2008.

After a month of false starts and extreme procrastination, long after everyone else has already posted their "Looking Forward To" lists (and then some), I'm finally going to take my annual look backwards and sum up 2008 through the narrow lens of Fong Songs. Since this blog more or less serves as a diary of sorts, assembling the inevitable year-end post was an amusing exercise in sifting through the past year's posts to see where I was and what I was doing at any particular time:

2008 started with a bang as my first post of the year Pinball Number Count Revisited was (and is) the most popular post I've ever had. Then it was all downhill from there... just kidding. Like any year, there were big ups and big downs. 2008 was strange in that the ups were way high and the downs were way down. Last April, I was fortunate to be invited as a guest panelist on Coverville to talk shop with other cover bloggers. It was a fun experience, though it's very obvious why I stick to blogging over podcasting. 2008 marked my first travels to Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Chapel Hill, the latter of which was part of an epic continent-crossing venture to see the reunited Ben Folds Five. There was a sad though not completely unexpected death in the family that I won't go into here, but needless to say it was a heavy-hearted experience. On the flipside, in September I flew to Toronto and met my 11-month old cousin for the first time, the first Fong boy in the family since me. While there, I got my first taste of the Toronto Film Fest and literally got to watch a film alongside Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge. I made another appearance on the internet airwaves on the BreakThru Radio show Anatomy of a Blogger in November, blathering self-consciously about Fong Songs in between music picks ostensibly chosen by me (not entirely true).

Fourth quarter '08 was marred by a blogosphere wide crackdown on MP3 blogs, the ripples of which still continue to this day, leading many to abandon blogspot for hopefully safer waters or outright pack it in. I haven't gone either route yet, but the number of posts I've written since this whole thing came down has diminished dramatically and part of it is a mental block, knowing that hours of writing can be flushed away by an online robocop. The file-host situation has also been nagging on my brain, but for now I'll be forsaking the bonus traffic of Hype Machine and Elbo.ws and going back to using Mediafire which (for me) has a fairly convenient interface and unlimited bandwidth (a feature lacking in other sites). In fact, throughout this post you'll find selected tracks only available via streaming, hopefully to prevent future headaches.

Top Covers/Cover Albums:

My favourite cover of 2008 was OK Go and Bonerama's cover of David Bowie's Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, from the digital EP You're Not Alone, which may also be one of the year's great underrated releases. Joining forces with New Orleans brass funk group Bonerama (look them up for many other awesome cover songs), OK Go recorded five songs for the EP benefitting New Orleans musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Among those displaced was New Orleans legend Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, who also appears on the EP contributing lead vocals on another great cover of Bob Dylan's I Shall Be Released. The other three tracks are OK Go songs with Bonerama adding some brass oopmh to the proceedings. The EP is only $3.49 from iTunes with full sales going to Sweet Home New Orleans and to building a new house for Al "Carnival Time" Johnson. Definitely add it to your iTunes cart if you haven't bought it already.

OK Go & Bonerama - Rock 'N' Roll Suicide [originally by David Bowie]
The cover follows the same slow build progression of the original, gradually adding elements one by one. The original acoustic guitar intro is replaced by twinkling piano, Bonerama takes the barely-there horns of the original to bombastic new heights, and OK Go singer Damien Kulash does a phenomenal job expressively building up to the show-stopping howl of "YOU'RE NOT ALONE!" The vocals remind me a little of Paul McCartney's go-for-broke vocals on Oh! Darling, one of my fave Beatles songs that wikipedia surprisingly mentions was influenced by New Orleans rhythm and blues... coincidence?

missFlag - Still Alive [originally by Jonathan Coulton & GLaDOS]
At first this cover didn't make much of an impression on me, but what struck me upon repeat listens is that there's not really any winking or elbow nudging by the band. They simply perform the cover naturally as if it's the latest pop rock radio single, albeit from the POV of a vindictive AI being.

The Polka Floyd Show - Hey You [originally by Pink Floyd]
The Polka Floyd Show's self-titled debut of polka Pink Floyd covers sounds like a conceptual joke, but it's not. Clearly the band is having fun with the tunes, but it never really devolves into novelty. They strike a perfect balance of paying tribute and making the songs their own, at least insofar as that's possible when one's entire repertoire is another band's songs.

Mirror Ball Associates - On the Road Again (Slow Ride) [originally by Willie Nelson]
I had never heard of Mirror Ball Associates when I stumbled upon their album Covers Volume I while cruising for covers on eMusic. Released last January, it turns out the Mirror Ball Associates are actually a side project of Paul Durham, frontman of Black Lab (whom I have also never heard of). There is a diverse range of songs including pop punk takes on Allan Sherman's Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh and If I Only Had a Brain from The Wizard of Oz, a phenomenal update on Jesus Jones' Right Here, Right Now (posted a while back), an unironic cover of Paula Abdul's Promise of a New Day, and a whole bunch more. I'm pretty sure it's not my imagination that this Willie Nelson cover is played in the style of Radiohead's Creep. The whole album is only available digitally on Amazon, iTunes, and eMusic. Let's hope Volume I is a promise of a Volume II.

Max Vernon - All That She Wants [originally by Ace of Base]
Major kudos are due to Max Vernon who came out of seemingly nowhere (actually New York) to permeate internet consciousness beginning with his cover of Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl this past summer. I was eager to jump aboard the Max Vernon bandwagon, championing his music over several posts (his When Your Body Breaks became one of my most played tracks of the year) and ultimately I was able to conduct a lengthy e-mail interview with Max that was posted in November. Definitely a major blog highlight last year. Max also stormed the 2008 Coverville Countdown, taking the 1st and 3rd overall spots, sandwiching Johnny Cash's Hurt. Congrats! Don't forget his I Kissed a Girl cover is available on the covers compilation album Guilt by Association, Volume 2 on iTunes and presumably on CD next month.

Speaking of Coverville, I was excited to find out that this year's Coverville Countdown included Danny Michel's cover of Young Americans, which I like to think I had something to do with. For the Coverville Roundtable, we were asked to bring along some of our favourite covers for "show & tell" and that was one of my picks. Even though I submitted my official cover nominations including Young Americans in early December, I'm horribly ashamed to say I forgot to vote myself. :( At least the rest of the Coverville listeners were out there to pick up the slack.

DisCOVERy '08:

PoZitive Orchestra - Shine On You Crazy Diamond [originally by Pink Floyd]
No doubt, my cover find of the year was the PoZitive Orchestra's stash of brilliant bossa/string quartet re-interpretations of the likes of Zeppelin, Beatles, Elvis, and more. Practice your Russian here.

Favourite Songs/Albums of '08:

The Raconteurs - These Stones Will Shout
The Raconteurs surprised everyone announcing their sophomore release Consolers of the Lonely just a week before its release and a month later I got to see their tour kick-off in my (new) hometown of Vancouver. It didn't instantly blow me away upon first listen, but it eventually became my most listened to album of the year. From the pure rock anthems of Hold Up and Five on the Five to a Zeppelin-esque cover of Terry Reid's Rich Kid Blues to the sordid tale of Carolina Drama, everything just seemed to click on this album even if it took me a few listens to soak it all in. For me, Many Shades of Black was the first instant classic. The Switch and the Spur is wonderfully dorky even if it's not intentional. The one track that simmered to the top was These Stones Will Shout, which is just acoustic guitars and harmonized vocals for more than half the song before flipping to electric and building up to a great finale reminiscent of The Who. On the whole, it's a better record than Broken Boy Soldiers. Sounds like their having more fun on this one too. My dad (a huge Beatles/Eagles fan) rarely comments on music that I put on, though I'm always greatly amused when he asks, "Who is this? I like this." This has occurred multiple times whenever I play anything by The Ditty Bops and the other time was when we were in the car and I popped in Consolers of the Lonely. So there you go, it got the Papa Fong seal of approval.

From my favourite '08 albums, a handful of my top tracks:

• The Ditty Bops - The Weeds Are Winning [from Summer Rains]
  
  
• She & Him - This is Not a Test [from Volume 1]
  
  
• The Wrong Trousers - Had [from One and Counting...]
  
  
• Amanda Palmer - Leeds United [from Who Killed Amanda Palmer]
  
  
• The Bicycles - Oh No, It's Love [ from Oh No, It's Love]
  
  
• Laura Barrett - Escape to the Sun Dome [from Victory Garden]
  
  
• Danny Michel - Sweet Things [from Feather, Fur & Fin]

Esau Mwamwaya & Radioclit - 'The Very Best' Mixtape
One of the best albums from last year was FREE and forecasts one of the best albums of 2009. How is that? This 15 song bootleg/mixtape called The Very Best was released by Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit for download on their myspace site (get it here). Esau Mwamwaya's journey from his home in Lilongwe, Malawi to your computer speakers is a curious tale. Less than 10 years ago, Mwamwaya moved to London and ran a second-hand furniture store, which happened to be on the same street as the studios of the producer duo known as Radioclit. Etienne Tron, half of the duo, bought a used bike from Mwamwaya and eventually invited him to a housewarming party. There he was introduced to Radioclit's other half Johan Karlberg and they got to talking music (Mwamwaya was formerly a drummer), eventually inviting him to their studios and discovering his inherent singing talents. The songs that make up the album can't really be called covers since Mwamwaya and Radioclit radically transform the samples into new songs that are familiar, yet refreshingly new. Vampire Weekend's hit Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa gets a makeover, as does M.I.A.'s Paper Planes in Tengazako. The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Ruby Suns, Sweet's Love is Like Oxygen, and more are magnificently recontextualized. A proper debut release is due sometime in '09.

2008 in concerts:
2008/01/24 The Watkins Family Hour The Largo, Los Angeles, CA
2008/02/29 Patton Oswalt Vogue Theatre, Vancouver, BC
2008/03/06 Harvey Danger's 10th Anniversary Public Spectacle Triple Door Seattle, WA
2008/03/07 Harvey Danger's 10th Anniversary Public Spectacle Triple Door Seattle, WA
2008/04/11 Tift Merritt with Sara Watkins The Plaza Club Vancouver, BC
2008/04/20 The Raconteurs with Birds of Avalon Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
2008/04/21 The Raconteurs with Birds of Avalon Neumo's Seattle, WA
2008/04/30 Danny Michel The Railway Club Vancouver, BC
2008/05/01 Danny Michel The Railway Club Vancouver, BC
2008/05/13 Cake with Paper Lions Vogue Theatre Vancouver, BC
2008/09/18 Ben Folds Five with Hotel Lights Memorial Hall Chapel Hill, NC
2008/12/10 Amanda Palmer with Zoë Keating and The Builders & The Butchers Richard's on Richards Vancouver, BC

My concert-going for 2008 was down compared to previous years (a trend that looks to continue), but against all odds I was able to check off number one on the concert bucket list: Ben Folds Five. Reuniting for a one-off gig, I flew down to Chapel Hill, NC in September to see the band that has pretty much been tops in my books since I first heard Whatever and Ever Amen, which you can read all about here. My concert bucket list was narrowed further earlier in the year when I took a bus to Seattle to be a part of Harvey Danger's 10th anniversary shows. They've got a small, but devoted fanbase that soaked up every minute of it as they played through all three of their albums in their entirety and more over two nights. Fantastic stuff.

2008 in film:

In Bruges surprisingly turned out to be one of my favourite films of the year. The terrible trailers were reminiscent of the utterly forgettable Mark Wahlberg dud The Big Hit (i.e. ironic hitmen, casual chatting during shootouts) and even the recently released DVD describes it as an "edgy, action-packed comedy, filled with thrilling chases, spectacular shoot outs and an explosive ending you won't want to miss!" (note: 95% inaccurate). Fortunately, unexpected praise from several trustworthy film reviewers led me to check this one out and I was not disappointed, in fact I was a little blown away. It was odd to watch a movie with less than 15 others staggered around the theatre where all of us were chuckling out loud, but that's a testament to the dark, dark humour and spot-on performances. For what it's worth, Colin Farrell picked up a Golden Globe for his role in In Bruges reminding people that yes, he can act (probably his most natural performance since Tigerland). Co-star Brendan Gleeson was also nominated and probably more deserving. There's a wonderful scene with just Gleeson (and the voice of scene-stealing Ralph Fiennes over the phone) that shifts from amusing to heartbreaking with one spoken line. I hadn't heard of first time writer-director Martin McDonagh before (apparently his stage plays are brilliant), but he's definitely on my radar for future projects. Even though this was his first feature film, McDonagh won an Oscar for his short film Six Shooter also starring Brendan Gleeson, something I've gotta track down. The impetus for this film according to McDonagh was a trip to Bruges in which he was both awed and bored by the picturesque Belgian town, which honestly was a similar impression I got from my own brief visit to Bruges a couple years ago. The only thing I really remember after walking around Bruges for two hours was some baby ducks I encountered jumping off a foot bridge (so cute!). Full of history, yet somewhat mundane, which is what McDonagh incorporated into the opposing reactions of the two main characters. I loved how the story unfolded in a way that's unpredictable, yet somehow inevitable.

The Dark Knight pretty much speaks for itself and as a huge Batman fan in general, this was the bee's knees. Other than TDK, Slumdog Millionaire was the only other film I saw twice in theatres last year. Though the hipster backlash started pretty much as soon as it was released (as it also racks up award wins/nominations), without a doubt this was the crowdpleaser of the year, in spite of the fact that one of the most disturbing scenes in recent cinema is also contained within. I often withhold movie recommendations from friends/family because more often than not I can predict in advance they won't like the movie even if I loved it, but Slumdog Millionaire is the first movie in recent memory that I've gone out of my way to tell everyone I know to check it out. Wall-E was pretty awesome, though I think I need to see it again. The first time around, I was vaguely distracted by the let's-pretend-we're-not-talking-about-obesity subplot and the human element in general. Iron Man was surprisingly awesome considering I had no prior childhood stakes in the character, unlike many other comic-to-film adaptations. I'm liking the master plan of Marvel since they've become their own movie studio. I enjoyed Indy 4 at first purely out of nostalgia, but upon further reflection it was way off the mark (death to CGI!). Same goes for Quantum of Solace, which was enjoyable enough while in the theatre, but the more I think about it the less I liked it. Doubly disappointing after the return to form with Casino Royale.

I saw three pretty good movies last year that, as of this moment, are pretty hard to see outside of a film festival and DVD releases are a long ways off (or in one case, "never going to happen").

• Largo was a fly-on-the-wall documentary of a night at the semi-legendary club in LA (I say "semi-legendary" because I seem to always have to explain the Largo when I mention it to people). Featuring performances by Largo regulars (Fiona Apple, Jon Brion!, Jackson Browne, Patton Oswalt, Aimee Mann, Sarah Silverman, Colin Hay, and more), I have to admit that the alternating between stand-up comedy and intimate music performances was a little jarring (although it's the club's M.O.). An exhilarating performance of Andrew Bird "constructing" A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left with loop pedals is probably the highlight of the film and an eye (or ear) opener for any unfamiliar with his work, as seemed to be the case with the audience I saw it with. Co-director Andrew Van Baal was in attendance to field questions, though it was somewhat awkward since many people had left during the credits even though the theatre was only half-full to begin with, leaving a handful of us to provide obligatory questions. A DVD and soundtrack are hopefully forthcoming since a ton of footage was shot and cut out, not to mention the end credits play over a beautiful instrumental version of Zeppelin's Going to California presumably by Sean Watkins and John Paul Jones that demands release (several recordings exist on the Live Archive but this version was pristine).
  
• Even better than the real thing, Indy IV was eclipsed by three determined teenagers in Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation originally filmed in the 80s. I lucked out seeing this early last summer (review here) and heartily recommend you do you... that is, if you ever get the chance! It only played a handful of dates last year and nothing seems to be planned for 2009 so far. Like most movies there are "other" ways to see it, though nothing beats a packed theatre experience for this one. Otherwise, you may have to wait for the long-in-gestation big screen adaptation of the boys' story (similar to last year's Son of Rambow) as written by Daniel Clowes.
  
• I scored a major coup while on a family visit to Toronto, the rock documentary It Might Get Loud had its world premiere with the film's subjects Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge all in attendance and I was literally first in line to see it. Read my previously posted summary of the surreal experience.

Lastly, just a shout-out to two awesome websites that cropped up in the past year (or at least came to my attention):

• The Boston Globe's The Big Picture, an always awe-inspiring, thought-provoking collection of hi-res photos from the associated press. A simple, obvious concept executed perfectly.
  
• Sporcle.com was introduced to me via Ken Jennings' blog (yep, I read his blog) and it's a must for any trivia lover. In presentation and implementation, it's simply miles above any comparable site. Since its debut, all it does it get better. Their feedback link that not only gets read, but actually results in change! I'm tackling the Jeopardy online test tonight to see if Sporcle increased my knowledge of US presidents and state capitals.

I'm already digging Andrew Bird's latest Noble Beast, but otherwise a lot of my favourite artists seem to be keeping a low profile this year. After plenty of touring over the past couple years, Bird's old compadres the Squirrel Nut Zippers have an as-yet-unannounced studio album in the works, so I am hugely anticipating that. But I've perused some 2009 release lists and nothing else really jumps out. Perhaps someone will pull some Raconteurs-like tactics (i.e. announcing a new album just a week before it comes out).

Over and out.

my fanboy head is exploding

I'd like to direct your attention to several recent blog entries on the upcoming Neil Gaiman/Amanda Palmer photo book collaboration. Neil was/is hanging out with Amanda in Boston all this week.

• Amanda talks about it here
  
• Neil talks about it here and here (great pictures!)
  
• Kyle Cassidy is the photographer on the project and also shot the official album cover for Who Killed Amanda Palmer?. He has multiple blog entries here.

Between the 3 of them, I think they are trying to outblog each other. Also, judging by some of the photos, Neil may have killed Amanda Palmer.

Love this American Gothic shot:


Album and book should be due mid-September. By the way, did you hear Neil's doing a 2-part Batman story to be illustrated by Andy Kubert and due in January? Cool.

I've got a real covers post going up later today. Stay tuned.

Muppet Covers Week, Day 5: The Batman Connection

OK, when I planned to make it Muppets Cover Week this week, it didn't completely escape me that the biggest, most anticipated movie of the summer was coming out today. I saw The Dark Knight at a midnight screening last night and it was absolutely stunning. It's been out for less than 24 hours and it's already broken two box office records, biggest take for midnight screenings and opening in most number of theatres. Mind you, that figure doesn't include the 3am and 6am screenings so all signs point to a blockbuster weekend and it deserves it. It's uncommon for me to actually want a movie to take in obscene oodles of money, but here I'm cheering it on. I'm thinking a 140-something million opening weekend, but I not-so secretly would like it to beat Spider-Man 3's $151M. It's opening to great reviews too: a 4-star review from Ebert, an A from Keith Phipps at the AV Club, and an 82 rating on Metacritic.

So how does this all tie in to the Muppets you ask? The connection is not as far-fetched as one might imagine and I learned some interesting factoids when looking this stuff up. Directly related to Christopher Nolan's reboot of the Batman series, the Jim Henson's Creature Shop worked on some of the visual effects for Batman Begins, most notably the shots of the "memory cloth" that Lucius Fox shows Bruce Wayne, which would later be fashioned into Batman's cape. And check out this bizarrely amusing trailer remix of The Dark Knight... with the Muppets!

And did you know Batman and Superman teamed up to promote the very first season of Sesame Street??


During the early seasons of Sesame Street, Batman and sometimes Robin would pop up in animated shorts to teach kids lessons such as traffic safety, for example. Apparently one Batman and one Superman segment appear on the compilation DVD Sesame Street: Old School, Volume 1. Another cool connection is that Paul Williams, who of course co-wrote all the great music from The Muppet Movie, voiced The Penguin on Batman: The Animated Series!

Muppet Wiki has an entire entry on Batman that points out several Batman references and connections to Jim Henson productions.


To celebrate the release of The Dark Knight, I've re-activated all the links to a post I did a couple years ago: Batman vs. Taxman. There you'll find an overly elaborate face-off between the various Batman themes and the Beatles' Taxman, off course all told in cover song form. If you skim the whole post and only download one Batman cover, make it this one:

Skavoovie & The Epitones - Batman [originally by Danny Elfman]
A great ska cover of the Danny Elfman score from Tim Burton's 1989 version of Batman. I still get a big kick out of the fact that Skavoovie & The Epitones are the former band of Boy Howdy's brother!

Here are some more cover songs from films either produced by The Jim Henson Company or worked on by The Jim Henson Creature Shop.


Cars Can Be Blue - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
HORSE the Band - TMNT
For the 1990 live action version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the costumes for the four turtles and Splinter were provided by the Jim Henson Creature Shop. Brian Henson, Jim's son, was chief puppeteer on the film as well as second unit director. The Creature Shop also worked on the second Ninja Turtles film as well, though not the third. Of course, these covers are of the theme to the animated series, not the film. But I just couldn't resist. :)



BC-52's - (Meet) The Flintstones
From the 1994 critically panned live action remake of The Flintstones, the B-52's (uh, cleverly redubbed the BC-52's) covered the main theme in their distinct style. The animatronic puppets in this film were provided by the Creature Shop.



Josefine Cronholm - Close to You [originally by Burt Bacharach and Hal David]
This wonderfully off-kilter cover of the hit song for The Carpenters is from the soundtrack to MirrorMask, a Jim Henson Company production from 2005 directed by Dave McKean and written by Neil Gaiman. Connie Stevens and Fozzie Bear once covered this too on The Muppet Show!



Kelley Polar - Magic Dance [originally by David Bowie]
The Hill Valley Preservation Society - Magic Dance [originally by David Bowie]
One tagline to this 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth was: "Jim Henson, George Lucas and David Bowie take you into a dazzling world of fantasy and adventure". Throw in a young Jennifer Connelly and a screenplay by Monty Python alumnus Terry Jones and you have the makings of an instant cult classic, though the film bombed quite spectacularly at the box office with a TOTAL gross of just under $13 million and a piddly opening weekend of $3.5M. I checked and that's awful even by 1986 standards. Ranking 66th of all the releases that year, Labyrinth was out-grossed by the likes of Friday the 13th Part IV, Police Academy 3: Back in Training, Iron Eagle, House(??), and Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling. While David Bowie wore the tight pants of nightmares, the image that stuck with me most from my childhood was the baby crawling on the ceiling, which creeped me out further when I later saw Trainspotting. Uh, yeah, babies on ceilings freak me out-- thanks Labyrinth! From the recent Life Beyond Mars album of Bowie covers, Croatian-born artist Kelley Polar does an awesome version of Magic Dance, originally sung by David Bowie and his goblin cohorts. Thanks to reader Remi who alerted me to another cover by The Hill Valley Preservation Society, a defunct Atlanta band that covered theme songs of the eighties.



The Coconutz - Everybody Hurts [originally by REM]
Aloha Sex Juice - More Than Words [originally by Extreme]
These two covers performed in Hawaiian are from the soundtrack to Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which featured puppets created by the Creature Shop. Don't forget too that writer/star Jason Segel and director Nicholas Stoller are in charge of the forthcoming revival of the Muppet movie franchise. Everybody Hurts is one of three covers translated into Hawaiian by musician Daniel Ho working under the pseudonym The Coconutz. Also covered on the soundtrack by The Coconutz: These Boots Are Made For Walkin' and Nothing Compares 2 U.

Fong Songs News Flash!

This is a Fong Songs News Flash! We interrupt Muppet Covers Week to bring you some burning news (ow, hot! hot!):

Serial kisser on the loose!
Max Vernon now has a hilarious music video to accompany his great cover of Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl. Check it out!

Are Gnarls Barkley Crazy covers making a comeback?
Wakey!Wakey! has a free NY concert available for download here including a pretty sweet cover of Crazy.

Who Watches the Watchmen?
Watchmen trailer imminent, supposedly of the mind-blowing variety. The Dark Knight is going to be so awesome, even the previews rock.

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog!
OK, this is awesome. Act I went live yesterday, Act II hits tomorrow, Act III on Saturday, then gone after Sunday night. The free bit at least, it'll stay on iTunes and eventually make its way to DVD. So what is it? Joss Whedon's latest creation, a musical internet mini-series about a Evil Super Genius in the guise of Neil Patrick Harris. Watch Dr. Horrible as he eagerly awaits the result of his application to join the Evil League of Evil (fingers crossed!), faces off with his nemesis Captain Hammer, and tries to talk to that cute girl at the laundromat-- with musical numbers! With Neil Patrick Harris in a lab coat talking to his computer, it's impossible to NOT think of Doogie Howser, M.D. all grown up to be an evil doctor. Incidentally, I just happened to pick up the Serenity: Those Left Behind comic at the library yesterday and alarm bells went off as I read its forward with its conspicuous mentions of "Whyte Ave", "Albert's Family Restaurant (now burned down)" and "Wee Book Inn". Of course, the forward was written by Edmonton native Nathan Fillion, better known as Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the short-lived Whedon series Firefly and its follow-up feature film Serenity. E-Town pride! Strange now that you can wear Nathan Fillion's grinning mug on your chest! That's right, Fillion plays Dr. Horrible's asshole superhero nemesis, Captain Hammer! Go watch now and soon you too can sing along to Dr. Horrible's freeze ray love song. In related news, Neil Patrick Harris will be making a guest appearance on the upcoming new season of Sesame Street.

This has been a Fong Songs News Flash. Our regularly scheduled Muppet Covers Week will continue momentarily.

Time for some Beatles Love

Well, I'm back from rainy California. Turns out sunny California was a myth, in January at least. When you fly south for the winter you're supposed to fly way farther south. Most of the time I was there mini waterfalls gushed off the curbs and each night I'd come back to the hotel and hang up my pants to dry overnight. When I got home Tuesday night I was warmly welcomed by a parade of snow and -31ºC feels like -40 temperatures. Incidentally, -40 is where Fahrenheit and Celsius meet to hang out and drink hot cocoa. Yay for Edmonton! Now it's back to work, or rather back to not working. As it turns out, by definition I've not been unemployed for 4 months. I've just not been working. See, I've been out of work voluntarily and if I had known that I might have been able to avoid repeated hassle at Canadian customs where an unemployed single traveller on short trips equals drug dealer. But I cannot tell a lie and the more accurately I would answer questions the higher the customs agents' eyebrows would arch before I would would be hauled away to join the other ethnic folk for full bag checks. Sigh. Anyway, I'll be flying back to Vancouver next week to "settle" and find a job. If only I could pay myself to keep writing Fong Songs! If you're curious, the impetus for all this travel in the past month is an Air Canada flight pass I bought that allowed me to fly unlimited flights anywhere in western North America they fly for one month. There are obviously some catches, but it's a pretty decent deal to check out some places I've never been to before. To get full value though, you basically have to be unemployed (ahem, not working) or retired (like my dad who joined me in Vegas and San Fran).

Now the moment you've all been waiting for, back to covers! And as I rejoin the fray, could it be that I resort to the most clichéd cover source of all-time?? Yes folks, it's The Beatles!

My travels began in Las Vegas, but I'm a pretty cheap gambler. For instance, I placed a bet on the Oilers game at Bally's and sat for the next 3 hours watching that $5 bet play out. Over 5 days, I lost less than $100 mostly on a sad round at the blackjack table. So my dad and I had to find some other sources of entertainment (yes, it was a father/son bonding trip). My dad's primary reason for going was to check out CES, which was a horrible exhausting experience. I got in with dubious credentials and it was awful-- I get a headache thinking about it. Definitely not for your average schmuck like me. In my head I imagined it would be like those first few pages of Popular Science with the coolest, wackiest gadgets and future technology that would wow the most jaded consumers. But instead it was like 50 football fields of iPod covers, digital picture frames, massage parlors, TVs, and bigger TVs. We walked up and down the Strip, collecting those casino club memberships like credit cards (give up your privacy for some cheap souvenirs!). When the glitz started to wear off, we visited Red Rock Canyon (quite cool) and Hoover Dam (Damn you again Michael Bay for Transformers!). We saw Penn and Teller who were not bad, but kind of disappointing since I'm a fan of theirs (the 25% theatre capacity also made for an awkward atmosphere).


...And we saw the Beatles LOVE. While planning our trip, I knew I wanted to see this show if we could get a ticket. My dad is a huge Beatles fan, which has made for some easy Christmas and X-Mas gift decisions whenever a new anthology or Beatles thing comes along. I've never seen a Cirque du Soleil show and I've never been remotely tempted to see one, but an acrobatic spectacle set to newly recontextualized Beatles music definitely intrigued me. My dad's the same way and has been holding out to see Across the Universe on DVD since he thinks it will be too artsy for him. After checking the half-price ticket booths to no avail and blowing off the other shady discount dealers, we just went directly to the box office and bought the cheapest seats possible. We both quite enjoyed the show, which was good if possibly great. The best part is simply having the Beatles blasted at you as your entire peripheral vision is filled with Beatles iconography taken to extremes. The show begins with a wonderfully austere cut of Because (just the a cappella vocals) in near pitch black before the stage explodes visually and sonically to Get Back. One of my favourite moments was the surreal-- most of the show was surreal but this was moreso-- Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite with creepy faceless moptop dancers, live action Jack-in-the-Boxes, fascists, multi-legged freaks in cages, and other carnival oddities Beatles-style (apparently). Another visually spectacular piece involved a massive billowing sheet engulfing half the audience as some kids floated on a bed in the middle of the blanket-y ocean before plunging 4 stories into the middle of the stage. Even though we had the cheap seats, we had a great vantage point above and could see all the action in the theatre in the round. If we were sitting a lot closer I imagine you'd miss things going on behind you and be craning your neck upwards for much of the show. I'm not even going to try to describe the rest of the show, which featured a ton of extremely talented performers and an incredibly dynamic stage that transformed in unexpected ways. I've read that the show is actually shutting down for three days, forsaking $3 million in ticket sales in order to perform 2 songs at the 50th annual Grammies in less than a couple weeks. So if you want a glimpse of the nonsense I'm spouting, check that out.

Of course, the star of the show is the music, the Beatles catalogue reworked by George Martin's son Giles with the blessing of the Paul, Ringo, Yoko, and Olivia (not quite the Fab Four, but it'll do). Apparently the soundtrack features elements from 130 individual Beatles songs mixed, mashed, and stripped but never really losing any of the power of the originals. It's astounding to imagine the cultural impact of the Beatles and unbelievable when you think of the short time the band was actively together producing albums... which was (please don't quote me on this) 7 or 8 years. Anyway, the show got me thinking about my favourite Beatles mash-ups, which I present for your listening enjoyment along with some of my personal favourite Beatles covers and miscellaneous related tracks.

Hank Handy - Beatles Mash-up Medley
This is a mash-up tour-de-force, first introduced by the folks at Boing Boing a few years ago. This is amazing fun to listen to and play "Name that Song" as elements from numerous songs are layered so skillfully that it never descends into chaos as one might imagine with about 40 Beatles tracks in 3.5 minutes.

Go Home Productions - Crazy Little Fool [Beatles vs. Queen]
Fool on the Hill vocals over Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Works unexpectedly well with some Dear Prudence in there too.

team9 - Eleanor's in My Head [Beatles vs. Queens of the Stone Age]
This mash-up is stunning in that it recontextualizes Eleanor Rigby as a dark electro-rock number that sounds completely natural.

Lenlow - To the Taxmobile! [Beatles vs. Neil Hefti]
This was the driving force behind the Batman vs. Taxman post I wrote over a year ago, which I self-link to repeatedly. Even though the links are are all dead, I often marvel incredulously at the results that can come about when I get a goofy idea and carry it out with maximum effort.

Jonathan Coulton - When I'm 25 or 64 [Beatles vs. Chicago]
As part of his Thing a Week series, Jonathan Coulton produced his very first mash-up: When I'm 64 clashing with 25 or 6 to 4, which by his own admission is not completely successful. Though I think it works better than I think he gives it credit for. This is a hotlink directly from JoCo's site. The funny thing is he bought both songs from iTunes then he proclaims, "I circumvented the DRM in a blatant violation of federal laws! And I’d do it again!". Probably the most disappointing thing about going to CES in Vegas was that I arrived a day after Jonathan Coulton appeared on a panel with Mark Hosler of Negativland, Samantha Murphy, and Lady Miss Kier of Deee-Lite! And there was a concert that night, grrrr! I felt better when I got home and in my mailbox was a Thing A Week box set I ordered from CD Baby in a cute tin box with the 4 Thing a Week CDs inside and unexpectedly signed and numbered (#1078) with liner notes by college buddy John "I'm a PC" Hodgman. Curiously this mash-up was Thing a Week #10, but is not in the box set. And yet there are still 52 tracks... I spent 5 minutes staring at the track lists and cross-referencing it with the actual Thing a Week posts to figure out where the extra song came from. I'll leave it to you to do the same thing once you buy the box set too. While I was late in Vegas to catch his show, I was also way too early in San Francisco for a concert DVD he's recording there on February 22nd (now sold out). You should also check out this awesome ukulele cover of JoCo's Tom Cruise Crazy. At this point, I'm just re-hashing links from Jonathan Coulton's blog so you should just go ahead and add it to your RSS feed reader of choice.

Toad the Wet Sprocket - Hey Bulldog
World Party - Happiness is a Warm Gun
Funny thing about these is that they're both pretty straightforward covers, not deviating much from the originals. But I like them both a lot. The Breeders also do a nice cover of Happiness is a Warm Gun.

Jake Shimabukuro - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
There's a studio version of this wonderful ukulele cover by virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro from Gently Weeps (available on Amazon, eMusic, or your best deal on Amie Street... several other covers too). But I love the urgency of this version recorded in Central Park near Strawberry Fields, which I ripped from a video seen here. He really gets into it and his fingers float magically across the uke. It's an beautiful cover and watching it is even better.

Yukio Yung - Free as a Bird
This cover of the 1995 "new" Beatles song is kinda wacky. The original, due to the circumstances of its production, inherently had a melancholic, bittersweet feel to it. Here it's transformed into an upbeat pop song that recalls an earlier era Beatles.

Lulu Hughes - Helter Skelter
Lulu Hughes is a singer from Québec whose self-titled 2002 album I stumbled upon at the library and luckily found this cover. She's also responsible for that wicked cover of Pink Floyd's Time that I love. Her Helter Skelter starts off with a laid-back reggae feel than explodes into a more traditional rock number, but with a bevy of back-up singers and a horn section. I'm a huge sucker for horns. The only mis-step is her laughable snarl of "I've got blisters on my fingers!" which was a startling death scream from Ringo at the end of the original, but here sounds woefully calculated like "Yeah, I'm rocking out!" or "Coincidentally I've got blisters on my fingers too!".

No Doubt - Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (live)
From their Live in the Tragic Kingdom DVD, this silly Beatles song suits their ska stylings. Alliteration, ha!

Jamie Cullum - Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Last year was the 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and to celebrate the BBC brought in a bunch of artists to cover the whole album (like us, the BBC is clearly obsessed with covers). Other artists involved were Bryan Adams, Razorlight, Athlete, Kaiser Chiefs, The Fray, Magic Numbers, Oasis, Russell Brand, Travis, The Zutons, and Stereophonics. That line-up sounds a lot more exciting than the results. The Jamie Cullum cover stood out, though I'm admittedly biased. In general, Beatles covers are best when you're not tackling the sort of songs that show up on every Beatles greatest hits package and it's nice to hear a cover of the underrated BftBoMK!, which coincidentally is also a criminally underused Batman sound effect.


The Beatles - Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey [originally by Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller / Little Richard]
Not a mash-up, but a medley from Beatles for Sale, a half-covers Beatles album. This is my favourite Beatles album and is deeply ingrained in my childhood psyche as it was probably the first Beatles album I ever heard. This was the second CD our family ever bought, the first being a 3-inch Chuck Berry one, at Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street in Toronto. I think it's my dad's favourite Beatles album too so it's sort of hereditary. It kicks off with No Reply, my favourite Beatles song of all-time. In fact I don't think I ever really want to hear a cover of this song, though wikipedia reports (with absolutely no backing) that the Red Hot Chili Peppers have recorded this for their next album. The "If I were you..." bridge just kills me every time. When I was little I used to listen to that part, rewind it and listen to it over and over. Reviews often point out that the album was rushed or banged out with Mr. Moonlight often being called out as possibly the worst Beatles song ever recorded (I don't mind it), one of 6 covers that fill out the tracklist. Probably the most well-known track from Beatles for Sale is Eight Days a Week but it also features a killer cover of Chuck Berry's Rock & Roll Music. I was definitely an unconscious cover lover at an early age.

Elton John - Burn Down the Mission/My Baby Left Me/Get Back
Also not a mash-up, but a medley... a truly epic medley pushing the 20-minute mark from one of my favourite live albums Elton John's 11-17-70. This radio broadcast is from near the very beginning of Elton John's career and captures the wicked energy of his live performance. The sound quality is excellent and you're in for a treat if you haven't really heard him completely rocking out. Hard to believe this is just a trio making all that noise, bringing the house down. Reportedly Elton cut his hand at some point in the show and by the end the piano keys were covered in blood. That's rockin' out.

Geoff Gascoyne - God Only Knows (featuring Jamie Cullum) [originally by the Beach Boys]
I first heard this version on Jamie Cullum's Live at Blenheim Palace DVD. Geoff Gascoyne, an accomplished jazz bass player who tours with Cullum and helped produce his first album, composed a string quartet arrangement inspired by Eleanor Rigby for a cover of God Only Knows. This version is from Geoff Gascyone's 2005 album Keep It To Yourself.

The Beatnix - Stairway to Heaven [originally by Led Zeppelin]
From an Australian TV show called The Money or the Gun, this Beatles tribute band performed a startling version of Stairway to Heaven as if performed by the Beatles. Search youtube for the video, which enhances the performance by uncannily re-staging their Ed Sullivan appearance. A collection of numerous Stairway to Heaven performances from the show were collected on a CD called Stairways to Heaven. The show's host Andrew Denton is also responsible for a couple CD compilations of Andrew Denton's Musical Challenge where on his radio show he would challenge guests to cover unlikely songs. This is where you would hear the Wiggles cover AC/DC, Neil Finn's great cover of Billie Jean, Willie Nelson tackling Nirvana, and more.

Mark Ronson - We Can Work it Out (feat. Daniel Merriweather, Tawiah and Sean Lennon)
Last year Mark Ronson performed at the BBC Electric Proms festival in London with tracks from his cover album Version with many special guests backed by the BBC Concert Orchestra. The whole thing can be seen on youtube and would benefit from a DVD release someday. The evening was capped off with Mark Ronson's Favourite Cover of All-Time which is Stevie Wonder's cover of The Beatles' We Can Work it Out. And in a surreal narrative twist, Mark Ronson is joined by childhood friend Sean Lennon who sings along to his dad's song... in the style of Stevie Wonder! So there we have it, a cover of a cover. I love it.

Coincidentally last night I caught the tail end of The Hour where George was interviewing Jerry Levitan who at age 14 in 1969 weaseled his way into John Lennon's hotel room in Toronto (just prior to John & Yoko's bed-in for peace in Montreal) and interviewed him. He's produced a short film directed and animated by Josh Raskin with illustrations by Alex Kurina and James Braithwaite using audio from the original interview. I Met the Walrus has been nominated as Best Animated Short Film at this year's Oscars. While many offers had been made to make use of his recorded material, it was a pitch as an animated short by Toronto animator Raskin that finally grabbed his attention. Check the trailer at the official site. Looks cool.

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.

Cover Riddle #5

Like Batman, James Bond, and Alien before it, the Cover Riddle is resurrected. The last one I did was, oh, about 8 months ago. These aren't covers, but don't worry there will be cover answers.

Tell me the common thread that links these tunes. Bonus points for not using google, the bane of trivia quizzes everywhere (2nd only to wikipedia). I'm looking for the name of a film and perhaps how each track specifically relates.

Ralph Steadman - Little Boy Billee
Oasis and Friends - Fade Away
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Hunter S. Thompson's Younger Brother

Piece 'o cake. Go.

(Actually I changed my mind, go ahead and use O Mighty Google. I changed one of the songs to make it slightly less obvious.)

Batman vs. Taxman

To make up for a lack of posts lately, I've got an epic post for you focusing on the timeless battle of GOOD versus EVIL. Yes, ladies and gentleman in the first corner we have the Batman: superpower-less superhero, detective, billionaire, socialite, vigilante... morally ambiguous, but for all intents and purposes he's our Good Guy. And over there we have the Taxman. Boourns to the Taxman.



Round 1: The Originals
The Beatles - Taxman
Neil Hefti - 60's Batman Theme
Danny Elfman - 1989 Batman Theme
Danny Elfman - Batman The Animated Series

No clear winner here. Neil Hefti's classic Batman theme is instantly recognizable, knowingly campy, it's got the weird Batman chants... ultimately kinda annoying. Danny Elfman's theme to the 1989 Tim Burton movie is a modern classic in its own right, though honestly not a song that gets regular play on the ol' iTunes. The theme to the Batman Animated Series is what makes this battle such a close call because I absolutely love this track. A variation on the movie theme, it's shorter, punchier, and epic using the best bits of the film score all in barely a minute. Alas, the Taxman prevails. Written by Mr. Harrison, the Beatles' classic Taxman from the album Revolver riffs on the 60's Batman theme and makes a rock solid case for the pure evilness of the Taxman. They say money is the root of all evil and the Taxman is exactly that personified. In Dr. Seussian fashion, the Taxman will "tax the street," "tax your seat," "tax the heat," and "tax your feet". Bruce Wayne with his billions of dollars is a ripe target for the Taxman, which is probably why 90% of Bruce Wayne's time is spent at charity functions and being a philanthropist-- trying to maximize his charitible tax deductions. He won't admit it, but that's why Batman started the Wayne Foundation. He can go toe-to-toe with the likes of the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin, and Catwoman, but DAMN, even Batman can't beat the Taxman! Score 1 for the Taxman.

Round 2: Covers
Black Oak Arkansas - Taxman
Catfish Haven - Taxman
Junior Parker - Taxman
Nickel Creek - Taxman [if you only d/l one Taxman cover, make it this one!)
Pat Travers - Taxman
The Music Machine - Taxman
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Taxman
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Taxman

Skavoovie & The Epitones - Batman
The Who - Batman
Yo La Tengo - Batman Theme

Taxman beats Batman in both quantity AND quality of covers with a distinguished crew of coverers including Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Harrison's Traveling Wilbury cohort Tom Petty, and Nickel Creek who dish out a sweet bluegrass Taxman. Batman's got The Who on his side, but like almost all covers of the 60s Batman theme it sounds basically the same as the original. Skavoovie & The Epitones' fantastic ska cover of the film theme is long overdue for credit after years of anonymously making the p2p rounds as "Ska Batman Cover" until I found it on eMusic. But Taxman still wins this round. Taxman: 2-0.

Round 3: Mash-ups
ccc - Tax Jam Pollution [Beatles vs. Beck]
team9 - Lovetax [Beatles vs. The Cure]
Go Home Productions - She Sells Tax, Man [Beatles vs. The Cult]
Lenlow - To the Taxmobile! [Batman vs. Taxman]

This round features the true Batman vs. Taxman battle with Lenlow's To the Taxmobile! Actually this mash-up is more along the lines of a World's Finest team-up than a fight... so we'll call this one a draw.

Round 4: Parodies
Wally Wingert & The Caped Club - Adam West [parody of Wild Wild West by The Escape Club]
Weird Al Yankovic - Pac-Man [parody of Taxman]

Too clever for its own good, the Batman-themed Adam West has one fatal flaw: stretching the word "Adam" in place of the "Wild, Wild" of the original. It sounds forced... that's my beef with that. Also loses points for parodying The Escape Club, which is like making fun of the autistic. There's a reason Weird Al is synonymous with parodies as is evident even with this early semi-rare parody. The lyrics, the accordion-tinged accompaniment, and classic Pac-Man sound effects all combined into a near-perfect parody. Chalk another one up for the Taxman: 3-0.

Round 5: Miscellaneous Non-covers
Weezer - Mr. Taxman (demo)
John Zorn - Batman
Adam West - Miranda

Adam West wins this round all on his own with his hilariously bad (so bad it's good?) 1966 single Miranda, which is all about Batman trying to get in bed with the titular Miranda. It's full of amusing Bat-innuendo with Batman threatening to reveal everything to Miranda and being repeatedly thwarted by none other than the Boy Wonder. Classic line: "Would you like to see me make my muscles dance, Miranda?" Haha, Batman wins hands down. 3-1, Taxman.

Round 6: Dance-off
Prince - Batdance
Prince - Batdance (Vicki Vale Mix)
Prince - Batdance (Batmix)

Prince. Batdance. No chance for the Taxman. Batman get extra points in this round for complete domination: 3-3.

So who wins? Batman says crime doesn't pay... Unless you're the Taxman, raking in the dough, and technically legal, right? They say the two sure things in life are death and taxes. And yet "they" also say to achieve immortality, one must become legend (uh, paraphrasing Richard Matheson, Saw 2, and Ra's Al Ghul)... so that means Batman will always be around to do battle against the Taxman! Death, taxes, and Batman: that's the new standard of life's certainties.

For more evidence to the legend of Batman check out this link and read how Batman fares against Riddler in a dance-off, kicks Joel Schumacher's ass, and may in fact be Jesus: Legends of Batman!

Awesome sign I found in my European travels this summer:

"Hey, Adam West's over that-a-way!"