It's been approximately 569 days and counting, waiting in vain for that Harvey Danger cover of Jonathan Coulton's Code Monkey. Well, The Grammar Club beat them to it.
The Grammar Club - Code Monkey [originally by Jonathan Coulton]
Fairly straight forward cover until the, uh, much needed rap break? Whatever, the world can always use more JoCo covers. I've never heard of The Grammar Club either, but here's their website.
Gee, big world news headline: Celine Dion's cover of AC/DC's You Shook Me All Night Long is "responsible for the world's worst cover version" according to Total Guitar magazine. And you know, I have absolutely no qualms with that. In fact, I almost wrote a fevered post about this cover atrocity when I was first exposed to it on youtube a long while ago, but decided it was best buried and forgotten about. But like John McClane it's come back with a vengeance!
There's bad, there's mediocre, and then there's active horribleness. Celine Dion is not the only guilty party; guest star Anastacia joins her on stage for a tag team assault on the audience. Usually when I hear or see a bad cover I'll scoff or roll my eyes, but this time I got a little tickle in my throat and a queasiness in my belly that had me rapidly clicking for the stop button. Perhaps if I had just heard the cover, it wouldn't be so bad, but seeing the accompanying video is a frighteningly visceral experience. Yes, you can pretty much taste the awfulness. Dion's air guitar intro with elbow streamers (?) that just scream ROCK & ROLL, the enthusiastic crowd, the pelvic thrusts, Anastacia's garish wardrobe, and simply the utter discrepancy between song choice and performers. I had to turn it off before my brain boiled. I'm generally all for cross-genre covers, but it's no surprise that some of the worst covers in the last few years are pop stars + rock classics. I'd give a strong nod to Fergie's Live & Let Die cover as one of the worst in recent memory. I'll leave you on you own to dig up these youtube links.
Rounding out the bottom five: All Saints' Walk This Way, Westlife's More Than Words, Will Young's Light My Fire, and The Mike Flowers Pops' Wonderwall. The inclusion of the latter is kind of odd since the cover is clearly tongue-in-cheek, like saying "Austin Powers is the worst drama ever!", or is that the joke?
The Mike Flowers Pops - MacArthur Park [originally recorded by Richard Harris; written by Jimmy Webb]
Here they cover one of the reputed "worst songs in history". For the record, I LOVE MacArthur Park, covers and all.
The Mike Flowers Pops - Bowie Medley [originally by David Bowie]
A medley of Bowie hits performed live by The Mike Flowers Pops.
By the way, here's an extreme example of a cross-genre cover courtesy of a Jonathan Coulton fan: Still Alive on Carillon.
Random Rules with Jonathan Coulton just went up on the AV Club. JoCo talks about Lennon vs. McCartney, giving his CD to Jon Brion ("like handing a piece of poop to an angel"), and running into OK Go at the Senate building and pretending not to know who they were. It also likely contains the first ever post-Raconteurs reference to Brendan Benson that doesn't mention the Raconteurs or Jack White (I am not immune). Great article.
There's Cake on the menu tonight at the Vogue Theatre.
Cake - Long Line of Cars
Cake - The Guitar Man [originally by Bread]
Cake - I Will Survive [originally by Gloria Gaynor]
Arguably one of the most well-known covers in the past 10 years, people still love to whip this out in covers discussions as if they're the first one to have discovered it... appealing to the hipster douchebag in all of us, though I think Cake set an early precedent for indie bands ironically covering pop hits. Gaynor herself is not a fan of the cover, though simply because of John McCrea dropping the f-bomb once.
While we're on the topic of Cake and survival...
missFlag - Still Alive [originally by GLaDOS & Jonathan Coulton]
A few weeks ago this cover was featured on Coverville and for the life of me I could not figure out where I knew missFlag from. I checked the ol' gmail archives because I thought it was a band that had sent me mp3s for the blog or something. Then I searched my seldom checked hotmail account and found a myspace friend request... from missFlag. I was coerced into signing up for myspace over a year ago in order to access certain features from bands I like that are on myspace. missFlag became my "friend" though like most of the barrage of new artists that pile up in by inbox, they inevitably were forgotten until (surprise, surprise) my interest was piqued by a cover song. Not just a cover song, but a JoCo cover song, so that deserves major attention right there. Also notable is the fact that missFlag is a pop band from Israel, the 5 members having met amidst Jerusalem's relatively small music scene over a mutual love of Coldplay. Last year, KCRW gave their single Hidden Thieves plenty of spins. Check their official site and their youtube cover of Toxic.
So last weekend I took a dreadfully long bus from Vancouver down to Seattle. Typically I think the drive should be 2.5 to 3 hours, but due to extraneous stops, a hold-up at the border, and arriving in Seattle in rush hour it was a long, stuffy 5 hours. I stayed at the lovely Green Tortoise Hostel (cheap, clean, convenient, free breakfast!), right across the street from the famed Pike Place Market. Even better was that the two Harvey Danger shows I was going to were at the Triple Door, just around the corner less than 2 blocks away. A quick recap: Harvey Danger was performing over the course of two nights all three of their albums in their entirety and a set of b-sides/rarities. Their sophomore release King James Version, which I bought for 99 cents several years ago in a HMV bargain bin, is one of my favourite albums of all-time.
It truly was a celebration of all things Harvey Danger, in honour of the 10th anniversary of their first album which spawned the hit Flagpole Sitta. The band came decked out in semi-formal attire with flowers on their lapels. They had a bevy of special guests singing back-up, a horn section at one point, and someone playing the funkiest electric cello. In total, I counted up to 15 individual guests just on the first night. A very cool moment: the dad of their former drummer Evan Sult (who's in another band in Chicago) played banjo on their cover of This Busy Monster's Underground, just as he did on the original album. The sound was excellent, though the venue had a surreal dinner theatre-like vibe. It's not often you sit at a candle-lit table at a rock show... They made a commemorative booklet "Harvey Danger's 10th Anniversary Public Spectacle" with liner notes from all the band members (and former drummer) reminiscing and telling stories about basically every song on every album and then some.
Cover-wise, my favourite moment was when the organ-intro from HD's cover of Bowie's Oh! You Pretty Things kicked in.... SWWWEEEEEeeeetness. They also played their cover of Save It For Later, which I found out that night they had never played live because they were tricked into recording it for the awful movie 200 Cigarettes. Basically they were asked to cover a 1981-82 era song, so the band submitted suggestions for Devo, Bowie, XTC, and Duran Duran, but the label demanded an English Beat cover. After the fact, they found out that the label was re-releasing the English Beat catalogue and their cover version, featured on the soundtrack and end credits, was intended to bring the English Beat to a new generation...? Something like that.Harvey Danger - Save It For Later [originally by The English Beat]
After the 2nd show, I asked Sean Nelson about the status/whereabouts of his Harry Nilsson tribute album Nelson Sings Nilsson, which for a couple years has been limited to some myspace tracks and demos. "Oh, that's a long and painful story," he told me, but he assured me the project was not dead despite all signs to the contrary. Even if he has to put it up on his website, he said it will be released someday, somehow. Victory! GREAT things come to those who wait.
The opening group for both shows was a group who called themselves Alaska/Nebraska featuring Eric Howk and Jacob Hoffman from fellow Seattle-ites The Lashes. One's from Nebraska and one's from Alaska, hence the name which was informally chosen to grace the poster. Even though they ended up playing pretty much the exact same set both nights, we were simply treated to their beautiful folk ballads twice, captivating the crowd even though many of us were at both shows. As you can see in the photo, guitarist/vocalist Eric Howk was wheelchair-bound, a fact that I normally wouldn't think twice about, except that in summer 2006 I saw the Lashes open for The Living End in Toronto, a set particularly memorable to me because the Lashes' frontman Ben Clark jumped off the stage to dance, crushing my toes. When I got back to Vancouver, I was shocked to read that last May while at a party at a friend's house, Eric fell into a 12-feet deep hole left unsecured by the neighbouring lot which was under construction, an accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Eric, who was named for guitarist Eric Clapton, has stayed in good spirits since the accident, happy to be alive and still able to play the guitar. He has said, "It's a life change, but not an attitude change." Remarkable. Most of the songs played at The Triple Door can be downloaded from his myspace site Palmer, AK. I've posted a couple of my fav's here, thus sparing you the mind-numbing process of downloading from myspace. "You must be logged in to download" + no login button + crazy filenames once downloaded = annoying.Palmer, AK - NoellyPalmer, AK - Goodtime
A couple days ago I stumbled on a treasure trove of cover songs celebrating Seattle. Last August was the centennial anniversary of the Pike Place Market and to celebrate, they organized a 4-hour concert featuring Seattle-based artists performing covers of Seattle-famous songs! Streamed and archived on Seattle Channel, I got all the songs here though I apologize for the somewhat low volume levels.
The "house band" called The Iconics was made up of Dave Dederer and Andrew McKeag, guitarists from the Presidents of the United States of America; Mike Musberger, drummer for The Posies and The Fastbacks; Jeff Fielder, bassist from Sera Cahoone; and Ty Bailie, keyboard player from Department of Energy. Throughout the night they were joined by other featured guests.
Download a zip of all the songs here. Um, except Angel of the Morning will have to be downloaded separately because it was hiding when I made the zip file...The Iconics - Seattle [popularized by Perry Como]
(feat. Paul Jensen of the Dudley Manlove Quartet)The Iconics - Tall Cool One [originally by The Wailers]The Iconics - Angel of the Morning [originally by Merrilee Rush]
(feat. Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger)
As you might have guessed, my stumbling upon this concert was purely because of looking up something Harvey Danger-related.The Iconics - Spoonman [originally by Soundgarden]
(feat. Artis the Spoonman and Rachel Flotard of Visqueen)The Iconics - I Don't Like Your Face [originally by The Heats]
(feat. Paul Jensen of the Dudley Manlove Quartet)The Iconics - The Witch [originally by The Sonics]
(feat. Evan Foster of the Boss Martians)The Iconics - What'd I Say [originally by Ray Charles]
(feat. Patrinella Wright of the Total Experience Gospel Choir)The Iconics - The Old Settler [traditional; written by written by Francis D. Henry]
(feat. John Roderick of The Long Winters)The Iconics - The Day Brings [originally by Brad]
(feat. Shawn Smith of Brad and Mike McCready and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam)
The Iconics - Little Wing [originally by Jimi Hendrix]
(feat. Shawn Smith, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready)
It never occurred to me that Jimi Hendrix was from Seattle, having always associated him with... well, not Seattle in any case. But I found out from a Seattlelite that yes, Jimi was born here and buried in a Seattle suburb. During my visit I got to mess around with an electric guitar at the Frank Gehry-designed Experience Music Project and stop by this Hendrix statue near Broadway & Pine streets.The Iconics - Spanish Castle Magic [originally by Jimi Hendrix]
(feat. John Roderick & Mike McCready)The Iconics - Rock & Roll Pest Control [originally by The Young Fresh Fellows]
(feat. Chris Ballew of The Presidents of the United States of America)The Iconics - Louie Louie [originally by Richard Berry]
(feat. Chris Ballew)The Iconics - Barracuda [originally by Heart]
(feat. Choklate)Mike McCready & Chris Friel - Star Spangled Banner [originally by Francis Scott Key]
I didn't know this until now but the American national anthem is set to the tune of an old drinking song. Very curious! Here, Mike McCready channels Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock incarnation of the anthem.Chris Ballew - Peaches
An impromptu solo a cappella version of the hit for The Presidents of the United States of America.
Speaking of POTUSA, they just released a new album last week called These are Good Times People (with an aggressive internet marketing campaign). It's also got a nifty flip book music video for the lead single Mixed Up S.O.B. directed by Weird Al Yankovic, though it clearly wasn't meant to be watch on youtube or myspaceTV.The Presidents of the United States of America - Froggie
My all-time fav POTUSA song.
Highlights of the weekend:
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 BulldogWorld 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.
Well, just a few more days until Christmas. Guess it's time to start shopping (no joke). It's also time for Christmas shindigs, chopping down trees, and posting your favourite festive tunes. Usually I'm already at home for the holidays, but for the first time I've come home for the holidays, which is a bit weird since I basically only moved away for 3 weeks. I feel a bit lost without my own computer to blog from, though I did have the foresight to bring a portable hard drive with all my music on it (not the foresight, however, to write these posts in advance). Since I don't have my itunes here to guide me, I've randomly picked some festive music to brighten your holidays, or at least provide some conversation fodder for your x-mas parties.
Ah, the Chipmunk Song. While nothing has remotely encouraged me to check out the latest incarnation of Alvin & The Chipmunks, somewhere in my brain there is a slight fond spot for the original song. I don't really understand it because even as a kid, Alvin pissed me off with his obnoxious troublemaking ways, Simon was pretentious, and Theodore was slightly retarded. Each chipmunk drove me nuts in their own way and together they were insufferable. As a kid, I guess you watch any TV whether you even like the show or not. Anyway, for some reason or other I happen to like the Chipmunk Song and that solo line about wanting a hula hoop just gets me every time. The 2007 movie soundtrack features re-done versions of The Chipmunk Song and Witch Doctor (though they're not exactly covers) with Jason Lee filling in as the new Dave. Did you know Justin Long was the voice of Alvin? Why? I don't know.Alvin & The Chipmunks - The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late) [DeeTown Rock Mix]
The soundtrack also features a "DeeTown Rock Mix", which sounds exactly as you might imagine it.Powder - Christmas Don't Be Late (Chipmunk Song) [originally by The Chipmunks]
Ah, but Powder already did a rock cover for A Very Special Christmas 5. Do they still make those albums? The first two in the series have some of the best Christmas covers ever.Mau - Chipmunks Christmas Mash-Up
A couple of years ago, someone named Mau made a mash-up of the Chipmunk Song and Royksopp’s Triumphant. The basis of the mash-up is a comedy bit by Patton Oswalt (who incidentally voiced the main character of an exponentially better CGI rodent film this past summer) in which he hilariously describes slowing down an LP of the Chipmunk Song... just listen, it's pretty out there.Jonathan Coulton - Podsafe Christmas Song
While I haven't gone through all of Jonathan Coulton's Thing a Week songs (all available for free as an iTunes podcast), I think I should really buckle down and do that after recently listening to Tom Cruise Crazy and this one, a parody of the Chipmunk Song. They really nail it especially the hilarious between-verses banter. "I don't want to speak too soon... but, uh, we may have saved Christmas."
John Denver & The Muppets - Little Saint Nick [originally by The Beach Boys]
Anyone notice they re-did that Coke polar bears vs. penguins ad that used to have Little Saint Nick as the soundtrack to the penguin christmas hoedown? Now it's some generic "holiday" music that doesn't match the dancing penguins and when that little bear cub slides in they use that overly cliché record needle scratch sound... except the music doesn't even stop. Ah, the things that bug me that shouldn't.The Beach Boys - (I Saw Santa) Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
Thankfully this other Beach Boys song never became a standard. Along the same lines as I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, one boy tells his brother what he saw "going on" around the Christmas tree. It's a bizarre song, alternating between the boy talking over a repeated piano chord and the chorus, which has the weird line "And Mama was as close to Santa as you are to me". It's filled with presumably unintentional innuendo with mommy and Santa doing more than just smooching.
Brian Setzer Orchestra - The Nutcracker SuiteVandals - Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies
A couple Tchaikovsky covers: swing and punk.Vince Guaraldi Trio - Christmas Time Is Here [Markus Enochson Remix]
Whenever I hear this now I can only picture the cast of Arrested Development walking around all sad.The Living End - Jingle Bell Rock (Feat. Kylie Minogue) [originally by Bobby Helms]
My favourite cover of this Christmas staple. I probably don't say this enough, but The Living End do some awesome covers and lead singer/guitarist Chris Cheney is one of the best (and underrated) guitarists in modern rock.The OneUps - Super Mario's Sleigh Ride
I didn't post anything earlier this week because, um, I was off playing Super Mario Galaxy. Sorry. Anyway, this brilliant Christmas tune from last year [EDIT: 2002] by video game cover band The OneUps seamlessly integrates familiar Mario tunes with Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride. Seriously the best Christmas cover I've heard in years. Looking forward The OneUps next album...
