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.

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

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.

Blowin' Your Cover

We got another new neighbour in the cover blog community: blowin' your cover. The blog has been up since November, but what's new to me may be new to you. We welcome new sources for covers... a little cover diversity, if you will. Some of the last few posts include features on The Mountain Goats, Ida, Buzzcocks, and The Magnetic Fields. So if that sounds like your thing, definitely keep your ears on blowin' your cover because you probably won't find that stuff on Fong Songs, simply due to my relative unfamiliarity with those artists. Plus, the site is much more aesthetically pleasing than mine. It almost makes me want to revamp (almost).

As per Fong Songs tradition with new cover blogs, we welcome you with a cover:
Bree Sharp - We're Going to Be Friends [originally by The White Stripes]
Previously this spot has been occupied by a cover of Randy Newman's You've Got a Friend in Me, but I'm running low on those and don't really like what's remaining. Plus, I always feel a little guilty posting a Disney cover when all your Disney cover needs are nicely handled by Kurtis.

Some other blogworthy news:

• Neil Gaiman's American Gods is available to be read online for the next month. You know, if books and libraries ain't your thing.
  
• I'm going to keep directing your attention to stuff I find on Amie Street... this is US only, but all their Bauhaus albums are free, which includes covers of Bowie and the Velvet Underground in there. Dick "Misirlou" Dale also has a free album with covers of Fever and Jimi's Third Stone From the Sun.
  
• This Sunday as part of the WFMU fundraising marathon, Yo La Tengo takes your cover requests! I somehow always seem to miss this every year, but this time for sure I'm making a effort to tune in online.

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.

And the winner is...

Forget the Oscars, who won those Harvey Danger CDs? Taking a cue from Boyhowdy's approach to choosing a winner, but lacking a 5-year old child or even a dog at my disposal, I enlisted the help of a borrowed 4-year old turtle named Studwin (AKA Stupid AKA Soup). This was a much more involved process than anticipated as we stared each other down at opposite ends of the hallway for 5 minutes before he made finally a move towards one of the fated scraps of paper.

Praise!Rejoice! The winner of Harvey Danger's debut CD Where Have All the Merry Gone? is... non-responsive. Um, I advise perhaps checking your SPAM box for a potential win if your initials are KH. I sent another notice tonight, but if I don't hear anything in a few weeks someone else may win by default. Rock on.
**UPDATE! We have our winner... Kate H., your CD is on its way!

And Harvey Danger's third album Little By Little... goes to Tisa A. Your prize is in the mail courtesy of Canada Post. Cue orchestra, no speech for you! Thanks for participating, folks.

Eight more days to the big show(s)!

Deals on Amie Street

Just read that indie digital retailer Amie Street, who I'm a big fan of, has signed a deal with Beggars Group (Rough Trade, XL, 4AD), Matador and Polyvinyl, adding their music to the site today. What does this mean for you?

• Great deals on the The New Pornographers catalogue. All their albums for under $5. Twin Cinema for $3.98? Sold! If I could, that is. Ironically, the Canadian band is only available to US customers...
  
• Cat Power and her two cover records are now on there. Again, US only.
  
• former Polyphonic Spree member, Annie Clark AKA St. Vincent. Um, US only... hmmm, I'm seeing a pattern here.
  
• Other stuff: Of Montreal, Pixies, Basia Bulat, Vampire Weekend, Interpol, Belle & Sebastian, The National, The Mountain Goats, and more!
  
• FREE: Natacha Atlas, who appeared on the David Arnold Shaken 'n Stirred James Bond covers album is one one of the added artists. Covers of You Only Live Twice and I Put a Spell on You are, as of this moment, free (sigh, US only).
  
• **Update: Five FREE Pizzicato 5 albums! A free Kimya Dawson album too.
  
• Don't forget Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are on there too!

Official word from Amie Street is they're working on the "US Only" hurdle...

Get 'em fast. If you're unaware, songs on Amie Street start off free and as they become popular, the price goes up. It caps off at $0.98 per song, so it never gets out of hand. Format is DRM-free MP3s (160 kbps, I think). There's also a deal today that credit is 50% off! So I just bought $50 worth of credit for $25. Sweet. Now, we just have to wait for them to let us Canadians/rest o' the world at those new songs. Leave a comment if you find any good covers on there!

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!

Black Hole, Take 2

Some exciting news today in the movie world. Neil Gaiman's latest journal entry had some "small news things":

• he's almost finished his next book The Graveyard Book
  
• Beowulf and Stardust are both up for some Saturn awards
  
• a dino-eating demon frog Beelzebufo was found in Madagascar
  
• oh, and DAVID FINCHER IS CONFIRMED TO DIRECT GAIMAN & ROGER AVARY'S ADAPTATION OF CHARLES BURNS' BLACK HOLE.

I can just imagine that in conversation: "Blah blah blah, David Fincher is directing my script, blah blah blah."


Now, some Soundgarden covers:
Handsome Hank and his Lonesome Boys - Black Hole Sun
Lota Red - Black Hole Sun
Steve & Eydie - Black Hole Sun
Copeland - Black Hole Sun
Cibo Matto - Black Hole Sun
The Moog Cookbook - Black Hole Sun
Paul Anka - Black Hole Sun
Peter Frampton - Black Hole Sun (featuring Mike McCready & Matt Cameron of Pearl Jam)

While Neil is my favourite author, I have to admit none of the films he's been involved with have been entirely satisfying. Mirrormask, Stardust, Beowulf... I really wanted to like them, but they all sort of fell short of the mark. He did write the script for the English translation of Miyizaki's Princess Mononoke, but that doesn't really count. On the other hand, David Fincher is among my favourite directors and if he didn't get a free pass already for Se7en and Fight Club, he definitely sealed it with Zodiac for me. So between this film in development and Coraline directed by Henry 'Nightmare Before Christmas' Selick, things are looking up. Even more so if Neil gets his Death adaptation back up and running post-strike. Last year Neil was hanging around the Hellboy II set, picking up pointers from Pan's Labyrinth and future Hobbit director Guillermo del Toro, who's signed on as a producer for Death with Neil making his directorial debut. Even while watching actress readings for Stardust, Gaiman was covertly screening for potential Deaths...

**UPDATE! Neil just posted the 3D teaser for Coraline previously seen before Beowulf. After crappy camera phone recorded versions cropped up on youtube, Laika studios gave him the go ahead to post higher-res videos. Go here for your choice of youtube or quicktime. This is great because when I went to see Beowulf 3D, I distinctly did not see this trailer.

Another Gaiman project kind of, sort of, someday in the works is his and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens. One of my several Best Life Moments was two summers ago when I met Terry Gilliam and he signed my copy of Good Omens (read the long version here). At the time he told me (this made me feel all special) that Good Omens was his next project after Tideland, provided financing fell into place. But knowing Gilliam's film history (see: Lost in La Mancha), I knew not to get my hopes up too high. And now two years later, there's not much movement on the project. But don't give up hope yet! The best source for Good Omens rumours is here and as recently as last month, Gilliam said that the chances are better of getting it made in light of all the high profile Neil Gaiman projects recently. Originally Gaiman and Pratchett had sent the book to Gilliam in hopes of getting a blurb, but he read it, loved it, and wanted to make it into a movie. At one point he had written a script with Tony Grisoni with Johnny Depp and Robin Williams attached, presumably as Aziraphale and Crowley, but still couldn't get financing for it.

I'm sure you've all heard the bittersweet news of Gilliam's latest project The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus being saved after the untimely death of Heath Ledger. The acting trifecta of Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell have stepped in to finish the movie, which is set to finish production here in Vancouver. The fantastical plot, in which Ledger's character travels through parallel worlds, allows for this creative solution to the horrible circumstances. The BBC has a pretty good article about the show-must-go-on mentality of the movie business. I'm glad Gilliam found a way to continue the movie in a way that I believe honours Ledger's last performance. Fortunately we'll also get to enjoy Christopher Plummer as the 1000-year old title character and Tom Waits as the Devil.

Black Hole

Oops, blogger prematurely posted that post before I was done, then crashed safari. Give me another 10 minutes...

U2 3D

Saw U2 3D the other day. The 3D is quite spectacular but the show didn't exactly blow me away. I just couldn't shake the feeling that these were the umpteenth time these songs have been performed, though at the same time I didn't want to hear their newer stuff too much either. So basically there wasn't any way this movie was going to work for me, though some more Achtung Baby may have helped. I love Sunday Bloody Sunday but honestly how long must they really sing that song? The best part was seeing the massive crowds in South America. There's a fantastic bird's eye shot of a solid mass of people jumping up and down during Where the Streets Have No Name that looks like a human earthquake. I was surprised to see that one of the co-directors was Mark Pellington who directed the underrated Arlington Road then hasn't done much since. I'm a casual U2 fan at best, so it never really occurred to me that the high-pitched background wails common to many a U2 song are sung by The Edge and not, as I had previously assumed, an overdubbed Bono.

The best U2 cover is by the Pet Shop Boys, but here a few others:

The Smashing Pumpkins - Stay (Faraway, So Close!) [originally by U2]
James Eric - Stay (Faraway, So Close!) [originally by U2]
This is my favourite U2 song, so I was excited though ultimately disappointed to discover cover songs of it. Billy Corgan with James Iha performed this stripped down acoustic version at Neil Young's annual Bridge School Benefit Concert in 1999. James Eric used to have a bunch of his covers on his site including Stay (Faraway, So Close!), though you have to do a little digging to find them now. Apparently trumpeter Al Hirt performed a cover on the 1994 Brit Awards compilation and I can't even begin to imagine how that sounds, though I'm definitely curious...*hint, hint*

Jarvis Church featuring K'Naan - One [originally by U2]
I can always find an excuse to re-post this wonderful cover by Jarvis Church, the alter-ego of Philosopher Kings lead singer Gerald Eaton. The song, from the War Child compilation Peace Songs veers nicely into gospel territory and even gets a shot of hip-hop courtesy of guest K'Naan.

St. Fiachra's Junior School Choir - Sweetest Thing [originally by U2]
Liza at Copy, Right? posted this once and it's a great discovery. It's from the U2 tribute album Even Better Than the Real Thing, Vol. 3 and oddly enough I do like it a lot more than the real thing. The original kinda makes me cringe with its repeated "Oh-oh-oh, the sweetest thing", but this children's choir makes it sound adorable and charming in a Langley Schools Music Project way.

U2 - Sweet Caroline (Live in Edmonton) [originally by Neil Diamond]
[**UPDATE: I've been informed that this is, in fact, The Edge (not Bono) singing karaoke. Same goes for Daydream Believer the next night. So is it a cover? Kind of, not really. This goes to show that we were so far from the stage it was like watching ants perform.]
This bootleg is from a concert on June 15, 1997, the second of two nights they played in Edmonton at Commonwealth Stadium. My mom had gotten tickets for my sister and I to the previous night, which was one of my first big rock concerts ever. Though we didn't get Sweet Caroline, Bono The Edge led us in a round of Daydream Believer. The only other thing I remember is that there was a giant lemon on stage and we were very far away. Three songs from this show were featured as bonus material on the PopMart: Live from Mexico City DVD released last year. Also, With or Without You recorded that night appeared on the officially released Please EP.

Little Ditty Tidbits

Just some news tidbits that came to my attention this week that makes me want to jump up and shout it to anyone who will listen. Because when I go bug-eyed and speak excitedly about the Dresden Dolls, Ditty Bops, or Zooey Deschanel I'm generally faced with shrugs and "Oh, I see"-s from my closest friends.

• One of the perks of being Neil Gaiman as opposed to John Malkovich: Amanda Palmer will personally send you an advance of her debut solo CD "wrapped in lace" with DVDs! Damn you, Neil!
  
  
• The Dresden Dolls (Amanda Palmer & Brian Viglione) were back in the studio in January re-recording some old school non-album tracks and leftovers from the Yes, Virginia sessions. The collection of "scattered" tracks tentatively titled No, Virginia is set to be released sometime this spring before her solo album comes out. Woo! Bonus Dresden Dolls action out of the woodwork!
  
  
• It seems like Amanda has also been busy finishing off a full-length Evelyn Evelyn record with Jason Webley for anyone who missed the limited edition EP. She's also been collaborating with Estradasphere for (I think) her solo album. Estradasphere is responsible for the BEST Super Mario Bros. 2 cover ever.
  
  
• [**UPDATED] Even more DD tidbits, courtesy of Amanda's blog (warning, don't click that link if you don't want to see close-up photos of her vocal nodes) that just updated around the same time I originally put up this post:
  • No, Virginia is likely going to be released late May.
    
  • Amanda's working on a companion songbook to accompany all the songs from both Yes/No, Virginia. The previously Dresden Dolls companion was a fantastic book of full piano transcriptions with hand-written notes and an extensive diary-like section with colour photos, drawings, and such.
    
  • Cover Alert: the Dresden Dolls teamed up with their pal Franz from The Hold Steady to record a couple covers, one for a Johnny Cash compilation and one for a Jonathan Richman compilation to be released later this summer or fall.
    
  • Amanda is going to be playing with the Boston Pops Orchestra June 19th and 20th. Sweet.
  
  
  
• Once upon a time, Neil Gaiman introduced me to the wonderful world of the Ditty Bops. And there's a brand new Ditty Bops album in just a couple weeks! Summer Rains is due March 1st and is available for pre-orders from their online store. Sold!
  The Ditty Bops - Bye Bye Love [originally by the Everly Brothers]
  The Ditty Bops - Gentle Sheep
  The Ditty Bops - Aluminum Can
  -there's a tease of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in here
  The Ditty Bops - Some of These Days [originally by Shelton Brooks]
  -from the Live Music Archive which has tons of great Ditty Bops live recordings
  
  
• Zooey Deschanel is playing at the Largo tonight in LA. I managed to catch the Watkins Family Hour at the Largo when I went there in January and it's a phenomenal venue. Probably like dinner seating for 100 or less plus standing room. It'd be like a Zooey Deschanel concert in your living room. Thinking about it makes me sad that I can't be there. The Largo has a bunch of strict rules (i.e. no cell phones, electronics, talking during show, etc.) with one goal: it's all about the show/performer. And that's a refreshing attitude for music lovers. Don't forget her album with M. Ward is coming out March 18th. Note to self: get crackin' on that full Zooey cover post.