Covers for Sunday

Walking The Dog - John Cale (originally by Rufus Thomas) This cover comes from Sabotage, which should have a place in every collection. It's one of the great live albums.

Run On - Elvis Presley (Traditional). The versions by Moby and Johnny Cash are probably the two most famous covers of this song. I only heard this version for the first time last week. This is the first Elvis song I've ever featured on the blog.

Running Up That Hill - Placebo (originally by Kate Bush). A nice dark, brooding cover, especially towards the end.

Johnny B. Goode - Judas Priest (originally by Chuck Berry). I'm sure you're sceptical about this, but it's a pretty decent cover, albeit in a cockrock sort of way.

I Wanna Be Your Dog - Uncle Tupelo (Originally by Iggy Pop & The Stooges). Before Son Volt and Wilco there was Uncle Tupelo. I didn't think a country cover of this song would work, but it does. It's not a patch on the original though.

Gentle On My Mind - R.E.M. (originally by John Hartford). This is another nice song, and normally I dislike it, but for some reason this version is just, well, nice to listen to.

Uncovered

The Christmas and New Year period always leaves me slightly disorientated. Too many days off work (well, not enough but you know what I mean( and it all starts to merge into one long weekend. So I've had this vague sort of nagging feeling that I'd missed a post or two here and that I have to go into work tomorrow. Thankfully neither is true. I'm on time with Uncovered and I can enj0oy another day off work tomorrow.

The Gun - John Cale

Do You Realize - The Flaming Lips

Ivory - Calico Horse

Bury This - Amy Millan

No Surprises (early live version) - Radiohead

Let's Dance To Joy Division - The Wombats

Merry Christmas

I am generally a pretty grumpy guy. This is balanced somewhat by the fact my wife is possibly the least grumpy person in the world. I do love Christmas though, with all its flaws. Except one. Christmas music. The sound of the same old (or in some cases new, yes I'm looking at you Peter Kay) retarded songs every year annoy me intensely. There's no need for it, there are plenty of good Christmas songs.

Here I present to you a collection of Christmas songs. They cover all sorts of genres; traditional, jazz, reggae, indie (I know that's not really a genre, rock and soul, old and new, as well as more traditional Christmas songs. I've tried to avoid repeating artists, although there are 3 Sufjan Stevens songs, and there is no repeating of songs by different artists.

Anyway, enjoy the Christmas songs, 100% Roy Wood and Noddy Holder free.

Merry Christmas.

I Wish It Was Christmas Today - Julian Casablancas

O Holy Night - Sufjan Stevens

Star Of Wonder - Sufjan Stevens

Did I Make You Cry On Christmas Day? (Well, You Deserved It!) - Sufjan Stevens

Santa Claus - Lee Scratch Perry

The First Noel - Chet Baker

Christ Was Born on Christmas Morn - Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers

Father Christmas - The Kinks

Christmas In New Orleans - Louis Armstrong

Everything's Going To Be Cool This Christmas - Eels

My Favorite Christmas (In A Hundred Words Or Less) - Of Montreal

Silent Night - Sinéad O'Connor

Are You Coming Over for Christmas - Belle and Sebastian

Christmas Eve - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

White Christmas - Otis Redding

Covers for Sunday

Back to the normal format of Covers for Sunday this week.

It's a happy house here today. We've had a couple of days snow and have the first decent coverage of snow either of the kids can remember (they're 11 and 9). Hopefully we'll have a bit more snow and we can make a snowman tomorrow.

Even better, from my son's point of view, due to the snow his school has closed early so he's on holiday until next year now. He's very, very happy.

Anyway, here are the covers for this week.

My Sharona - Veruca Salt (originally by The Knack). A very laid back cover, very different from the original but still faithful to it. I know, that sounds like pretentious bollocks. Just listen to it and hear for yourself.

I'm Sticking With You - Moe Tucker featuring Jonathan Richman (originally by The Velvet Underground). I only recently came across this. There are a couple of different versions by The Velvet Underground, but I didn't know Mo Tucker had covered this in her solo career. The inclusion of Jonathan Richman is the icing on the cake.

A Change Is Gonna Come - Arcade Fire (originally by Sam Cooke). I was skeptical when I first listened to this. The original (and the Otis Redding cover) is such a great tune, and Cooke has such a superb voice I didn't think they'd be able to do it justice. I was very wrong.

Free Man In Paris - Sufjan Stevens (originally by Joni Mitchell). Truth be told I'm not really a fan of Joni Mitchell. This is one of a few covers of hers that I like, so I'm not really sure why I don't like the originals.

Umbrella - John West (originally by Rihanna). I thought I'd posted this before, but checking back I haven't. I absolutely detest the original but this cover is pretty decent, especially the cello.

Everybody's Going To Be Happy - Queens Of The Stone Age (originally by The Kinks). If you're a regular reader you'll know how highly I rate The Kinks. You'll also know that covers of The Kinks feature fairly often. Here's another excellent one.

Montréal Déchainée

Looking through the songs on my hard drive I noticed how many songs there were by artists connected with Montreal. Either artists that are based in/are from Montreal or artists that used to be. The second thing I noticed is that they are all English language bands.

So here's a sample. If you've read the blog before you'll probably have seen at least some of these bands before. I'm pretty sure none if these songs have been posted before. If they have, sorry. At some point I will do a post with some French speaking music from Montreal.

(In case you're wondering the title means Montreal unleashed. Don't be fooled though, I don't speak French.)


Won't Bring You Back - The Spaceshits

Spinning Ceiling - Mark Sultan

Welfare Bread - King Khan & The Shrines

In The Radio's Hot Sun - Handsome Furs

I Was Born A Unicorn - The Unicorns

I Feel Evil (Creeping In) - Islands

Lenin - Arcade Fire

Perfect Fit - Apostle Of Hustle

Tired of Talking - Jason Bajada

Language City - Wolf Parade

Feedback In The Field - Plants and Animals

Retour A Vega - The Stills

Covers for Sunday

Covers for Sunday is somewhat strange. It features covers old and new yet it never features really famous covers. Covers so famous that when you here the name of the track you think of the cover before the original. I realise that this is different for everybody. While I may think of Hendrix's cover when I hear the name All Along The Watchtower other may well think of the original by Bob Dylan. None of this means I'm trying to say the cover is better than the original though.

So this week, and at another couple of times in the future, I'm going to feature songs that when I here the song title I think of the original first.

I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down by Ann Peebles (This is in fact originally by Ann Peebles. I had always thought it was, but a few years ago I was informed it was in fact originally sung by Paul Young. I assumed that was true and posted it here on that basis. But I was reading about Ann Peebles again today and noticed that she was the first artist to release this and Paul Young's cover was released 12 years later in 1985. But it is far too good a song to remove so cover or not it stays).
I first heard of Ann Peebles in the book High Fidelity. I bought a best of, all the A and B sides from her singles released on the Hi Records label. I normally don't like buying best of albums, especially when it's the first album I own of someone but there was no alternative. The only albums I could find where best of ones. Anyway. I bought it, listened to it and fell in love with the voice. She has the perfect soul voice. It wasn't until a few years later I found out that this was originally by Paul Young. That was a rare occasion I was proud of my ignorance.

David Watts by The Jam (originally by The Kinks). This came from a best of as well, the first album by The Jam I owned, it was a present given to me just after I'd sat my GCSE's. I found out from obsessively reading the liner notes (I was 16) that this was written by Ray Davis. Because I'd be raised properly (thanks dad) I knew Ray Davies was from The Kinks. I like the cover and original pretty much equally but this is the one that comes to mind first.

All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix (originally by Bob Dylan). There's not much to say about this. One well known and respected artist covers another well known and respected artist. They're both huge, huge stars. This may be the most famous cover ever.

American Woman - Lenny Kravitz (originally by The Guess Who). I'm not a huge fan of Lenny Kravitz, but I don't hate him the way some of my friends do. I don't know why they do, he's not the greatest musician in the world but he has some good stuff. This is one of them. I always thought this was a cover of a Simon & Garfunkel song, so I guess that's another reason the cover comes to mind before the original. Also, The Butthole Surfers cover of this is excellent.

Mrs Robinson - The Lemonheads. I first heard this on a late night TV programme called The Word. Not long afterwards my brother bought the album this is on, It's A Shame About Ray, and I liberated and taped it.

Killing Me Softly - The Fugees (Roberta Flack). The Fugees were huge when I was at college and, sadly, nobody had heard of Roberta Flack. The Fugees disintegrated after one album and haven't really had the solo careers that were expected of them. Still, this is one of my favourite ever covers and it seems fitting to enjoy the post here.

Enjoy the songs, we're back to a more 'normal' Covers for Sunday next week.

Uncovered on Saturday

I've decided to stop the live track posts for a while, or maybe permanently. It's not been as enjoyable lately, and having three series that need posting on the weekend isn't always practical. So instead we'll have Uncovered on Friday or Saturday (but I guess mostly Friday) and Covers on Sunday. I'm gonna try and make more 'random' non-series posts and, sometime soon, start a Wednesday series. More details to come on that, hopefully soon.

Anyway, the uncovered tracks.

Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash. This was a hard song to choose. Johnny Cash recorded for nearly 50 years. I was undecided, should I post one of his more famous songs or one of my personal favourites? Maybe a more obscure song, so there'd be more chance of people finding something they hadn't heard before. However I couldn't get past Folsom Prison Blues. Possibly my favourite Johnny Cash song and certainly one of his most well known, when there's an opportunity to post a song this good it's hard to turn down.

Fatalist Palmistry by Why? My first choice for Why? was These Few Presidents, but checking back I see I've posted it before. Which left a bit of a conundrum. These Few Presidents is far and away my favourite Why? song but I don't really have a second favourite, except perhaps the cover of Close To Me which I posted back in July. That's not to say I don't like this song, I do. There are just a bunch of really good songs and I found it hard to choose a particular favourite. So this was chosen basically at random. I'm sure you'll enjoy it anyway.

Better Together by Jack Johnson. It's such a nice song, and he seems such a nice guy but really this isn't my cup of tea at all. It's the sort of thing my wife will occasionally listen to and I'm happy to listen to it with her.

Housewife by Jay Brannan. Outside of his cover of Zombie I didn't really know much about Jay Brannan. I listened to some more of his music to prepare for this post and I'm still not sure. I like this, but I'm not sure if I'll remember it in a week or so. Perhaps so. Anyway, the cello in this is well worth listening to.

Boy With A Coin by Iron and Wine. The thing I like most in this is the handclap style percussion. It fits perfectly with the song. I can't think of anything else to say except I think this song is really, really good.

Sax Rohmer #1 by The Mountain Goats. Another difficult choice because so much of The Mountain Goats stuff is so good. I'll be doing a post on them soon, so all you disbelievers can be converted then.

Enjoy the tracks.

Just some songs

that I've been listening to recently. There's no particular thread to connect them.

Dimmer - Bishop Allen. This is one of those songs that gets stuck in my head for days at a time. It's strange because I think the rest of the album, Grrr, is pretty dull.

I Wanna - Matt & Kim. I've previously mentioned that I like bands with two members, this is another example of that.

Set Me Free - The Kinks. I don't think there needs to be a reason for listening to The Kinks, so I'm not going to give you one.

Does This Mean You're Moving On - The Airborne Toxic Event. I kinda feel that this is a song that I like even though I shouldn't.

The Guns of Brixton - The Clash. This is the perfect punk reggae song for me.

Where It's At - Beck. Random trivia. The video for this was the first video shown on MTV2.

That's it, enjoy the tracks.

Covers for Sunday

I know it's late, sorry about that. I'd love to stay and chat but I'll be late for work if I do. So just enjoy the covers.

Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye by The Lemonheads feat. Liv Tyler (originally by Leonard Cohen)

Modern World by Britt Daniel (originally by Wolf Parade)

Boys Don't Cry by Grant Lee Phillips (originally by The Cure)

Mr. Grieves by TV on the Radio (originally by The Pixies)

Do You Realize by Beck (originally by Flaming Lips)

Twenty Four Hours by The Twilight Sad (originally by Joy Division)

Uncovered for Friday...on Saturday

There was a full post with these songs, but then blogger ate it and I can't bring myself to type it again. So just assume it was utterly brilliant and we'll all be happy. There's no Live and let live this week, but it'll be back next Saturday, Covers for Sunday will be here as normal tomorrow and, time permitting, I'll get a couple of midweek posts done.


Rules & Regulations - Rufus Wainwright
Second Lover - Noah and the Whale
An End Has A Start - The Editors
Hello Cruel World - E
I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
Cousins - Vampire Weekend. Love this, perfect pop.

Covers for Sunday...well Friday

Here's the long awaited double edition covers post. Well, maybe not long awaited. I only mentioned it yesterday after all. But nevermind. To make up for being late with these last few posts this is going to be a double edition. 6 artists, 2 tracks of each.

The Arctic Monkeys. Alex Turner has a really distinctive voice and I don't think it always works well with covers. On these two covers I think it fits really well, especially on Red Right Hand despite it being so different from Nick Cave's.
The Lovers, originally by Rod McKuen.
Red Right Hand, originally by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds.

The Sarcastic Dharma Society. I've featured the cover of Our House before, which went down really well. So I was surprised that the song I posted a week or so ago, The End, has had so few downloads. I guess I didn't talk enough about how really fantastic the song was. To make up for that The Sarcastic Dharma Society are featured today.
Simeon's Dilemma, originally by Why?
Bad Bad Things, originally by Andrew Jackson Jihad.

She & Him. I've mentioned a few times I'm a fan of M. Ward and that extends to She & Him. Two very understated, almost simple, covers.
Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want, originally by The Smiths
You Really Got A Hold On Me, originally by William Robinson Jr.

The Morning Benders. I've featured them here before, covering the Velvet's Temptation Inside Your Heart and Roy Orbison's Crying. The first song is a Kinks cover, and I try and include Kinks covers whenever I can. The Fleetwood Mac cover does the trick of taking a song I dislike by a band I dislike and make it into something I really enjoy. For me that's the mark of a good cover.
Nothin' In This World Can Stop Me Worryin' Bout That Girl, originally by The Kinks
Dreams, originally by Fleetwood Mac.

Spoon. A band often featured with Kinks covers, this time I decided to put up some of there other covers, of which there are plenty. To give you an idea of the range of songs these guys cover I've chosen one by Sam Cooke and one by Destroyer, two acts totally different from each other and pretty different from The Kinks as well.
Bring It On Home To Me, originally by Sam Cooke
It's Gonna Take An Airplane, originally by Destroyer

The Bad Plus. I thought I'd featured more of there tracks than I actually have. If nothing else this post is a good opportunity to put that right.
Smells Like Teen Spirit, originally by Nirvana. Download it and play it a few times, you'll love it. Trust me.
Comfortably Numb, originally by Pink Floyd. This features Wendy Lewis and Ethan Iverson on vocals. The bass work in this is astounding, it's easily one of the best covers I've ever heard. It re-interprets the original, gives it more layers and depth but never totally strays away from the original.

Live and let live

Well, so much for having this and the cover post up for Tuesday. Never mind this is, obviously, up now and the covers post will be tomorrow. As a sort of apology for keeping you all waiting I'll make it a double post, so there'll be 12 covers instead of the usual 6.

But that's for tomorrow. First, here are your six live tracks.

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd, live at Live 8. Easily one of my favourite live performances the live set by Pink Floyd was immense. It's a shame Live 8 was spoiled by ending it with Robbie Williams.

Someday - The Strokes, live on Conan O'Brien. Not literally on Conan O'Brien of course. I've posted this to celebrate their upcoming headline slot at the Isle of Wight festival.

Lump - Presidents of the United States. One of my favourite bands at college recorded a Daytrotter session in 2007, which this track comes from.

Petrol - Ash. Suprisingly, to me at least, Ash's cover of Does Your Mother Know is one of the most popular songs I've hosted on this blog. Hopefully you'll enjoy this just as much.

Living With You Now - Aidan Moffat & The Best-Ofs, live at The ABC in Glasgow. AKA What the lead singer from Arab Strap did next. On the off chance you haven't heard Arab Strap, or think it's just an amusing Belle & Sebastian album title, shame on you.

Going Up To The Country And Paint My Mailbox Blue - Taj Mahal. I've been a fan of blues music since I was 17, but this is the first blues track I've posted on this blog. Shame on me.

See you tomorrow for the double covers post.

Uncovered on Monday?

So, as you may have noticed today is not Friday. There were no blog posts at all last week, even the regular three.

There's no real, interesting reason for this, it's just that I happened to be very busy on Friday and Saturday evening and then on Sunday my monitor stopped working. I did try and post something on Thursday, but mediafire declined to host the mp3s I wanted it to. So you can blame mediafire for there being no posts at all.

Anyway, the plan is to get caught up this week, and with some luck I'll be able to post the live music and cover posts tomorrow.

Either way, here are six original tracks by artists previously covered in Covers for Sunday.

Be Gentle With Me - The Boy Least Likely To

Another World - Antony & The Johnsons

Grounds For Divorce - Elbow

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart - Wilco (alternative version from the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sessions)

Atoms For Peace - Thom Yorke

One By One - Jeff Tweedy

Covers for Sunday

Here we go again. Before the songs a quick mention that mediafire is playing up for me. It [i]seems[/i] to be hosting the files properly but the files page on my account is all screwed up. So if you're having problems let me nknow and I'll find an alternative way to host the files.

Anyway, enough of that and on to the music.

Wall Of Death - REM (originally by Richard and Linda Thompson) I first heard this song years ago, it was the b-side to one of the New Adventures in Hi-Fi singles (I think E-Bow The Letter), but it was only today I found out it's a cover.

Blue Hawaiian - Gold Sounds (originally by Pavement). Like Son Volt Pavement is one of those bands I keep getting reccomended but have never really listened to. This recording is immense though.

Waiting Room- Emm Gryner (originally by Fugazi). I had a live female a capella cover of Waiting Room that somehow got deleted. I've never been able to find it again, but I came across this while I was looking for it, so it's not a total waste.

Green River - M Ward (originally by CCR). Totally different from the previous M Ward cover featured here (Rave On) but just as good.

Moments - Spoon (originally by The Kinks) I'm starting to view Spoon and The Kinks as an unbeatable combination.

Postcards From Italy - Florence & The Machine (originally by Beirut). Given how many songs she's covered I'm surprised I haven't featured more of them. Debut album Lungs will be released soon as a 3 disc set.

Live and let live

You know, I can't think of anything to write in the introduction to this post, so let's just go straight to the music.

In The Summertime - Rural Alberta Advantage. From the Luxury Wafer sessions this recording just features Nils Edenloff on guitar and vocals. On the album this song is lead by the superb drumming. This stripped down version works just as well.

Jet Pilot - Son Volt live at Lollapalooza, 2007. Son Volt are one of those bands people tell me I'll love but I never get round to properly listening to them so they get added to the list of bands that, some day, I will dedicate some time to listening to.

Fresh Feeling - Eels, live in concert in Manchester, 2005. A feel good song by Eels? Almost. The album this comes from, Souljacker, was my first ever Eels album and pretty much the first new release I bought after I'd left home.

Ball and Biscuit - The White Stripes. Annoyingly I do have, somewhere, the information for where this track was performed but I can't find it.

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear, live on Later with Jools Holland. There's a Grizzly Bear quota blogs have to fill, so here's my latest contribution to that.

All We Have Is Now - The Flaming Lips. As with yesterdays post this excellent live session version is included as part of my efforts to feature more original songs by The Flaming Lips since I noticed my blog was shamefully lacking in them.

Enjoy the songs, see you tomorrow for Covers.

Uncovered on Friday

It's busy week at work, so I didn't have a chance to do proper introductions to last Sunday's covers. I'm sure in time you'll all come to forgive me though.

This is the second week of Uncovered where artists that have been featured in Covers for Sunday have an original song featured. Neat, eh?

Homes Still Your Bones - Jason Bajada. Before today all I had by Montrealer Jason Bajada was his cover of Wolf Parade's You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son. A bit of looking around and listening and I've found a couple of tracks to listen to. Neither o0f them are as good as the cover of You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son on first listen, but given how good the cover is that's hardly a big negative.

The End - The Sarcastic Dharma Society. This is one of my favourite band names ever. This song is a very short piano and vocal song. It's also very good, Mat Vuksinich's voice is so distintive and always a pleasure to listen to.

Waitin' For A Superman - The Flaming Lips. I've posted covers by The Flaming Lips on a few occasions and even a cover of a Flaming Lips song but never The Flaming Lips playing one of there own songs. Shame on me. I wasn't sure if I should post this or the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Song. In the end I think there's more chance of you not having heard this before so it got the nod.

For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti - Sufjan Stevens. I had no idea which Sufjan Stevens song to select, so I chose this because, as well as being awesome, I love the title.

When It Started - The Strokes. The song that replaced New York City Cops on the US release of Is This It. I think in a lot of ways this sounds more like it comes from 3rd album First Impressions of Earth.

Even Flow - Pearl Jam. Originally in Covers for Sunday I posted The Strokes feat. Eddie Vedder covering Mercy, Mercy Me. However I don't have any Eddie Vedder solo tracks on my hard drive that aren't covers so instead you're getting a fairly well known Pearl Jam song. I know it's deviating from the rules somewhat but I don't care because they're my rules and it's a great song so the rules can and will be bent.

Covers for Sunday

Only a quick post I'm afraid. It's already past midnight and I've got an early start a work. What this means for you is less of my talking to navigate through to reach the songs.

All These Things I've Done by Vitamin String Quartet (originally by The Killers)

Electric Avenue by Woodhands (originally by Eddie Grant)

Heroes by TV On The Radio (originally by David Bowie)

The Logical Song by Steven Mark (originally by Supertramp)

King Of Wishful Thinking by William Fitzsimmons (originally by Go West)

Kids by Dr. Fox's Old Timey String Band (originally by MGMT)

That's it. I'll add some words to this tomorrow, all being well. For now enjoy the music.

Live and let live

Sivad - Miles Davis. Not really what you expect when you hear the name Miles Davis, except of course it is excellent. This is an edited version of the track for a Best Of release. The full, original recording is on Live-Evil.

It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - REM. In my rant about REM in last night's blog I forgot to mention that I do really love their music. They were probably the first band I did fall in love with.This track is from Glastonbury 2003.

Say Please - Monsters of Folk. This was recorded live on the Conan O'Brien Show. Talking about M Ward and how I hadn't got this album yet prompted me to post this. I promise it'll be the last time I refer to last night's blog in this post.

Love Letter To Japan - The Bird and The Bee. I've got a thing for two piece bands (electronica aside), how they get around the logistics of only having two people to play instruments and sing.

Black River Killer - Blitzen Trapper. The band's name sounds like an American Football defensive system, at least to me.

There's Too Much Love - Sufjan Stevens. Really high up on my list of artists I'd like to play a gig locally, even though I think the chances of this are really low.

Uncovered on Friday

I thought this would make a nice companion to Covers on Sunday. The idea is all the bands I've featured covering songs will, as far as possible, be included doing an original song.

I intend to follow the Covers for Sunday order fairly closely. The exceptions will be bands that I can only find covers by (Redbird for example) and bands that have been featured more than once in Covers for Sunday.

I Felt Like Smashing My Head Through a Clear Glass Window - Of Montreal. The first track by Of Montreal I ever heard, I think it's fitting it's the first original track by them I post here.

Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying - Belle and Sebastian. I was going to post a little selection of lyrics from this song, but I can't narrow it down at all, this is just a phenomenal pop song.

Hope - REM. After Automatic For The People and Monster came out there were somewhat look receptions for New Adventures in Hi-Fi and then Up. I loved them both, and I still do. This comes from Hope, which reached number 2 in the charts, REM's previous 4 albums had all reached number 1. Their next album, Reveal, reached number 1. personally I thought it was a weak album rescued by a few decent tracks. An example of a band trying to move back a decade or so and recreate a sound they'd evolved away from. And then came Around the Sun which was utter shite and reached number one as well. It's too late for me to turn this into anything coherent so on to the next song.

Al otro lado del río - Jorge Drexler. Let's keep it short and sweet. This is only the second non-English language track to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song (it features in Motorcycle Diaries).

Hate To Say I Told You So - The Hives. To properly understand why The Hives were so popular in 2001 you only have to listen to some of the music that was being played on alternative radio stations post Britpop. On second thoughts, don't.

Fuel for Fire - M. Ward. This reminds me, I still haven't bought the Monsters Of Folk album, I must fix that.

Covers for Sunday

I Gotta Get Drunk - Redbird (originally by Willie Nelson). Redbird have been one of the bands I've featured most in this blog, especially if you include Peter Mulvey's solo recordings. Partly that's because I really enjoy listening to them, but also it's because I only discovered them just before I started this blog thanks to the excellent Cover Lay Down

Think For Yourself - Yonder Mountain String Band (originally by The Beatles). I think the name of this band makes them sound like a country string quartet. They are however a really rather good bluegrass band.

The Origin Of Love - Jonathan Richman (originally by the cast of Hedwig and the Angry Inch). Any excuse to post something by Jonathan Richman. I'm ashamed of myself for not posting more of his work earlier.

I Can't Help Falling In Love - Eels (originaly by Elvis Presley). Just in case your an Elvis man rather than a Beatles man.

Ballad Of El Goodo - Counting Crows (originally by Big Star). Listening to this reminds me of why I fell in love with The Counting Crows when I heard August and Evrything After.

Knives Out - Brad Mehldau Trio (originally by Radiohead). Judging by the downloads the Brad Mehldau Trio's take on Exit Music (For A Film) was popular so here's another superb interpretation of a Radiohad song by them. Enjoy.

Live and let live

Another busy week, sorry about the lack of posts. Sometime next week I'll be starting a new regular weekly series and hopefully have a random post or two to throw in.

Here's your six live songs.

A Design For Life - Manic Street Preachers, live on Later With Jools Holland. The Monday morning after this performance was shown on TV everyone I knew was talking about it. Everything Must Go apart I've never been a huge fan of the Manics but the whole album just seemed perfectly in sync with everything going on around at the time.

Take It Or Leave It - The Strokes, live on The Late Show with David Letterman. Another band that defined a period of time, for me at least, this is pretty much The Strokes at their peak.

Common People by Pulp, live at Glastonbury. When I came home from school I used to go and liberate Different Class from my brother's room and listen to it before he got home from work. The joys of being the youngest child.

Crying Lightning by Arctic Monkeys, live session version.

Glass by Bats For Lashes, live session version.

Spanish Dance Troupe by Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, live session version. I don't think anywhere near enough people have heard have these. They've got such a lovely sound, kinda like a Welsh Belle and Sebastien. I realise that may be a terrible comparison, but it's 1:30am so if it is I hope you'll forgive me.

Covers for Sunday

1st of November, and an absolutely awful day. Autumn has begun in earnest. I console myself that if I still lived where I was born the weather would have been worse than this earlier. Enough talk of the climate, here are your covers for this week:

Take It Or Leave It - Artic Monkeys (originaly by The Strokes)

Denial Twist - Nikka Costa (originally by The White Stripes)

O Dana - Okkervil River (originally by Big Star)

I Don't Want To Get Over You - Mary Lou Lord (originally by Magnetic Fields)

Tell Me Now So I Know - Holly Golightly (originally by The Kinks) I'm always pleasantly suprised by how popular songs by The Kinks are, regardless of who is covering them or how well known the song is. Such good taste should be encouraged so I've decided to include another Kinks song. They will, eventually, have a post all of their own.

99 Red Balloons by Kevin Davis (originally by Nina) Some songs get filed away in obscure categories. The original version of 99 Red Balloons is one of those, it's my second favourite song about nuclear holocaust. What can I say, I grew up in the 80's, they were very odd times. In case you're wondering my favourite song about nuclear holocaust is John Cale's Dr. Mudd which is, subject matter aside, the complete opposite of 99 Red Balloons. It's in one of my earlier blogs, so if you want a listen you can find & download it here.

Live and let live

Apologies for the lack of posts this week, but I've spent most of the week painting and decorating while listening to Phrazes For The Young, which is immense.

Here's your usual 6 live songs, a little bit later than usual, enjoy:

Lisztomania - Phoenix, live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Judy and the Dream of Horses - Belle & Sebastian live on KCRW

Dry The Rain - The Beta band live in concert at Shepard's Bush

The Prowl - Dan Auerbach live on KCRW

Hang You From The Heavens - The Dead Weather live on the Zane Lowe Show

Matador - Ornette Coleman, live Sound Grammar concert. I've been listening to quite a bit of Ornette Coleman today, starting out with a desire to hear bassist Charlie Haden. So I decidedd to include this even though it's nothing like the sort of music that normally gets posted in my live track selections.

Covers for Sunday

Usual drill, it's Sunday, here are six covers for you. There's nothing much else to say except I have all week off next week and the kids are away. So how will my wife and I spend next week? By painting the house. Somewhere along the line I grew up by stealth. Oh well, on to the covers.

Can I Kick It - The Popguns (originally by A Tribe Called Quest) It's a fairly straight forward cover of one of my favourite hip hop songs. I'm underselling the cover, you should just download it and enjoy it.

Fences - Soft Pack (originally by Phoenix) One of my favourite current bands is covered by another of my current favourites from a different genre. What's not to like? Also, no foolish band name typos this time.

Heart Shaped Box - Sofia (originally by Nirvana) Following on from yesterday's 'new' Nirvana song here's a Nirvana classic covered in a way that sounds nothing like them at all.

Bad Reputation - Death Cab For Cutie (originally by Freedy Johnston) Listening to the radio at my sister's house today Death Cab For Cutie were on and she said they were a band she just couldn't get into. She felt/knew she should like them, she just didn't. I, of course, told her it's because she's too old. This song's for you sis x

Panic - Spoon (originally by The Smiths) Again this partly comes from an early morning conversation with my sister over coffee. She told me Morrissey had collapsed on stage in Slough, I laughed at Slough, it's a natural reaction for me, almost Pavlovian. The other part is I really enjoyed Spoon's cover of The Kinks from a couple of weeks ago and it was a popular download so here they are again.

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart - David Potts-Dupre (originally by Wilco) I can't explain why I like this. I love the original, but this seems to change everything I love about it and change it in ways I don't normally like. The first time I heard this cover I had to resist the temptation to skip it. Then it stuck in my head for the rest of the day and it's a frequent listen for me. I may not know why, but I do like this.

That's all for this week, enjoy the music.

Live and let live

As you have probably noticed the live song blogs are a sort of partner to the cover blogs. Generally the covers are quieter and tend towards being acoustic. So i try and choose louder, more up-tempo songs for the live blogs.

And so it is, mainly with this week. There's always an exception, in this case it's Sufjan Stevens. My favourite this week though is the 'new' Nirvana recording. Of course it's not new at all, it was recorded nearly 20 years ago. That makes me feel nice and old, so on to the songs.

Scoff - Nirvana, live at Pine Street Theatre, Portland, 1990.

Song 2 - Blur, live in concert, 1997.

The BQE part 3 - Sufjan Stevens, live on WNYC

The Lower The Sun - Tom Vek, live session version.

Bucket - Kings of Leon, live in London

I Killed Sally's Lover - The Avett Brothers, live in concert 2005.

The Strokes - side projects

I've been thinking about another side project post for a week or two now, but hearing River of Brakelights by Julian Casablancas is what really decided me. This was supposed to have been posted on Wednesday but, obviously, it wasn't. Apologies for a nearly empty week.

As you've probably guessed this post is going to be about side projects various members of The Strokes have engaged in, and I've also put in some songs they've guested on.

First off, lead vocalist Julian Casablancas. It makes sense, at least to me, to start with him because his album is due to be released on 2nd November (in most of Europe anyway. If you're in North America you'll have to wait until the 3rd). I get paid just before the release date, I'm choosing not to believe that's a coincidence.

Anyway. His solo album is called Phrazes For The Young. Go here and visit the official site. You can pre-order the album here.

Here are a couple of tracks from the album to tide you over, although you've probably already heard them. If you haven't heard them before, well, they're probably not what you expect:

11th Dimension (I know I've posted this before but that had the last few seconds chopped off, this one hasn't.)

River of Brakelights

There's no other solo material released, but here are another couple of non-Strokes tracks he's been involved in:

My Drive Thru - Julian Casablancas, Santogold and Pharrell Williams. If you don't know already this was made for Converse as some sort of centenary celebration. I'm not a huge fan of the song, but it is really catchy and I've had it stuck in my head for days.

Sick, Sick, Sick - Queens Of The Stone Age feat. Julian Casablancas on backing vocals and guitar.

Rhythm guitarist Albert Hammond Jr is the most prolific of The Strokes in terms of solo material. He's released two albums, Yours To Keep (buy)

Hard To Live In The City
Scared (linking in nicely this features Julian Casablancas on bass and backing vocals)
Postal Blowfish US bonus track.

and

¿Cómo Te Llama? (buy)

GfC.

Drummer Fabrizio Moretti's side project Little Joy sees him join up with Binki Shapiro and Rodrigo Amarante. He plays guitar and piano as well as his usual drums. So far only one, eponymous, album has been released. It's a perfect happy summer album. Or I assume so, we don't have summer's in Britain anymore. Anyway. It is a very enjoyable album (buy).

No One's Better Sake
Brand New Start

Little Joy also recorded a Daytrotter session which you can download here. Sadly it's only two songs, but they are two effortlessly enjoyable songs and they're free so it's hard to feel shortchanged.

He also plays drums on The Neon Neon song Dream Cars. Neon Neon are a side project of Gruff Rhys of SFA (it also features producer Boom Bip). See how neat it all is? And you thought these were just random fanboy rants.

Bassist Nikolai Fraiture recorded as Nickel Eye. Again, so far, just one album, The Time of the Assassins (buy). Like Little Joy it's a different sound from The Strokes, much folkier. Nikolai plays guitar and does lead vocals as well as playing the bass, the other band members being Joel Cadbury, Jamie McDonald and Brett Shaw.

It seems to divide opinions quite sharply, so listen to the tracks and make your own mind up:

Brandy Of The Damned
Back From Exile

There's also a Daytrotter session for you to check out here, with 4 songs from the album.

Lastly lead guitarist Nick Valensi. When Phrazes For The Young is released he'll be the only member of the Strokes without a side projet album released. He has however contributed to a couple of recordings. As well as playing on Little Joy's album he appears on these two tracks:

Better - Regina Spektor (guitar)
Shabop Shalom - Devendra Braveheart (guitar and backing vocals)

That's pretty much it. A long post, much longer than I intended. Thanks for sticking with me through to the end, I hope you enjoy the songs.

As a final treat here's The Strokes doing New York City Cops live, joined on stage by the king of side projects, Jack White:

New York City Cops - The Strokes feat. Jack White.

Covers for Sunday

After a hectic week today has been, at least so far, a nice calm and relaxing day. I hope it lasts for the rest of the day. I could even live with it extending in to next week as well, although I have my doubts.

This weeks selection is a return to the mixed bag approach after the relaxed folk approach of last week.

First up is Jim James cover of Rocket Man, keeping the folk connection going. The Bad Plus' cover of Life On Mars from a few weeks ago was a pleasantly surprisingly popular choice so I've included another cover from them. This time Wendy Lewis joins the trio on vocals. I've featured a few Radiohead covers from different genres, so more popular than others. This week there's a reggae cover joining the ranks. There's a Smiths cover courtesy of Death Cab For Cutie, and what I think should be described as a romp from Ash as they cover Abba. Lastly there's Kaiser Chiefs cover of The Move. I hope you enjoy them all.

Rocket Man by Jim James (originally by Elton John)

Feeling Yourself Disintegrate by The Bad Plus feat. Wendy Lewis (originally by The Flaming Lips)

Let Down by Easy All-Stars (originally by Radiohead)

This Charming Man by Death Cab For Cutie (originally by The Smiths)

Does Your Mother Know by Ash (originally by Abba)

Flowers In The Rain by Kaiser Chiefs (originally by The Move)

Live and let live

It's been a busy week, sorry for the lack of posts so far. I'm not going to bore you with details of why it's been a busy week. Plus, I need to go to bed. So, just enjoy the 6 live songs.

My Doorbell (live session) - White Stripes

Paranoid Android (live on Later with Jools Holland) - Radiohead

Holidays In The Sun (concert recording) - Sex Pistols

Glory Box (live session) - Portishead

I've Been Loving You To Long (live at the Whiskey a Go Go) - Otis Redding

Eid Ma Clack Shaw (live session) - Bill Callahan

Covers for Sunday

Another Sunday, another week has passed us. Alright, so if you're in Europe it's actually Monday. I'm late today because we had a couple of friends visit us, just before I was going to post this. I had the songs uploaded ready and most of the description written. My friends, they're lovely people but they are starting to resemble the shopkeepers from Father Ted. I'd love to say I offered them useful and heartfelt advice, but I didn't. There's only so many time you can tell people the same thing before you have to accept they don't want to listen, no matter how much they say they do. For me that number is 2 or 3. It's much higher for my wife though who is a much nicer person than me and listened to them and gave thoughtful, useful advice.

Anyway. On to the songs. It's more of a subdued mix this week. Grant Lee Phillips is wonderful, it's been ages since I listened to him but I'm going to be remedying that on the way to work tomorrow. North Mississippi Allstars play a pretty straight forward live cover of Hendrix. One of my favourite parts of this is the crowds disappointment that they're not going to hear an Allman Brothers cover. Spoon make Set Me Free sound like a Beatles song. Metric's cover of Dylan stays close to the original but as a duet it's a nice twist. Franz Ferdinand are energetic in covering Blondie and Brad Mehldau's trio is, well, amazing.

Enjoy the songs and appreciate the lack of bad puns this week.

I Don't Live Today - North Mississippi Allstars (originally by The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

Don't Think Twice It's Alright - Metric (originally by Bob Dylan)

Set Me Free - Spoon (originally by The Kinks)

So Central Rain - Grant Lee Phillips (originally by REM)

Call Me - Franz Ferdinand (originally by Blondie)

Exit Music (For A Film) - Brad Mehldau (originally by Radiohead)

Live and let live

I hadn't planned on turning this into a weekly series and I may not continue doing this every week but for now here are six live songs.

(If I do turn this into a weekly thing I will find a better name for it. Promise)

Michael (live in Edinburgh) - Franz Ferdinand

Red Right Hand (live at Glastonbury) - Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

On My Time (live on Rainydawg Radio) - Soft Pack

Damaged Goods (live on Later with Jools Holland) - Gang Of Four

Ecstasy (live at the Benicassim Festival) - Lou Reed

Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth (live accoustic session) - Dandy Warhols

30 years of barcodes

You may have noticed Google using a barcode instead of their logo for a day. There's nothing too unusual in that, there are often different logos used. In this case it was to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the introduction of barcodes.

I work in stock control so barcodes make my job so much easier that it's almost immeasurable. I'm aware however that most people view barcodes as either some sort of dystopian way of controlling all of humanity or really dull. I'm sure most of you have already skipped to the mp3s so I'll just leave it at this. I know far more about barcodes than most people, including me, will ever really need to know and when the totalitarian one world government takes over I'll be safe.

Enjoy the mp3s. The first is kinda related to this post, the rest are just songs I've been listening to lately.

Anniversary Of An Uninteresting Event - Deftones

Canadian Girl - The Walkmen

Oxford Comma (live) - Vampire Weekend

Civilisation - Joe Gideon and The Shark

Twisterella (live) - Ride

Add It Up - Violent Femmes

Covers for Sunday

As usual, it's Sunday and there are six covers for you to listen to. There are some familiar artists, another cover by Radiohead and one by The Morning Benders who were included a couple of weeks ago. Peter Mulvey's solo work is here for the first time, but we've had a couple of songs from his band Redbird in Covers for Sunday before.

Overall I think it's a nice eclectic mix. Of the bands we haven't featured before the last two minutes of The Bad Plus' version of Life on Mars is just sheer gorgeousness, Carolina Chocolate Drops cover of Hit 'Em Up Style is fantastic and The Section Quartet's take on Paranoid Android is as good as you'd expect. No suprises there. Sorry.

Crying by The Morning Benders (originally by Roy Orbison)

Paranoid Android by The Section Quartet (originally by Radiohead)

The Fly by Peter Mulvey (originally by U2)

Life on Mars by The Bad Plus (originally by David Bowie)

Hit 'Em Up Style by Carolina Chocolate Drops (originally by Blu Cantrell)

Cinnamon Girl by Radiohead (originally by Neil Young)

Live and let live

It's another play on words that probably no-one else notices and certainly no-one else finds them amusing or worthwhile. I just can't help myself.

Anyway.

I thought it'd be good to post some live versions of songs, so that's what I'm posting. Originally I was just going to limit this to performances at gigs, but that would have meant leaving out TV On The Radio's performance of Blues From Down Here which was played on KEXP and is one of the loveliest things I've heard.

Blues From Down Here by TV On The Radio

Whole Damn Thing by Those Darlin's

Videotape by Radiohead

Via Chicago by Wilco

1901 by Phoenix

The 50 States Song by Sufjan Stevens

Some more music

I know, in general, these sorts of blogs are used to talk about brand new music. I've got nothing against new music. I listen to it and I post it here. But at the sametime I've got nothing against old music either. I listen to that and post it as well. Which means I'm never sure what I'm going to post next. So if the choice of music seems a bit random and unstructured, that's because it is. It's a reflection of the music I love and listen to I hope you enjoy it.

Here are 6 songs I'm really enjoying at the moment:

Plans Get Complex by All-Time Quarterback from the album All-Time Quarterback (buy)

Dear Catastrophe Waitress by Belle and Sebastian from the album Dear Catastrophe Waitress (buy)

These Few Presidents by Why? from the album Alopecia (buy)

Kissing The Beehive by Wolf Parade from the album At Mount Zoomer (buy)

On A Rope by Rocket from the Crypt from the album Scream, Dracula, Scream! (buy)

The Distance by Cake from the album Fashion Nugget (buy)

More Rural Alberta Advantage

I'm sure most of you are signed up to Daytrotter. If you're no, go and do it now. Or as soon as you've finished reading this. I'm signed up to it as well, but somehow I missed that one of my favourite bands recorded a session there. So, even though it was posted at the start of September I just found about The Rural Alberta Advantage's session today. They performed a couple of songs from their debut album as well as a couple of unreleased tracks, which you can download here:

Two Lovers

Barnesyard

You can read the post and download the rest of the songs from Daytrotter here and if you haven't bought there excellent debut album Hometowns you can do that here

But first, here's another track, this time the album version of Don't Haunt This Place.

Beta Band, part 2

In this post about the Beta Band I mentioned a couple of songs I hadn't been able to upload. They're uploaded now and added to the original post. But just in case you can't be bothered to click on the link and go there here they are:

Round The Bend

The House Song (live version)

If you haven't seen the Beta Band post you should go and read it now, there's some more good music there.

Covers for Sunday

As usual another six covers for you. An enthusiastic cover by Mountain Goats, a less than serious take on Stairway To Heaven by the Foo Fighters are mixed in, alongside Marc Almond covering Paint It Black, which is about as gloriously over the top as you'd imagine. Enjoy.

Furniture Store by Mountain Goats (originally by Furniture Huschle)

Boys of Summer by Custom Kings (originally by Don Henley)

Black & Gold by Ellie Goulding (originally by Sam Sparro)

It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by Great Big Sea (originally by R.E.M. cover)

Stairway To Heaven by Foo Fighters (originally by Led Zeppelin)

Paint It Black by Marc Almond (originally by The Rolling Stones)

I will now sell...

I imagine everybody reading this who has heard of The Beta Band has seen this scene in High Fidelity where John Cusack mispronounces the band's name:



I've been a fan of The Beta Band for a while now, since around 2000. They were one of my favourites when I was at university, which was the first time I'd ever lived somewhere with a music shop. Enough reminiscing though.

The Beta Band released three separate EPs in the late 90's. They weren't given huge distribution and in 1999 all 3 EPs, Champion Versions, The Patty Patty Sound and Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos, were released together on the imaginatively titled The Three EPs.

At the time Britpop was dead, even the post-Britpop hangover had gone away and we had an indie music scene dominated by bands like Travis. The Beta Band's sound is from a totally different universe from Travis.

Experimental and talented the experimental side got toned down on the release of the 2nd and 3rd albums. It was still pretty far away from anything mainstream and still really good.

Enjoy the mp3s and buy the albums:

The Three EPs (buy)

Champion Versions

Dry The Rain (This is the song featured in High Fidelity)
Dogs Got A Bone

The Patty Patty Sound

Inner Meet Me
She's The One (live version)

Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos

Needles In My Eyes
Dr. Baker (live version)

The Beta Band (buy)

Dance O'Er The Border (live version)
Round The Bend

To You Alone/Sequinsizer (buy)

To You Alone

Hot Shots II (buy)

Quiet (Acoustic)
Squares
Won (US and Japanese release bonus track)

Heroes to Zeroes (buy)

Out-Side (radio edit)
Space Beatle
The House Song (live version)

Covers for Sunday

Have you ever wondered how ATDI would sound if covered by a brass band. Of course you have, who hasn't? Luckily The Second Hand Marching Band have the answer.

Enjo.y

One Armed Scissor by The Second Hand Marching Band (originally by At The Drive In)

Do You Mind by The XX (originally by Kyla)

Last Nite by Detroit Cobras (originally by The Strokes)

Hesitation Blues by The Avett Brothers (originally by Jelly Roll Morton)

Sheena Is A Punk Rocker by Yeah Yeah Yeahs (originally by The Ramones)

Use Somebody by Bats For Lashes (originally by Kings of Leon)

Absence

Some time at the beginning of last week my computer broke. In fact it was the day after my post about Those Darlin's/King Khan and BBQ Show/King Khan and The Shrines.

I borrowed a laptop while my machine was being fixed but it meant I didn't have access to a pretty big part of my music library. So, no Covers for Sunday, no Bete Band post you should have had on Thursdayish, nothing at all.

Everything's fixed now. I'll probably do a double Covers for Sunday this week, or maybe do one on Wednesday as well. I decided now though to post a nice eclectic mix of songs, the sort I don't normally blog about. I'm starting with Julian Casablances new song 11th Dimension a remix. I hope the album is good and that we have a new Strokes album soon. I'm sure it'll be worth the wait. Well, kinda sure.

Anyway there's also some trip-hop and some 70's punk included and, well, it's just a mixed bag. Enjoy the songs.

11th Dimension - Julian Casablancas

Dumb I Sound/ATLiens - Tor, feat Sufjan Stevens and Outkast

Alternative Ulster - Stiff Little Fingers

Five Man Army - Massive Attack

Bell Bottoms (live session) - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

I Don't Want To Grow Up - Tom Waits

Forgotten band

Back when I started this blog I was planning on featuring Those Darlins in my second or third post. For reasons that I won't go into (because I can't remember) that never happened and I forgot all about it.

But a couple of days ago I saw that Those Darlins will be touring with King Khan & BBQ Show. Apart from making me jealous that a show like that will never come to where I live it reminded me to post some Those Darlins stuff. So here you go:

Snaggletooth Mama

Red Light Love

Both tracks on their debut album, which is also called Those Darlins. You can buy it from their website here, where you can also download their single Wild One.

Those last couple of sentances got wordy. Anyway, I couldn't possibly pass up the chance to post some King Khan & BBQ Show music.

Zombies

Fish Fight

and as an extra bonus, some King Khan and The Shrines:

No Regrets

Took My Lady To Dinner

I'd tell you to enjoy, but if you need to be told to enjoy King Khan you're reading the wrong blog/probably dead.

Covers For Sunday

When I was at university one of my friends/classmates was a huge fan of Reel Big Fish. He made me a cd of them, but I never listened to it and lost the cd. This was towards the end of my first year, just before I met the women who would become my wife. So, 7 and a bit years ago. I hadn't really given Reel Big Fish any thought since then until recently coming across them covering a Van Morrison classic. So I decided to include that as a tribute to a friend I lost contact with long ago.

Also, OK Go's cover of Lovecats and The Morning Benders cover of Temptation Inside Your Heart are both superb. Enjoy.

Brown Eyed Girl by Reel Big Fish (originally by Van Morrison)

Be My Baby by Linda Ronstadt (originally by The Ronettes)

Bedside Table by Adem (originally by Bedhead)

Creep by Moby (originally by Radiohead)

Love Cats by OK Go (originally by The Cure)

Temptation Inside Your Heart by The Morning Benders (originally by The Velvet Underground)

Radiohead live at Reading

Apologies in advance for such a short post. I'm sure most of you have seen the video of Radiohead playing Creep and National Anthem live at Reading. Anyway, here's the download.

Creep/National Anthem by Radiohead, live at Reading Festival 2009.

Covers for Sunday

So, no more posts this week than last after all. Still, I'm sure you've all managed to recover from the disappointment by now.

Here are your six covers for today. We've had a few cover versions of Neil Young songs since I started Covers for Sunday, so this week we're leading off with Neil Young's cover from Glastonbury earlier this year.

A Day In The Life by Neil Young (originally by The Beatles)

Like A Rolling Stone by Jimi Hendrix (originally by Bob Dylan)

Diamonds Are Forever by Arctic Monkeys (originally by Shirley Bassey)

Rappers Delight by Dan The Automater (originally by The Sugarhill Gang)

Owner Of A Lonely Heart by Grizzly Bear (originally by Yes)

Just Dance by Maximo Park (originally by Lady Gaga)

A bit of Gomez is good for the soul

A couple of days ago I was looking through youtube fore something by Miles Davis. Instead I came across one of my favourite videos:



It'd been ages since I'd listened to any Gomez, but they've been on heavy rotation since. Gomez are a band I first really got into when I went to university, nearly ten years ago now. I was going to talk more about them, but now I feel old, so you'll just have to listen to these mp3s instead.

How We Operate from the album How We Operate

We Haven't Turned Around from the album Liquid Skin.

Revolutionary Kind (live)

Albums can be bought from the band's website here.

Covers for Sunday

Here we are again. It's Sunday and I'm posting 6 covers. It's been a quiet week for the blog. There's Monday's post with loads (well, six) of Radiohead mp3s, but that's been it. I also had my first post deleted this week. Hopefully there'll be more posts this week, and no posts removed.

Anyway, here are this weeks covers. Enjoy.

Tell Me Why by Radiohead (originally by Neil Young)

There She Goes by The Wombats (originally by The La's)

Careless Whisper by Ben Folds featuring Rufus Wainright (originally by Wham)

Chelsea Girls by Elliott Smith (originally by Nico)

Gone Til November by Doves (originally by Wyclef Jean)

Oh Comely by Brand New (originally by Neutral Milk Hotel)

Radiohead, no Wall of Ice

As you're probably aware there had been speculation following the leak of the song These Are My Twisted Words that Radiohead would be releasing an EP called Wall of Ice on Monday, August 17th. I'm not going to go into the whole ins and outs of why people thought this, if you really want to know check out rawkblog which has a good explanation of what happened and is the newest addition to my blog list.

Personally I didn't give the rumour too much thought. Maybe it's because I'm such a cynical person but I didn't expect a new EP, and I was rather pleased with the two new Radiohead tracks, These Are My Twisted Words and Harry Patch (In memory of).

So there's no disappointment for me that the EP hasn't arrived. I know Radiohead fans who are disappointed though, which is understandble. If you're one of those (and even if you're not) I hope you enjoy the tracks below, 3 Radiohead songs remixed and 3 live versions. Think of it as a post non-release let down survival kit.

The Gloaming (DJ Shadow Remix)

Everything In Its Wrong Place (Me & This Army Remix)

Creep (Fitter Happier remix)

Nude - Live

Bid Ideas - Live in Dublin 2004

Scatterbrain - Live

As well as buying Harry Patch (In memory of) you can also download These Are My Twisted Words from w.a.s.t.e. now.

Covers for Sunday

Normally I don't actually choose the songs that I'm going to feature until an hour or so before I post them. I might have a couple of songs picked out that I want to share with whoever happens to read this, but more often it's a case of spending Sunday afternoon listening to a playlist full of covers and seeing what sticks out.

That hasn't been the case this week. I've had four of the covers sorted for most of the week, and then I decided that the cover of Idioteque would be included yesterday and this morning Nobody Does It Better popped into my head and the six tracks were all chosen. I hope you enjoy them all.

All My Friends by John Cale (originally by LCD Soundsystem)

I Kissed A Girl by Travis (originally by Kate Parry)

Can't Get You Out Of My Head by The Flaming Lips (originally by Kylie Minogue)

I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Amy Millan (originally by Death Cab For Cutie)

Idioteque by Calico Horse (originally by Radiohead)

Nobody Does It Better by Radiohead (originally by Carly Simon)

New Radiohead

Short post, nothing really exciting/interesting/worthwhile to say.

However, here's a brand new Radiohead song:

These Are My Twisted Words

Enjoy.

There's also another new (well, a couple of days old) Radiohead song called Harry Patch (In memory of). You can download it here for £1.

All proceeds go to the Royal British Legion. The Royal British Legion is a charity to support current and ex servicemen and women and their families. Harry Patch died 25th of July aged 111. He was the last person alive to have fought in the trenches on the western front during World War One.

Anyway, enjoy the songs. You can listen to a sample of Harry Patch (In memory of) at the above link as well.

Covers For Sunday

It's Sunday again, here are your covers. There's a tendency when I do these posts to choose covers that are folk versions, or at the least acoustic versions. I don't know exactly why, but most of the covers I have seem to fall into that category. I don't know if that's representative of other peoples' collections or not. I don't mean to imply there's anything wrong with folk covers, there isn't. If you like them you should check out Cover Lay Down from my blog list on the side.

So anyway to avoid having all acoustic cover versions I've included Black Kids, who are quite far away from folk. I hope you enjoy all the tracks.

All Apologies by Ben Gibbard (originally by Nirvana)

Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover by Black Kids (originally by Sophie B. Hawkins)

Creep by Damien Rice (originally by Radiohead)

You Know I'm No Good by On Film (originally by Amy Winehouse)

Theologians by Donavon Frankenreiter (originally by Wilco)

My Favourite Bands - The Velvet Underground part 3

This post was just going to be about The Velvet Underground's live recordings but I forgot to include the promised post break up releases. So they're in this post as well as the live recordings.

The first 3 Velvet Underground albums were released by Verve. However Verve wasn't making money and The Velvet Underground albums weren't big sellers. They were released from theircontract and signed with Atlantic where they released Loaded.

However, tracks had been recorded for a 4th album with Verve. The recordings were, of course, lost and eventually rediscovered. They were released over two albums, VU in 1985 and Another View in 1986.




Of these VU is by far the stronger. Of the 10 songs on the album 6 of them were released on Lou Reed's solo albums. This album is a great mix of ballads and heavier rock songs. Different from Loaded, this still has the same sort of balance, The Velvets were heading this way for their 4th album anyway.

Sample mp3s:

I Can't Stand It

Foggy Notion

Temptation Inside Your Heart

Buy the album here.




Another View is weaker in comparison and it's much more an album for completists. That's not to say it's in any way bad, but it's ok rather than great. Highlights are We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together and an early version of Rock And Roll.

Sample mp3s:

We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together

Coney Island Steeplechase


Buy the album here.

Now, onto the live albums.




1969: Velvet Underground Live. I consider this a double album, even though it's released on two seperate discs. When it was first released on vinyl it was a double album, and that's good enough for me.

The album is made up of gigs recorded over clubs sound systems at two seperate venues, one in Dallas and one in San Francisco. What's immediatley notable is the sheer energy that comes through on the songs, out and out aggresion in some places. As always it's easy to view the Velvet Underground as Lou Reed's band before he went solo but the full band is on form here. Reed and Morrison complement each other perfectly, Mo Tucker's drumming is sublime and even the much maligned Doug Yule shows his ability. Basically the band out and out rocks.

Highlights of the album are What Goes On, New Age, (with an almost completley different set of lyrics than the version on Loaded) and Heroin from Volume 1 and Ocean, Pale Blue Eyes, Heroin (again) and I Can't Stand It from Volume 2.

As always below are some sample tracks but bear in mind that, as with any live album, it's best to hear it in full.

Lisa Says (Volume One)

New Age (Volume One)

Heroin (Volume Two)

Over You (Volume Two)

I Can't Stand It (Volume Two)

Buy Volume 1 here and Volume 2 here.




Bootleg Series, Vol. 1: The Quine Tapes

Despite what the title of this album suggests there is no volume 2. This was released in 2001, so I think it's fair to say there won't be a volume 2 now.

It's a 3 disc set and the recordings on it come from gigs The Velvets did in two clubs in San Francisco during November and December 1969 as well as one track from a gig in St. Louis. The recordings were made with the bands consent by Robert Quine. Quine would later tour with Reed and play guitar on his album The Blue Mask.

During 1969 The Velvets toured extensively, the normally quoted figue is 70+ gigs, and this album is a comprehensive look at just how well the band was playing at that time. From the sametime span as the above 1969: Velvet Underground Live this album is more of the same and I think a more essential purchase. If you're only going to buy one live Velvets album get this one. As well as all the tracks you'd expect the album contains songs from the first album that were played live less often.

Here's 3 sample mp3s, one from each disc:

Some Kinda Love (This track contains the lyric 'Between Thought and Expression')

Venus In Furs

Rock And Roll

Buy the album here.

Which brings us to the last live album and the end of my posts on The Velvet Underground.




Live At Max's Kansas City is reputed to be the last ever concert The Velvets ever played. The audio quality is acceptable for a bootleg but not great, there's a lot of audience chatter, Mo Tucker is pregnant and Billy Yule fills in on drums and really it's an album best bought by fans. It's by no means for completists only though. Listening to the album it seems obvious how weary Lou Reed has become with it all. His introduction to and vocals on Sunday Morning are the best example of that.

Buy the album here.

The album contains both sets they did. White Light/White Heat is from the first set, Sunday Morning and Lonesome Cowboy Bill from the second set. Lonesome Cowboy Bill was actually played in both sets. The mp3 below is, as mentioned, from the second set. It was the last song played at their last gig so it seemed an appropriate place to finish. I hope you've enjoyed these posts and most importantly the music.

White Light/White Heat

Sunday Morning

Lonesome Cowboy Bill.

Covers for Sunday

I'm totally getting the hang of this posting on Sunday deal.

Anyway, the usual six covers for you today. A couple of weeks ago I posted Rufus Wainwright covering Somewhere Over The Rainbow. It's been the most popular mp3 I've posted, so there's another one of his covers included in this post. The Boy Least Likely To is included for the second time as well. The rest are all first time appearances.

Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright (originally by Leonard Cohen)

You're The One That I Want by The Boy Least Likely To (originally by John Travolta and Olivia Newton John)

Zombie by Jay Brannan (originally by The Cranberries)

Such Great Heights by Iron and Wine (originally by The Postal Service)

Two-Headed Boy by The Mountain Goats (originally by Neutral Milk Hotel)

the final cover is here at the request of my wife. It's an entertaining cover, but it's here because it makes her think of a girl we both know.

Baby's Got Back by Jonathan Coulton (originally by Sir Mix A Lot)

I hope you enjoy them all.

Some stuff I threw together

because I realised I hadn't posted anything since Covers for Sunday last week, and I want something posting before Covers for Sunday tomorrow.

Luckily I've had 3 songs I've been meaning to put in the blog for a while, so here we go.

Firstly, Say Please by Monsters of Folk.

Monsters of folk is Jim James, Conor Oberst, M. Ward, and Mike Mogis. That should really be all you need to know to go here and get all the songs.

For some reason I can't really get into My Morning Jacket. I don't dislike it, but I tend to find I'm skipping onto the next thing on my playlist. However, I'm a big fan of Jim James' solo folk music. I first came across it when I got a bootleg of him, M Ward and Conor Orberst. So when I heard rumours the three of them would be making a folk supergroup I wzas pretty pleased. Having heard 'Firstly Say Please' it's fair to say my expectations have been met.

As a bonus Jim James, under the name Yim Yames, recently released a 6 track EP of George Harrison covers. You can buy the digital download from his website and/or pre-order the CD and vinyl, which are released on August 4th. Here's a sample track from the EP Behind That Locked Door.

Next is I and Love and You by The Avett Brothers. The first post I ever made on this blog had an Avett Brothers mp3. Check that out, and then listen to this. It's on an EP and a single, both are orderable here.

Lastly, Boy 1904 by Jónsi & Alex. The theme of this blog has been, although I didn't plan it, songs that don't sound how you may expect them to sound. The Monsters of Folk and Yim Yames songs don't sound like My Morning Jacket and the Avett Brothers EP sounds different to most of their previous work. The same is true here. You may expect Jónsi & Alex to sound like Sigur Rós, but they don't. It's lovely, delicate music, so much so that it almost makes Sigur Rós sound kinda course by comparison. Almost. You can listen to the full album and buy it here.

That's it, see you tomorrow for more covers.

Covers for Sunday

I've broken with tradition a bit this week and decided to actually post Covers for Sunday on Sunday. As always though there are six covers, with nothing in common except I enjoy listening to them.

I'm Only Sleeping by E (originally by the Beatles)

Thriller by Death Cab For Cutie (originally by Michael Jackson)

Everywhere by Vampire Weekend (originally by Fleetwood Mac)

One by Johnny Cash (originally by U2)

Close To Me by Why? (Originally by The Cure)

My Doorbell by Jack Johnson (originally by The White Stripes)

My Favourite Bands - The Velvet Underground, part 2

The Velvet's 3rd album is the self-titled The Velvet Underground.


By spunkyandtheslut at 2009-08-08

By this point John Cale has left the band to be replaced by Doug Yale. This means there's no more electric viola but instead the band has the 'standard' rock line-up of drums, bass, two guitars and vocals.

Gone is most of the feedback from the first two albums, this sounds in many ways markedly different, (although the penultimate song, The Murder Mystery, wouldn't seem out of place on either of the two previous albums). That's not to say that it's a generic rock and roll album. The distortion and feedback have been scaled back and replaced with an involvement in the songs that wasn't present in the first two albums. The Velvet Underground & Nico and White Light/White Heat were chronicles of different scenes and people. The Velvet Underground comes across much more as a chronicle of Lou Reed's experiences.

Here are some sample mp3s...

Candy Says

Some Kinda Love

After Hours (sung by Mo Tucker)

...and you can buy the album here.

The 4th Velvet Underground album is Loaded.




Now you'll here/read a lot about what a commercial album this is and how far it deviates from the other albums. And it many ways it does have a more accesible sound. There's no denying it sounds different to the previous albums. I just don't think different should be taken as a negative, bands evolve after all, and if this is really what commercial music sounded like, well, I'd be a very happy boy. I don't intend to do a huge review of this album. It just ends up like I'm defending it from accusations of selling out and really I don't care. If it's a sell out, if it's an attempted commercial record, a sop to the record company I don't care. Neither should you. It's an excellent album and it stands on its own merits.

It's worth mentioning that Mo Tucker was pregnant during the Loaded recording sessions so most of the drumming is done by bassist Doug Yule and his brother Billy. Doug Yule also sings lead vocals on four of the songs on Loaded.

Loaded is also available as a 2-disc set known as the Fully Loadd edition. As well as the full album it contains all the songs again from alternative takes or demos and 12 other demos and outakes, including a few songs that would turn up on Lou Reed's solo albums.

Here are the mp3s from the album:

Sweet Jane

Rock and Roll

New Age

and here are some of the tracks included on the Fully Loaded Edition:

Lonesome Cowboy Bill

I Love You

Oh! Sweet Nuthin'

I'm Sticking With You (This one is sung by Mo Tucker)

Ocean (Possibly/probably with John Cale on the organ)

Love Makes You Feel Ten Feet Tall

Satellite Of Love

and you can buy the Fully Loaded edition here.

Part 3 will be the last of the favourite band posts on The Velvet Underground and will cover their live recordings. Until then, enjoy these tracks.