopfler, Steve Winwood, Robert Plant, and Tori Amos. Plus, I had a junky seat way at the back. Hopefully I'll get to see him perform again someday in a better venue (with better seats!).

One of the highlights was a hilarious live cover of Dr. Dre's Bitches Ain't Shit. He apologized to the band's adoptive family in Seattle, who he said had probably not heard such salty language before. I'm sure the parents in the crowd with their toddlers weren't too impressed either, but it was a hoot. Check out a studio version of it here:

Ben Folds - Bitches Ain't Shit

Another cool part was when Rufus Wainwright joined Ben on stage for a cover of Careless Whisper. Here's a version of that recorded at a show last year:

Ben Folds with Rufus Wainwright - Careless Whisper
[originally by Wham]

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I came back to Edmonton just in time for our province's 100th birthday celebration yesterday. I had a ticket to the big gala show at our newly renovated Jubilee Auditorium. It was a big live television thing synchronized between a bunch of cities/towns in Alberta, but mainly in Edmonton and Calgary. The Prime Minister, Governor General, Lieutenant General, and Premier were all there for this 2 hour show which featured performers like Paul Brandt, Jann Arden, and K.D. Lang. The show kicked off with a big country song about Alberta from Paul Brandt, which made me vaguely embarrassed that our province is stereotypically defined by horses, tractors, haystacks, and cowboys. I'm not a country music fan, so I thought I was in for a long night. Thankfully, the rest of the show was more diversified with some rock, jazz, Celtic, and native performances. There were also simultaneous province-wide fireworks supposedly bright enough to be viewed from space. Organizers had hoped for NASA to take photos of the event, though apparently the available satellites over North America were focused on hurricane Katrina, which does seem a bit more important than a big birthday party.

The showstopper of the night was a gut-wrenching, fist-clenching, wall-shaking performance by K.D. Lang of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Oddly enough, this was the second time in less than a week that I had heard this song performed live. Rufus Wainwright also did a cover of it last Friday beautifully accompanied by his cousin Lucy. Though his version was great, the person who yelled "Wooooo! The Shrek song!" basically underlined the vaguely cheapened effect of having the song so prominently featured in the big CG ogre film [trivia: John Cale's version is in the film and Rufus's is on the soundtrack]. Here's K.D. Lang's take off her album last year of Canadian covers, Hymns Of The 49th Parallel.

K.D. Lang - Hallelujah [originally by Leonard Cohen]

Later in the show Paul Brandt came back on stage for a dreadful cover of Convoy (not gonna post it). I generally don't like country music and combining that with Convoy makes my ears bleed. Ian Tyson ended the show with some old-school country, which I enjoyed in spite of myself (so there, I don't hate all country music).

Viva Las Vegas! Viva Brazil! Viva Terry Gilliam!

Less than a day after the post, somebody e-mailed me the correct answer (no wiki/no google I am told) to Cover Riddle #5, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Written, of course, by Hunter S. Thompson, illustrated by Ralph Steadman, and adapted by Mr. Terry Gilliam into a film starring Johnny Depp. Depp is included among the "friends" of Oasis and he plays guitar on the track if I remember correctly.

So, my top 3 Viva Las Vegas [originally by Elvis Presley] covers:

1. Dread Zeppelin - Viva Las Vegas
Most people probably don't take Dread Zeppelin as serious as I do, but I think they managed to take a novelty concept and make it work quite well. An Elvis impersonator fronting a reggae Led Zeppelin cover band... okie dokie, crazy but I like it. I think they're still around, but I basically stopped listening to their stuff after "The Fun Sessions" (quite good), a Dread Zepp cover album of classic rock songs, the first to stray from Led Zeppelin material. This is one of their best Elvis/Led Zeppelin mash-ups as Viva Las Vegas clashes with Zeppelin's Custard Pie.

2. Dead Kennedys - Viva Las Vegas
I don't really have anything to say about this, except that it's over-the-top goofy yet vaguely unnerving in a "scary clown" way. It's also really good. This cover was actually used in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as well.

3. Bruce Springsteen - Viva Las Vegas
The Boss covers The King.

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And now on to the real reason for my post:
One of the highlights of this past summer's 2-month trip to Europe was getting to actually meet TERRY GILLIAM, the American member of Monty Python and one of my favourite directors, at the Filmmuseum in Brussels. Twelve Monkeys is one of my favourite all-time films, so this opportunity was just absolutely crazy for me. I just happened to be in Brussels for a couple days and I found out he was going to be previewing Tideland three days later on June 6 (6/6/06). Fate methinks? Of course, I changed my plans to go to Amsterdam and did everything in my power to go to that screening. In the month preceding this event, the Filmmuseum was having a mini-Gilliam retrospective, which included screenings of all his films and select Gilliam-approved picks. So the night before Tideland, I was lucky to be able to see the 60's Czech version of Baron Munchausen which was a clear influence on Gilliam's version.

I was actually quite bummed out on the day of the screening because all attempts to get tickets failed since it had been sold out for weeks in advance. In fact, some old Belgian ticket guy chastised me for being so stupid as to think I could actually secure a ticket. Bwahaha, I sure showed him later! Since I couldn't get into Tideland, I decided I'd go see Jabberwocky, Gilliam's first post-Python film, which was showing next door for only €2. I was hoping that Gilliam would possibly show up at Jabberwocky since the Tideland screening wasn't until later in the evening. And guess what? He did. Following Jabberwocky, Terry came out in a typically Gilliam-esque Hawaiian shirt and briefly talked about the making of the film. Actually it wasn't quite a Hawaiian shirt, but it was loud, garish, and most people would not be caught dead in it, but Terry wears these sorts of shirts very naturally. So I guess that puts him in the same company as Weird Al.


The major coup for me was after his brief talk... He was whisked away to the lobby, but I was near the front so I quickly followed and luckily he wasn't off to Tideland quite yet. I gingerly approached and asked him to sign my copy of Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, which I had been carrying around Europe as train-reading material. To understand the sheer magnitude of this event, you have to understand that Neil Gaiman is my favourite author (see sidebar)and Terry Gilliam has on/off been planning to make Good Omens for years. Upon seeing what I had in my hands, he exclaimed "Oh! Look what he has." (or something to that effect) and he told me that this was his next project once the financing comes together, though hopefully this doesn't end up like another Lost in La Mancha. And that is the tale of how Terry Gilliam signed and doodled in my paperback copy of a Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett book in Belgium. Damn sweet.


To make a long story longer, I did actually weasel my way into the sold-out Tideland screening/film talk despite not speaking any Flemish (and scant French). Standing around with a lot of other unlucky schmucks who didn't have tickets, I was one of the last people to squeeze into the €30 event after a bunch of no-shows didn't claim their tickets. Bonus! One of the most memorable days of my life.


Now, Brazil covers! The details of the original are not completely known to me, but I vaguely remember that "Brazil" is the English title of an older Brazilian song, the title of which I don't know.

Some variations on Brazil from the soundtrack of Terry Gilliam's 1985 cult classic:
The National Philharmonic Orchestra with Kate Bush - Sam Lowry's 1st Dream/Brazil
The National Philharmonic Orchestra - Central Services/The Office
The National Philharmonic Orchestra - Bachianos Brazil Samba
Geoff Muldaur - Brazil

The Arcade Fire - Brazil
I just heard this cover for the first time recently... It starts off fairly normal, then some wonderfully sinister strings creep in. I love it!

8½ Souvenirs - Brazil
A band I discovered recently from their sweet cover of After You've Gone.

The Toronto All-Star Big Band - Brazil
During a street jazz festival in Toronto this summer, I saw this awesome youth orchestra crank out classic standards including this one. This album version is from an earlier incarnation of the band.

Beirut - Brazil [live]
Live accordion-based cover. I'm pretty sure I nicked this from over at Mocking Music.

Queen Bitches & Mr. Brightsides

David Bowie's Queen Bitch, from his classic 1971 album Hunky Dory, experienced a revival of sorts when it was featured in the trailer for Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic in 2004, which is admittedly when I first heard and fell in love with the song. I've definitely noticed a heightened exposure to the song in the past couple years, whether it's heard as pre-show music before a concert, an influx of covers, or its inclusion in last year's Rock Band as a downloadable track. Not since ELO's Mr. Blue Sky can I think of a 1970's "lost classic" heavily re-immersed into pop culture consciousness via advertising.


Surely we've all been at parties where The Killers' Mr. Brightside comes on and some snarky individual says "Oh, they totally ripped off Queen Bitch", where said individual was born 12 years after Hunky Dory was even released. I've been at one of those parties and sadly that person was me. There's a tradition of me pooh-poohing modern rock radio hits. When Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out came out, I was all "Oh, this totally rips off Zeppelin's Trampled Underfoot" and when Gorillaz' Feel Good Inc. came out, I was all "U2's Staring at the Sun. Rip-off." Don't get me wrong, I do still like all of these songs intentionally derivative or not. I've since matured (read: stopped caring) when I hear vaguely similar songs. Lyrically, thematically, and rhythmically there are very strong similarities between Mr. Brightside and Queen Bitch, even though the music itself it quite different. Listen to each song and their covers repeatedly and you'll start confusing lyrics. When I first started hearing about the Killers, I seem to recall David Bowie being cited as an influence or that the band was a glam rock throwback. They've even covered Moonage Daydream in concert, so I don't think it's any stretch to say Mr. Brightside is an homage or tip of the hat to Queen Bitch, which itself is Bowie's homage to The Velvet Underground. The distinct riff that drives Queen Bitch is ripped off of Eddie Cochran's Three Steps to Heaven anyway, so everyone's off the hook! As I like to say in these sorts of situations, Led Zeppelin ripped off everyone and we're all the better for it.

I usually don't like the carpet bomb approach to posting lots of covers of the same song, but I make exceptions for David Bowie.

QUEEN BITCH BY DAVID BOWIE:
David Bowie (BBC Sessions) - Queen Bitch

David Bowie with Lou Reed - Queen Bitch
From David Bowie's 50th birthday bash.

The Arcade Fire with David Bowie - Queen Bitch (live)
At the beginning of this bootleg from a Arcade Fire show in Central Park, frontman Win Butler says "This is a David Bowie song" and the familiar strums of Queen Bitch begin. Right at that point (I've seen video of this), David Bowie himself struts on from off-stage to sing lead vocals and the crowd goes justifiably nuts. It's really too bad the quality is so poor on this almost-cover. If you can get past the piercing shrieks, you can hear what just might be the only string arrangement of this song. Guess you had to be there.

Seu Jorge - Queen Bitch
The soundtrack to The Life Aquatic is full of Bowie songs and covers, the latter performed brilliantly in Portuguese by singer/actor Seu Jorge who was also in the film as part of Steve Zissou's crew. While five of his covers were featured on the soundtrack, a separate album The Life Aquatic Sessions had 13 covers (different recordings of the previous tracks) and the wonderful original song Team Zissou. The iTunes version also has a bonus Space Oddity cover. Seu Jorge did all the translations himself and this site has some of the songs translated back to English. The results are little surprising. For example, Five Years is completely rewritten to relate to Steve Zissou's life. Life on Mars? has been re-interpreted as well with intriguing lyrics. Very cool stuff. Seu Jorge, decked out in a tuque and tux, has a mesmerizing performance of Queen Bitch over the end credits of the movie.

Green River - Queen Bitch
R. Mutt - Queen Bitch

The Tragically Hip - Queen Bitch (live in London)
Why The Hip, considered Canadian rock legends, never hit it big down south is a little baffling.

The Gourds - Queen Bitch
This alt-country band also does a cover of Ziggy Stardust, though they're probably best known for their cover of Snoop Dogg's Gin & Juice.

Eater - Queen Bitch
Capsize 7 - Queen Bitch

Birdbrain - Queen Bitch
Of all these covers, Birdbrain is the band that overhauls the original the most. Not surprisingly, it's probably the most successful one.

Penis Flytrap - Queen Bitch
Elf Power - Queen Bitch (live)

Zkippy Stardust - Queen Bitch (live)
Whenever I post Bowie covers, I inevitably add some Zkippy Stardust, a Italian Bowie tribute band who had an entire live concert available for download at one point. "Tribute band" generally has a pejorative connotation attached to it, but these guys sound great and the recording quality is excellent.

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MR BRIGHTSIDE BY THE KILLERS:
The Killers - Mr. Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Mix)
Here's another Bowie connection: a Mr. Brightside remix by high profile musician/producer Stuart Price AKA Jacques Lu Cont AKA the Thin White Duke. Of course, the Thin White Duke was originally one of the personas adopted by David Bowie for the album Station to Station. Stuart Price's wikipedia entry is an interesting read for someone so prominent that I've only vaguely heard of. Did you know he's won two grammies in the category of Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical? Didn't even know that was a category.

Paul Anka - Mr. Brightside
During my adventures in film studies, I repeatedly saw the 1962 NFB documentary Lonely Boy, which follows Paul Anka's transformation into a teen idol. In fact, I once wrote an essay analyzing the film and blabbing about the contrast between American/Canadian ideals. Um, no, I don't really miss writing essays. It's quite astounding that 46 years later he's revived his career, pulling a Pat Boone, with TWO albums of big band swing covers of unlikely pop/rock songs.

McFly - Mr. Brightside
This British band performs so many covers, there's an entire subsection in their wiki entry listing their covers.

PlayRadioPlay - Mr. Brightside
A one-man electronic band from Texas.

This Unique Museum - Mr. Brightside
This Unique Museum is UK artist Ben Fitton whose self-described indie lo-fi rock is applied to four covers of the Killers on his EP, Installment One: A Killer, A Murder, A Mystery…. Installment Two: Charms & Grace features covers of Interpol.

Amy MacDonald - Mr. Brightside
This live cover by Scottish singer/songwriter Amy MacDonald is from the Dermot O'Leary show just over a week ago.

Lenny [Re-post minus links]

EDIT 07/14/2009: Not sure when it happened, but this post disappeared without so much as a Blogger notice. It's back minus links, though it's vaguely unsettling.


In the land of covers, Kravitz is best known for his okay but unnecessary revision of the Guess Who classic American Woman, which actually earned him a Grammy Award in 2000, the second of a four straight wins in the Best Male Rock Vocal Performance category. It's kinda hard to believe his debut album Let Love Rule came out twenty years ago, a fact marked by a semi-recently released 2-disc deluxe edition. Though I haven't really listened to much of his stuff after the mid-90s, a handful of his songs still get a fair amount of regular play on the ol' iPod. Today, a mini cover tribute to Lenny Kravitz.

Aira Mitsuki - Rock and Roll is Dead [originally by Lenny Kravitz]
This throbbing, schizophrenic electro cover from Japan is a little frightening, but I love that it exists. I recently watched the excellent film The Diving Bell & The Butterfly, in which Lenny Kravitz popped up in a cameo and was reminded that I had been meaning to share this cover for a while.

Riovolt - It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over [originally by Lenny Kravitz]
There are a surprising number of smooth jazz/bossa covers of this song. This is one of the better ones.

The Moog Cookbook - Are You Gonna Go My Way [originally by Lenny Kravitz]
As if a Moog synthesizer cover wasn't enough, it just had to be a an Moog oompah hoedown. The Moog Cookbook put out Moog covers of 90s alternative rock on their 1995 self-titled debut followed by 1997's Ye Olde Space Bande (classic rock covers) and 2005's Bartell (mixed bag o' covers).

Cactus Jack - Are You Gonna Go My Way [originally by Lenny Kravitz]
Serbian rock band Cactus Jack do a more straight up rock cover with some playful zest from their 2002 cover album DisCover. You should just flat-out avoid the Tom Jones & Robbie Williams version of this song.

Lenny Kravitz - Have You Ever (Been to Electric Ladyland) [originally by The Jimi Hendrix Experience]
Remember when Kravitz was rumoured to play Jimi Hendrix in a biopic years ago? The Let Love Rule deluxe edition also features a live cover of Jimi's If 6 Was 9 recorded in 1989.

My all-time favourite Lenny:

I know it's horrible, but it still makes me laugh after all these years.

Tonight: Meaghan Smith live in Vancouver!

After work, I'll be hopping over to the Media Club a block away to catch Meaghan Smith. Up until a week ago I had only vaguely heard of the Halifax-based singer-songwriter, but I was googling something about Kid Koala (who's latest project The Slew with two former members of Wolfmother hits the Vancouver Jazz Festival in June) when I stumbled on this music video:



It sounds like a retro throwback a la Jill Barber, but with a modern flourish courtesy of Kid Koala and I love the tribute to 1920s/30s cartoons. I was further sold on Meaghan when I watched her wonderful animated biography and found out that she had actually gone to school for animation before becoming a singer and that her producer on her debut album The Cricket's Orchestra was none other than Les Cooper, who (surprise, surprise) produced Jill Barber's latest Chances. Fortunately when I checked her upcoming tour dates I was just in time finding out about the Vancouver show tonight. [Post-Show Edit: she played awesome covers of If I Only Had a Heart and Fly Me to the Moon, the latter on her omnichord!]

Meaghan Smith - Here Comes Your Man [originally by The Pixies]
Meaghan recorded this cover for the soundtrack to last year's (500) Days of Summer.

6 May 2010 Vancouver, BC
7 May 2010 Victoria, BC
12 May 2010 Canmore, AB
14 May 2010 Calgary, AB
15 May 2010 Edmonton, AB
27 Jun 2010 Montreal, QC
16 Jul 2010 Lilith Fair St. Louis, MO
17 Jul 2010 Lilith Fair Chicago, IL
18 Jul 2010 London, ON
23 Jul 2010 Montreal, QC
29 Aug 2010 Kensington, PEI

Official Site
Myspace

Happy New Year

Here's a belated, much belaboured year-end round-up post. Phew.

Top covers:
I'm not going to bother ranking these or anything, but these are some of the notable highlights of last year for me in the cover world.

Harvey Danger - Oh! You Pretty Things [originally by David Bowie]
One of my favourite bands covering one of my favourite Bowie tracks? Most excellent. I don't know what I was expecting when I first heard it, but I was vaguely underwhelmed. This may have to do with the piano being replaced by an organ. I quickly got over that minor quibble and by the second time I gave it a listen, it had suddenly become a delayed instant classic. Go figure. If you're looking for something to spend $0.99 at the iTunes store, I'd have to recommend this above all others.

Corinne Bailey Rae - Since I've Been Loving You (live AOL session) [originally by Led Zeppelin]
I was blown away when I heard this cover. This is the 2nd cover I've heard from her and now I'm starting to take notice. Despite being one of the greatest and most successful rock bands ever, I still feel that Led Zeppelin is somehow underrated (if that is even remotely possible). Um, I was about to go into a big rant about it, but you'll just have to take my word for it. Apparently, Bailey Rae will have an album version of this next year... or rather, this year (still not used to 2007 yet).

Chris Thile - Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground [originally by The White Stripes]
I love The White Stripes. I love covers. And Chris Thile of Nickel Creek hit this one out of the ballpark. The version I posted is not actually the cut from the album, but a truly solo live version from Reg's Coffee House, which is incidentally fantastic. Also go here for video of another live version and a great cover of The Band's Ophelia.

Nickel Creek - Just (live at the Largo) [originally by Radiohead]
Last year Mark Ronson released a cover of Radiohead's Just, which was superb to say the least. While there are billions of Creep covers, it was the first Just cover I had heard and I welcomed it with open arms. Then Nickel Creek had to come along and cover it too. Now there are two superb Just covers. I nicked this from the Largo website, which I had stumbled upon while scouring the net for Jon Brion material. For a while there, he was performing at the Largo once a week. How sweet would that have been? Answer: pretty damn sweet. Now I hear The Watkins Family Hour (aka two-thirds of Nickel Creek) are performing at the Largo almost every Thursday until the spring (contrary to the online Largo calendar). Very cool, if you live in LA.

Lulu Hughes - Time [originally by Pink Floyd]
So I borrowed this album from the library called Pink Floyd Redux. I wasn't expecting much seeing how I'm just a casual Pink Floyd fan, but damn if this isn't one of the best covers of the year.

Devo 2.0 - Monkey's Uncle [originally by Annette Funicello with the Beach Boys]
My musical knowledge of the original Devo is limited, so I haven't really formed an opinion as to whether an all-children's update of the new age group is a good idea or instant sacrilege. I have also never heard the original of this 1965 Disney song (from the movie of the same name), which was apparently sung by Annette Funicello with the Beach Boys (?!). Somehow none of this mattered as I was sucked into this song unawares and learned the following things: A) Songs about monkeys are cool; B) Children singing like robots is strange (but fun!); C) Corporate Disney channel cash-ins aren't ALL bad; D) Devo for kids is WAY better than kidz bop... ugh.

Natalie Cole - Criminal [originally by Fiona Apple]
Fiona Apple in the style of Aretha Franklin is unexpected. Unexpectedly awesome, that is.

Fall Out Boy - What's This? [originally by Danny Elfman from The Nightmare Before Christmas]
This had all the makings of disaster... Fall Out Boy? Covering beloved animated classic? And yet, it's addictive. Not surprisingly amped up, but surprisingly faithful and the lead singer has a flair for theatrics, which is advantageous in this case. Other covers on the Nightmare soundtrack re-release, not so successful (with the exception of Fiona Apple). Why wasn't the 3D re-release of the film shown seemingly anywhere in Canada?

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Catchiest song of the year:
Jason Webley - Eleven Saints [via Fabulist]
This year's War Photographer award (for an insanely catchy tune attached to online animated music video) goes to Jason Webley's Eleven Saints. About a month ago Neil Gaiman posted on his journal "And just so you know, I cannot get this song and video out of my head". Naturally I had to check out the link and he was absolutely right, it's damn catchy. Since then I've been listening to it incessantly and then a couple days ago I finally decided to check out Jason Webley's website where I discovered in the forums that he had just finished touring with the Dresden Dolls. What the deuce?!? My musical tastes once again converge in strange and unexpected ways (see: Ben Folds calls up the Dresden Dolls). In this recent interview with Fabulist, Jason Webley's story of how the tour with the Dolls came about is equally strange.

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Favourite albums of 2006:
The Dresden Dolls - Yes, Virginia


Analyzing my iTunes play counts by 2006 albums, The Dresden Dolls take 5 of the top 6 most played tracks. Four songs from this album and a b-side. It's hard to argue that any other album released last year topped this one in my books.
Mrs. O
Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner (B-side)
When I hear the latter song, I'm reminded of a French film I saw this year at the Edmonton film fest called La Tourneuse de Pages and specifically a scene where the lonesome cello player attempts to take advantage of the page turner (this does not end well for him). Previously I had never heard of a page turner as a vocation, let alone the subject of a film or song. If cold, calculated revenge is your thing, I recommend this film. Although when it ended, the woman seated in front of me promptly stood up and declared that she hated it. You can listen to me or that woman.




Rodrigo y Gabriela (self-titled)
First of two artists I "discovered" this past summer while in the FOPP record store in Bath, UK. A friend and I were perusing the CD racks and just couldn't NOT ask what was playing over the speakers. We were told Rodrigo y Gabriela. OK, mental note to self: remember those names and look into it when I get back home in a month or so. I later learned their latest album was produced in Bath, so it made sense that they were promoting it. The duo themselves are from Mexico and based in Dublin (!). I would later have the obscene good fortune of seeing them when they inexplicably made a stop at the Edmonton Folk Festival (to the neglect of the rest of Canada). Here's a Metallica cover:
Orion [originally by Metallica]

Wolfmother (self-titled)
Wolfmother is the other band I heard for the first time while in FOPP in Bath. It was this first track Dimension blaring over the speakers that was irresistably rockin'. Later in my summer travels, I bought their CD in New York City. First impressions: Jet spliced with White Stripes. To some, that would be a bad thing. But I like it, so there.
Dimension

The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
I am of the opinion that nearly everything Jack White is involved with is exceptional and The Raconteurs is no exception. Looking at that sentence I just wrote, I'm starting to doubt its logicality. . . Um, The Raconteurs rule!
The Bane Rendition (b-side to Steady as She Goes)
Together

Hawksley Worksman - Treeful of Starling
Seeing Hawksley Workman at the Folk Fest made me regret not checking out his music earlier. His long delayed, rain-soaked Friday evening performance on the Main Stage was mesmerizing even though it was only him and his piano player Mr. Lonely. I became an instant fan and thoroughly enjoyed his subsequent workshops on the side stages. This makes a nice post-apocalyptic companion piece to We Will Become Silhouettes.
You and the Candles

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My Year in Concerts (click the links to revisit old concert posts):
02/18 - Edmonton - The Philosopher Kings
04/25 - Edmonton - Franz Ferdinand/Death Cab for Cutie
06/24 - Dores, Scotland - The Loch Ness Monster: Fatboy Slim & guests
06/30 - Toronto - Seu Jorge
07/15 - Toronto - The Dresden Dolls
08/01 - Toronto - The Living End
08/10 - 08/13 - Edmonton - Edmonton Folk Music Festival (Hawksley Workman, Rodrigo y Gabriela, K'Naan, Bedouin Soundclash, Feist, Chumbawamba, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Sarah Harmer, and many many more...)
08/24 - Edmonton - Ben Lee
09/22 - Edmonton - Danny Michel
10/06 - Edmonton - The Who
10/17 - Edmonton - The New Pornographers, Immaculate Machine, and Novillero
10/22 - Edmonton - Ellen McIlwaine with Cassius Khan

About 75% of those shows were brilliant. Let's just say that with the exception of The Who, larger venue concerts are not ideal. The tantalizingly short 30-minute set by Rodrigo y Gabriela was unreal and unarguably the best gig out of 4 days of solid music at the Edmonton Folk Fest (read more here). At the other end of the gig spectrum, The Dresden Dolls' night of entertainment, which spanned nearly 5 hours for $10 in an old movie theatre was amazing and was one of those rare occasions of quantity AND quality (see above link).

The Who - See Me, Feel Me/Listening to You (live in Edmonton 10/06/06)
Roger Daltrey's parting words after a night of technical difficulties: "Never give up!"

The Living End - 10:15 Saturday Night [originally by The Cure]
Danny Michel - Moonage Daydream [originally by David Bowie]
Death Cab for Cutie - Little Boxes [originally by Malvina Reynolds]
Ellen McIlwaine with Cassius Khan - R&B Medley (live in Edmonton) [various covers]
The Dresden Dolls - Tout les garçons et les filles (live in Lyon) [originally by Françoise Hardy]




I'm kicking this melting popsicle stand and jetting to San Francisco next week with the fam'. Stay frosty.

Interstate '76 Revisited

I try not to repost things, but someone requested this and it's just too good to remain unavailable. I'm talkin' about the soundtrack to Interstate '76, oh yeah. This amazing funk soundtrack is arguably better than the stuff it's paying homage to. Simply fantastic, get it while you can.

Rehashed from my April 18th post:
"Nearly 10 years ago, Activision released a computer game called Interstate '76 that featured muscle car mayhem, afroed sidekicks, and a protagonist named Groove Champion. I remember it being fun (but barely running on our computer) and it was followed by a dismal sequel Interstate '82.

The key ingredient that made the original game so good was the wicked funk soundtrack that accompanied the vehicular combat. Heavy on the wah-wah pedal, lots of fuzz, and sexy sax. You can totally imagine this groovy music overlaying a 70's police car chase or possibly porn.

This was one of the first games (that I remember) with professionally recorded soundtrack where the game CD could actually double as an audio CD. As you raced around blowing up other cars, this awesome music played on endless rotation off the CD , which made it easy to ignore the choppy, repetitive gameplay and mediocre graphics (hey, they were cool at the time).

The soundtrack was performed by the one-off band Bullmark headed by Arion Salazar (bassist of Third Eye Blind) and made up of Brian "Brain" Mantia (drummer for Primus), Santana's keyboardist, and other session musicians. Some of these songs are among my most played iTunes tracks, which goes to show how these have long outlasted the novelty of the game."

Interstate '76 soundtrack by Bullmark

"NOTE: these are the 16 tracks that came off the actual game CD. In fact, I only know these songs by track number. Activision actually released an official soundtrack with even more tracks (with real names), which you can read a review of here."


I have yet to hear this official soundtrack since I was too stupid to buy it at the time (if in fact I knew it even existed). Here's a pack of extra Bullmark tracks that I withheld from the original post. I think I downloaded them from Arion Salazar's website, which no longer exists.
-Can You Feel
-DESTRON Super Jam
-Interstate '76 Theme (Slight Return)
-Kanegon
-Ovum Bisquit
-Pocket Full of Yanni
-Skaebae Ranger GO!
-The Crab Style
-Track 12
-Track 16
-Track 24
Get 'em all: Interstate '76 bonus tracks by Bullmark

And would you believe it, an Interstate '76 cover?
Aqua Viva - Interstate '76 Theme [originally by Bullmark]
That is, if by "Interstate '76 theme", you mean Song #1. I always remembered Song #16 being the main theme... I have no idea where I got this cover and google's no help here.

Vaguely related, semi-cover:
Velvet Revolver - Interstate Love Song (acoustic on KROQ) [originally by Stone Temple Pilots]
This would be the equivalent of Audioslave "covering" Soundgarden.

It's Oh So Quiet...

Coming up Monday March 31st, Stereogum is releasing its latest exclusive tribute album. Following up on last year's Radiohead and REM tributes, they've assembled 11 artists covering Björk's 1995 album Post. While I had been peripherally aware of Björk as Icelandic and swan-clad, besides hearing Venus as a Boy in the film Léon it wasn't really until I got the Directors Label DVDs of the work of Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry (brilliant DVD, by the way), and Chris Cunningham that I was properly exposed to her music. I didn't exactly become instant fan... but there are some great music videos including Spike Jonze's video for It's Oh So Quiet, where the loud/quiet structure translates the mundane into a fantasy retro musical number. The moment with the mailbox... well that's just pure joy right there!

Though it became her biggest hit, Björk vaguely regrets doing it because as it turns out It's Oh So Quiet is in fact (gasp!) a cover song. Written by Hans Lang and Bert Reisfeld, the song originally titled Blow a Fuse was performed by Betty Hutton in 1948. Like the covering a cover phenomenon of Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah, all the covers of the song are of Björk's version, so much so that even a 2005 Betty Hutton compilation uses the new title.

Betty Hutton - Blow a Fuse
If you thought the shrieking was just a Björk quirk, you'll find she's actually fairly faithful to the original. It sounds like a Broadway musical number, but it's not, at least as far as I can tell using the surprising lack of google-able information on the matter.

Björk - It's Oh So Quiet
So says Björk in a 2002 interview: "The best bit was the video."

The Happy Girls - It's Oh So Quiet
From the film Happy, Texas, a film I would describe as pleasant but completely forgettable. I've seen it but barely even remember this being in the movie though it's ostensibly the climactic musical number that part of the plot revolves around... with the plot being 2 escaped convicts being mistaken for the gay organizers of a children's beauty pageant.

Noise for Pretend - It's Oh So Quiet
From a Björk tribute album, this would be the most drastic interpretation cover of the bunch. Drastic in a good way. This dumps the big band in favour of an eclectic indie pop arrangement.

Lucy Woodward - It's Oh So Quiet
Pretty much a note-for-note cover of Björk's cover with a different voice. From the soundtrack to The Ice Princess... gee, didn't manage to catch that one.

Lisa Ekdahl - It's Oh So Quiet
This jazz cover eschews the loud and goes the oh so quiet route. I still like it even though it stays pretty subdued throughout.

Gimme Gimme Gimme ABBA covers

A few months back, I promised a reader an all-ABBA cover post and I may have dragged my feet, but it's finally here! Said reader provided me with an insanely comprehensive spreadsheet of ABBA covers in their collection and I took that as a challenge to share some that they hadn't heard. However, a couple of my favourite all-time ABBA covers were on that list so I'll include them anyway.

Damhnait Doyle - Gimme Gimme [originally by ABBA]
I've posted tracks from Doyle's Lights Down Low cover album before and as I've said, it was woefully underrated, even by me at first. Producer Danny Michel's fingerprints are all over the album and it'll probably the closest you ever get to hearing him cover Foo Fighters and ABBA.

Montefiori Cocktail - Hung Up [originally by Madonna]
This is not an ABBA cover per se... but Damhnait Doyle's cover of Gimme Gimme Gimme dropped the catchy instrumental riff of the original that was later sampled by Madonna in Hung Up, so I thought it'd be fun to include this cover by lounge duo Montefiori Cocktail who do a fine job reviving it here in an instrumental rendition that sounds like it escaped from a spaghetti western.

Regine Velasquez - Take a Chance on Me [originally by ABBA]
An a cappella cover from Filipino singer Regine Velasquez. She's unfamiliar to me, but judging by this extensive wiki article she's had an accomplished career in music, film, television, and more in a career spanning over 20 years. A long time ago, I remember reading about someone who thought they were chanting "Jackie-Chan, Jackie-Chan, Jackie-Chan" and I've never heard the song the same way again.

The Black Sweden - Mamma Mia [originally by ABBA]
Paying tribute to Sweden's biggest musical export, fellow countrymen The Black Sweden released an album Gold which paired ABBA's greatest hits with classic rock riffs. In this case, Mamma Mia gets mashed with Smoke on the Water. Other examples include Take a Chance on Me/Enter Sandman and Knowing Me, Knowing You/Heartbreaker.

Riff Raff - Mamma Mia [originally by ABBA]
A more focused continuation of that trend, Riff Raff is an AC/DC tribute band from Germany who recorded an entire album of ABBA covers in the style of AC/DC. I haven't listened to enough of the AC/DC catalogue to make any definite claim, but this reminds me of their (great) cover of Chuck Berry's School Days.

Moxy Früvous - Dancing Queen Medley (Live)
This live Dancing Queen cover starts off as Walk on the Wild Side, then throws in a couple unlikely song snippets from U2 and Hootie & The Blowfish. Full show is on the Live Music Archive.

The Dan Band - ABBA Medley
The Dan Band has cornered the market on covering mainly female-led pop songs with randomly inserted profanities. With appearances in Old School, Starsky & Hutch, and more recently The Hangover, they seem to have found a winning combo that works for audiences. I haven't seen it, but apparently they're also correspondents on Jay Leno's new non-late night show. It's a one-note joke, but part of the success (I think) is the thin line it walks between parody and sincerity. This ABBA medley is from their 2005 debut The Dan Band LIVE.

White Day - ABBA Medley
Let me hear those balalaikas ringing out!

Nation - Waterloo [originally by ABBA]
Glow - Dancing Queen [originally by ABBA]
These are probably my favourite ABBA covers and both come from the generically titled A Tribute to ABBA (alternatively released as ABBAmetal: A Metal Tribute to ABBA). If you had commissioned The Darkness to cover ABBA, I think the result would bear a strong resemblance to Nation's rocking rendition of Waterloo: campy and infectious. Glow obviously had fun revamping Dancing Queen, though I wouldn't even classify it as anything remotely metal... I might be completely off-base here, but it vaguely reminds me of a punkier Cake.

Nananananananana...

Hey, guess what I'm back! Yesterday was my last day in Hong Kong. Or was it yesterday? I left on Thursday Hong Kong time (it's Saturday there right now) travelled 10.5 hours to Vancouver and arrived 5 hours earlier than when I had left... Wheee, time travel! But I lost all those hours again sitting in the airport, without wireless internet which is apparently no longer free at YVR at least on the domestic side. Anyway, my trip was a great experience. Now it's time to get back into the groove of things. What am I saying? I'm unemployed, ha ha. I'll have to make arrangements soon to finally FINALLY make my move to Vancouver after months of just talking about it. Enough about that, let's talk Batman!

Last week I found out that The Dark Knight (AKA the new Batman film) would be filming right in Hong Kong! I'm a big bat-fan myself, so this was obviously very exciting news to potentially catch a glimpse of the most anticipated film next summer (sorry Indy!). Unfortunately since I left November 8th, I'm missing the bulk of the filming which is scheduled for the next two weeks or something. My only hope was to sneak a peek at a planned fly-over by the Hercules C-130. Batman's been making the headlines not just in HK but internationally because of heavy pollution in Victoria Harbour scuttling a proposed stunt (Christopher Nolan denies this). Further kerfuffle arose when producers asked the downtown buildings to leave their lights on all night to facilitate filming.

I've posted some pics on Facebook from my wild goose (bat?) chase. Check them out here.

There was a big press conference with Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, and Morgan Freeman at some hotel yesterday confirming among other things that there will be scenes taking place at the IFC-2 tower. Batman crews have already been spotted the past few days scouting out potential shooting locations in the Central district and I was told that there's a big stunt planned on some bridge (according to a sketchily translated radio broadcast). Some spy photos have already surfaced of Freeman and Bale shooting scenes in the SoHo district. Man, it would've been so cool to see some actual shooting while I was there, but alas 'twas not to be. I'll just have to wait until my move to Vancouver so I can watch the Watchmen...

And now one of the only Batman theme covers worth talking about:
Skavoovie & The Epitones - Batman [originally by Danny Elfman]

UPDATE: An interesting development in the post comments... Get this, you know our friend Boyhowdy from Cover Lay Down? Skavoovie & The Epitones were his brother's band! That's like some sort of cover synchronicity or something.

If you're bored, by coincidence it's almost one year to the day since I wrote up a Batman-themed post called Batman vs. Taxman. The song links are dead, but it's still vaguely entertaining to read and way more effort than I put into a regular post.

Misery Waits in Vague Hotels

If you missed it, I was shocked to learn that the Batman cover I posted a couple days ago was performed by none other than Boyhowdy's brother's band Skavoovie & The Epitones. In the semi-immortal one hit wonder words of OMC: "How Bizarre." Well, a little back and forth in the comments has led to an open invitation for Boyhowdy to guest post on Fong Songs whenever he feels a hankerin' for posting some non-folk covers. Speaking of which, his latest post is a swack of Beck folk covers, which, of course, is awesome. And that has directly inspired me to post my own Beck covers, particularly of my all-time favourite Beck song Tropicalia.

Last year, I was working on a massive post that was unceremoniously wiped out by blogger before I finished. This established the dreaded post label I CAN'T BELIEVE I WROTE A GIANT POST AND DELETED IT (WHERE'S THE BLOODY AUTO-SAVE??), which unfortunately has two victim posts to its credit. So there's still a draft post dated 12/06/2007 lingering forever more, in which I was all ready to post covers of Beck's Tropicalia. Well, here's a good excuse to revive at least the Beck portion of that post. :)


Tropicalia, from the 1998 album Mutations, is chock-full of some of my favourite lyrics ever. From the chorus: "Misery waits in vague hotels... to be evicted". I rectroactively attribute my overusage of the word "vague" and its derivatives to this song. In fact, if you search for "vaguely" on my site (as I just did out of sudden curiousity) you'll find that in two years I have used it over 15 times as recently as the last post. ...OK, 45 minutes have lapsed between the last sentence and this one as I obsessively tried to figure out how to plot my word usage over the life of this blog. After filtering out some overly redundant words that appear on every post (i.e. links, labels, fongolia), this is what I came up with using the nifty word cloud generator from TagCrowd.com:

ago (57) andrew (51) artists (50) batman (46) ben (162) best (65) bird (52) blog (51) bowie (74) called (62) canadian (101) cd (60) check (62) classic (48) coming (46) concert (42) couple (78) cover (594) danger (42) danny (44) david (67) days (41) disney (49) dolls (60) dresden (54) edmonton (87) ever (48) fact (65) favourite (85) features (45) film (82) folds (105) folk (60) going (53) head (42) heard (77) heart (44) jack (70) later (61) led (55) listen (92) love (91) movie (48) music (129) night (80) nut (73) people (45) performed (62) playing (47) pm (78) pretty (54) probably (49) quite (46) really (57) released (48) rock (61) session (50) shows (48) since (86) soundtrack (76) squirrel (72) stage (60) started (43) stripes (103) sure (51) theme (104) think (90) tour (52) track (84) version (110) week (51) whole (47) year (114) zeppelin (81) zippers (95)

created at TagCrowd.com

Hmmm, no surprise at the most common word, though I didn't realize I talked about "Ben" so often.

Anyway, back to the lyrics of Tropicalia. I simply love the rhythm and punctuation of the chosen words even if I have no idea what they mean. I'm reminded of something John Lennon once said (I may be making this up) about writing lyrics with the emphasis on the sounds of the words rather than the meaning, rhythmically finding the perfect combination of words whether it's walrus gumboot, elementary penguin singing hare krishna, or studying pataphysical science. In fact, I have a tendency to blindly apply that logic to any lyrics that I don't understand. Like the Beatles' Come Together, Tropicalia is full of juicy word combos such as "equatorial haze", "colonial maze", "anabolic and bronze", "millenial fogs", all of which baffle and delight me. Even my favourite non-lyric is from Tropicalia. For years I loved the lyric: "I'll see them rise and fall into the jaws of a Pasternak love," which I always thought as a particularly poetic image (Ah, a Pasternak love!) until one day I found out the actual lyric was "jaws of a pestilent love". I hereby lay claim to the lyric "jaws of a Pasternak love". Hmmph, that's why I don't really like to read lyrics too often and would rather wallow in my own nonsense lyrics. The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead is another song where my enjoyment has lessened since finding out the actual lyrics. It's not so much I don't like the real lyrics, it's just that my brain conspicuously hones in when it gets to that particular point in the song with corrected lyrics and I can't listen to the song naturally anymore. At least it takes a long while to hear it smoothly again.

In retrospect, it's funny how MP3s and iPods have changed the way we listen to and collect music. This was one of the first songs I remember digitally recording off the CD using some Windows Stereo program into Wav format (yeah, I used to collect those). Napster would arrive on the scene a year or two later... This is all a very long-winded way of expressing my love for Beck's Tropicalia and my gleeful surprise at discovering multiple covers of it.

Eliane Elias - Tropicalia [originally by Beck]
I distinctly remember Brazilian jazz pianist Eliane Elias from the latin jazz film Calle 54 performing in barefeet. So when I heard she was covering Beck (Tropicalia, no less!) I was excited to hear her version and was not disappointed. This fabulous cover comes from last year's album Around the City, which also includes covers of Oye Como Va and Bob Marley's Jammin'.

Dr. Lonnie Smith & David "Fathead" Newman - Tropicalia [originally by Beck]
This comes from an 11-track cover album called Boogaloo to Beck with selections from the pre-2003 Beck catalogue lending themselves nicely to the groovy jazz instrumentals. Some of the tracks that are pushing the 10-minute mark are destined to be mere background noise (I'm sorry, they just outstay their welcome just a little bit). Tropicalia seems just about right, though I may be biased.

The Smiling Salami's - Tropicalia [originally by Beck]
OK, I really hope Boyhowdy doesn't have any siblings in a band called The Smiling Salami's... because this cover is terrible. I only include it here for the sake of completeness. By the 8-second mark, it descends into surreal chaos as creepy elves incoherently mutter the lyrics to their own random rhythm, completely independent of the ad-nauseum guitar strumming and drunken thumping of some sort of beat. Thankfully it's over fairly quickly as you wonder what the hell you just heard.

Beck - Tropicalia
I guess by this point if you have no idea what I'm rambling about, you should probably hear the original.

Beck - Tropicalia (live on KCRW, November 1998)

Beck - Funky Little Song [originally by Bruce Haack & Esther Nelson]
Ding dong, funky little song. A couple years ago, Beck contributed this (funky) little gem to a tribute album called Dimension Mix: A Tribute to Dimension 5 Records, a label started by electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson. Not only were they early artists in the realm of electronic music, the music they released was aimed at children. Not your standard kiddie fare, but apparently hugely influential judging by the pedigree of artists involved on the album including the likes of Eels, Stereolab, and Apples in Stereo. I don't really know much about Bruce Haack having first heard of him via the tribute album (which incidentally features another fav artist of mine, Fantastic Plastic Machine remixing a song called I'm Bruce), so here is where I would normally re-direct you to a wikipedia article so I don't just rehash it here. However when I went to read about him, I stumbled upon a couple of fascinating facts that couldn't just slip by without comment. For the full story, I recommend checking out the bio on brucehaack.com, a site run by a former acquantaince of his (Haack passed away in 1988).


Bruce Haack is an Alberta boy(!), born near the Rocky Mountains in the town of Nordegg in 1931. At some point he moved to Edmonton to study music at the University of Alberta (my alma mater!) although he was rejected for lack of musical notation skills and ended up getting a degree in psychology. While at university Bruce "met Charles Laughton who introduced the idea of going to New York City". Whoa, whoa, whoa... what!? The E-Town connection sure surprised me, but how does legendary actor Charles Laughton fit into the picture? As best as I can tell using my formidable research skills, Charles Laughton was in town most likely in 1951 performing Don Juan in Hell with The First Drama Quartet, which was also made up of actors Charles Boyer, Cedric Hardwicke, and Agnes Moorehead (little Charlie Kane's mother?!?). The only online mention I can find is from this U of A alumni article here. Apparently, Laughton must have attended another play opening while he was in Edmonton and is described as "demolishing almost all [of the theatre administrator's] supply of imported cheeses". HA! I'm guessing during this time he must have crossed paths with Haack and inspired him to move to New York. Note to self: Bruce Haack and his music merit further investigation. A documentary came out in 2004 called "Bruce Haack: The King of Techno" made up of current interviews with associates and archival footage of Haack including an appearance on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. I must seek that out.

Fong Songs 101 All-Time Covers: #15 to 11

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Just joining us?
I'm counting down 101 of my all-time favourite covers before packing this blog away in the attic.
Read my countdown preamble here.
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Oddly enough, the logo and goofy tagline has never changed since day one! My awesome friends made this shirt for my birthday one year. If I remember correctly, the blog had not even reached its first anniversary.

CanConCovers
From the get-go I've been inclined, if not unofficially mandated, to provide a Canadian bias to my blog coverage. As a Canadian blogger, I'm more than happy to draw attention to and trumpet homegrown talent (Danny Michel!) while apologizing for others (Nickelback). Canadian Content (AKA CanCon) is a unavoidable part of the Canadian radio and television landscape, requiring minimum percentages of Canadian produced content to air. Sometimes we grumble about it (i.e. lots of Loverboy airplay), but when done right it can be used to celebrate unheralded talent and hey, that's sort of what music blogging is all about, eh? I even started an irregularly updated and eventually abandoned feature called Canadian Cover Content to discuss cover songs of and/or by Canadian artists. Here are five of my favourite CanConCovers.

15. Captain Tractor - London Calling [originally by The Clash]
Hometown Edmonton boys Captain Tractor were great songwriters and impeccable musicians that were vastly underrated, except perhaps locally. Their 1999 album Celebrity Traffic Jam marks the first and only time my name shows up in an album's liner notes, which I think just happened for pre-ordering the disc (it was also my birthday present!).

14. The Bicycles - Cuddly Toy [originally by Harry Nilsson]
Toronto indie-rock band The Bicycles specialized in wonderful originals inspired by the bubblegum pop of yesteryear, but their debut The Good, The Bad and the Cuddly also featured this cover that was originally written by Nilsson for The Monkees. I did not realize until just now that five of the songs on that album including this one were recorded with Robert Sledge (of Ben Folds Five) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

13. Tok Tok Tok - The Weight [originally by The Band]
The Weight has been covered umpteen times and most artists don't really mess with it, but this groovy genre-bustin' cover by "acoustic soul" band Tok Tok Tok will leave you tapping your toes all day long.

12. Danny Michel - Gloomy Sunday [originally by Rezső Seress]
Gloomy Sunday is the so-called "Hungarian suicide song" that, according to urban legend, was banned from radio play after leading to a series of suicides. The lyrics tell of the author's recently deceased love ("little white flowers will never awaken you") and his desire to join her ("my heart and I have decided to end it all"). For the English version, most famously performed by Billie Holiday, a vaguely happy ending was tacked on to the otherwise depressing lyrics, revealing it was all a bad dream. More likely a marketing ploy than any real suicide epidemic, the legend was further enhanced by the fact that the original composer Rezső Seress did in fact commit suicide. I never did get around to writing and posting my planned "Gloomy Sunday in Canada" feature with CanConCovers of this song, but it was all an elaborate ruse to post this cover by Danny Michel anyway. Mind you, a remix by Winnipeg electronic artist Venetian Snares titled Öngyilkos Vasárnap is definitely worth seeking out.

11. Serena Ryder - It Doesn't Matter Anymore [originally by Paul Anka; recorded by Buddy Holly]
This piano/organ/vocal cover by Ontario singer Serena Ryder comes from If Your Memory Serves You Well, her cover album of songs penned by Canadian songwriters, in this case Paul Anka. It's a dramatic change from the upbeat original as performed by Buddy Holly in 1958 and is probably more indebted to Linda Ronstadt's country rendition from 1975.

Fong Songs 101 countdown concludes tomorrow with the coveted Top 10!

Indy Film

Last Friday, I had the pleasure and privilege of seeing the first great movie of the summer. My friend asked me to hold off on seeing Iron Man until he gets back from vacationing in the UK, so I checked the movie listings to see what else was playing. Lo and behold, playing at the theatre literally two blocks away from our place was RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK: The Adaptation. Intriguing, no doubt. I vaguely remember hearing about this a couple years ago, then I did some quick googling and realized I was in for a rare treat indeed.


For the full story, read this 2004 Vanity Fair article on the project or the official site.

In a nutshell, three pre-teens from Mississippi, Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, and Jayson Lamb, started to film a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark in the summer of 1982, a year after the film was originally released. To realize the monumental scope of this undertaking, remember they didn't have a DVD or even VHS copy of the film for reference. Using their memory, making-of books, the published screenplay, a comic book, and a bootleg audio recording (surreptitiously captured from the 1982 re-release) they pieced together a book of shots they'd need to film... all 649 of them. Amidst puberty, cast changes, production shut-down (by parents), burned garages, and even the release of the two official Indy sequels, they filmed their version with startling commitment over the course of the next SEVEN years.

Cut to several years later, the guys had gone their separate ways. Every once and a while, the film would get shown to curious friends or classmates. A video copy would eventually make its way to filmmaker Eli Roth, who at the time was finishing off his debut feature Cabin Fever (he'd later direct Hostel and Hostel II). At a Austin film festival co-sponsored by Ain't-It-Cool-News' Harry Knowles, they popped in the Raiders videotape at Roth's suggestion. The audience went nuts and a legend was born. Eventually even Steven Speilberg would see their tribute and send them letters of appreciation.

All this preamble and it's really not an easy film to see in theatres. As I understand it, due to a rather informal agreement with the copyright holders (i.e. distribute this and you will be sued), it can only be seen at free screenings at film festivals or charity events. Last Friday was the latter, an event benefiting the Canadian Cancer Society organized by some guy (forget his name) who waited patiently for someone to bring this film to Vancouver, then realized with the impending release of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that he would have to be that someone. Major standing ovation for that guy, way to go! The theatre was packed to the brim, sold out in spite of the greatest fear of the organizers, who had unceremoniously been given the cold shoulder by all the local entertainment weeklies. With filmmaker/Indiana Jones himself Chris Strompolos also in attendance, the place was abuzz as nobody really knew what to expect. Were we all about to be sucker punched with a glorified home video? Steamrolled by a giant paper maché ball of doom?

***UPDATE: The event was sponsored by Kick-Start Cardio with the proceeds specifically benefiting the Canadian Cancer Society's Camp Goodtimes, a summer camp for children with cancer. Jason Kurylo is the man who organized that whole event so I doff my virtual fedora to him. Great job!

Ironically, last weekend also saw the wide-release of Son of Rambow, in which two young British kids attempt to remake Rambo. But this, this was the real deal. It was brilliant. On multiple levels. Within minutes, you realize you're not just watching any fan-made film. Before it started, Strompolos apologized in advance for the poor video quality and sound. It didn't matter... we all know the story, the scenes, the lines, all burned in our collective memories. The magic came from watching, in fact cheering as the scenes unfolded with remarkable ingenuity and dedication. Just how are they going to pull off the giant boulder? They do it. Gunfight in a burning saloon? With reckless abandon, they get it done. The crowd ate it up with Rocky Horror Picture Show-like audience participation. We laughed, we clapped, we cheered. Oh man, the "Hovitos" were a pack of Lord of the Flies kids with arrows and spears, then they chase Indy over the fields where he yells for Jock to start up the engines... of their getaway boat. Trust me, it works. A collective "AWWWW" of regret was let out when the puppy (a hilarious stand-in for that cheeky monkey) eats from Indy's plate. We know what happened to the monkey after that. When teenage Indy kisses teenage Marion, it might just linger a little longer than the original film... The truck chase scene with Indy thrown through the windshield, hanging on the grill as it pulls off, then being dragged by his whip. THEY DO IT. This is just as exciting as the real thing (i.e. the original) because this IS the real thing, sans stuntmen, sans safety experts.

And they don't cop out and film the best bits of the film, they faithfully recreate scenes Indy lecturing his university class, after which a 12-year old Brody brings Indy to meet with some teenage C.I.A. guys to discuss the Ark. In fact, this film is longer than most animated films and the only notable scene missing is the fight with the the big bald Nazi on the plane wing. Even the end credits were getting cheers and laughs (transportation: Mr. Zala) with one particular line inviting gasps. This is the sort of homebrew, community filmmaking that was celebrated in Be Kind Rewind, and in a way lamented since these days such an undertaking seems unremarkable with a generation of youtubers. There's so much to rave about this film, the most entertaining one I've seen in months and by far the funniest, but you really have to see it for yourself... and there's the rub. You probably won't. The only upcoming confirmed screenings are in Minneapolis and Nashville, but keep an eye on that page for updates. Who knows, maybe you can be the one to bring Raiders: The Adaptation to your hometown.

And the story isn't over yet. Producer Scott Rudin (The Royal Tenenbaums, No Country for Old Men) optioned the rights to their life story with, get this, author Daniel Clowes (Ghost World) writing the script. Strompolos told us the script's finished and there's expected to be movement on the project this summer. Perhaps with the imminent return of the real Indy to theatres, this project will also take off! Here's hoping we see an adaptation of this adaptation on the big screen soon. Maybe Clowes can get some pointers from Charlie Kaufman.

Toy Dolls - Raiders of the Lost Ark [originally by John Williams]
A live, off-key rendition of the classic Indy theme by English punk band, the Toy Dolls.

Walter Murphy - Raiders of the Lost Ark [originally by John Williams]
A funky disco-fied version. When I found this I couldn't figure out why Walter Murphy's name was so familiar... then I realized he wrote music for Family Guy including its main theme.

Kate Capshaw - Anything Goes [originally by Cole Porter]
A cover song from Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom as performed, in Mandarin no less, by Kate Capshaw who would later become Mrs. Steven Spielberg. Ah "Temple", the black sheep of the Indy trilogy...er, quadrilogy now. I'm pretty sure this was the first one I ever saw, though monkey brains is the only thing that stuck with me. I've re-watched it a few times since, the last instance when the trilogy was re-released on DVD. On each subsequent viewing, it seems to get just a little worse. Short Round and "Willie"... I cringe a bit just thinking about it, though I think I'll give it another shot before the new one comes out because I am constantly reassured that it's "not that bad".

Raconteurs Tonight Too!Part 2: Brendan Benson

The first time I remember hearing about Brendan Benson was when Pitchfork listed their top 5 music videos of 2005. That list first exposed me to Jason Forrest's wicked (song and video) War Photographer, re-introduced me to Supergrass via Low C, and introduced me to Brendan Benson via the video for Cold Hands, Warm Heart with cute and vaguely sadistic stick figure animations. BB generally gets the short shrift when people talk about The Raconteurs. Despite having three solo albums and co-writing almost all of the material on both Raconteurs albums, I guess he can't escape the media calling them Jack White and some other guys. Judging from this Newsweek interview, it's a wee bit tiresome for him. But whatcha gonna do? He's already recorded his next solo album, but it won't be released until probably next year once all this Raconteurs business is out of the way.

Brendan Benson - Folk Singer
Brendan Benson - Good to Me

The White Stripes - Folk Singer [originally by Brendan Benson]
The White Stripes - Good to Me [originally by Brendan Benson]

The Mood Elevator - Money City Maniacs [originally by Sloan]
Now this here is actually the impetus for these last two posts. Saturday being Record Store Day, I paid a visit to Zulu Records and bought a handful of CDs including a compilation called One Scene to Another: Plumline Record's Tribute to Canadian Indie Rock. Now really, with a title like that who could resist? From the CD insert: "our favorite Detroit bands from the present cover songs by our favorite Canadian bands from the past. Hope you enjoy." The Canadian bands being covered include Sloan, Joel Plaskett, Thrush Hermit, Jale, The Super Friendz, Eric's Trip (former band of Julie Doiron), The Hardship Post, The Inbreds, Hayden, Plumtree, and Zumpano (former band of A.C. Newman, frontman of The New Pornographers). Note: this album can be bought online here.

Admittedly, I bought this just to hear a Money City Maniacs cover, so imagine my surprise when I skim the liner notes and see that Brendan Benson is credited for "snaps, backing vocals" on the track. As it turns out, Brendan Benson was also in a band called The Mood Elevator, a re-arranged line-up of Brendan Benson & The Wellfed Boys. Nifty.

Terry Reid - Rich Kid Blues
The Raconteurs - Rich Kid Blues [originally by Terry Reid]
Of course you should have Consolers of the Lonely already, but if not, check out this cover of Terry Reid's Rich Kid Blues. Sound a little Zeppelin-esque to you too? Reid was Jimmy Page's first choice to be the lead singer of his new band after The Yardbirds, but he declined and suggested someone by the name of Robert Plant...

Terry Reid - Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) [originally by Sonny Bono; performed by Cher]
The Raconteurs - Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) (live) [originally by Sonny Bono; performed by Cher]
The Raconteurs played this a bunch on their last tour (including on Austin City Limits). Perhaps Terry Reid's version is partially responsible for that cover choice...