Hello intrepid readers. I am in LA now. Will be back next week. I'm blogging from an iPod touch (not mine!) one painstaking letter at a time. You have no idea how long it took to type that sentence... Or that one. Thanks to Kurtis and Boyhowdy for taking care of things. I was shocked, sad, angry, and depressed when I heard about Heath Ledger yesterday. Words seem pretty useless to describe it. Sad, tragic, devastating. A truly great loss for everyone.
Hello once again! It's me! Kurtis from Covering the Mouse ! I'll be guest posting today while Fong is enjoying the California sunshine! One of my favourite bands is Jars of Clay. The main reason I love them is the amount of care they put into their songs. The production is always high on their records and I love the way they use their instruments and their harmonies. While they are quite famous in the Christian circuit, they are still unknown to the rest of the world. They don't record albums to tell everyone they [...]
Hi ho, this is your old pal Boyhowdy, host of folk-music coverblog Cover Lay Down . Your usual host left me with the keys to the place while he's off galavanting around in the lower 48 for a week or two; I've fed the plants and watered the cat as instructed, and now it's time for a little noise. Because while Fong's away, the cats will play. Loud, and with plenty of feedback. Though my own blog runs to the mellow [...]
[EDIT: 1/11/2007 10:36pm] Now with direct links! Dear readers, a spike in traffic to this blog in which the 10GB/month bandwidth limit was exceeded in the last 2 days has had me reconsider the benefits of the box.net pay account. Lucky you I decided to not invest $80 in more blackjack, but rather get a box.net account with unlimited bandwidth and as an added bonus, direct links! And guess what? Despite great temptation I will not start soliciting donations... Everybody wins! To boot, there are a couple new covers by Venetian [...]
Sit down, tape your eyes open, and unplug your ears. This'll be a doozie of a post. I know, I know we've all been suffering through these year-end lists, but it's just blogger nature to think others care about what we think. I'm no different, so here are my picks of 2007 in no particular order because it's pretty futile to rank these. Also, these aren't the "BEST" of 2007 per se... I'm usually behind the eightball in terms of actually listening to things the same year they're released, not to mention I'm unreasonably biased [...]
**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, [...]
So it's post-Christmas, but you've still got some parties to go to and/or host. You're looking for that perfect Grinch cover. With music written by Albert Hague with lyrics by Dr. Seuss, the oft-covered You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch was originally performed by Thurl Ravenscroft for the 1966 Chuck Jones animated special based on the classic Dr. Seuss story How the Grinch Stole Christmas. From jazz to folk to punk to rock to rap, we've got it covered here. Whirling Dervishes - (You're a Mean One) Mr. Grinch [...]
I just realized rather belatedly that the links from the last few posts were effectively dead after exceeding the bandwidth limitations on my free box.net account. Links should be okay now, but let me know if anything's wonky. My apologies. Also, I just re-watched Children of Men and have to reiterate that it's a great film. Check it out if you haven't.
Merry Christmas everyone! It's also one of my best friend's birthday today (and I don't mean Jesus). A few years ago, I made this track for him. I guess you could call it a mash-up, though I've never really had the technical know-how to do complicated stuff like matching beats and stripping vocals. However, this one was pretty simple. I had the not particularly clever idea of mixing The Beatles' Birthday and the Bob Rivers parody of it, Jesus' Birthday. Bob Rivers is like a more topical, cruder Weird Al and many mislabeled parodies [...]
Hello cover fans! I am Kurtis and I run a Disney cover blog called Covering the Mouse and I am happy to be a part of the holiday festivities here at Fong Songs! I'm not just a Disney fan. I love cartoons of all sorts! Many great songs have come from the cartoon world and many people have covered them. Christmastime is Here from A Charlie Brown Christmas and You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch from How the Grinch Stole Christmas are two of the more popular songs [...]
Well, just a few more days until Christmas. Guess it's time to start shopping (no joke). It's also time for Christmas shindigs, chopping down trees, and posting your favourite festive tunes. Usually I'm already at home for the holidays, but for the first time I've come home for the holidays, which is a bit weird since I basically only moved away for 3 weeks. I feel a bit lost without my own computer to blog from, though I did have the foresight to bring a portable hard drive with all my music on it [...]
Everyone likes free music, eh? The Vancouver Sun and Nettwerk Music Group have teamed up to release a virtual holiday compilation album called Seriously West Coast Vol, 2 . You've got 48 hours to download it, starting now. Track list: Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen The Weepies - All That I Want Sarah McLachlan - Silent Night Matt Wertz - What Child Is This Lily Frost - Skating On The River Oh Susanna - Go Tell It On The Mountain Medieval Baebes - The [...]
If you're a rich cover lover, you have about an hour left to bid on The Presidents of the United States of America covering a song of your choice . It's part of The Stranger's Holiday Gift auction. Other artists offering charity covers are The Posies, Dina Martina, Visqueen, Erin Jorgensen, and Say Hi. Last year Harvey Danger did the same thing and the winner chose Jonathan Coulton's Code Monkey... though as of yet they still haven't recorded it yet.
The blog Hard to Find a Friend is hosting a holiday charity album that you can purchase and download for $7. All of the artists involved recorded the songs on their own time and 100% of the proceeds are going to Toys for Tots. There are a few names I recognize: Canadian indie band Great Lake Swimmers, The Long Winters, Chris Walla (guitarist for Death Cab For Cutie)... If you're a Harvey Danger enthusiast (like me), the highlight on the track listing is The Long Winters covering an HD Christmas song. If you don't [...]
While sorting through my perpetually unsorted downloads, I found this odd little clip. Bob Dylan hosts a radio show called, of all things, Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour . On one particular episode earlier this year, the theme of the show was "Hello" with all songs having hello in the title. He ended the show by playing the Beatles' Hello Goodbye, which he introduces by reading some of the lyrics verbatim like a beatnik poet. Not a cover per se, but give it a listen. Bob Dylan on 'Hello Goodbye'
Well after a brief Led Zeppelin interruption, we're back with part 4 of Covers of TV Theme Songs Known Primarily as Instrumentals (With Lyrics That You May or May Not Know) Lastly we have the theme from M*A*S*H a.k.a. "Suicide is Painless" from the 1970 Robert Altman film and the long-running television series, which used a shortened instrumental version of the song. At some point in our lives we all have these small epiphanies: "What? M*A*S*H was [...]
I'd like to just go on record and say that Fergie's cover of Live and Let Die is absolutely brutal. One of the worst things I've heard (and seen) cover-wise in a while. I'm not even going to link to it. In related news, the Onion AV Club just posted a list of 23 Covers That Should Never Be Covered Again . I think I'd also be fine without hearing anymore covers of Creep or God Only Knows.
Led Zeppelin - Celebration Day [from Led Zeppelin III] Well today is the day that I wish I was in London at the 02 Arena. Sigh. Rasputina - Rock and Roll I've posted this before, but it's one of my favourite Zeppelin covers ever. Rasputina, sort of a gothic cello rock band, put out a cover EP called The Lost & Found featuring this one as well as covers of Pink Floyd, Marilyn Manson, and The Velvet Underground. Excellent covers, seek that one out. [...]
The Polyphonic Spree - Happy Xmas (War is Over) [originally by John Lennon] Imaginepeace.com
Covers of TV Theme Songs Known Primarily as Instrumentals (With Lyrics That You May or May Not Know) Part 3 Unlike the previous two theme songs, the theme from Peter Gunn by Henry Mancini had no lyrics originally. It's instantly recognizable and arguably more well-known than the show from which it originates. I'm sure if you've never heard of Peter Gunn, you'd listen to it and say "Wait a minute, I DO know this song." Technically, the lyricized version is called [...]
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