Canadian Cover Content #11: Hard Core Logo, Cover Podcasts & Crash Test Dummies

Some belated Canadian cover happenings...

On August 14th in Toronto, there's a whole tribute night devoted to Canadian cult rock film Hard Core Logo with a screening of the film, a Q&A with director Bruce McDonald, punk bands covering the fictional band, lots of prizes, and "unannounceable but very special SPECIAL GUESTS". Hmmmm... Joe Dick himself perhaps? Mr. Hugh Dillon is currently enjoying success on Flashpoint, a big hit both in Canada and the US, which is cool because it's clearly filmed in Toronto and Canadianisms have a way of sneaking into the episodes (a Timmy's run anyone?). How surreal would a reunion of the original Hard Core Logo line-up be with Joe Dick, Billy Tallent (Callum Keith Rennie), John Oxenberger, and Pipefitter performing? Uh, technically impossible if you've seen the movie and actually kinda strange considering the 1996 film was about a very reluctant reunion tour, but I'd pay to see that anyway. For Torontonians or hardcore Hard Core Logo fans, details on the Tribute Night are here. Only $12!

Hard Core Logo - Rock 'n' Roll is Fat and Ugly
54•40 - Rock 'n' Roll is Fat and Ugly [originally by Hard Core Logo]


Last week CBC Radio 3's Grant Lawrence devoted an entire podcast to Canadian artists covering Canadian artists. It can be downloaded here in various formats. What's cool is that for several covers he chats with both the coverer and the coveree (as put by Danny Michel & Emm Gryner in a similar themed episode of Under the Covers). We get The Be Good Tanyas covering Geoff Berner, Kathleen Edwards covering Jim Bryson, Cuff the Duke covering the Rheostatics, and much more.
**UPDATE: Also check out this week's Part II - The Originals of the songs featured last week.

Speaking of Danny & Emm's Under the Covers, last week's episode was about "Covers You Didn't Know Were Covers". One that greatly surprised me was finding out Kim Carnes' eighties hit Bette Davis Eyes was not the original... it was co-written and recorded in 1974 by Jackie DeShannon. It has a radically different tone-- almost country & western with chorus girls. Sounds like a weird cover, but it's the original! Between this, Tainted Love, and There's Always Something There to Remind Me, how many more 80's one-hit wonders are actually cover songs?? There's no doubt that all covers of Bette Davis Eyes are of Kim Carnes' version. My favourite is an acoustic cover featuring the deep baritone vocals of Crash Test Dummies' frontman Brad Roberts, from his solo live disc Crash Test Dude. A couple years ago I was slow in ordering the Crash Test Dude CD/video combo from Maple Music then it went out of stock forever. I always kinda regretted that, though eventually it ended up on iTunes and eMusic. The album also contains a handful of unlikely covers: La Grange, Da Do Ron Ron, Trident Gum Theme(?), Unbreak My Heart and Baby One More Time.

Brad Roberts - Bette Davis Eyes [originally by Jackie DeShannon]
Ever wonder what Brad Roberts is up to these days? He's a guitar/songwriting instructor at the Paul Green School of Rock Music (!), which likely was the inspiration for the film School of Rock and was featured in the documentary Rock School. Incidentally, a School of Rock 2 was announced a couple weeks ago with Jack Black, writer Mike White, and director Richard Linklater all returning.

Brad Roberts - Superman's Song
I'm of the mind that one can't technically cover oneself, so here's Brad Roberts revisiting the Crash Test Dummies' first hit, Superman's Song, a plaintive ode to Superman released a year before the big S actually "died".

Brad Roberts - One of Us [originally released by Joan Osborne]
Here's something curious I just learned while writing up this post. Direct from the Crash Test Dummies FAQ: "the song's writer, Eric Bazilian, had written the song with Brad Roberts' bass baritone in mind. When the two met, Brad recorded the song just by himself with an acoustic guitar. When news of the song first broke, it was expected to appear on the Armageddon soundtrack. It did not, and so far, the song has only been made available to the public in a leaked MP3 that found its way onto file-sharing networks." Wow, so could this be considered almost the original One of Us...?

Crash Test Dummies - The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead [originally by XTC]
I remember buying the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack specifically for this song, finding out it was a cover many years later. This is the first Crash Test Dummies single to feature the band's only female member Ellen Reid taking over lead vocal duties from Brad Roberts who sings back-up. The Dummies also recorded another XTC cover All You Pretty Girls for the XTC tribute album A Testimonial Dinner.

Jaymz Bee & The Royal Jelly Orchestra - Superman's Song (feat. Melleny Melody) [originally by Crash Test Dummies]
An unlikely lounge cover from Jaymz Bee & the RJO's Cocktail: Shakin' and Stirred album of Canadian covers.

Weird Al Yankovic - Headline News [parody of Crash Test Dummies' Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm]
I remember reading an interview years ago with the Crash Test Dummies and they were asked how they felt about Weird Al parodying their song. Of course, they were excited and honoured, going so far as to be Weird Al's back-up band on a MuchMusic Video Awards performance of the parody. The parody makes now dated references to headlines at the time (Tonya Harding, Lorena Bobbitt, and that guy who got caned in Singapore), though Weird Al changes it up in live shows with current headlines. When I caught his show last summer he sung about Britney's shaved head incident and Paris Hilton. The original has the very dubious distinction of being one of Blender's 50 Worst Songs Ever (#31), VH1's 50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs Ever (#15), and called by the Rolling Stone's blog as one of the 20 Most Annoying Songs Ever (#15). Yikes, I don't think it's that bad.

Covers of a different sort:

Bacchus and Ariadne [originally by Titian] ;)



(note: I only made one of these...)

Seattle Wrap-Up

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 - Noelly
Palmer, 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:

• I found out that a couple days ago Sean Nelson joined none other than Jonathan Coulton at the super-hyped SXSW festival on the Heather Gold show, playing a Billy Joel cover! They promise audio and video soon, but for now check out Heather Gold and JoCo covering Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta reading lyrics off an iPhone, heh heh. It's been over a year, but we're still waiting on Harvey Danger's cover of JoCo's Code Monkey...
  
• the session on a cruise that Sean Nelson performed with the Barenaked Ladies' Steven Page celebrating the solo music of Paul McCartney is on DIME as a DVD torrent!!! Brilliant. There were some special guests too like Sarah Harmer dropping by to perform Mull of Kintyre. If you have one of those elusive DIME accounts (like me, bwa ha!), then I definitely recommend that.

BBC Loves Covers...thus I love the BBC

The folks at the BBC Radio love cover songs just as much as we do, except they have the power to command covers. Whether it's assembling artists to recreate Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, celebrating their 40 year history with 40 cover songs, or simply demanding their musical guests to perform covers. While I've long been aware of Jo Whiley's Live Lounge show on BBC Radio 1 as a source for unlikely covers, a reader told me last month that musical guests on BBC Radio 2's Dermot O'Leary show are usually asked to perform covers as well. Since I found out, I've been keeping an ear on the online broadcast and sure enough have caught some gems. In the past couple years the BBC has released two Live Lounge CD compilations and a Saturday Sessions CD from the Dermot O'Leary show. But they produce so many covers on a weekly basis, the CD compilations just don't cut it so we've also had to rely on plucky Brits to rip and share the radio streams. Luckily with online feeds and archives, this is also fairly simple for someone in, say, Vancouver to hear these songs without having the slight disadvantage of tuning in live during the wee hours of the morning. Of course with that many covers they're not all winners, but it's worth it just for the potential of a great one.

Here are some random Live Lounge, Dermot O'Leary, and other BBC session covers from over the years. But first we kick it off proper with some help from Fong Songs favourite Moxy Früvous:

"BBC 1! BBC 2! BBC 3! BBC 4! BBC 5! BBC 6! BBC 7! BBC HEAVEN!"
Moxy Früvous - BBC [originally by Ming Tea]
They weren't exactly singing about BBC's penchant for cover songs (or even the radio for that matter), but it serves our purposes well. The song was written for the first Austin Powers movie and performed over the end credits by Ming Tea, a band featuring Mike Myers (Austin Powers himself), Matthew Sweet, Susanna Hoffs, Stuart Johnson, and Christopher Ward. Susanna Hoffs, formerly of the Bangles, also re-teamed with Matthew Sweet for the 2006 cover album Under the Covers, Vol. 1, but you knew that already. This Moxy Früvous cover is pinched from the Internet Live Archive, host to lots and lots of fabulous Frütlegs including an all-covers show. When you're feeling sad about the lack of new Moxy Früvous material (8 years and counting), it's comforting to wallow in the amazing efforts of some dedicated tapers from back in the day.

The Feeling - Walk Like an Egyptian [originally by The Bangles]
This is from The Saturday Sessions compilation of D. O'Leary's show. Lots of great stuff on that 2-disc set including last year's cover of Breathe by The Shins and a good KT Tunstall cover of I Want You Back.

Doug Walker - Kids in America [originally by Kim Wilde]
From last week's Dermot O'Leary show, British artist Doug Walker performed this excellent version of the oft-covered Kids in America. He has an great BBC success story. Hanging outside Radio 1 HQ, he handed his single The Mystery to Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles, who proceeded to play it on his breakfast show. An outpouring of positive listener feedback led to the song being played several more times throughout the week and soon he was talking to record label people, eventually signing with Warner Brothers Records. His first single comes out next week as a digital download and his debut album is due in April!

Ash - The Boys Are Back in Town [originally by Thin Lizzy]
From Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio 1.

Scissor Sisters - Take Me Out [originally by Franz Ferdinand]
One of the all-time great Live Lounge covers.

Muse - Feeling Good [originally written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse]
From a Live Lounge session. I didn't realize until having to check the original credit, but this oft-covered standard is from the 1960's musical The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd. Wow, that's news to me!

Kate Nash - Seven Nation Army [originally by The White Stripes]
The Fratellis - Hotel Yorba [originally by The White Stripes]
Jack Johnson - My Doorbell [originally by The White Stripes]
Fortunately for me, the BBC radio DJs and their guests are fans of the White Stripes so we get our fair share of their covers. I think all three of these are from Jo Whiley's Live Lounge show.

Supergrass - Beat It [originally by Michael Jackson]
Once I was alerted to the Dermot O'Leary show, I was excited to learn Supergrass would be an upcoming guest. They did not disappoint, unleashing a heavy fuzz-induced cover of Beat It. I Should Coco is so good it's a little ridiculous and next month we'll see their new album Diamond Hoo Ha released.

Supergrass - Stone Free [originally by The Jimi Hendrix Experience]
It'd be remiss to talk about BBC Radio without once mentioning influential DJ John Peel whose eclectic music tastes were served up on BBC Radio 1 from its inception in 1967 to his death in 2004. Known for championing artists before they hit it big, his legendary Peel Sessions featured in-studio performances specifically recorded for the BBC. He's cited as giving career boosts to the likes of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, T. Rex, The Sex Pistols, Billy Bragg, Pulp, The Smiths, Nirvana, Blur, Supergrass, The White Stripes... the list goes on and on, never losing relevance as the decades passed. By getting artists to record exclusive content, this got around a BBC restriction (i.e. needle time) regarding the amount of commercial recordings played on air. Though this blessing-in-disguise restriction was lifted in the late 80's, I imagine this paved the way for the various BBC in-studio live performances that continue to this day. Ironically, browsing the Peel archives I'm fairly convinced that this Supergrass cover is not from a Peel Session as originally thought or even from a BBC broadcast, but I love this cover and already wrote up the preceding paragraph.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Radio One
Not a cover, but Jimi made up this goofy radio jingle for Radio 1, which appears on his compilation of BBC Sessions.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Sunshine of Your Love [originally by Cream]
This Hendrix cover is wicked and has a legendary story to go along with it. Forgive me if I fudge the details here... the band was performing on BBC's Lulu Show (yeah, that Lulu) and was expected by the producers to play their hit Hey Joe. Barely half-way through the song, they stopped and Jimi said "We'd like to stop playing this rubbish," then dedicated the next song to Cream who had recently broken up. Jimi & Co. ripped through an impromptu instrumental cover of Sunshine of Your Love, but it wasn't long before they started to get the axe from pissed off producers. At the 0:45 second mark, you can hear Jimi say "We're being put off the air." and the BBC pulled the plug. This inspired Elvis Costello to pull a similar stunt on Saturday Night Live in 1977 when label reps pressured him to play Less Than Zero, which he unceremoniously cut off saying "Ladies and gentlemen, there's no reason to do this song here". The band then launched into Radio, Radio after which he was supposedly banned from the show for 12 years. In 1999 as SNL musical guests the Beastie Boys started playing Sabotage, Costello burst in with his guitar re-uttering his famous line and together they played Radio, Radio. Oddly enough, Weird Al Yankovic performs this at live shows occasionally when his band runs into technical difficulties (though these glitches are possibly deliberate), so it's actually one of the few legitimate covers he plays.

Matt Willis - All These Things That I've Done [originally by The Killers]
David Gray - Smile Like You Mean It [originally by The Killers]
Daniel Bedingfield - Somebody Told Me [originally by The Killers]
Simon Webbe - When You Were Young [originally by The Killers]
The Killers are also popular BBC cover subjects...

Zen Guerrilla - Moonage Daydream [originally by David Bowie]
The Polyphonic Spree - Five Years [originally by David Bowie]
The Raconteurs - It Ain't Easy [originally by David Bowie]
...as is David Bowie.

Expect a Killers/Bowie post soon.

Smells Like Laura Barrett

Today I'm going to talk about Laura Barrett. She's a classically-trained pianist from Toronto, but made her mark creating hauntingly beautiful kalimba music with quirky lyrics on her first independently released EP Earth Sciences. I first heard Laura via (what else?) a unique kalimba cover of Weird Al's Smells Like Nirvana and knew I had to buy the EP, which also featured the blogosphere favourite Robot Ponies. Now when I say independently released, I mean it arrived in a wonderful hand-stitched green CD case with a little personal note after ordering it directly from Laura. Her latest 4-song EP Ursula which also includes a music video for Robot Ponies was released in December, though unless you live in Toronto and can go to indie record store Soundscapes you'll end up having to e-mail Laura for further instructions...

[indie Earth Sciences EP]

[Ursula EP]

[Earth Sciences EP re-release]
Last month Laura signed on with Paper Bag Records who are re-releasing her Earth Sciences EP with new artwork and a bonus remix next Tuesday. So ordering some Laura Barrett CDs is that much simpler now. And by the sounds of it, she's working on a full-length album (including, but not limited to the kalimba) to be released by Paper Bag Records later this year. She'll also be performing at SXSW next month among a ton of other Canadian artists. Tomorrow Laura will be live on CBC radio's morning show GO! and you can even go see it live, that is of course if you live in Toronto.

Laura Barrett - Smells Like Nirvana [originally by Weird Al Yankovic; parody of Nirvana]
(**Note: I'm going to be particularly stringent this week about the temporary hosting of this particular track. One week max!)

Both the Earth Sciences and Ursula EPs have different versions of Deception Island Optimists Club, a song for which she was nominated for the inaugural SOCAN ECHO Songwriting prize in 2006. There's kind of a curious story to go along with this that I'll have to elaborate in a later post, but here's the short version: The winner of the 2007 ECHO prize was Toronto rapper Abdominal (who also deserves a future post of his own). I'm a big fan of Abdominal's collaborations with DJ Format, though I didn't find out until the new year that he released a new solo album, which after listening would have made my top 10 of 2007. There's an amazing CBC Radio show on Saturdays called Fuse that fuses seemingly disparate artists together to create new music. On a December show of Fuse (listen here), Abdominal was paired up with a band I was unfamiliar with called Henri Fabergé & The Adorables. I came away with a great appreciation for both artists. Now just this past week, alerted by a CBC Radio 3 blog, I read that Henri Fabergé & The Adorables were going to be featured on In Sessions on CBC Country Canada this week and a preview was up on youtube. I was vaguely startled while in the middle of watching the preview... did I just see Laura Barrett?

Now all I've been talking about is her solo work, but Laura has been playing in and touring with a number of bands in the past couple years and that includes being a member of The Adorables playing clarinet! I knew she was a member of The Hidden Cameras, but randomly seeing her in the Adorables was a delightful surprise. That was just further incentive to pick up their self-titled album from Fuzzy Logic (also available digitally from Zunior, but I like CDs).


Let's Get Baked with Laura Barrett: Lemongrass Coconut Curry
I'm sure all that reading has made you hungry, so join Laura for on the music/food podcast Let's Get Baked with Mat and Dave, where musical guests prepare a dish with some music in the mix. Check the archives too. Ever wanted to make Wyld Mushroom Risotto with Final Fantasy? Basia Bulat's Polish Apple Cake? Chicago Deep Dish Pizza with OK Go? Lots of notable guests (100+ episodes since 2005) including Fong Songs fav Danny Michel, Geoff Berner, You Say Party We Say Die, Joel Plaskett, Immaculate Machine... The catch? They're all vegan dishes, which is not exactly my food scene (near opposite, in fact-- meat, meat meat), but it's a fun listen.

...And for those of you who entered the Harvey Danger giveaway, I'll pick winners tonight using some random unscientific method and announce it soon thereafter. Good luck, all eight of you!

Harvey Danger coverage

I've got my next rock vacation lined up. Come March 6th and 7th, I'll be bussing down to Seattle to go see Harvey Danger play a 2-night stand at the 300-seat Triple Door. In the late-90's they attained one-hit wonder status with Flagpole Sitta from their debut album Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?. I remember hearing the song in a commercial and scouring the p2p networks trying to find it. Problem was I couldn't remember any of the lyrics and for some reason I thought it was Oasis (don't ask), two big detriments to my search progress. A year or so later I re-discovered the song in the middle of a Weird Al polka and frantically looked over the liner notes to finally find out the song's name and artist. Flagpole Sitta. By Harvey Danger. Gee, why didn't I think of that? And who is this "Harvey Danger" person?

Two founding members Jeff Lin and Aaron Huffman were classmates at the University of Washington with the band's name coming from some random graffiti written on the wall of the student newspaper office. The full story (rise/fall/resurrection) of the band is officially summarized here. I think I borrowed that first album from the library but barely listened to it before having to return it. In 2000, by which point I was actually working at the library, I picked up a brand-spankin' new copy of their 2nd album King James Version straight from cataloguing/processing. Admittedly, I borrowed it on a whim and a shiny case thinking "Oh yeah, I sure liked that Flagpole Sitta song". I still remember coming home and casually putting it in the CD player. Whatever I was planning to do, washing the dishes or something, I simply stopped and stood there in the kitchen listening to the rip-roaring opening track Meetings With Remarkable Men (Show Me the Hero). Than I sat on the couch with the liner notes and listened to the rest of the CD, reading along with the lyrics (which are phenomenal, by the way). I don't have too many big rock epiphanies, but this was one. I am Harvey Danger fan for life. Now 8 years later I am finally ready, geographically speaking, to see them for the first time.

In honour of the 10th anniversary of their first album Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?, over two nights they will be playing all three of their albums in their entirety. It'll be an epic doozy of a first live Harvey Danger experience. The big highlight for me will be hearing King James Version live, start to finish one of my favourite albums ever. Last year I saw Roger Waters perform Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety (amazing) and let me tell you I'm equally excited, if not moreso about watching/hearing/experiencing King James Version, not to mention the opportunity to hear them pull out rare tracks, b-sides, and covers. To quote lead singer Sean Nelson, "Indeed, it would be prudent to assume that some of these songs will be (unofficially) retired after these shows".

Last summer I was expecting to be in the Caribbean in January rocking it up on a cruise headlined by Ben Folds along with special guest Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls... a dream trip to be sure. I was all booked, rearing to go when it was unceremoniously cancelled last June. Somewhat ironically it's actually Harvey Danger of all people who ended up jumping on a ship with the Barenaked Ladies a couple weeks ago on a cruise to Jamaica put on by the same company, Sixthman. As much as I would have liked to, the cost would have been a bit too much, a sentiment shared by even hardcore fans. When asked by fans why they'd be participating in the cruise anyway, the answer was pretty simple: it was basically a paid vacation and the idea of playing on a cruise ship was appealingly ridiculous. Getting out of a frigid Seattle in January was a nice perk too. By all accounts it sounded like a great time. One enviable session to have attended was the Barenaked Ladies' frontman Steven Page teaming up with Harvey Danger's Sean Nelson for a 'Songs of McCartney' session. Gah! I'm told it was Steven who met Sean in Toronto recently and invited the band on board.

Pretty much since the inception of this blog, I've been repeatedly plugging Harvey Danger. Right now if you're not a fan already, you might need some convincing. In general, my cover song philosophy is that hearing a band you're unfamiliar with perform a cover is the most directly accessible way to digest their music. You can tell when there's more to the band than just the cover, which leads you to seek out their other music. Tainted Love was my intro to The Living End and Young Americans to Danny Michel, two of my favourite artists I've discovered through covers. I really can't say the same thing about, say, Alient Ant Farm or The Ataris (sorry!). Though for all I know those bands are like someone else's Harvey Danger. So let's get to some covers, shall we?

Harvey Danger - Save it for Later [originally by The English Beat]
Harvey Danger - Is There Something I Should Know? [originally by Duran Duran]
**song title corrected... thanks Kel]
Harvey Danger - Oh! You Pretty Things [originally by David Bowie]

Harvey Danger - I've Got a Feeling [originally by The Beatles]
On New Year's Eve 2006, Harvey Danger and guests played an epic show where they covered side 2 of the Beatles' Abbey Road from Here Comes the Sun to Her Majesty. Before jumping into that, they kicked it off with this Beatles gem from Let it Be.

Sean Nelson - Gotta Get Up [originally by Harry Nilsson]
Sean Nelson - Daddy's Song [originally by Harry Nilsson]
A great but unreleased album is languishing somewhere... Sean Nelson's tribute to Harry Nilsson called Nelson Sings Nilsson (the title in turn refers to Harry Nilsson's tribute to Randy Newman, Nilsson Sings Newman). There are some demos on Sean's site and some full versions on myspace. He played sold out Nelson Sings Nilsson shows and the 15-track CD was completed I believe in 2006. For some reason it never came out. Copyright issues? No publisher? No one seems to know. It's number 1 on my lost albums list because the quasi-released stuff is fantastic. At the very least, it introduced me to Harry Nilsson who had flown under my radar for years. Go here to watch a youtube video of Davy Jones dancing and singing ridiculously to Daddy's Song in the 1968 Monkees film Head. Stay tuned to the end of the video where Frank Zappa gives Davy some advice with his talking cow... and I should mention the film was co-written by Jack Nicholson. Those wacky Monkees!

Death Cab for Cutie featuring Sean Nelson - Fortunate Son [originally by Creedence Clearwater Revival]
Harvey Danger's Sean Nelson sings lead on this CCR cover backed by Death Cab for Cutie. This comes from a Vietnam war benefit CD called Don't Know When I'll Be Back Again with lots of cover songs on it that I recently found in L.A.

Magnificent Tracers - Flagpole Sitta [originally by Harvey Danger]
Hairy Canary - Flagpole Sitta [originally by Harvey Danger]
(Just iTunes links for these ones! Listen to samples for a taste... but I recommend tracking down the original.)
There are not a lot of Harvey Danger cover songs around, though in a sense these are the very definition of cover songs: quick cash-ins on a popular hit put out by another company with the intent to mimic the original as closely as possible. In a horrible, bizarre twist of fate the Harvey Danger original is not even available on iTunes, but the preceding cover versions are. Yikes! The Magnificent Tracers-- even the band's name alludes to the fact that they are essentially "tracing" the song-- is from a K-Tel compilation called Extreme Sports. What's even more baffling is that the Hairy Canary version has a variety of techno, acapella, and percapella(?) remixes to go along with it. I was so tempted to buy the Hairy Canary "album", but I just couldn't bring myself to do it and I don't really encourage you to either. Probably the worst crime with these covers is that uninformed consumers actually believe these to be the original. I cringe when I've seen arguments such as "This is definitely I'm Not Sick but I'm Not Well by Hairy Canary!" or "Sorry to burst your bubble, but it's actually the Magnificent Tracers!" or "No, no, no, it's definitely Harvey Dangerfield..."

The Lounge-o-Leers - Flagpole Sitta [originally by Harvey Danger]
Not a particularly great cover, but it'll have to do until a big Harvey Danger revival in pop culture consciousness leads to an influx of HD covers.

Unknown A cappella group The UNC Achordants - Flagpole Sitta [originally Harvey Danger]
Generally I don't like posting songs of unknown origins... but it's a Harvey Danger cover, proving once again that there's an a cappella cover of virtually anything. Presumably it's a college a cappella group. Who? I have no idea, so give me a shout if you can identify it.
**UPDATE: Thanks to an anonymous reader, we now know this is the UNC Achordants from their 2007 album High Stakes Old Maid, available from their website.

Weird Al Yankovic - Polka Party!
Thank you Weird Al for introducing me to Harvey Danger! Spice Girls, Beastie Boys, Matchbox 20, Marilyn Manson, Third Eye Blind, and more get the ol' Weird Al polka treatment from 1999's Running With Scissors.

FREE STUFF!
Everyone loves free stuff right? In this, my inaugural giveawway on Fong Songs, I would like to share my Harvey Danger passion with you. I have in my collection spare copies of Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone? and Little by Little..., their 1st and 3rd albums. So first prize will be one CD and second prize will be, uh, the other CD. No guarantees as to the condition of the CDs (this is free, mind you). I will send these anywhere at my own expense, cheapest shipping possible. If you want in on this free stuff, no strings attached, leave a comment with your e-mail and I'll pick winners on Friday next week. If I get pie in my face and only one person comments, he/she will take both prizes. If no one comments, I will cry myself to sleep or donate them to the library, both excellent alternatives. Depending how this goes, I may actually give away actual CDs with COVER SONGS in the future... *cough* veiled threat *cough* Don't forget Harvey Danger's third album Little by Little can also be downloaded for free at their site. The physical edition comes with a bonus CD of demos, alternate cuts, and extra songs so there's your incentive to win or buy your own copy. First album is available on Amazon (though not iTunes). And the great, underrated King James Version can be bought on iTunes or as a used CD on Amazon.

In parting, one of my favourite Harvey Danger originals:
Harvey Danger - Loyalty Bldg.

Weird Covers

Weird Al Yankovic came through town last night at the Capital Ex, our city's annual exposition/festival thingy (formerly known as Klondike Days). I haven't been in a couple years, but the festival organizers usually get an interesting (if eclectic) group of performers for essentially a free concert with gate admission. It's hard to emphasize the impact that Weird Al has had on my wee little brain growing up. There are just so many songs that I first heard as a Weird Al parody or polka, it's quite unbelievable. For example, Yoda was a particular favourite of mine and thinking it was one of his originals, I was floored years later when I first heard the Kinks' Lola. For the record, I think Weird Al's version sounds better and the lyrics seem to fit the song better. Similarly, Jurassic Park is practically proof that he owns a time machine because I swear he "planted" MacArthur Park just so he could parody it years later. Even songs that "everybody knows" like Hey Jude, LA Woman, Hey Joe, Sharp Dressed Man, My Generation... yep, my first exposure was via a Weird Al tune. My affinity to one of my favourite bands Harvey Danger began after I scanned the liner notes of a Weird Al polka to find out who sang that "I'm not sick, but I'm not well" song. That would be Flagpole Sitta and Harvey Danger. Thanks Weird Al, you've left an indelible imprint on my musical tastes.



He goes through so many costume changes during the show, practically every song I think. During these breaks, we're treated to classic bits of AL TV like a particularly ridiculous interview with Paul McCartney. While Weird Al "interviews" hilariously make use of some clever editing, I cannot possibly imagine the context of the real interview in which Paul McCartney says and does the wacky stuff he does in the clip. It's probably on YouTube, but it's a riot. To me it was quite shocking how many people know the lyrics and can sing along to The Saga Begins, his Phantom Menace parody to the tune of American Pie. Cheers erupted when the big screen showed the beginning bit of his Fat video and sure enough, he waltzed out minutes later in full fat suit glory. Awesome. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a blast. You know what's crazy? I was just looking as his wikipedia entry and his first studio album was released in 1983. He's been doing this for as long as I've been alive. Way to go, Al!


Now the moment you've all been waiting for... covers of Weird Al!

Attack Slug - Dare to be Stupid
Your Mother - Dare to be Stupid
MC Chris - Dare to be Stupid
There are not a lot of Weird Al covers, but Dare to be Stupid seems to be popular. I've been told it was used in the 80's Transformers movie. I must have had a deprived childhood because I've never seen it, which is perhaps one (of many) reasons why I don't think this summer's remake of Transformers was the "Greatest Action Movie of All Time". If you browse the imdb listing of the animated movie, you'll find quite possibly the most unlikely voice cast ever assembled.

J.B.O - Ich glaube, Du liebst mich nicht mehr [originally You Don't Love Me Anymore]
This German cover of a Weird Al original is like some sort of extreme excercise in Post-Postmodernism. I love it.

Throwing Toasters - Good Enough For Now (live)
Another cover of a Weird Al original. While the original was in the style of a twangy country song, this cover distinctly reminds me of Cyrkle's Red Rubber Ball. Probably just me...

Laura Barrett - Smells Like Nirvana
Quite simply this is brilliant. Laura Barrett was making the indie blog rounds last year with Robot Ponies, another great track. Last year she was also up for a SOCAN songwriting award for Canadian indie artists, in which she was up against the likes of The Stills, Propaghandi, Final Fantasy, and Wolf Parade. If you haven't heard her music, it's kalimba-based (an African thumb instrument), which may sound gimmicky but she makes it work quite beautifully. And she's not afraid to unleash her inner nerd with this Weird Al cover from last year's Earth Sciences EP. I bought the EP around Christmas and it came in a unique hand-stitched CD case that I will treasure always (how many hand-stitched CDs do you have?). Presumably it can be still purchased directly from her myspace site.

A Weird Al tribute album made by fans called Prosthetic Lips can be downloaded in its entirety here.