Today I checked out the recently released Nico compilation The Frozen Borderline which consists of Nico's second and third albums, The Marble Index and Desertshore , plus lots of outtakes and alternative versions. It was my first time hearing any Nico material that wasn't Chelsea Girl, and it's much different than I expected. For one the material is much more experimental than that of her debut, as well as darker. Unlike Chelsea Girl on The Marble Index and Desertshore , Nico had written all the songs, though John [...]
When you think the Beach Boys and the Cure you typically don't think of lulling infants to sleep. Well now you can! Rockabye Baby! (aka Michael Armstrong) records lullaby tribute albums for specific artists from Tool and Metallica to Bjork and the Smashing Pumpkins. In this entry I'll highlight the tributes he recorded for the Cure and the Beach Boys. The Cure tribute is my favorite out of all of the Rockabye Baby! records I have had the pleasure to hear (though that will likely change once the Pixies one comes out.) The tracks on it were very [...]
Oh the loveeee for Joanna Newsom. Due to the universal critical accalaim for her last record Ys, Joanna has won herself many new fans over the past few months. For one the number of listeners she has clocked in on last.fm has increased by a million since December of last year. Fellow musicians are approving as well, with covers being recorded by Final Fantasy, M.Ward and as featured in this entry, The Decemberists. Their cover of "Bridges and Balloons" was originally a b-side to their 2005 album Picaresque (which shows that Colin Meloy certainly [...]
This cover rather than being from another artist instead originates from a character in a movie. One of Black Francis' biggest influences for his lyrics is from surrealist film with Un Chien Andalou (for Debaser) and this particular song from David Lynch's Eraserhead being the two most apparent examples. Supposedly in the early days of the band they all caught a screening of the film when it was playing in a town they happened to be in for a show. According to Charles (Black) himself he finds David Lynch films "Highly entertaining in the area of entertainment- a bit surreal, [...]
Today's cover is a real bizarre one, a bluegrass cover of Modest Mouse. The band is Iron Horse who hail from Alabama. As so far they've released cover albums for Modest Mouse, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Van Halen, and the Shins. It sounds gimmicky at first, and frankly that'd be the best way to describe Metallica being played via a mandolin and banjo, yet the results are really great. I find it especially intersting as bluegrass is a genre of music that I'm almost completely unfamiliar with, so to hear a song I love played with that style is [...]
Today's entry isn't just one cover...yet an entire album of covers. After quite a bit of searching I managed to find covers of every track from the Velvet Underground & Nico. I then assembled them in the same order as the orignal album and thus voila, a full album tribute. Plus it doesn't suck. You may have noticed my use of the peeled version of the cover art. You could say that the deconstruction of the banana can symbolize the deconstruction process there is when covering a song, yet you'd be looking to much into it. I'm just deviating from [...]
Of Montreal certainly loves the 60's pop. A few entires back I showcased their cover of the Velvet Underground's "She's My Best Friend," yet this time they do a cover of the Zombies' "Friends of Mine." Coincidence? Maybe. The original version comes from the Zombies unbelievable 1967 masterpiece Odessey & Oracle. I cannot stress enough how good of an album this is. Better than anything the Beatles ever put out. There, I've said it. The thing with "Friends of Mine," as great of a pop song as it is, it's probably the weakest track on the entire record. [...]
First off, how beautiful is this picture? Leslie Feist is truly something else. Her new album The Reminder made its way onto the internet yesterday. It had been one of my most awaited releases this year, and after my first listen and the revisiting of a few I'm not disapointed. I found it incredibly difficult to narrow it down to one track to highlight in this post, yet at the moment "The Park" is sticking out for me. If my memory serves correctly, it's the most minimalistic song she's ever recorded with only her heavenly vocals and acoustic [...]
So Deerhoof... they're pretty cool. Only one of the best bands making music today! They keep putting out great album after great album at such a rate that you'd think they'd eventually run out of gas or have a period of creative exhaustion, but it never happens. For a band that's been around for 13 years and continues to expand on their sound, that's damn impressive. Last year Deerhoof came out with a free online EP that featured a few covers (MBV, Beatles, Canned Heat, Herman's Hermits) as well as live versions of songs from their then [...]
Here's a cover that I feel is superior to the original. Of Montreal's interpretation of "She's My Best Friend" is so good that it feels as if the song was written for them. If you weren't aware of it being a cover, it wouldn't stand out from any other Of Montreal track (specifically those from Satanic Panic in the Attic ) as the song's melody and lyrics aren't too different than what you'd expect by them. Yet of course the song was written by the Velvet Underground. Though the original is a good song, the added pep that [...]
"Born on a Train." Fantastic song. The Arcade Fire open their cover of this Magnetic Fields song with a brief story that states the existance of this song is the reason why they signed to Merge records. Their interpretation is great- turning it from a low-fi snyth-pop jem to a a full band affair. Multiple drums, piano, accordian, you know the deal. The Arcade Fire version comes from the KCRW Morning Becomes Electric program from about a year ago. The Arcade Fire - Born on a Train [...]
Indie Selections For Your Erections
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
Mr Fogg - Eleven
