Comic Book Rock Stars #1: Bryan Lee O'Malley

Comic Book Rock Stars: Yet another ongoing and infrequently updated feature, in which we cover crossover comic book artists/musicians.

Back in September, I was wondering aloud about the under-researched realm of comic book artist/musicians. This came about when I went to see the final Harvey Danger shows in Seattle and the opening act for one of the shows was Can You Imagine? which featured cartoonist Peter Bagge (to be covered in a later installment). My research dug up a surprising number of crossovers and a planned single blog post spiraled out of control until it got stuck in draft hell. In accordance with my new year's blog resolution (simplify, simplify, simplify), we'll be kicking off this feature by focusing on one such artist, which perfectly ties in with my CanCon biases: London, Ontario-born cartoonist and creator of Scott Pilgrim, Bryan Lee O'Malley.

If you aren't already familiar with Scott Pilgrim, the mass awareness campaign is well underway. In brief, Scott Pilgrim is a twentysomething slacker who must defeat his girlfriend's seven evil ex-boyfriends to win her heart. With its manga-style illustrations, the series is also riffs on video games, indie rock, and pop culture at large, all the while unabashedly set in Toronto. The first volume of the acclaimed series came out in 2004 with the 6th and final installment hitting stores in July, just a few weeks before the film adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. The World hits theatres with Michael Cera in the title role and helmed by Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright.

The promotional machine is starting to kick into high gear. A couple weeks ago they released the teaser poster ("An epic of epic epicness.") followed by the recent trailer, which had the internet a-buzzin'. I'm sure it's not lost on pop culture geeks that we get to see George Michael Bluth vs. Superman (Brandon Routh), The Human Torch and future Captain America (Chris Evans), Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman), and even George Michael's ex Ann ("Who?") Veal (Mae Whitman). Even the inevitable video game tie-in looks promising with retro graphics and music from 8-bit punk rockers Anamanaguchi.

Music plays a big role in Scott Pilgrim (even his name comes from the song of the same name by 90s Halifax band Plumtree) with numerous references to bands, both real and fictional, and scenes taking place in actual Toronto show venues. Scott plays bass in a band called Sex Bob-Omb whose music in the film, it was recently revealed, is written by Beck. Music for the other fictional bands in the story will be provided by Metric, Broken Social Scene, and presumably others yet to be revealed making for probably the most anticipated soundtrack this year. Even Chris Murphy of Sloan, who were referenced in the books, is serving as the film's musical director, coaching the actor's musical performances. Yes, the inherent Canadianess of the comic is faithfully being infused into the film.

Anyway, this is all a long introduction to something I learned in my comic book artist/musician hunt, that Bryan Lee O'Malley played keyboards in some Toronto bands (Imperial Otter and Honey Dear) and he also has a collection of solo recordings under the name Kupek that even includes (gasp!) a few cover songs. As he states succinctly on his site: "Kupek is a band, and I am the only member of the band".

Kupek - Nautical Disaster [originally by The Tragically Hip]
I used to love this song from The Tragically Hip's Day for Night but it kinda got ruined over the course of several parties during university when some friends I know would repeatedly crank it and drunkenly sing along karaoke-style. Now whenever I hear it, that image immediately springs into my head. Still a great song though. In my mind, The Hip are pretty much the quintessential Canadian band and it's a shame they weren't a part of the Olympic opening or closing ceremony, though judging by the latter's line-up the producers weren't that keen on exuding Canadian pride anyway.

Kupek - Nothing Compares 2 U [originally by Prince]

Go check out http://www.radiomaru.com/kupek to download up to seven albums of his music for free!

Canadian Cover Content #10: Happy Canada Day!

It's Canada Day today! Time to get together, fire up the barbecues, watch the fireworks, and revel in all things Canadian. I was shocked to learned a few days ago that skill-testing questions for contests is a "Canadian thing" after years of thinking that was perfectly normal. Ketchup potato chips are apparently not common south of the border... again something we just take for granted. Canada Day, coincidentally or not, is also the first day of NHL free agency, traditionally a frenzied period of player activity, shuffling team rosters for the upcoming season. And really, it's very Canadian to frantically call/text/e-mail everyone you know saying "_______ just got traded to Montréal!" or "Did you hear who the Oilers just signed?!?" and so on.

Some Canada Day events, as swiped from CBC Radio 3:

Victoria
Juno-winning artist K'Naan is headlining tomorrow's festivities, which also include aboriginal blues artist George Leach and Zimbabwean music makers Chikoro Marimba, on the lawns of Victoria's legislature.

Vancouver/Surrey
Pour yourself into a pair of leather pants and head for Surrey, BC where classic Canadian bands The Payola$ and Loverboy will be rocking a crowd of thousands with ‘80s camp. Another local ‘80s favourite, 54-40, is performing at Canada Place in Vancouver.

Calgary
Vancouver singer-songwriter Jeremy Fisher will wrap up a day of festivities in Calgary's Princes Island Park, where classic Canadian singer-songwriter David Wilcox will also perform along with many others.

Winnipeg
Hop aboard a free shuttle and head for Canada Day events in Osborne Village and the Forks, where there's lots of live entertainment - or head for the Garrick Centre where the Drive-By Truckers are playing.

Ottawa
THE Canada Day party is happening in the nation's capital, where you'll find tons of great bands, including Joel Plaskett, Shad, Hawksley Workman, Serena Ryder, Basia Bulat, Torngat, Eccodek, Blue Rodeo and more.

Montreal
The Montreal Jazz Festival is full swing, and recently returned ‘90s stars Bran Van 3000 is playing a free General Motors Stage at the corner of Ste-Catherine and Jeanne Mance - or you can turn TV on the Radio's show at the Metropolis into your very own Canada Day party. Legendary musician and producer Daniel Lanois is also playing at Cabaret Juste Pour Rire.

Quebec City
Quebecois favourites Malajube will join Montreal rockers Simple Plan, Marilou and Hedley for a free concert on the Plains of Abraham, followed by a full fireworks display.

A couple other gigs I know about:
Bedouin Soundclash in Lake Louise, AB
Paper Lions in Spruce Grove, AB
and
In London, England they got started early yesterday with a 2-day Canada Day celebration in Trafalgar Square(!) with street hockey and a free concert with Kathleen Edwards, The Trews, Jesse Cook, and The McDades.

Here are a handful of Canadian covers if you need something to spin at your Canada Day shindig:

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson featuring Terrance & Phillip - O Canada
Two-thirds of Rush singing our national anthem with Terrance and Phillip, a bit of, uh, CanCon from South Park.

Mike Ford - I've Been Everywhere [made popular by Lucky Starr]
Covered by Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, Rolf Harris, Willie Nelson, Stompin' Tom Connors, and more, I've Been Everywhere written by Geoff Mack and first a hit in Australia for Lucky Starr is unique as a cover song in that the lyrics are changed up to reflect the home country of the performer. The song is a increasingly fast-paced listing of all the local towns/cities visited by the song's protagonist. Since Moxy Früvous's hiatus, Mike Ford has released several solo albums and has been visiting high schools across Canada singing original songs about Canadian history. Nope, never quite had a social studies class like that! This cover is from his first collection of these songs, 2004's Canada Needs You, Volume 1. Where else can you hear songs about Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont, Sir John A. MacDonald, or um, Thanadelthur? The follow-up Canada Needs You, Volume 2 just came out last month. All his CDs can be bought at his live shows or from everyone's favourite exclusively Canadian online music retailer, Maple Music.


Dirk Doom & The Overdrive Orchestra - Having an Average Weekend [originally by Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet]
Even if you don't recognize the title, you should definitely recognize the song, which served as the theme to Kids in the Hall in the late 80's/early 90's. The gang has been touring over the past few months and will be inducted later this year to Canada's Walk of Fame.

Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) [originally by Cher]
In high school I discovered the Shadowy Men's CD Dim the Lights, Chill the Ham at the library and it got more than its fair share of spins in my discman. This was the first time I had ever heard Bang Bang and I didn't find out it was a cover until years later.

Cross Canadian Ragweed - Hey Hey, My My [originally by Neil Young]
Cross Canadian Ragweed - The Needle and the Damage Done [originally by Neil Young]
Despite their name, Cross Canadian Ragweed are NOT Canadian, but instead an American alt-country band(!) drawing their name from the combination of three of its members Grady Cross, Cody Canada(!!), and Randy Ragsdale. Honouring their non-existent Canadian origins, they do a couple Neil Young covers. Though kinda like their contradictory name, this doesn't sound like country music to me, just straight up rock.


The Hanson Brothers - The Hockey Song [originally by Stompin' Tom Connors]
Canada's second national anthem may have switched TV stations, but there's still a chance that the, uh, third national anthem The Hockey Song by Stompin' Tom Connors could kick off Hockey Night in Canada next season. It pretty much gets played at every hockey game anyway and everyone knows the words already! The Hanson Brothers, sort of a hockey-themed Ramones named of course for the goons from Slap Shot, are the alter-egos of punk rock band Nomeansno. Originally a side project, they've released three full length albums of hockey-themed songs including this cover. It's tempting to say "Gee, only in Canada!" if not for The Zambonis who hail from Connecticut.

Pezz - New Orleans is Sinking [originally by The Tragically Hip]
The Tragically Hip are pretty much the epitome of Canadian rock, you don't get any bigger than them (and no, Nickelback doesn't count). I remember one year biking through the river valley in Edmonton with friends to see the Canada Day fireworks and some guy whose house was near a prime viewing spot had speakers set up as he and his literal garage band cranked out covers of the Hip, which seems like a pretty typical Canada Day celebration to me. Ontario band Billy Talent were formerly known as Pezz before being threatened with legal action by a US band with the same name... ack, struggling mightily with temptation to say "typically American"-- oops! I kid, I kid... In this hidden track from their indie release Watoosh!, they do a cranked up version of The Hip classic.

Stereophonics - Fiddler's Green [originally by The Tragically Hip]
UK band Stereophonics, who are no strangers to cover songs (good and bad), started off as a cover band called Tragic Love Company... guess what the "Tragic" refers to? Yes, apparently they were big fans of the Hip! There's my Canadian trivia factoid of the day. Wait, did you know Trivial Pursuit was created by Canadians? For the pie!

Happy Canada Day!

Canadian Cover Content #9: April Wine Uncorked

All these posts of originals this week were instigated by a bit of an "originals" google bender last week. Of the originals dug up, none were more surprising to me than the following bit of CanCon classic rock. (Apologies in advance if this post holds absolutely no interest for non-Canucks)

In short, CanCan (Canadian Content) regulations require a certain percentage of radio and television broadcasting to be Canadian in origin. For the classic rock stations, that means we were taught early to love The Guess Who, Rush, BTO, Steppenwolf, and The Tragically Hip. That also means we're exposed to an unnecessary amount of Trooper, Loverboy, Streetheart, Harlequin... and April Wine. I mean there's really no reason I should be able to sing-a-long faithfully to 15+ April Wine songs, yet I can. In fact, I'm not even entirely convinced April Wine had that many hits, but they sure are played on the radio as if they did.

Here are a few April Wine songs you should recognize:

• April Wine - Bad Side of the Moon
  
• April Wine - You Could Have Been a Lady
  
• April Wine - Sign of the Gypsy Queen

Guess what? They're ALL covers.

A few years ago when I discovered Elton John's great live album 11-17-70, that's when I first realized that the April Wine hit Bad Side of the Moon was in fact a cover song.
Elton John - Bad Side of the Moon
Elton John - Bad Side of the Moon (11-17-70)
The original studio version was released as the b-side to my favourite Elton John song, Border Song.

Hot Chocolate - You Could Have Been a Lady
Here was another shocker: You Could Have Been a Lady was originally by Hot Chocolate, probably most famous for You Sexy Thing!

Lorence Hud - Sign of the Gypsy Queen
From his self-titled 1973 album, Lorence Hud wrote this song popularized by April Wine and played all the instruments on the track.

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I like April Wine fine enough, though they're best when taken in moderation (like wine!). I've even seen them live once, performing a free show in Sunshine Village in between ski runs. Here are a few covers of April Wine for you. Props to this fansite since I didn't really know anybody actually covered April Wine.

Treble Charger - Roller [originally by April Wine]
From the soundtrack to the cult Canadian mockumentary FUBAR, which featured several contemporary bands (Sum 41, Sloan, The New Pornographers, and more) covering Canadian metal and rock hits from the 70's/80's.

Clout - Oowatanite [originally by April Wine]
This is a pretty sweet cover of a song many of us now permanently associate with a Lotto 6/49 commercial that used to get a lot of airplay up here. "Ah, the lotto song!" is a familiar reaction to anyone who hears the distinctive bells that kick off Oowatanite. Clout was an all-girl rock group from South Africa who were active in the late seventies. If you imagine Heart covering April Wine, that'll give you an idea of this cover.

The Heelwalkers - Weeping Widow [originally by April Wine]
I have to admit I was surprisingly stoked to find a cover of this song.

Frost - Sign of the Gypsy Queen [originally by Lorence Hud]
Sure we now know it's a Lorence Hud original, but undoubtedly this metal cover is of April Wine.

Queen Bitches & Mr. Brightsides

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

Green River - Queen Bitch
R. Mutt - Queen Bitch

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

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

Eater - Queen Bitch
Capsize 7 - Queen Bitch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another Year o' Fong Songs

**WARNING! Cover-free posting!**
Ah, the inevitable year-end post.... Almost. This is simply a year-end recap of happenings in my own little world. I'll jump into favourite covers, albums, films, and those sorts of things soon. In the meantime, feel free to not read this at all, though you might miss out on How I Almost Got the White Stripes to Perform at the Library I Worked At. Intrigued?

One of the things that's fun about keeping this blog is that it doubles as a sort of diary of personally significant events (musically, at least) and I can just skim through the 2007 archives to see what happened without wracking my brain too hard.

• The first post of the 2007 was... um, last year's year-end post.
  
  
• I had a wonderful first-time trip to San Francisco, also finding time to zip down to San Jose to watch the Oilers beat the Sharks (that'd be hockey for the non-hockey inclined).
  
  
• 2007 would turn out to be the year of band reunions with Davie Lee Roth rejoining Van Halen, The Police coming back together, Genesis, and even The Spice Girls getting in on all this reunion action. February saw the return of one of my favourite bands the Squirrel Nut Zippers who had been missing in action since 2001. When I posted about this reunion back on February 2, little did I know that the ultimate band reunion would be announced later in the year...
  
  
• Chinese New Year fell on February 18th and it was MY year, the Year of the Pig. As far as concerts went, 2007 was positively epic. And I had the fantastic opportunity to take a huge trip to China to check out my roots. Yes, it was a very good year and technically I still have a couple months left on the Chinese calendar.
  
  
• Heart-thumping news on March 20 courtesy of the White Stripes. After some hoax tour dates appeared, their official newsletter was sent out with the teaser "The White Stripes have yet to confirm their North American routing as of yet. But we are happy to say that it will include all 10 provinces and 3 territories of Canada, as well as the remaining 16 states of the United States the band have yet to play." Good god, a Canadian tour including the territories?!? Would they actually be coming to Edmonton? Is this a horrible joke?
  
  
• For a time, I was addicted to Desktop Tower Defense.
  
  
• March 30: I finally tracked down the official Interstate '76 soundtrack. Score!
  
  
• April 10: Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls confirmed that none other than Mr. Ben Folds would be producing and playing on her solo album, which as of now is still in the works.
  
  
• April 17: Jack White reiterates the plan to cover all Canadian provinces and territories. Speculation rampant and tour dates imminent.
  
  
• April 26: Jack White is a man of his word. Full Canadian tour dates are released including Edmonton. Unlikely stops: Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Iqaluit, Glace Bay.
  
  
• May 4: Star Wars Day. I post some Star Wars covers, my blog is bombarded with hits after an Idolator shout-out, and I'm inexplicably featured on IMDB's Hit List. At the peak, 4052 unique visitors on one day vs. the usual 150. My virtual ego inflates, but then blog traffic returns to normal as I return to my regular posts. Never underestimate the power of the Star Wars fan contingent.
  
  
• Some time in mid-May I joined Facebook. Strangely, it wasn't really a matter of caving in. I was blissfully ignorant of the addictive site until I was trying to view some Danny Michel tour photos that were posted on Facebook. Ironically after I joined, those photos were unavailable.
  
  
• My rock dreams were coming true as I booked myself aboard a Ben Folds cruise for 2008. These dreams would later be dashed as the cruise was unceremoniously cancelled.
  
  
• They came, they played, they conquered. The White Stripes came into Edmonton on June 30th. Even better than the actual show was one of the now-legendary Secret Shows, which took place in a youth centre in the inner city. I was arm's length away from Jack as he played to a packed room of 200-ish salivating fans. I guess enough time has passed for me to tell the full story on how I almost got the White Stripes to play in my library... I was working at the library in the heart of Old Strathcona, a beautiful newly-renovated brick building that was the first public library in Edmonton built in 1913. A friend and former co-worker at the downtown library called me (although he was sworn to secrecy) with crazy news that someone from the White Stripes camp had contacted them about potentially playing their secret show there. And the library declined! What?!? GRRR! I was so excited and disappointed at the same time. I went on the Little Room forums to rant and rave about what a blown opportunity it was. I also posted some photos of the White Stripes shrine I had put up at the library as the display person and not-so-subtlely suggested the gig should happen at our library. Amazingly, I received a private message from someone... After some rapid back-and-forth e-mails with some scouting photos I took, it turned out our room could probably on hold 80 people and they were expecting more like 300. I also found out later the downtown library gig was kiboshed because of fire hazard and security concerns rather than management simply being close-minded. In any event, I got to go to the secret gig after getting the announcement on the forums and rushing to the youth centre. On the way there, that someone gave me a courtesy call to let me know where the gig was at. And that is how The White Stripes almost played at my library. The end.
  
  
• While on my weeklong White Stripes Maritimes Extravaganza, I was contacted by some guy named Kurtis who was planning to start up his own cover blog... A couple months later, Covering the Mouse debuted featuring all Disney covers, all the time. And the world rejoiced.
  
  
• I went to the Calgary Folk Festival and had a heck of a great time. Squirrel Nut Zippers reunited, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings... it was fun. It occurs to me that I never wrote my Calgary Folk Fest Part II post, which has been condemned to draft hell. So I never told the story of how I weaseled my way into the volunteer's after party to watch the Squirrel Nut Zippers for one last time and danced the night away. Maybe someday I'll finish up some long lost posts.
  
  
• August 28: I stayed up and watched the lunar eclipse like an idiot.
  
  
• September 12: My head exploded as Led Zeppelin officially announces their one-off reunion show. In spite of great lengths to procure tickets, it just didn't work out.
  
  
• Boyhowdy joins the cover blog fray with Cover Lay Down, devoted to folk covers.
  
  
• As I'm off galavanting in China, Kurtis takes over Fong Songs temporarily.
  
  
• While wandering the streets of Macau, I see a sign. Literally a sign for "Fong Song". I wonder if there's a real Coverville out there somewhere.
  
  
• And lastly, I moved to Vancouver.

My Year in Concerts (click links to revisit old concert posts):
2007/01/14 The Tragically Hip Rexall Place, Edmonton, AB
2007/01/23 Video Games Live Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton, AB
2007/02/06 The Arrogant Worms Winspear Centre, Edmonton, AB
2007/02/25 Wolfmother Edmonton Event Centre, Edmonton, AB
2007/05/17 Danny Michel Convocation Hall, Edmonton, AB
2007/05/23 The Killers with Hot Hot Heat Rexall Place, Edmonton, AB
2007/06/23 Red Shag Carpet with Kyle Riabko Freemason's Hall, Edmonton, AB
2007/06/24 Roger Waters Rexall Place, Edmonton, AB
2007/06/30 The White Stripes with Dan Sartain Shaw Conference Centre, Edmonton, AB
2007/07/10 The White Stripes with Dan Sartain Moncton Coliseum, Moncton, NB
2007/07/11 The White Stripes with Dan Sartain Charlottetown Civic Centre, Charlottetown, PEI
2007/07/13 The White Stripes with Dan Sartain Cunard Centre, Halifax, NS
2007/07/14 The White Stripes with Dan Sartain and Ashley MacIsaac The Savoy Theatre, Glace Bay, NS
2007/07/18 Jon Levine Band Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto, ON
2007/07/25 Weird Al Yankovic Capital Ex, Edmonton, AB
2007/07/27 - 07/29 Calgary Folk Festival (Squirrel Nut Zippers, The Polyjesters, Eleni Mandell, Watermelon Slim, Hawsley Workman, Sarah Slean, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Don McLean, and many more!) Prince's Island Park, Calgary, AB
2007/09/01 Andrew Bird with Dosh Richard on Richard's, Vancouver, BC
2007/09/02 Gogol Bordello with DJ Scratchy Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC
2007/12/09 Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings with Megatron Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC

Clearly this was an outstanding year for concert-going. The White Stripes Maritimes Extravaganza was logistically improbable but in the "so crazy it just might work" way and with the ultimate pay-off. The 10th Anniversary show in Glace Bay was the most unreal concert experience I've ever partaken in and unlikely to ever be topped. I tear up just thinking about it... so great in so many ways. Roger Waters put on a spectacular show and in a non-White Stripes year it would contend for best concert of the year. They had a giant high definition screen as a backdrop that is by far the clearest I've ever seen. Giant inflatable graffiti pig too. Shine On You Crazy Diamond was near-euphoric performed live. That concert now has the distinction of the most expensive concert ticket I've ever paid for at $167 and I somehow convinced two of my friends to come too. Tickets for the three of us nearly matched the cost of all of our White Stripes Maritimes shows put together. After years of waiting, I finally saw the Squirrel Nut Zippers live and they did not disappoint. Concert-wise, there's nothing really on the radar yet for 2008. High on my list of must-see someday are The Polyphonic Spree, Harvey Danger, and if we're really lucky maybe Zooey Deschanel will go on tour with M. Ward in '08.

OK, thank you for indulging me. Next time: top stuff of 2007.

Canadian Cover Content #1

Hey, I'm back from San Francisco. More about that in a later post. I'm also testing out a new file-hosting site... let me know if that works okay.

Part of the fun of maintaining a blog is inventing on-going features that may or may not be actually on-going (see: Cover Riddles). Sunday night I caught the Tragically Hip in concert and I've been inspired to add another irregular feature whereby I highlight covers by and of Canadian artists. Our radio stations in Canada are required by the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) to play 35% Canadian content per week in the interests of promoting our uniquely Canadian culture. In other words, so our airwaves aren't hijacked by American pop stars. Usually on the classic rock station this means listening to an undue amount of Trooper, April Wine, Triumph, and Loverboy. Yikes. Of course, we have our homegrown classics like Neil Young, Rush, Joni Mitchell, The Tragically Hip, The Guess Who, and others. Fortunately, our recent exports like The New Pornographers, The Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, and many more indie rockers are starting to get wide recognition over the past few years. I'm under no such obligation to provide Canadian content, but I thought it'd be fun as a Canadian blogger to occasionally wave the maple leaf. So here it goes!


Sarah Polley - Courage [originally by the Tragically Hip]
Canadian actress Sarah Polley would probably be known best for her roles in Go and the recent Dawn of the Dead remake, but most Canadians would remember her best as the child star of Road to Avonlea. I had never even seen Road to Avonlea growing up, but even I knew who she was. Here she sings this haunting, 180° take on the Tragically Hip song. The cover comes from the soundtrack to Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, which Polley also starred.


The Tragically Hip - Springtime in Vienna
Not a cover, but at Sunday's gig The Hip played one of my favourite songs of theirs, which is from the Trouble at the Henhouse album.

Captain Tractor - The Log Driver's Waltz [originally by Kate and Anna McGarrigle]
You can hardly get much more Canadian than this. Local E-town folk rockers Captain Tractor plug into a little Canadian nostalgia with this cover. Any Canadian kid from the 80's is bound to remember the Log Driver's Waltz and the National Film Board animated short that accompanied it with the light-footed log driver dancing with a beaver and leaping over moose all the while "birling down" the river on a log... I distinctly remember this playing often on YTV in the commerical break between Dr. Who and Ninja Turtles. See the original NFB vignette here. Little bit of trivia: Kate McGarrigle's son is none other than singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright.

Barenaked Ladies - McDonald's Girl [originally by Dean Friedman]
I used to like the Barenaked Ladies back in the day (their first album Gordon was one of my first CDs ever). I haven't really liked much since their second album, but it's hard to believe they're still kickin' around. This early live cover (recorded for radio?) is an old favourite, although I didn't even know it was a cover for years. Some background on the song can be found on the original songwriter Dean Friedman's site.

Fates Warning - Closer to the Heart [originally by Rush]
This is a fairly straight forward cover of the Rush original. I used to hate Rush years ago. I'm not sure exactly when and how, but at some point I became a huge fan. I guess the Canadian Content indoctrination worked!

Until next time, people.

EDIT: Speaking of Canadian Content, I just noticed that Steve's most recent post over at Cover Freak features Canadian Danny Michel's cover of Davie Bowie's Young Americans. In last year's year-end post, I mentioned that this cover was the top cover that I had heard in 2005 (it's actually from Danny's 2004 all-Bowie cover album, Loving the Alien). Now I would not hesitate to say that it is among my top 5 covers ever. In addition, Danny Michel's original material is top-notch and I'd say he's is one of Canada's most underrated singer-songwriters. If you ever get a chance to see him live, he puts on a great show. So head on over to Cover Freak and download it while you can. He's also posted another one of my fav's: Gina Jeffries' amazing version of Creep, a great cover of the over-covered Radiohead song. Great post!

Neil Young covered

[EDIT 11/16/05: OK, I've (hopefully) fixed all the broken links there. I'm not sure why some links worked and others didn't but I'm back to SaveFile until I find something better. I did in the meantime get a hold of that Phantom Planet cover and have added a link to that below as well.]

So the new Philosopher Kings album Castles hits stores in less than 2 weeks. I've got all their albums (only 3) and I thought I had heard all their one-off contributions to compilation albums such as "Work", which was on a 30 Hour Famine charity album. I was wrong. Just a couple weeks ago at the library I stumbled onto Borrowed Tunes, a 1994 2-disc tribute album to Neil Young, and lo and behold: there's another Philosopher Kings track. The entire album features Canadian artists covering Neil Young and includes such names as Treble Charger, 54·40, Big Sugar, and Randy Bachman. Here's a few tracks from that album (I particularly liked OLP's cover) and some other Neil Young covers:

The Philosopher Kings - Coupe de Ville
Our Lady Peace - The Needle and the Damage Done
Lawrence Gowan - Heart of Gold

Oddly enough on a Canadian tribute album to Neil Young, there were no contribution from Tragically Hip or Rush. Though Rush did do a version of Mr. Soul on their covers album Feedback: Rush - Mr. Soul

Pixies - Winterlong

Devo - Ohio [originally by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young]
Interesting factoid: Devo founders Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale were on campus during the Kent State shootings. Casale's first-hand account of the shootings can be read here.

Dread Zeppelin - Suite: Judy Blue Eyes [originally by CSNY]

Some big names covering For What It's Worth [originally by Buffalo Springfield]:
Robert Plant
Ozzy Osbourne
Rush (also from their Feedback album)

Phantom Planet also does what sounds to be a pretty good cover of CSNY's Our House for the soundtrack to The Chumscrubber (a snippet is featured in the trailer). I intended to buy it via iTunes but for some reason it's only available in the US and it wouldn't let me buy it through my Canadian account. Bah!

[EDIT 11/16/05: Got it! Check out Phantom Planet's Our House]

(Yeah, trying a new file-hosting site too)

Actors singing

Adam Sandler - Werewolves of London [originally by Warren Zevon]
Quite good. In fact, Sandler's mock gruff vocals seem to suit the song well.

Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman - Somethin' Stupid
[originally by Frank and Nancy Sinatra]
Not bad, though a bit bland.

Jack Black - Let's Get it On [originally by Marvin Gaye]
I remember the first time I saw Jack Black was in an old episode of X-Files where he worked at an arcade (I think) with Giovanni Ribisi who could control lightning...or something like that. Or who could forget in The Jackal when Bruce Willis blew Jack's arm off with some sort of gatling gun. Well, he has since moved on to bigger and better things, and his scene-stealing performance in High Fidelity (from which this cover song is taken from) was a big factor in that.

Wakefield featuring Mary-Kate Olson - Suffragette City
[originally by David Bowie]
Half of the Olson twins plus some guy named Wakefield covering David Bowie should be a disaster, but it's surprisingly tolerable. Mary-Kate's contributions are thankfully limited to singing "hey man" and "suffragette city" every now and then.

Kevin Spacey - Beyond the Sea [originally by Bobby Darin]
I didn't catch the film, but judging from the soundtrack which is full of Kevin Spacey covering Bobby Darin tunes, he seems to do a pretty good job.

Bill Cosby - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
[originally by The Beatles]
This cover is just downright painful.

Sarah Polley - Courage [originally by The Tragically Hip]
Completely different take on the Tragically Hip classic. From the soundtrack to the Atom Egoyan film The Sweet Hereafter, in which Polley also starred.

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Unlikely duets:
William Shatner & Henry Rollins - I Can't Get Behind That
From last year's Has Been, which of course featured the fantastic cover of Common People with Joe Jackson, this "song" is more of a back-and-forth rant between Shatner and Rollins.

Eddie Vedder & Susan Sarandon - Croon Spoon
This unlikely duet between the Oscar-winning actress and Pearl Jam frontman is made moreso unlikely by the fact that it's from a 1930's musical. Taken from the soundtrack to Cradle Will Rock, which was directed by Tim Robbins.