Fong Songs 101 All-Time Covers: TOP 10

=============================================
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.
=============================================
Top 10
Here we go!

10. Ben Kweller - BK Baby [originally Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice]
Stop, collaborate and listen to this cover, a brilliant guitar-based sing-a-long version of the Vanilla Ice "classic" white boy rap.

9. Baba Yaga - Back in the USSR [originally by The Beatles]
Here it is, my favourite all-time Beatles cover. Baba Yaga is a band made up of an Irish singer/guitarist, a handful of Hungarian rock musicians, and four Russian folk singers. Together they play a potpourri of songs that combine English lyrics and traditional Russian folk songs, which might make the idea of a Back in the USSR cover seem a little too clever, but it's simply irresistible. This particular cover is all a cappella and kicks off with a bewitching Russian chant that makes me want to sing along every time and perhaps take up Russian.

8. The Philosopher Kings - Dinah (Live) [originally by Harry Akst, Sam M. Lewis, & Joe Young]
Tucked away at the end of The Philosopher Kings' second album Famous, Rich and Beautiful was an almost random jazz cover of the standard Dinah written in 1925. It stood out dramatically from the rest of the album of pop/soul music, but the loose and seemingly spontaneous instrumental track wonderfully showcased the band's diverse influences and their underrated musical chops. I loved it when I first heard it and actually chose the song in grade 10 for CALM (Career & Life Management) class when we were asked to do a short presentation about ourselves with a mini bio, a "fun fact" about ourselves, and a song we liked. It still makes me cringe thinking about that day standing at the front of the class of future dropouts gritting my teeth through the entire song which was met by a massive wave of indifference. Heathens. Anyway, I got to see The Philosopher Kings play at the Winspear Centre in Edmonton and it turns out they actually kick off the live show with a blistering rendition of the song (which I didn't even recognize at first) as a sort of band warm-up before singer Gerald Eaton even comes out on stage. Fortunately, this positively electric version of Dinah was captured on their live One Night Stand album.

7. Moxy Früvous - Psycho Killer [originally by Talking Heads]
Admittedly, when I heard this years ago I did not know it was a cover song. Yep, back in the days before I meticulously researched song origins and when the only Talking Heads song I knew was Burning Down the House.... OK, now I only know TWO Talking Heads songs, another credential-shattering hole in my musical education. Regardless, I hope you'll agree this spirited live cover from my heroes Moxy Früvous is a keeper!

6. PoZitive Orchestra - Shine On You Crazy Diamond [originally by Pink Floyd]
Back in 2008 when I first stumbled upon the PoZitive Orchestra, I declared with typical hyperbole that they were "The Best Cover Band You've Never Heard Of" and "my favourite cover discovery of the year". Now they are simply my favourite cover band, period. Most bands that devotes themselves to playing all covers actually have a hard time sustaining my attention for more than a couple songs at a time, but I can listen to the PoZitive Orchestra on endless repeat. Their distinct brand of bossa string quartet arrangements are always inventive and delivered with gusto. What blows my mind is that I think their entire recorded output is only 19 songs, most of which can be downloaded for free from their website. It also kills me that there are a couple youtube clips of the band playing live in Russia, one playing for an unenthusiastic crowd of what seems like less than 10 people and another playing at some sort of aloof dinner reception. In my mind, these guys should be rock stars.

5. OK Go & Bonerama - Rock 'N' Roll Suicide [originally by David Bowie]
I previously wrote this about this cover collaboration and I'm too lazy to attempt to put it better myself:

"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?"

4. Bobby Darin - Lazy River [originally by Hoagy Carmichael]
Even before actually hearing this cover, I have a strange memory of borrowing a Bobby Darin compilation from the library and reading the liner notes which had an essay that more or less declared this as a two-and-a-half minute masterpiece. Whoever wrote that was absolutely right. Bobby Darin completely owns this song. The first version of this song I'd ever heard was actually by Rickie Lee Jones, which I had tracked down since Ben Folds randomly provided guest back-up vocals (not piano!).

3. Ben Jelen - Wicked Little Town [originally from Hedwig & The Angry Inch]
2. The Bens - Wicked Little Town (Tommy Gnosis Version) [originally from Hedwig & The Angry Inch]
The fact that slots #2 and #3 out of 101 songs are occupied by two versions of the same song (different lyrics) should indicate how much I love this song from the musical Hedwig & The Angry Inch composed by Stephen Trask. Four Bens, two Wicked Little Towns. Scottish artist Ben Jelen beautifully performs Wicked Little Town (the Hedwig version) and the formidable trio of Ben Kweller, Ben Lee, and Ben Folds do Wicked Little Town (the Tommy Gnosis version). The latter comes from the Hedwig tribute album Wig in a Box, which contained at least three other brilliant covers that I had to struggle to keep off this list.

1. Danny Michel - Young Americans [originally by David Bowie]
Surprise, surprise. This has come up multiple times in past posts as my favourite cover song of all-time. In fact, it's my most played song in iTunes, cover or not. I discovered Danny Michel, who became one of my favourite artists, via his album of Bowie covers Loving the Alien. It was this cover in particular that made me sit up and realize I needed to find out more about his original music. That is an unmistakable quality of a great cover: the "I need to hear more from this person" factor. I got to see Danny live for the first time in 2006 and he's somehow even more amazing live. I've seen him at least five times since and will again in just a couple weeks! David Bowie himself had this to say about Danny's cover of Young Americans:

"he's a great little mover. never seen anyone move quite like that. are his arms double jointed? the maracas are a beautiful thing, out of nowhere they come and the backup voices are really moving and intimate. this is a good, good cover.
db"

So there you have it, my 101 all-time favourite covers circa 2010! Any thoughts? Feel free to share your top three in the comments. I've got one last post up my sleeve for next week since there will be some blogworthy news from one of my favourite bands that will fittingly tie in with my blog goodbye. TTFN, ta ta for now!

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

=============================================
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.
=============================================
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!

Fong Songs 101 All-Time Covers: #19 to 16

=============================================
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.
=============================================
19. Ben Folds - Songs of Love [originally by The Divine Comedy]
As you all probably know, I'm a sucker for all things Ben Folds does. My only problem was choosing from a ton of covers both solo and with Ben Folds Five, but I decided to go with this unheralded cover from Ben's Sunny 16 EP. A different mix also appears on the Supersunnyspeedgraphic compilation disc.

18. Bob Seger - Love the One You're With [originally by Stephen Stills]
I've never been entirely clear on the intended meaning of this song. On one hand, it can be viewed as advice to get over your recent heartbreak and "love the one you're with". It can also sounds like it's celebrating adultery: if you're on the road, party on. I don't really know what a "rose in a fisted glove" has to do with either interpretation. From Bob Seger's Smokin' O.P.'s album of almost all covers, this really is a smokin' version.

17. Ella Fitzgerald - Sunshine of Your Love [originally by Cream]
This is me and my weakness for horn sections again. The big band takes the familiar riff and give it some brassy oomph. Ella's magnificent wails complete the song's transformation from psychedelic rock to a real swinger.

16. The Living End - Tainted Love [originally by Gloria Jones]
Tainted Love is probably more known for Soft Cell's 80s reinvention than Gloria Jones' soul original, but by far my favourite all-time version is from Aussie rockers The Living End. Chris Cheney's guitar solo is absolutely killer. This is one of several examples of when a particular cover song inspired me to delve deeper into an artist's catalogue. The Living End eventually became one of my favourite bands.

Tomorrow the Fong Songs 101 countdown continues with some good ol' Canadian Content. We're almost at the Top 10!

Fong Songs 101 All-Time Covers: #71 to 66

=============================================
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.
=============================================
Just Duet
71. Tom Jones & Stereophonics - Mama Told Me Not to Come [originally written by Randy Newman]
Clearly taking a cue from Three Dog Night's famous cover, this is my favourite cut from Tom Jones' 1999 (nearly) all-covers album Reload, which more or less resurrected his career.

70. Daryl Hall & KT Tunstall - Something to Talk About [originally recorded by Bonnie Raitt]
Speaking of career resurrections, Daryl Hall seems to have undergone a revival of his own in the past 5 years with his excellent Live at Daryl's House webcast-- free and cover -friendly! A couple Hall & Oates tribute albums have recently popped up, Daryl randomly showed up on an episode of Flight of the Conchords, and their You Make My Dreams provided the soundtrack to a great fantasy dance sequence in last year's (500) Days of Summer. This loose and fun cover is from the KT Tunstall episode of Live at Daryl's House. If you've never watched it, it's a lot of fun and he has one of the most talented backing bands I've ever heard. For the record, this song was written by Canadian Shirley Eikhard who would later record her own version on her album Country.

69. William Shatner - Common People (feat. Joe Jackson) [originally by Pulp]
A surprising cover that takes the spoken word magic of William Shatner, complements it with an inspired guest vocals from Joe Jackson, and throws in a choir and almost the kitchen sink. It's audacious, it's irreverent, but not a joke (well, not entirely) and this can be said of Shatner's entire solo album Has Been. It helps to have a producer like Ben Folds who frequently straddles the line between irreverence and genuine pathos. And yes I know I have a Ben Folds bias.

Instrumentals
I'll let these ones speak for themselves. It's late and I'm lazy.

68. The Bad Plus - Tom Sawyer [originally by Rush]
67. Speak Low - Thriller [originally by Michael Jackson]
66. Dorothy Ashby - The Windmills of Your Mind [originally performed by Noel Harrison]

Tomorrow the Fong Songs 101 countdown continues with some U2, Frankie Valli, and the cover that bridges them both.

Ben Folds, The Very Best, and Bridge School Benefit

It's going to be a busy week of music and traveling. First, I'm off to Seattle to see Ben Folds perform tonight with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall! Then tomorrow morning I'm catching a flight to San Francisco to meet up with my dad. We're going to the Bridge School Benefit concerts in Mountain View on the weekend, a gift from my sister and I to celebrate his 60th birthday. He's a big Neil Young fan, though I'm pretty sure this will be the first time seeing him live. In between, I'll also be taking him to see The Very Best in San Francisco and see some sights including the new Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio. Busy, busy, busy.

With Someone Else's Money - You Don't Know Me [originally by Ben Folds featuring Regina Spektor]
You all know I'm a huge fan of Mr. Folds and this will be the third time I've seen him live, but the first time with a full orchestra backing him up! The music of Ben Folds (and Ben Folds Five) has long been fodder for college a cappella groups, so the only problem he had when assembling the album of covers released earlier this year as Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella! was whittling down the deluge of submissions. The tracklist spans his solo and BF5 works, but leans heavily on the slower ballads. Ben himself contributes a cappella arrangements of his own Boxing and Effington. I would've loved to hear a cappella arrangements of the more rock-based numbers, though I'm sure it's just a youtube search away. This cover of the single from Way to Normal was arranged and performed by With Someone Else's Money from the University of Georgia. By the way, a demo of Levi Johnston's Blues from the forthcoming Ben Folds/Nick Hornby album debuted just over a week ago on the Huffington Post.

The Very Best - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa [samples Vampire Weekend]
From last year's free mixtape, Esau Mwamwaya and producer team Radioclit completely reworked Vampire Weekend's Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa into a relentlessly upbeat but not cloying dance number. Delivering on the promise of that mixtape (which urged on the last track to "watch out" for the forthcoming album), The Very Best's Warm Heart of Africa was released earlier this month to universal critical acclaim. When I found out I'd be in San Francisco, I naturally scoped out the concert listings and was thrilled to discover one of The Very Best's few tour dates would coincide with my trip. Should be a blast!

It's an eclectic lineup this year with ska, hard rock, folk, and, uh, Adam Sandler on the bill. I'm curious to see how the different artists approach their setlists since past performers typically, as a tradition though not a rule, do acoustic sets. This will be my first Bridge School Benefit experience... but hopefully not my last!

Shannon Butcher - Just a Girl [originally by No Doubt]
Mississauga-born jazz singer Shannon Butcher's 2008 debut album Words We Both Could Say ranges from covers of Blondie, Tears for Fears, Glen Campbell, and this wonderful fast-paced rendition of No Doubt's Just a Girl that sounds completely natural as a modern jazz standard.

Pivot - Woman [originally by Wolfmother]
Wolfmother is expected to play an acoustic set at the Bridge School Benefit. We already got a taste of how this would sound when they played a 4-song set at the SPIN offices including a cover of Neil Young's Don't Let it Bring You Down (watch it here). Their upcoming sophomore album Cosmic Egg (guitarist/vocalist Andrew Stockdale is the only member of the original trio, now a foursome) is due to be released next week. Apparently a (studio?) recording of Don't Let It Bring You Down will be available on the Japanese edition of the album. This instrumental cover of their hit Woman by fellow Australian band Pivot is nearly unrecognizable, but a lot of fun.

Coldplay & Buena Vista Social Club - Clocks
I actually like this Latin reworking of Clocks better than the original. It's from the Rhythms del Mundo: Cuba album. A follow-up was released fairly recently called Rhythms del Mundo: Classics, which is chockfull of covers featuring the likes of The Killers, Amy Winehouse, Kaiser Chiefs, and Rodrigo y Gabriela. For the most part, they are previously recorded covers with new backing orchestration from a group of all-star Afro-Cubano musicians including members of the Buena Vista Social Club. I haven't given the CD a real thorough listen yet, but I did enjoy the last album.

Jets Overhead - Mr. Soul [originally by Neil Young]
Victoria band Jets Overhead was late addition to the Bridge School Benefit. They contributed this cover to the Neil Young double tribute album Borrowed Tunes II.

M. Ward, Conor Oberst & Jim James - Girl from the North Country [originally by Bob Dylan]
Before they dubbed themselves Monsters of Folk (along with Bright Eyes' Mike Mogis), the trio of M. Ward, Conor Oberst, and Jim James all toured together, playing triple bills that would include solo sets then all three of them together. This live cover is from Mojo's Dylan Covered compilation.

Sheryl Crow - Mother Nature's Son [originally by The Beatles]
Sheryl Crow was not exactly on my concert bucket list, but I will inadvertently be seeing her for the second time in just over a month. Judging from her performance at Ambleside Park last month alongside Sarah McLachlan and Neil Young, I know more of her songs than I'd care to admit, though I do unabashedly love her cover of Mother Nature's Son from the all-Beatles cover soundtrack to I Am Sam.

Neil Young - Imagine [originally by John Lennon]
I'll admit I was slow getting into Neil Young. I mean, his back catalogue is daunting even for people I consider big Neil Young fans. As a covers enthusiast, I just couldn't help being exposed regularly to his songwriting since everyone seems to have recorded a Neil Young cover at some point, a fact that especially holds true for any Canadian artist. But it's probably my best friend's occasional playing of Harvest Moon on his guitar that really opened my ears after years of listening indifferently to the frequently repeated Neil Young tunes on the local classic rock station.

Well, that's it for blogging for the next week, though you can follow me on Twitter and I'm sure I'll be updating that. I may even live tweet the concerts on the weekend since Google provides free wireless internet for all of Mountain View... Anyway, it's 3:37am and I've got a train to catch in a few hours. I can never sleep before these big trips and last-minute blogging sure doesn't help!

Some Random Friday links

The usual combo of busyness and laziness has prevented me from posting this week, though I've got a zinger batch of originals (famously covered) coming soon. For now, some links:

• Ugh, Seven Nation Army cover #62: the Oak Ridge Boys' new album will feature yet another cover of Seven Nation Army. I'm all for White Stripes covers, but let's see some variation in song choices.
  
  
• i (heart) music recently posted mp3s of a gig by The Lost Fingers from the CBC archives. In addition to their gypsy jazz takes on pop hits like Careless Whisper and Billie Jean, the set ends with a straight up cover of Belleville Rendez-Vous from The Triplets of Belleville. Nice! I'm looking forward to their show here in June as part of the Vancouver Jazz Festival.
  
  
• Free Wilco cover of Woody Guthrie, donations encouraged.
  
  
• The Ditty Bops have a new 6-song EP out, Songs for Steve.
  
  
• Ben Folds' University A Capella cover album out now.
  
  
• Covers of a different sort: comic book covers redrawn by other artists (discovered via Alex Robinson's blog)
  
  
• As you probably know, Wolverine comes out today. Though I'm not terribly pumped about it, I do love that the character hails from Alberta and (if I remember correctly) his dad was a mountie or something. Should be good for some homegrown pride.

Backlog 03/23/2009

I haven't been blogging as regularly as I'd hope, so here's a grab bag post of links that have filtered through my inbox/RSS reader recently that deserve a click. That Chicago post is still coming, hopefully tomorrow...

• Covers by German band derpferdheissthorst including Funkytown.
  
  
• Neil Gaiman visits The Colbert Report. Canadians click here, Americans here. And I guess the rest of the world is on it's own. Gee, ain't the internet swell these days?
  
  
• Jason Webley's latest EP, a collaboration with Sxip Shirey is ready to ordered. You'll get a 2-song 7" vinyl EP, a full length CD with all of the music from the 7" and much more, lyrics, and "an extra special gift". Preview the title track Days With You and you may just be inclined to snap it up. As with his previous EPs, it's a limited run of 1,111 copies. After that, it's sold out forever!
  
  
• If you're a Scrubs fan, The Blanks (aka Ted's band) are performing in random towns around the US throughout 2009/2010... and Cairo, Egypt.
  
  
• If you happen to be in Nashville on April 17th, you should try to score tickets to the world premier of William Shatner's Gonzo Ballet at the Nashville Film Festival. The documentary follows the making of a ballet based on Shatner's 2004 album Has Been, produced and co-written by Ben Folds. Just imagine the sequence set to his cover of Common People, which is actually the name of the ballet that was performed in 2007. Bill and Ben are both expected to be in attendance and you can check out a preview here. Common People (the ballet) will actually be making a return to the stage May 14-17 in Milwaukee.
  
  
• Judging by this semi-cryptic photo from Edgar Wright, the Scott Pilgrim movie is shaping up to have a great soundtrack chockfull of CanCon. The film is currently being shot in Toronto, which is the setting of the graphic novels too. How novel, Toronto playing itself for once! Broken Social Scene and Metric have both confirmed involvement I think. Chris Murphy of Sloan has also been seen jamming with Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim. Right now this is pretty near the top of my Want to See list... though I have no idea when it's projected release date is.

Ben Folds' Uni A Cappella nearly ready and other weird Ben Folds news from Canada

Ben just updated his myspace blog with a fun read about his recent project University A Cappella, which he's aiming for an April release. Read about it here.

If you hadn't heard about it, it's a album of a cappella covers of Ben's songs by university groups with the album proceeds benefitting VH1's Save the Music Foundation. A interesting bit of news is that Ben himself was politely coaxed into contributing two of his own a cappella re-arrangements for the album, Boxing and Effington:

"My label were very kind to be involved in this but they did insist that I contribute two tracks in order that they could justify the release. I thought, no problem. Big problem. If i wasn't in awe of these singing groups before, now that I've spent tens of hours arranging and recording two songs, I am now. Boxing was scored as a kind of four part jazz invention and was very time consuming. The voices are mostly mine and Jared Reynolds'. Basses were sung by the famous Webb Wilder, local vocal coach John Ray and our own Joe Costa. Effington filled what I perceived as a serious gap in the new wave a cappella arena. While Boxing is a pure and organic arrangement, Effington uses the studio in the way that some of the modern a cappella groups do."

Looking forward to this one, even though I can take or leave most college a cappella covers in general. According to this recent article in the Vancouver Sun, author Nick Hornby will be headed to Ben's Nashville studio in June to start recording their eagerly awaited collaboration.

=================

Shortly after I had written up the blurb above, I caught wind of a bizarre non-event involving Ben Folds and Torquil Campbell of the Canadian indie band Stars stemming from an interview with Ben on the CBC Radio's Q, a pop culture talk show that's normally hosted by former Moxy Früvous member Jian Ghomeshi though guest host Laurie Brown was filling in yesterday. So during the show Brown played a track called Mrs. Morris (Reprise) from The Happiness Project, a conceptual album from Broken Social Scene member Charles Spearin. Ben made some comments (we'll get to that in a bit) including a reference to "bad spa music". After the show, this angry anti-Ben tirade was sent out on the Stars' myspace bulletin by Torquil Campbell, who also performs in BSS:

hi guys...well i know i'm gonna regret this, but i can't help myself. I just heard Ben Folds, who many of you prolly have never heard of because you don't waste your time listening to shitty mid nineties m.o.r. lite grunge, calling my friend Charles Spearins' BEAUTIFUL new record "bad spa music" on the CBC. BEN FOLDS! insulting CHARLES SPEARIN! is he fuckin' nuts? you come to our country and insult a national treasure on the radio? CHARLIE SPEARIN????? the most beautiful talented soulful brother in the whole world? a guy who has written some of the most influential, sublime music this side of heaven? WHo has just completed the Happiness Project, one of the most original and uplifting pieces of music i have EVER HEARD? Ben Folds, ladies and gentleman, is an ASSHOLE for dismissing this extraordinary tribute to life and love as 'bad spa music'. It makes me wanna......well you know.....kick his scrawny, washed up hipster doofus ass....but instead, i encourage you all to write to his myspace (he could use the visits) and imbed charles' music in your message so that every time some refugee from the nineties wants to hear their favourite ben folds ditty, they get charlie instead. i've said it before, and it feels right, so i'll say it again; BEN FOLDS IS AN ASSHOLE.
xo love and hate torq@stars

Whoa there, eh? Soon after this follow-up bulletin was posted:

hello everyone-
we don't know who put up their rant against ben folds here.......could have been anyone i guess.........but we don't know what the fuck all this is about... We do love charlie spearin............don't really know ben folds work...........anyway, i find it exciting that i dont even have to know whats going on to be contreversial..... i am now going to change the password on our myspace......i have to say, whoever you are, you've really got my style down!
wow, torq

So we've got a purportedly fake rant followed by a quick retraction, but not before Pitchfork jumped up with their own Take a Chill Pill, Torquil report, which they've also retracted (at least striked out). Must have been a sloooooooow news day.

By the way, take a listen to the "offending" clip:

In fact, the first thing Ben says is "Yeah, I loved it". See, I can take quotes out of context too.

The full 12-minute interview can be heard if you download the latest episode of the Q podcast in iTunes (search "CBC Q"). I'd upload the Ben portion of the show myself but I'm having major router pains which prevent me from uploading for more than a few seconds. In the interview, Ben chats about the a cappella album, Glenn Gould, and his university days among other things. They actually previewed two songs from disc, but the music is edited out of the podcast unfortunately. Guess we'll have to wait until April.

In other Ben happenings (busy day), his "Stems and Seeds" album is out now on Amazon and presumably elsewhere. When Way to Normal came out, fans were complaining that the mix was too loud and compressed... or something like that. I'm not really an audiophile, my ears kinda suck. So Ben actually listened and put out this two disc set, which contains Way to Normal remastered and resequenced with the fake leaked tracks, the rehearsal performance of You Don't Know Me from Conan O'Brien, and some other unreleased versions-- 20 tracks in all. The real zinger is a second disc of "stem" files that you can open in GarageBand or whatever and tinker with all the songs yourself! If you're a member of his fan club, theoretically this is already in the mail on its way to you (or ahem, me).

From the Fong Songs Newsroom

Too busy to assemble a regular post, but there's plenty of exciting news (covers-related and otherwise) filtering through my inbox and RSS feeds this week.

• Ben Folds' a cappella covers project is full steam ahead. Ben's listened to over 200 a cappella covers of his own music and posted the shortlist here, which is a mix of solo and Ben Folds Five stuff. Looks like we'll likely be getting the first "official" cover of a Way to Normal track with a University of Georgia group tackling his collaboration with Regina Spektor, You Don't Know Me. Hopeful release date is this spring with proceeds going to Save the Music.
  
  
• Hear Ben chat with Stephen Merchant on BBC Radio 6 (find the link on the right side of the page and fast-forward to about 42 minutes in). Thanks to reader Ian for that tidbit!
  
  
• Andrew Bird's new album Noble Beast has an official release date of January 20. If you haven't already, pre-order the deluxe edition from Fat Possum records, which includes a bonus disc Useless Creatures (a collection of instrumental works), extra photos, a fold out poster, a 24-page illustrated lyric book, and exclusive album artwork by Diana Sudyka that differs from the standard edition. Awesome!
  
  
• Speaking of Mr. Bird.... Bobby Bare, Jr. and his pop Bobby Bare are producing a tribute album to Shel Silverstein(!!) for a mid-2009 release. Confirmed artists include: Emmylou Harris, Black Keys, George Jones & Ray Price, Allison Krauss, Band of Horses, Dr. Dog, Andrew Bird, Kris Kristofferson (backed by members of the Silver Jews), and My Morning Jacket. Definitely something to look out for in '09.
  
  
• Following the bluegrass-ification of their song Top Yourself as a b-side, The Raconteurs have taken it up a notch by enlisting Ricky Skaggs and country singer Ashley Monroe for a phenomenal country/bluegrass reworking of another Consolers track, Old Enough. A little bit of an Everly Brothers cover even sneaks its way in. Great stuff. This was released via digital outlets yesterday and you can watch the video here.
  
  
• Mark Ronson, who had the awesome cover album Version in 2007, is "reportedly" working with Elton John on his new album due in late 2009. That is, according to Fox News who are definitely my go-to guys for music news. Uh, right.
  
  
• CBC Radio 3 notes that Aussie fans of CanCon have much to look forward this winter. Stars, Tegan and Sara, Holy F*ck, Jill and Matthew Barber, Hawksley Workman, Final Fantasy, Hey Rosetta!, and A-Trak are all heading down under on tour. I also have to add to their list: Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Billy Talent, Crystal Castles, and Bedouin Soundclash.

OK, ok, I do have a couple covers for you... More covers fun from Russia! Check out these awesome covers of Misirlou and Super Mario Bros. I snagged them from this guy, who is presumably the artist (and my Russian is too poor to find out otherwise). Fantastic, I want more!

Misirlou [originally by Michalis Patrino]
Super Mario Bros. [originally by Koji Kondo]

Ben Folds Reunion Up

The Ben Folds Reunion concert is up on MySpace's Front to Back site now. Overseas fans are getting the shaft and that includes Canada since the 49th Parallel now extends into cyberspace. Yes, it's US only. The rest of us are slapped with a unexplained "error". Presumably it's awesome, though a DVD better be forthcoming since it doesn't include the encore.

***UPDATE: lowly non-Americans can view it at TheSuburbs.co.uk forums. You can catch a blurry glimpse of me at the 39 second mark! Time to play Where's Fongo?

This month marks the 35th anniversary of Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, a stunning album whose tracklist reads like a greatest hits compilation: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Bennie & the Jets, Candle in the Wind, Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting... and the rest is all killer, no filler too. On Monday, "Elton John & Friends" played a benefit concert in NYC playing the whole album in its entirety, but fans who paid upwards of $2500 a ticket were somewhat pissed when it soon became apparent that it was more "Friends" than Sir John who came out for the last three songs only. Ben Folds was on hand to play not one, but TWO covers! Grey Seal and This Song Has No Title, two lesser known but great tracks. I hope there's a DVD of this too!

The C&D scare Monday derailed plans for a Goodbye Yellow Brick Road cover post, but I could only find covers of 9 of the 17 tracks anyway. I don't know how Ray over at Cover Me makes it look so easy when he compiles a full covered album! There seems to be some sort of Blogger crackdown these past couple weeks and I know I'm not the only one affected. At least one blog I read received the same notice a couple days ago and there are plenty others too. No worries, Fong Songs won't be packing it in quite yet, I'll just be more discerning about the songs I post.

I Met Ben Folds in a Pizza Parlor!

It's been a week since my epic trip to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to see Ben Folds Five's one-off reunion. It's taken me about that long to recover from pure ultimation of that trip, not to mention the brutal 40 hours spent in transit to and from there. Northwest corner of the continent to the southeast-- what was I thinking? Basically when I got to my hotel room, I walked in the door and crashed for a couple hours. When I came to, it was time to go! I headed to downtown Chapel Hill to meet-up with a bunch of random fans from the message boards at TheSuburbs.co.uk for a pre-show meal at Pepper's Pizza, chosen for its central location and because its decor consists of paintings of local musicians including one Mr. Folds.

I got there about 10 minutes early and was told no one else had arrived ("You're with the reservation for twenty?"), so the server plopped me down at the bar. Alternating between watching the front door, the TV, and my watch, suddenly I did a double take when I noticed BEN FOLDS was dining in a nearby booth with his wife and parents! He was facing me and for a brief second he must have seen my eyes pop out 2 inches out of my skull. I casually turned back to the bar, mentally freaking out and stealing furtive glances back at his table. Eventually I found out from a different server that a corner table was occupied by some of the people I was supposed to be meeting, so I hopped over to introduce myself, though they seemed to be slightly preoccupied by BEN FOLDS EATING IN A BOOTH OVER THERE. Soon he finished up and got up to go, quickly followed by a quarter of the restaurant. I don't think I would have had the nerve to say anything to him other than a smile and a nod, but when this mini-mob formed I jumped at the opportunity to meet a musical hero. Ben was friendly and gracious, taking the time to signing things, chat, and pose for photos. Then when he was done, the rest of our group showed up... he chatted for a few more minutes then bid adieu, leaving us all chattering excitedly about what just occurred. The bulk of our group were Americans who had travelled from out of state, though there were a few from the UK and one Canuck (me). We would later meet-up with another hardcore fan who had travelled from Japan! And I thought I had a long trip.


The show kicked off with a set from Hotel Lights, a two-man band headed by Darren Jessee. Unfortunately, the crowd was made up of mostly UNC students chatting LOUDLY throughout his whole set and walking in/out of the auditorium. Ironically, they only shut up between songs, then continued right back up talking when he started each song. Kinda sad, though honestly it wasn't a very good venue for his wistful acoustic songs. The highlight of his set was Amelia Bright, an unreleased Ben Folds Five tune, which he dedicated to Ben and Robert. After his set, Darren walked off to cheers, as we prepared ourselves for his return... as the drummer of Ben Folds Five for the first time in nearly 10 years. [note: they were confiscating cameras left and right so I have no shots from the show itself, which was fine since it's wonderful to just soak in the experience rather than worry about taking pictures!]

Soon the house lights dimmed for the main event and the crowd went nuts. And out walked Darren! Ben! Robert! Together again performing The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner front to back! I'll run out of superlatives real fast attempting to describe the show, but I was in a state of Full Body Tingles for the whole night. As someone who's listened to these tracks countless times and knows them inside-out, it's exhilarating to hear them live and notice the little differences or wonder how they're going to pull of a particular moment. Every song was magic in their own way, but Magic was absolutely breathtaking with the crowd rapt in silent awe. The original Don't Change Your Plans was the first track on the album to feature horns and sure enough, on cue out walked a horn section presumably made up of UNC students. They reappeared for Army, the album's one semi-hit, which received the loudest reception and crowd sing-along. It was refreshing to hear actual horns and Robert's original fuzzy bass, both missing in Ben's solo gigs where the horn sections are sung by the crowd. Your Most Valuable Possession, probably never performed live, featured Ben's dad Dean re-enacting a bizarre early morning phone message he once left on Ben's machine while half-asleep. Ben hilariously forgot the lyrics in the middle of Regrets. "So many regrets..." he sung as he shook his head just before the booming end of the song. The set finished off with Lullabye, a bittersweet ending with Ben singing "Goodnight, goodnight". They left to a deafening ovation and the excitement was through the roof because here's where we entered the unknown portion of the program.

The encore started off with Jackson Cannery, one of my faves and the band's very first single (I think). Next was Eddie Walker, the b-side to that single. The lyrics "Eddie Walker, this is your life" seemed to fit the occasion since the hometown crowd was peppered with family members, old friends, former colleagues, and ex-bandmates. Next came two from Whatever and Ever Amen: Selfless, Cold and Composed and Battle of Who Could Care Less, the lyrics from which the album's title comes from (prompting knowing fans to hold up their hands in a "W"). Ben prefaced the next song by telling a story about them recording their debut album, which was deemed terrible and re-recorded with a new producer. "That's vaulted, you'll never hear it," he teased before launching into Julianne. The band finished off with an old favourite Song for the Dumped before leaving to an even more thunderous ovation, which lasted for a good 10 minutes through the "go home" music and house lights going up before turning to chants and eventually boos as the roadies came out. Always leave 'em wanting more. The show is due to be broadcast on mySpace sometime in October and hopefully (please!) a DVD will come out. Surely it's too epic to remain in the vault. Of course, I said that about the White Stripes' Glace Bay show which was being filmed... seemingly never to be released.

Full setlist:
Narcolepsy
Don't Change Your Plans
Mess
Magic
Hospital Song
Army
Your Redneck Past
Your Most Valuable Possession
Regrets
Jane
Lullabye

encore:
Jackson Cannery
Eddie Walker
Selfless, Cold and Composed
Battle of Who Could Care Less
Julianne
Song for the Dumped

After the show, we gathered by the stage doors to hopefully meet Darren and Robert. Most of the people had seen Ben Folds numerous times, but never the full "Five" except for one superfan who'd been to over 50 shows dating back to the old days! We were assured by our insider that those two would definitely be coming out to meet and greet, though Ben had left right away with family. Eventually Robert and Darren came out to a sizable, though not unwieldy throng of fans. They were super gracious, making sure that they didn't leave before everybody got a chance to shake hands, sign stuff, and take photos. Perfect way to cap off an incredible night.

"Grew a mustache and a mullet, got a job at Chick-Fil-A..."
Army by Ben Folds Five
Honestly outside of that song, I'd never heard of Chick-Fil-A let alone seen one. I had to try it before I left town. Not bad, not great.

Here's a treat from the KCRW archives... in July 1997, the boys did a stint on Morning Becomes Eclectic, billed as Ben Folds Five and the BFF Brass Quintet. In other words, the trio were joined by a string quartet. At one point, the DJ jokes "When's the orchestra?". Of course, years later Ben would go on to play orchestral dates in Australia and the US (more orchestral dates next year too!). There is the occasional audio glitch, which is directly from the KCRW stream.

Ben Folds Five & The BFF Brass Quintet
Morning Becomes Eclectic 07/17/1997

01 One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces (with string intro)
02 interview
03 Fair
04 interview
05 Smoke
06 interview
07 Kate
08 interview
09 Theme From Dr. Pyser
10 interview
11 Misirlou/Philosophy
12 Outro

The whole show ZIPPED.

Also, someone from Ben's label passed along his new single for streaming:
Ben Folds featuring Regina Spektor - You Don't Know Me



Way to Normal is due next Tuesday!

=========================================
Random news:

• earlier this week, the Dresden Dolls officially called it quits... kinda. :( Though not altogether unsurprising in light of Amanda's solo debut, the crushing news came in a roundabout manner with Brian basically leaving a youTube comment stating as much. Even Amanda found out that way. Ouch. She says: "so here's what's going on, as far as amanda is concerned: the dresden dolls aren't broken up. we're just expanding the empire. while we work on other projects, join other bands, get perspective and travel the world doing god knows what."
  and
  "i love making music with brian viglione way too much to imagine that we won't do more. we don't know when, probably more than a year from now because we're pretty firmly entrenched in our projects (me in my solo record, and brian in his new kick-ass band, world/inferno, who you should go see, because they're awesome)."
  
  
• Weird footnote to my Ben Folds Five adventure: on the Greyhound from Seattle back to Vancouver, we pulled into the Canada/US border at the 24-hour duty free shop for a bathroom break and border shopping (if anyone wanted to at 2am). Ten minutes later we headed for the border check and literally seconds before we left the parking lot, another bus passed us. We pulled in behind them and silently grumbled since that could theoretically delay us an extra 45 minutes or more while they checked that bus. Our driver got off to chat with the border people and came back grumbling about "big wig rock stars". It turned out it was Alicia Keys' tour bus headed to Vancity for a concert the next night. Actually tour buses since another one pulled up beside us. Fortunately they decided to speed process the fifteen or so of us sleepy passengers and let us be on our merry way. Take that, Alicia Keys! If you haven't heard it yet, the new Alicia Keys/Jack White Bond theme Another Way to Die is out on iTunes or stream it here.
  
  
• In related news, folk rocker Ray LaMontagne wrote an ode to Meg White. Seriously.

Going to Chapel Hill!

Two weeks ago I wrote "Someday I'd like to go to Chapel Hill", once hometown of two of my all-time favourite bands, Ben Folds Five and the Squirrel Nut Zippers. The time is now, I leave TODAY for Chapel Hill to witness a spectacular event the likes of which I could never have predicted happening, let alone attending. That's right, I'm going to the BEN FOLDS FIVE REUNION.

When tickets went on sale September 8th, it was seemingly sold out before anyone got a chance to buy tickets (online, that is). Basically the site kinda crashed and there were a lot of mopey fans, myself included. Then, a little bit of a miracle: I won two tickets through the Ben Folds Fan Club (don't laugh). Technically, I "won" the opportunity of buying tickets, which had me on pins and needles until Monday afternoon when they finally gave me the info required to actually get these tickets. By this point, I had booked complicated travel arrangements based solely on their e-mail word, desperately hoping I wasn't the victim of some psychotic Nigerian Ben Folds e-mail scam. But I did get my ticket. I'm on my way!

Last Friday, Ben acted as DJ on a Philadephia radio station Y-Rock on XPN and talked about his new album, the reunion, and forthcoming projects:

• MySpace had originally asked Ben himself to play the full Reinhold Messner album front to back and he declined, partially because it seemed weird to do it without the rest of the "Five". A couple days later he thought "Why not?" and called up Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee to see if they wanted to do it. They said okay.
  
• All proceeds from the show are going to Operation Smile
  
• One show, that's probably it. They've been careful about playing reunion-type shows and they'd like to "retain the sanctity" of what Ben Folds Five was. No one in the band is really inclined to take it any further than this. Perhaps the occasional gig someday if the circumstances are right, otherwise no. Ben thinks they'd want to do an original album of material before something like that occurred, but he doesn't really see that happening either.
  
• regarding the reunion show: "Perhaps there'll be an encore with extra special treats?" Ben: "Well, that's compulsory."

On the Ben Folds slate:

• of course, the new album Way to Normal is due at the end of the month
  
• in December, rough plan is to write/record an album with Nick Hornby! "We've got some stuff we've already done..."
  
• an orchestral tour next fall
  
• he's gathering college a cappella covers of his songs, possibly releasing a whole record of them
  
• at some point, a Jacques Brel-style show in downtown New York (to me, this sounds Amanda Palmer-influenced)

Another exciting event for next month: he's joining Elton John for a benefit concert in New York October 20th celebrating the 35th anniversary of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Other guests include Rufus Wainwright, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, the casts of Hair and The Lion King(?), and more. Tickets range from $250 to $2500! I'll wait for the television special, though I'd love to hear Ben tackle Grey Seal, or anything from that album, really.

Don't forget, Darren Jessee's band Hotel Lights recently released their second album Firecracker People, which has a new recording of the unreleased Ben Folds Five song, Amelia Bright.


Outside of college a capella groups on youTube, covers of Ben Folds Five are somewhat rare, but here's a few curiosities I've collected over the years:

Bette Midler - Boxing [originally by Ben Folds Five]
It's hard to believe one of the only BFF covers is by Bette Midler of all people. Good song choice, debatable success.

Yellowcard - Missing the War [originally by Ben Folds Five]
A surprising cover from an Wal-Mart(??) internet session. Originally from Whatever and Ever Amen, this cover subs out the signature Ben Folds piano-based sound for acoustic guitar.

Basking in the Sun - Brick [originally by Ben Folds Five]
A lamentable dance remix of Ben Fold's Five biggest radio hit, in case you ever wanted to do the abortion twist.

University of Nebraska Jazz Band - Jane [originally by Ben Folds Five]
My favourite BFF cover takes an underrated cut from The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner and jazzes it up superbly.

The Harvard Callbacks - Don't Change Your Plans [originally by Ben Folds Five]
One of the better, if not the best, a cappella cover of a Ben Folds Five song. Originally from the Messner album.

De Poema's - Groot en Belangrijk [originally by Ben Folds Five]
VanVelzen - One Angry Dwarf [originally by Ben Folds Five]
Not one, but TWO covers of One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces by Dutch artists. My favourite song from Whatever and Ever Amen, it's great to discover at least someone giving it some cover love.

Adrian Holovaty - Cigarette [originally by Ben Folds Five]
A Chicago web developer and journalist, Adrian Holovaty has a side hobby posting youtube videos of his Django Reinhardt-inspired guitar playing. Extremely multi-talented guy. I posted his Gypsy Super Mario 2 theme a while back. Here, he re-arranges a short tune from Whatever and Ever Amen.

AudioDile - Manic Depression [The Bangles vs. Ben Folds Five]
A mash-up of Manic Monday and Brick. Works surprisingly well.
[**UPDATE: Read the comments for an updated version of this mash-up from AudioDile!]

I saw this a few days ago, though for some reason it doesn't seem to work for me right now... maybe it will for you: an unexpectedly ingenious video mash-up of Ben Folds Five's Army with the treadmill dancing of OK Go. Check it out.

I'll be back next week with stories and photos!

Find Out Who Killed Amanda Palmer

I should have mentioned this earlier:
www.whokilledamandapalmer.com has been taking pre-orders since last Monday for the new album, which is released this Tuesday. As is more and more common with dwindling CD sales, artists are getting more creative with tiered packages. All packages come with the physical CD and link to instantly download the whole album as MP3s. So, of course, I've been spinning this on my iPod since last week and it's pretty great.

1. For the casual fan ($14.99)
-digipack CD
-instant download link for the ENTIRE WKAP album in V0 MP3 format
-code for instant download of two previously unreleased exclusive WKAP pre-order tracks, Straight (with strings) and the previously-only-available-as-youTube-bootleg I Google You (with lyrics by Neil Gaiman)

2. For the more than casual fan ($34.99)
-digipack CD signed by Amanda Palmer & Ben Folds (limited to 5000 Amanda sigs and 250 Ben sigs...)
-Instant download link for the ENTIRE WKAP album in V0 MP3 format (plus the two WKAP re-order tracks Straight and I Google You)
-exclusive "I Killed Amanda Palmer" t-shirt
-download code for an exclusive digital-only Amanda Palmer EP (delivered via e-mail on or before 12/24/2008) featuring 10+ demos and rarities culled from the WKAP recording archives. Includes some one-take demos recorded with Ben Folds at his Nashville studio.

3. For the Über-fan ($100.00, limited to 672)
-everything from the middle package
-limited edition WKAP lithograph signed and numbered by Amanda Palmer
-WKAP book autographed by Amanda and Neil Gaiman
-WKAP vinyl autographed by Amanda
-Unique Amanda crime scene photo sets + surprise murder evidence - various sets with different photos, as well as trinkets which vary for each and every one of the 672 packages

Hmmm, which one did you think I went for? Yeah, so grab your credit card and clicky-clicky over here before Tuesday when prices go up and/or they run out of the super deluxe combo.

By the way, check out Voltaire on Amie Street for free (as of this writing) downloads of his album Ooky Spooky. Track 8, Stuck With You is a duet with Amanda Palmer. On the EP Zombie Prostitute and Other Ooky Spooky Hits, he's also got a cover of Bowie's China Girl. Voltaire's brand new album features Coin-Operated Goi, a parody of the Dresden Dolls song Coin-Operated Boy. It's not yet on Amie Street, but you can take a listen at his myspace site.

Ben Folds Five Revived

It's happening.

Someday I'd like to go to Chapel Hill

Ben Folds dropped by The Suburbs, hinting at plans for "Chapel Hill on Sept 18th that I'm told we have to wait a few more days to announce. There will be those who shit. I know I will. Very excited but I gotta hold it in a few more days."

Could it be a one-off reunion everyone's favourite fraudulent quintet, Ben Folds Five at their old stomping grounds??? Makes sense. Darren Jessee and his band Hotel Lights just put out a new album with an unreleased BFF song on it. Ben's just one state over in Nashville, Darren Jessee's based (I think) in Chapel Hill, and Robert Sledge is still active there... in fact Lucky, a new band with Squirrel Nut Zippers' Katharine Whalen and Will Dawson, are playing a gig with the Robert Sledge Band in Chapel Hill on September 13th. I still can't believe two of my favourite bands both come from Chapel Hill (BFF and SNZ).

Ben Folds Five - Song for the Dumped (Sessions at West 54th)

If true, that's really bittersweet because I definitely would not be able to go, but still it's wicked if this comes to fruition. Somebody send a camera crew!


By the way, one time Squirrel Nut Zipper honorary member Andrew Bird is in town this weekend for The Stanley Park Exhibition with the New Pornographers. Ugh, can't go but that would've been pretty awesome. Thankfully I've seen both acts before. Anyway, hope they do it again next year.

Andrew Bird - Jesus Gonna Make My Dyin' Bed [traditional]
From his appearance last month at the Calgary Folk Fest, recorded by the fine folks at CBC Radio 2. Blind Willie Johnson first recorded Jesus Gonna Make My Dyin' Bed in the late 1920's from a traditional gospel tune, Bob Dylan recorded it as In My Time of Dyin' on his 1962 self-titled debut, and so did Led Zeppelin on 1975's Physical Grafitti, their longest studio track and one of my faves. I'm guessing Andrew Bird's version reaches way back to its traditional roots because it is not remotely recognizable from any version of the song I've heard. Sounds great though!

Ben Folds, Vanilla Ice, and the End of the World as We Know It

Alpinekat - The Large Hadron Rap
A couple weeks ago, a friend passed along a link to this awesome rap about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) built under the France-Switzerland border by CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). The world's largest particle accelerator has been under construction for over 10 years with a cost in the billions of dollars. It's designed to accelerate protons at energies of 7 trillion electron volts along a 27km underground circular tunnel in order to produce high speed particle collisions, the results of which will produce new unseen particles including (possibly) the Higgs boson which is uh... um... ok, I don't really know. This catchy rap puts it all in layman's terms and it's still sails quite a bit over my head, but it definitely helped me understand the hows and whys of the LHC a little more.

Stunning hi-res images of the LHC and its components can be seen at The Big Picture, a Boston Globe photo blog that should be a mandatory subscription for any RSS feed reader. Also check out their pics of the Olympics opening ceremony, recent volcanic activity, Tour de France '08, a stunning royal funeral procession in Bali, and wildfires in California. They're like the Planet Earth of photojournalism.

The Large Hadron Rap was written and performed by Kate McAlpine (AKA Alpinekat), a science writer who works at CERN. Her MSU site has the full lyrics and an mp3 of the isolated vocals for potential remixers. The beats were provided by Will Barras, who Kate describes as her "Ben Folds 'producer with computers'"... a Rockin' the Suburbs reference if there was any doubt as to Ben's appeal within the nerd community. Speaking of Ben and whiter-than-white rapping, I stumbled upon this oddity on eMusic last week:

Former Fat Boys - Ice Ice Baby (Ben Folds Remix) ["originally" by Vanilla Ice]
It's a cover of Ice Ice Baby rapped over a looped sample of Ben Folds Five's Brick. Of course, the original rap used an unauthorized sample of Queen & David Bowie's Under Pressure, settled out of court by the copyright holders. It took years of vigorous mental training, but I can now listen to Under Pressure without a even a moment's thought of Vanilla Ice.

Ben Kweller - BK Baby [originally by Vanilla Ice]
Ben Kweller, one-third of The Bens alongside Ben Folds and Ben Lee, also covered Ice Ice Baby with this awesome acoustic take, one of my favourite all-time covers. This is literally my 5th most played song in iTunes.

Vanilla Ice - Play That Funky Music
This is from the same album as Ice Ice Baby, which I'm sad to admit I did own on cassette. I was 7 when To the Extreme came out...I surely didn't buy it, I don't remember asking for it, but I had it nonetheless. Vanilla Ice ripped off another artist with more unauthorized sampling of Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music, which led to a lawsuit and $500,000 in damages. Tsk, tsk, Vanilla!

Majosha - Play That Funky Music [originally by Wild Cherry]
Pre-Ben Folds Five, Ben Folds played bass in a band called Majosha who released one EP and one album before breaking up in the late 80's. Some of the tracks such as Video, Emaline, and Kalamazoo would later be re-recorded by Ben Folds Five or solo Ben.

Ben Folds Five - Amelia Bright (live)
One of my favourite Ben Folds Five songs was actually never released on any of their albums, fortuitously saved from obscurity by a wonderful bootlegger at a 2000 concert in Scranton, Pennsylvania (insert your own Office reference here). I like to think that a studio recorded version exists, locked up in the Sony vault to be released someday... now I finally get my wish. Kind of. Darren Jessee, former drummer of Ben Folds Five and co-writer of a few songs including their break-out hit Brick, fronts his own band Hotel Lights whose self-titled debut came out in 2006. One week ago their follow-up Firecracker People was released, which includes a newly recorded Amelia Bright. Can't wait to hear it!

Back to science news for a minute... The Large Hadron Collider is scheduled to start up September 10th to do its thing. So in just about 2 weeks, the world may cease to exist... just kidding, probably. I like this headline from Science Daily: If The Large Hadron Collider Produced A Microscopic Black Hole, It Probably Wouldn't Matter.

"It's Krusteriffic, Johnny Unitas. But is my upper lip supposed to bleed like this?"
"Probably!"

The microscopic black holes that might possibly be produced would, if they appear at all, only exist for a nano-nano-nanosecond, so says some Important Physicist. Yes, very re-assuring. Coincidentally, this Friday is the 11th anniversary of the Judgment Day that didn't happen. Let's hope the LHC doesn't become self-aware and destroy humanity.

Great Big Sea - It's the End of the World As We Know (And I Feel Fine) [originally by REM]

What's This? Christmas in September?

September is gearing up to be an early Christmas for me with the release of Ben Folds' new album, Amanda Palmer's debut solo album (produced by Ben Folds), Neil Gaiman's new The Graveyard Book, and the Gaiman/Palmer photo book. Yes, all my favourite artists randomly got together and had babies. Now there's another release to add to that list: Nightmare Revisited.

Last year I got all excited when I found out Rodrigo y Gabriela had been tapped by Danny Elfman to record a cover of Oogie Boogie's Song for a special edition of the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack. According to their official website at the time, "RyG to appear along side the Killers and Marilyn Manson on Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack reissue. Danny Elfman asked Rod and Gab to record Mr Oogie Boogie for a special edition release of the soundtrack." After months of nothing and no other source for this info, I chalked it up to another empty promise like when they told us at the Edmonton Folk Festival that they'd be back in October as part of their Canadian tour (didn't happen then nor the 2 years since). Well, now comes the official announcement and tracklist that is exciting and disappointing at the same time:

Nightmare Revisited (release date: September 30)
1. DeVotchKa - Overture
2. Danny Elfman - Opening
3. Marilyn Manson - This Is Halloween
4. All American Rejects - Jack's Lament
5. Amiina - Doctor Finkelstein/In The Forest
6. Flyleaf - What's This?
7. The Polyphonic Spree - Town Meeting Song (!!)
8. The Vitamin String Quartet - Jack and Sally Montage
9. Sparklehorse - Jack's Obsession
10. Korn - Kidnap The Sandy Claws
11. Rise Against - Making Christmas
12. Yoshida Brothers - Nabbed
13. Amy Lee - Sally's Song
14. RJD2 - Christmas Eve Montage
15. Plain White Ts - Poor Jack
16. Datarock - To The Rescue
17. Shiny Toy Guns - Finale/Reprise
18. Danny Elfman - Closing
19. The Album Leaf - End Title
20. Rodrigo y Gabriela - Oogie Boogie’s Song

Looks like The Killers were a premature announcement as they're nowhere to be seen, but The Polyphonic Spree are an exciting addition. We'll at last get to hear Rodrigo y Gabriela's take on Oogie Boogie's Song, an unlikely but intriguing choice for the Mexican folk-metal guitarists. My eyes roll at the inclusion of Korn, Rise Against, and All American Rejects but I invite them to prove me wrong like Fall Out Boy's surprisingly great cover of What's This?.

Rodrigo y Gabriela - Diablo Rojo
If you're not familiar with them, definitely seek them out. I saw them live 2 years ago in a truncated 30 minute performance and it is still a highlight concert for me.

Flip Kowlier, Gabriel Rios, & Michael Franti - What's This? [originally by Danny Elfman from The Nightmare Before Christmas]
Outside of the covers from these official releases, Nightmare Before Christmas covers are pretty scarce. Here's a fun cover recorded for a Belgian radio station if I remember correctly.

Other related stop-motion news:

Henry Selick, who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, is hard at work on his stop motion adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline. All this week, IGN has been hosting a new behind the scenes featurette each day about the production of Coraline. I didn't realize the voice cast includes JoCo's buddy John Hodgman (i.e. "I'm a PC") and Ian McShane (Swearingen on Deadwood). There should still be more featurettes before the week is out. The film is due February 2009.

Wes Anderson's stop motion adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Fantastic Mr. Fox is chugging along. Originally a collaboration with Henry Selick who produced some animated scenes in The Life Aquatic, Selick actually left the film to direct Coraline. Though not due until November 2009, this is the most eclectic team I've seen assembled for ostensibly a children's film since Spike Jonze and Dave Eggers teamed up for Where the Wild Things Are (things aren't sadly not boding well for that film though...). The Fantastic Mr. Fox is scripted by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach (The Squid & The Whale); featuring the voices of George Clooney (Mr. Fox), Cate Blanchett (Mrs. Fox), Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray (of course), Anjelica Huston, and Meryl Streep; with new songs and score written by Pulp's Jarvis Cocker. Cocker recently revealed that one track is finished and it's a "slightly hillbilly-sounding song" for what it's worth. It'll be a long wait for this one.

Amanda covers Neil Gaiman

Sigh, I feel goofy constantly re-hashing stuff Neil Gaiman's linking to-- you should already be subscribed to his RSS feed anyway-- but lately I just can't help it, what with all this Amanda Palmer/Neil Gaiman/Ben Folds convergence.

From Photographer Kyle Cassidy's blog a few days ago:
"We got finished shooting at about 2:00 a.m. and we're sitting in the kitchen in Neil's apartment and he says something like "blah blah blah I was sitting next to Paris Hilton once blah blah blah the lounge song I wrote blah blah" and we were all like "the lounge song?! so he sang it for us. Three times! because we kept applauding and shouting bravo! It's hysterical and infectious and I can't get it out of my head -- and Amanda's like "Oh I am so covering that!" So you may hear it too. It's funtabulous."

And she did. Here's Amanda covering Neil Gaiman's I Google You from a show last night in L.A.:


Audio's about as okay as one can expect from a youtube video, but it may be the only version we ever hear! According to this setlist, at the same show she also covered Cologne, a song from Ben Folds' upcoming Way to Normal [EDIT: turns out she actually lip-synched to Ben's studio recording]. Hmmm, I need that bootleg!

Muppet Covers Week, Day 2: The Muppet Movie

I loved The Muppet Movie as a kid and re-watching it is still a magical experience. The funny thing is watching years later and seeing the bevy of celebrity cameos: Mel Brooks, Bob Hope, Steve Martin, Milton Berle, Madeline Kahn, Orson Welles(!), Richard Pryor, and more! All the cameos fly over your head as a kid except one: Big Bird! The real stars, of course, are the Muppets themselves who appear in a very meta-narrative with the Muppets gathering in a movie theatre to basically watch how the Muppets all came together and ended up in Hollywood. While Kermit's Rainbow Connection is the most well known (and covered) song from the film, the whole soundtrack is full of great tunes including the rockin' Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem jam Can You Picture That?, the jaunty Rowlf & Kermit blues duet Hope That Something Better Comes Along, Gonzo's wistful I'm Going to Go Back There Someday, and the ultimate roadtrip song Movin' Right Along sung by Kermit & Fozzie Bear. All the songs were written by Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher with both the music score and Rainbow Connection receiving Oscar nominations. The soundtrack also won a Grammy for best children's recording. Williams had previously been a guest host during the first season of The Muppet Show and also wrote songs for the Muppet TV special Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas. We continue Muppet covers week here at Fong Songs with a selection of covers from The Muppet Movie.

Rainbow Connection
[originally performed by Kermit the Frog]
There are numerous Rainbow Connection covers, many of which were once posted by Kurtis when he guest posted here last year. I've chosen a few covers that he "missed", though posting every Rainbow Connection cover is a pretty futile exercise.

Sad Kermit - Rainbow Disconnection
A sombre acoustic version in a minor key by the appropriately named Sad Kermit, an internet parody that first made headlines with a suicidal drug addict Kermit covering Nine Inch Nails' Hurt a la Johnny Cash. Other "sad" songs covered include Radiohead's Creep, Nine Inch Nails' Something I Can Never Have, and yet another Hallelujah cover. The covers are actually quite wonderful and the Kermit voice is pretty spot-on. A cover of Elliot Smith's Needle in the Hay is accompanied by by a hilariously perfect if morbid music video, parodying a key scene from The Royal Tenenbaums. Though it's ostensibly a parody, listening to Kermit singing Needle in the Hay does in fact make me kinda sad. As it says on the Sad Kermit myspace site, "It's excruciatingly painful being green..."

Fifteen - Rainbow Connection
Not quite Me First & The Gimme Gimmes (who also cover it), but the singer for this punk band slightly alters the melody for his own purposes.

John Michael Higgins & His Symphony of Guys - Rainbow Connection
This cover is from the soundtrack to The Break-Up, in which John Michael Higgins played Jennifer Aniston's brother who happened to be in an a cappella group. You may recognize John Michael Higgins as a regular in Christopher Guest's mockumentaries including A Mighty Wind for which he arranged and performed songs as part of the fictional New Main Street Singers. He also had a hilarious recurring role on Arrested Development as pro lawyer, Wayne Jarvis.

DAT Politics - Rainbow Connection
This is the most drastic interpretation I've heard, a jarring electro cover by French group DAT Politics.



Movin' Right Along
[originally performed by Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear]
Always a lock for a good roadtrip mixtape, this song also inspires a bit of Canadian pride when Saskatchewan gets name-checked.

The Dead Hensons - Movin' Right Along
You can't do a proper Muppet cover week without mentioning The Dead Hensons, the first and only Muppet cover band. It's a shame that their recorded output is limited to one 4-song vinyl EP, a couple live mp3s, and a short demo album. I want a full-length CD! I think they still regularly perform live in the San Francisco Bay area.

Less Than Jake - Movin' Right Along
The inevitable punk cover of anything.

The Fantastic Leslie - Movin' Right Along
This cover from The Fantastic Leslie's first (and only) release 1999's A Tiny Mark, which was the first CD I ever ordered from overseas. I stumbled on the band while searching "Ben Folds" on a now defunct version of mp3.com. Every song from that EP could be downloaded for free except for Movin' Right Along, so naturally I ordered the CD (an early sign of my unrealized cover obsession). Guitarist/vocalist Andrew Hansen would later become more widely recognized as a member of the Aussie comedy group The Chaser, which explains why nine years later I occasionally get e-mails out of the blue from curious Australians about it. Apparently I'm the only person on the internet who advertised the fact that I had this mp3, which I posted in one of the earliest Fong Songs posts. The Chaser made headlines over here last year when members of the group crashed the APEC Leaders Summit in Sydney disguised as a fake Canadian motorcade and were arrested while filming an episode of The Chaser's War on Everything. Heh heh, we had a good laugh about that. As for the cover, some of the lyrics have been substituted with Aussie locales (no more Saskatchewan!) and the whole thing ends up as a We Are the World-type sing-along.



Never Before, Never Again
[originally performed by Miss Piggy]
Johnny Mathis - Never Before, Never Again
According to Muppet Wiki, Johnny Mathis was originally to perform this in the film before they decided Miss Piggy should sing it. In the movie, Miss Piggy sings this when she spots Kermit for the very first time in the middle of the crowd at the fair and imagines their future life together. To my knowledge, that original Johnny Mathis recording has never surfaced, though he did perform the song for the 1979 TV special The Muppets Go Hollywood, accompanied by Rowlf on piano.



Can You Picture That?
[originally performed by Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem]
Dr. Teeth, Floyd Pepper, Janice, Zoot, and Animal. Best band ever.

The Dead Hensons - Can You Picture That?
Another Dead Hensons track. Man, I really want a full-length CD!

There - Can You Picture That?
This was a nice find, a rock cover by a Boston band called There. They're faithful to the shared vocals between Dr. Teeth and Floyd from the original (though no Janice) with the lead singer even affecting a bit of a Dr. Teeth-like growl. Nice extended solo in the middle too.

While The Muppet Movie brings back warm, fuzzy memories, the first of only two Sesame Street feature films, Follow That Bird used to freak me out as a kid. Mrs. Finch! AAAaaaugh! Re-watching the film brings back palpable feelings of dread whenever Mrs. Finch, the evil social worker bird appears on screen, particularly when Big Bird is hiding in the haystacks. In retrospect, she's not so evil but it sure seems that way when you're a toddler. I also used to have nightmares about Big Bird's adoptive Dodo family. Nightmares aside, it's a pretty awesome film. There's a lot of CanCon in this one with three SCTV alumni Dave Thomas, Joe Flaherty, and John Candy making guest cameos with the whole thing being filmed in Ontario. Alyson Court who played a little girl who befriends Big Bird would later go on to play Loonette on The Big Comfy Couch! Even Kermit stops by for a nice cameo as a reporter. While maybe not as classic as The Muppet Movie soundtrack, the songs are still great including Easy Goin' Day and Upside Down World. Unfortunately, I don't know of any covers of songs from the movie! Let that be a challenge to you.

Tomorrow: Songs from Sesame Street!