Another BBC session from The Strokes

Not John Peel this time, but the closest thing Radio 1 has to a successor for him, Zane Lowe. This session includes a cover of The Ramones Life Is A Gas as well as an alternative version of You Only Live Once with lyrics similar to I'll Try Anything Once.

Reptilia
You Only Live Once
Heart In A Cage
Life Is A Gas (originally by The Ramones)

Keeping It Peel 3

I only intended to do one Keeping It Peel post this year, but then I posted The Strokes session and that's been well received so I thought I'd post another of The Peel Sessions I originally posted on Monday. This time I'm sharing John Cale's Peel Session, originally recorded on 1st May 1975.

Taking It All Away
Darling I Need You
You Know More Than I Know
Fear Is A Man's Best Friend

Keeping It Peel part 2

As a follow-up to yesterday's post here's the complete Peel Session by The Strokes, recorded on 8th June 2001.

The Modern Age
Hard To Explain
Barely Legal
Someday

Keeping It Peel

Today, 25th of October, is the 6th anniversary of John Peel's death. Organised by Webbie at Football and Music today is Keeping It Peel day, a day to remember John Peel, the music he played and his infectuous love for music. In case you're not familiar with him he was a DJ on Radio 1, the most mainstream of the BBC's five national radio stations. He used the show to play music he loved, music he wanted to play. And he had bands in to record on his show. Peel Sessions.
I'd guess that if you've only heard of one band in connection to The Peel Sessions it'd be The Fall. It'd be wrong to think though that John Peel only/mainly played punk and/or post punk. For everything from trance to gospel John Peel was there, playing good music regardless of genre. From Atari Teenage Riot to Joan Armatrading to Five Blind Boys From Alabama John Peel played music he loved.
Now we've less need of the radio to discover new music. We've got blogs and youtube bandcamp and, basically, electronic media and more ways than ever to share it. So I think it's safe to say there will never be another DJ like John Peel. None that his impact again, none that will introduce so many people to so much music again. That's a good thing and a bad thing but either way the world is poorer without him.

Modern Age by The Strokes. This is the only one of the six Peel Sessions songs I'm featuring that is actually introduced by John Peel.

Stutter by Elastica. It was around the time of Britpop that I first started listening to John Peel.

This Charming Man by The Smiths. I don't know why, but The Smiths will forever be linked with John Peel for me.

You Know More Than I Know by John Cale. I'd be surprised if John Cale has ever been played on Radio 1 other than on John Peel's shows.

Packs Of Three by Arab Strap. Another band that are linked in my mind with John Peel, a band that'd get little if any national radio play if not for John Peel's show.

Which Side Are You On by Billy Bragg. Billy Bragg performed 11 Peel Sessions but given the way we're stuck repeating history in the UK it wasn't hard to choose which song to use.

Covers for Sunday

This Land Is Your Land by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings (originally by Woody Guthrie). A fantastic soul cover of this folk classic. Chances are you've already heard plenty of Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings but on the off chance you've missed or skipped them here's a good place to start.



Handle Me With Care by Jenny Wilson and The Watson Twins feat Ben Gibbard, Conor Oberst and M Ward (originally by The Traveling Wilburys). I'm not a huge fan of The Traveling Wilburys by any means, though my wife is, but this is a pretty good cover of a decent song.

Let It Be by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (originally by The Beatles). I dreamed about putting this in my blog earlier today, I guess that's not too good a sign.



No Surprises by Regina Spektor (originally by Radiohead). This falls in the 'surprised I haven't posted this before' category.

Pretty In Pink by The National (originaly by The Psychedelic Furs). More goodness from my current obsession, The National.



Give A Little Bit by Sarah Masen (originally by Supertramp). Supertramp are another band my wife likes that I don't. Let me reassure you though that I will not be posting David Hasselhoff covers on this blog.

Live - Angola, LA & The 13th Amendment

Angola, LA & The 13th Amendment (mp3) by Christian Scott, live on the Jimmy Kimmel show, 10th of August 2010. This is from Christian Scott's new, and exceptionally excellent, album Yesterday You Said Tomorrow.

Today is Dizzy Gillespe's birthday and, although Christian Scott's trumpet playing is more like Miles Davis or sometimes Freddie Hubbard, they both play the same unusual shaped trumpet.

Dizzy Gillespie:

Christian Scott:


Plus there's no where near enough talk about Christian Scott.

Covers for Sunday

Eleanor Rigby by Sonny Criss (originally by The Beatles). One f the best jazz covers I've heard for a while, starts off a little smooth jazzy but soon gets going.

Sonny Criss - Alto Saxophone
Eddie Green - Piano
Bob Cranshaw - Contrabass
Alan Dawson - Drums

I Love How You Love Me by Neutral Milk Hotel (originally by The Paris Sisters). From Neutral Milk Hotel's (actually it's pretty much a Jeff Magnum solo gig, but I'm not going to get too worked up about what is and isn't NMH) last concert, which was bootlegged as When It All Caved In. You can, and should, buy it here.

My Sweet Lord by Jim James (originally by George Harrison). My Sweet Lord is, as far as I know, the only song to ever make it to No.1 in the UK single charts that contains a Hindu/Vaishnava prayer. If you're ever writing questions for a pub music quiz you should definitely include that.

Redemption Song by Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer. Maybe this should have gone in last week's blog, but I don't think it really fits. Joe Strummer also covered this on his own.

Ashamed Of The Story I Toldby The National (originally by Polaris). I love The National far more than a 30 year old should love a band, it's almost embarrassing.

A Love Supreme Part 1: Acknowledgement by Alice & Ravi Coltrane (originally by John Coltrane). Alice Coltrane didn't join John Coltrane's Quartet until 1965, after A Love Supreme was recorded (December 1964) so she didn't play on the original and didn't play a live version with John Coltrane either. Ravi Coltrane wasn't born when A Love Supreme was recorded. This is a great cover. It's close to the original in lots of places but differs enough to be worthwhile rather than just a straight-up rendition. John Coltrane played tenor saxophone on A Love Supreme, Ravi plays soprano on this cover.

Ravi Coltrane - Soprano Saxophone
Alice Coltrane - Piano
Reggie Workman - Contrabass
Roy Haynes - Drums

On Shuffle

The Wind Cries Mary - The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Let's start the post with a classic. On the off chance you haven't heard this before it's a much more subdued song than is generally associated with Jimi Hendrix. Blues rock with psychedelic influences and some fantastic jazz drumming from Mitch Mitchell.

Skinny Love - Bon Ivor. Just my favourite Bon Ivor song, just him and an accoustic guitar, a perfect example of less is more.

Away From The Numbers - The Jam. Prompted by the post and discussion about favourite tracks by The Jam that weren't released as a single over on The Vinyl Villain. This is my choice, narrowly beating out Man In The Cornershop.

Covers for Sunday - The Clash Edition

I knew that I hadn't done a band edition of Covers for Sunday for September, but I hadn't realised that I'd missed August as well. So here, belatedly, is Covers for Sunday - The Clash edition.

The Clash were the natural choice for the next installment of this series. They were punks who drew influences from all over the world, notably reggae, and brought it back to England, made it relevant to where they were from. Some times punk bands have a tendency to be insular, shouting rhetoric about changing the world while giving the impression they've never been more than three or four stops away on a bus. The Clash were never like that. Sure they were punk, but they were musicians as well. That is, in my opinion, why they are so influential even now while a lot of their contemporaries saw their influence fade away with time or stay within the punk scene.



As usual, first up here are the covers of songs by The Clash that have been featured before. I think the artists here are a nice little microcosm of what I was saying before, covers by Edwyn Collins, The Strokes, No Doubt, Elvis Costello and Bruce Springstreen, that's a pretty diverse range of musicians.

London Calling by Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt and Dave Grohl

Clampdown by The Strokes

1977 by Edwyn Collins

Hateful by No Doubt

Now for a few covers by The Clash, with the same thing in evidence. A cover of a very early rock and roll hit, a song by Buddy Holly's ex-backing band, BoB Dylan and, of course, a reggae cover:

Brand New Cadillac originally by Vince Taylor

I Fought The Law originally by The Crickets

The Man In Me originally by Bob Dylan

Pressure Drop originally by Toots & Maytals

Now for a few covers of covers by The Clash. I accept that The Dead Kennedy's may be paying tribute to The Crickets here, but I think it's more likely a cover of The Clash.

I Fought The Law by The Dead Kennedy's

Brand New Cadillac by The Brian Setzer Orchestra, although this is more a cover of Vince Taylor's original.

I Fought The Law by Bell X1



Now onto the rest of the covers. I've tried to avoid putting all the usual things here. There'll be plenty of covers you've heard before, but I've left out most of the hundred's of The Guns Of Brixton covers.

Lost In The Supermarket by Ben Folds

I'm So Bored With The USA by Arcade Fire

Clampdown by Indigo Girls

The Guns Of Brixton by Nouvelle Vague

Lost In The Supermarket by Petty Booka, described as Tokyo Bluegrass, this is as bizarre as you'd think.

Spanish Bombs by Brady Harris

Guns Of Brixton by Arcade Fire

Rudie Can't Fail by The Cocktail Preachers

Four Horseman by Creation Rockers

Train In Vain by Dwight Yoakam

Wrong Em Boyo by Buck-O-Nine

The Card Cheat by James Dean Bradfield

Koka Kola by La Furia, Spanish cover

Revolution Rock by Los Fabulosos Cadillacs

Lover's Rock by Mauri

Clampdown by The National

Jimmy Jazz by Skarabazoo

Death Or Glory by Social Distortion

The Right Profile by Southern Arts Society

I'm Not Down by Thea Gilmore

Straight To Hell by Josh Rouse

Bank Robber by Hot Tuna

Straight To Hell by Phil Cody

White Riot by Angelic Upstarts

The Guns Of Brixton by Calexico

Rock El Casbah by Rachid Taha

Let's Go Crazy by Storybox

I Fought The Law by Green Day

The Guns Of Brixton by Die Toten Hosen. My brother-in-law's favourite band, this is the first time I've heard them sing in English.

Police On My Back by Asian Dub Foundation & Zebda

White Riot by Dropkick Murphy's

Kingston Advice by Camper Van Beethoven

(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais by 311

Clash City Rockers by Anti-Flag, live at The Ramones' museum

English Civil War by The Levellers



Finally, because it's one of the greatest songs ever written, even if it isn't a cover:

Live - So Young

So Young (mp3) - Suede, live on Later with Jools Holland, 1993.

Along with REM Suede were the first band I ever really got into. Automatic For The People and Suede were on more or less constant play for me. My next door neighbour/close friend was listening to Fields Of Gold, it was the first time anything like music snobbery ever stirred in me.

On Shuffle

In A Sentimental Mood by Duke Ellington & John Coltrane. You all know how much I love John Coltrane's music, and I've featured Duke Ellington before. This is beautiful music, more relaxed playing than you may be used to from Coltrane.

The musicians are:

Duke Ellington - Piano
John Coltrane - Tenor saxophone (I know that the picture of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane has Coltrane with a soprano saxophone, but he plays tenor on this and five of the other tracks on Duke Ellington & John Coltrane and only plays soprano on one)
Aaron Bell - Contrabass
Elvin Jones - Drums



Song To Sing When I'm Lonely (acoustic demo) by John Frusciante. I think that no matter what type of music you like there's almost certainly something by John Frusciante for you.

A Change Is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke. I try to stay away from hyperbole when I blog, but this may be the best soul song ever. It's hard for me to choose between this and Otis Redding's cover, they're both phenomenal recordings. This song also has the finest use of the Frecn Horn I have ever heard.

Alison's Starting To Happen (live session version) by The Lemonheads. Much more laid back than the studio version.

The Calcination of Scout Niblett by Scout Niblett. This is very nice, some lovely minimalist drumming to go along with some fine vocals.

We Do Not Fuck Around by Viva Voce. From their last album as a two-piece. I'm pretty surprised that I've never featured any Viva Voce in the year and a bit since I started my blog, I love them and you should as well.

Covers for Sunday

When I Fall In Love by Miles Davis (originally by Doris Day) from Steamin' with The Miles Davis Quintet. The Miles Davis Quintet is:
Miles Davis – Trumpet
John Coltrane – Tenor saxophone
Red Garland – Piano
Paul Chambers – Bass
Philly Joe Jones – drums
so that's a pretty good place to start if you want to buy some Miles Davis, or even if you don't.



I Walk On Gilded Splinters by Paul Weller (originally by Dr John). I've heard this track, which has Noel Gallagher on acoustic guitar, come under some pretty heavy criticism compared to Dr John's original. I, obviously, think it's pretty good and really, if you expect Paul Weller to sound like Dr John that's hardly his fault.

Orion by Rodrigo Y Gabriela (originally by Metallica). I'm not a fan of Metallica, I have no idea how much this sounds like the original, I just know that it sounds really good.



Wish You Were Here by Sparklehorse feat Thom Yorke (originally by Pink Floyd) This is such an iconic song, it must be almost impossible to cover but this is a pretty good version.

No Ordinary Love by Deftones (originally by Sade) The Deftones do trip-hop.

Brandy by Red Hot Chili Peppers (originally by Looking Glass). From the Live in Hyde park album, before they disappeared under the weight of Stadium Arcadium. Nearly four and a half years since that was released now, new album due next year.

Finally, a video of Ace of Base's The Sign as covered by The Mountain Goats

On Shuffle

Three songs, as usual, but this time there's no jazz. I don't want to turn people off who aren't huge fans of jazz and besides, I''m hoping this is going to help motivate me into starting my jazz blog properly. When I do there'll still be jazz featured here, but it won't overwhelm the blog, which I sometimes think is a possibility.

New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down by LCD Soundsystem. This is my favourite LCD Soundsystem song, easily. I'm surprised I haven't posted it before, but it seems I've only posted LCD Soundsystem covers before.

15 Step by Radiohead featuring the USC marching band, live at the Grammy's in 2009. I'm not surprised that I haven't posted this before, but I am surprised there's been no version of 15 Step at all on this blog, considering how many versions seem to be floating around and it's a great song.

This Year by The Mountain Goats. Now this I was surprised to find I hadn't posted before. I've featured a few songs by The Mountain Goats before, but not this one even though it is comfortably my favourite.

Anyway, three omissions corrected, enjoy.

On Shuffle

This morning, gently coming round, drinking coffee and enjoying a day off work, I thought about the best early morning jazz to listen to. I came up with these three songs. There are plenty of others, but I think this is a pretty good early morning jazz selection.

Colour Yes by Matthew Halsall. There's so much right with this track. Nat Birchall's sax playing is gorgeous, it's rare to see a song get over a third of the way in before the band-leader starts playing. When Halsall's trumpet arrives it's more than worth the wait, this is 9 minutes plus of sheer brilliance.
The musicians are:

Matthew Halsall - Trumpet
Nat Birchall - Soprano Saxophone
Adam Fairhall - Piano
Gavin Barras - Contrabass
Marek Dorcik - Drums



Suspended Variation II by Tomasz Stanko Quartet. Last week I posted a live version of Cinema Paradiso by the Marcin Wasilewski Trio. The Tomasz Stanko Quartet features all three members of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio and Tomasz Stanko on trumpet. This is phenomenal music, it's from the album Suspended Variation which certainly deserves a place in your record collection.
The musicians are:
Tomasz Stanko - Trumpet
Marcin Wasilewski - Piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz - Contrabass
Michal Miskiewicz - Drums



I Remember Clifford by Lee Morgan. It wasn't ever my intention to feature songs from band leaders who play the trumpet. You may remember I posted John Coltrane's Lazy Bird from the album Blue Train a while back, that also featured Lee Morgan on trumpet. One of Lee Morgan's influences, and briefly a teacher, was Clifford Brown and this song was written in his memory by saxophonist Benny Golson. Clifford Brown died when he was only 25, having recorded for only four years but playing on 17 albums, Lee Morgan lived until 33. He recorded, as leader and sideman, 86 albums in a 16 year career. Happily Benny Golson is 81 and still recording and touring.
The musicians are:
Lee Morgan - Trumpet
Benny Golson - Saxophone
Gigi Gryce - Saxophone
Wynton Kelly - Piano
Paul Chambers - Contrabass (who also played with Lee Morgan on the above mentioned Blue Train, along with a whole host of other superb albums)
Charlie Persip - Drums

Covers for Sunday

I'm back on track now, caught up with everything and finally have enough time to bring you Covers for Sunday again.



Closer by Love Darling (originally by Kings Of Leon). A lovely cover, very different from the original, one of the nicest covers I've heard for a while.

Sweet Child O' Mine by Luna (originally by Guns N' Roses). A nice, laid back cover.

The Drawback by Telekinesis (originally by Joy Division) An excellent, short cover.

Summertime Blues by Blue Cheer (originally by Eddie Cochran). Rock version of an old rock and roll classic, this works very well without straying into parody.

Say It Ain't So by Kristy Brannon (originally by Weezer). Stripped back folk cover of one of my favourite Weezer songs.

The Eraser by Christian Scott (originally by Thom Yorke). I wanted a jazz cover to finish the blog off and I've been wanting to post this for a while. Given how popular Died In love was when I posted that I expect you'll all like this.

Icarus Himself

I've featured Icarus Himself before, two songs from the excellent debut album Coffins.

In case you've forgotten them here are the links again:

Sometimes I Can't Stand You, But That Doesn't Mean I Don't Want You Around by Icarus Himself (this may very well be the most played song on iTunes for me)

Precedents - Icarus Himself.

I described them as lo-fi, sarcastic, funny and cynical indie rock.

Now they've got a new EP out, (in fact it was released in May, I should have posted about it ages ago), called Mexico.



Mexico is all the things that Coffins is, but more. It may be that the more restricted focus of the EP format has led to more concentrated songs, whatever the reason this is a huge step forward from the already excellent Coffins. The songs are still minimalist and lo-fi, but in a much more textured way. Mexico sounds like Coffins with equal parts of Beirut, specifically the trumpet, and Wolf Parade, specifically Language City, mixed in. The songs sound murkier, the vocals less to the fore, but this just brings the songs together as a whole.

I know I'm not doing a great job of describing the sound, but that's because it is hard to describe. It's like a really weird case of deja vu, the first time you listen to it the EP sounds familiar but new. Anyway, I'm going to stop trying to describe it now and let you hear for yourself:



It's hard for me to pick a favourite track, but I think I'll go with Seen It Coming (Mexico) the last track from the EP. Give Mexico a try, you will love it.

Buy it (and debut album Coffins) here

Visit their myspace here They're doing an 11 gig tour of some of the northern states (4 of the gigs are in Wisconsin) later this month and into October, dates are on myspace, and you can stream 2 songs from Mexico and 4 from Coffins while you're there.

Live - Cinemo Paradiso

Here's some live jazz from a piano trio that, for a change, isn't The Bad Plus. Of course everyone who reads this knows how much I love The Bad Plus, and I seem to have introduced/converted some of you to their greatness as well. However part of the reason I post jazz here is to introduce people who don't normally listen to jazz to exceptional music. The other part is because I still haven't got my jazz blog up and running yet.

Anyway. Here's the Marcin Wasilewski Trio. Contrast them to, say, The Bad Plus, or the Esbjörn Svensson Trio and it'll give you a good example of how different and versatile piano trio jazz can be. All three bands had the same instruments and play the same genre but their music is easily recognisable as different from the others. The thing that unites them is the quality of the music.

This interpretation of Ennio Morricone's composition is a very laid back, beautiful peice of music. It has Slawomir Kurkiewicz playing his contrabass with a bow to start the song and Michal Miskiewicz drums with brushes. These are two of my favourite sounds in music.

Cinemo Paradiso (mp3) - Marcin Wasilewski Trio, live.

On Shuffle

Still short on time, hopefully I'll be able to catch up in the next couple of days. Until then, here's a selection of music I've been listening too lately.

Politics In Space by Kate Miller-Heidke. This is an absurdly catchy song and very enjoyable.

This Is How It Feels by Inspiral Carpets. If you only know one Inspiral Carpets song it's almost certainly this.

Dream A Little Of Me by Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong. This has been covered many times, but for me this is the best version. Louis Armstrong's trumpet playing fits in perfectly with the song and his voice fits with Ella Fitzgerald's flawless vocals.



Who're You by Fela Kuti & the Africa 70. I've known about Fela Kuti for a few years now, but it's only recently that I've really started listening to him. That's just wasted time, it's some of the best music I've ever heard.



On Green Dolphin Street by Lee Konitz. Now 82 Lee Konitz has been releasing albums as a band leader since 1949. He released two last year making for a 60 year career, so far. To put it in context that's 20 years longer than Leonard Cohen's recording career, so far. He also played alto sax on the 1949 sessions that would become Miles Davis' Birth Of The Cool. He's a real giant of jazz, this recording comes from the 1974 album Satori. I think the interplay between Konitz on alto sax and Martial Solal on piano on this track is especially brilliant.

Live - Invitation

Another week with little time and less blogging. I'm sorry to everyone who reads my blog, I'll make it up to you. I'm especially sorry to everyone who is waiting for me to reply to an e-mail, I will get back to you as soon as I can.

In the meantime here's some superb jazz to tide you over, Roy Hargrove's interpretation of the jazz standard Invitation. Invitation was composed by Bronisław Kaper for the movie of the same name.

Invitation (mp3) by Roy Hargrove, live.

On Shuffle

I know I've been neglcting you all lately, and I'm short of time now. I hope the following six songs will help you to forgive me a little.

All Tomorrow's Parties (single version) by The Velvet Underground

Seven Come Eleven by Benny Goodman Sextet

Fine Print by The Henry Clay People

Merchandise by Fugazi

You're Gonna Miss Me by 13th Floor Elevators

Tirade Of A Shitty Mom by $100

Covers for Sunday

Let My Love Open The Door by M Ward (originally by Pete Townshend). I won't waste my time or yours telling you again how much I enjoy M Ward's work. The original was Pete Townshend's first solo single release.

I Know There's An Answer by Sonic Youth (originally by The Beach Boys). If you're even a little bit familiar with either of these bands, and let's face it you are, you can probably guess how good this is.

Alison by Everything But The Girl (originally by Elvis Costello). I'm not a huge fan of Everything But The Girl, perhaps because my elder brother was. This comes from 1992 and gives a reasonable taster of their sound before the huge hit that was Missing.

London Calling by Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt and Dave Grohl (originally by The Clash). I was a bit sceptical about this before I heard it, I thought it might be a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. I was wrong, this is excellent.

Addicted To Love by Tom Hanway & Blue Horizon (originally by Robert Palmer). Another bluegrass cover, and an excellent one at that, I know how much you all enjoy these.

C.R.E.A.M. by El Michels Affair (originally by The Wu Tang Clan). A while back I posted the El Michels Affair's cover of Bring Da Ruckus. This is cut from the same cloth; laid back, funk & soul influenced genius.

Live - Cut My Wings

Seasick Steve just came out of nowhere, his popularity in Britain seeming to blossom overnight. From unknown to playing the Hootenanny in, seemingly, one small step his brand of electric blues was combined with the persona of an American stereotype that everyone here recognises. But the persona, 'real' or not, should distract from the music. To judge Seasick Steve on how he dresses in no different from kids jumping on popstars bandwagon's because of the way they look or TV viewers voting on X Factor because someone seems nice.

In truth not all of Seasick Steve's music is that great. Post-Dog House Music especially there have been songs that haven't worked, perhaps the albums wouldn't have gained the same level of attention and acclaim if not for the persona. Never mind, when he's on form his music is phenomenal.

Cut My Wings (mp3) - seasick Steve, live at Reading in 2007. Future historians will also be able to use this video to prove that once we did have sunny days in England, even if only in the south.

Live - Rapper's Delight

Remember when hip-hop was all about funk, when it featured disco beats and verses about bad meals at a friend's house? I am, of course, talking about Rapper's Delight, the first hip-hop record. It was released in late 1979 and the video, fashions and all, illustrates the era pretty perfectly.

Rapper's Delight (mp3) - The Sugarhill Gang, live.

Covers for Sunday

Technical issues/idiocy resolved, Covers for Sunday is back.



Silly Love by Downtown/Union (originally by Daniel Johnston). I found this when I was listening to Downtown/Union for Saturday's post. I thought it'd be much better suited to today's blog, so here it is.

The Message by Stiff Little Fingers (originally by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five). This is from the album Tinderbox which my wife bought for me when she was visiting her family/attending a class reunion in Germany. I'm a lucky guy, I know. Anyway, if you've heard Stiff Little Fingers before you'll already know how good this cover is. And if you haven't, shame on you.

The Eternal by Kings of Convenience (originally by Joy Division). This is a b-side to Failure, from the same disk as the cover of Free Falling. That cover was really popular, a great cover by a band at their peak. This is, if anything, even better.

Baby by Maria McAteer and Björn Dahlberg (originally by Justin Bieber). Justin Bieber, words I never thought I'd type, especially not for this blog. But last week I got an e-mail from pianist Björn Dahlberg introducing this cover to me. Safe to say I've never heard the original, but this cover's pretty good. The video's well worth checking out. Björn Dahlberg and vocalist Maria McAteer went to Brighton beach and got people to mime the lyrics. With the magic of video editing, which if you've ever dabbled with you know can be a huge pain, they produced this:



You can listen to more of Maria McAteer here and buy it here.

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by Damien Rice (originally by U2). Another very good Damien Rice cover, just as good as the other's I've posted.

Cousins by Mumford and Sons (originally by Vampire Weekend). It took me a while to warm to Mumford and Sons, this cover took me a few listens to really grow on me but I'm glad it did.

Downtown/Union

Some more new music for you, Downtown/Union from LA this time around. I've been listening to Keep The Engine Running for a couple of weeks now, but circumstances have conspired to stop me from posting it until now. Keep The Engine Running is from the EP Astral Turf. The full EP is available to stream and/or buy from their website and I recommend you spend some time listening to them. They're an indie/garage rock band that sound like Pavement with Kevin Barnes on vocals with little bits of The Henry Clay People, Dinosaur Jr and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion mixed in. or, to put it another way, they sound very good. Enjoy.

Keep The Engine Running by Downtown/Union.

Visit their website and their Myspace. The Myspace page has a few other tracks to listen to and some videos.

Live - Serenade For The Renegade

This some of the most captivating music I've heard for a long time. It pulls you in. It's hard to listen to this and think that music this textured can be made by only three people. Dan Berglund's contrabass is solid and driving throughout, but towards the end when he begins to play with a bow the whole piece takes a step forward, just another example of why the Esbjörn Svensson Trio were some of the greatest modern jazz musicians and what a whole Esbjörn Svensson's death leaves in music. His piano playing on this recording is, as always, phenomenal, creating the atmosphere for the music, weaving his playing with his band mates to create something outstanding. Magnus Öström's percussion is the final part of the track, he plays the drums with brushes. Like all good percussionists his playing is the backbone of the music, he manages to play subtly with brushes but doesn't lapse into anything other than relentless drumming. Relentless may be the best word to describe this performance, it grabs you and doesn't let go.

Serenade For The Renegade (mp3) - Esbjörn Svensson Trio, live in 2003.

Covers for Sunday

It's been a quiet week I know/ I took the end of the week off from blogging to celebrate the 5th anniversary of my wife and I being married. Every day with her has been a blessing and every day she's resisted the temptation to bludgeon me to death is a small miracle.

Here are your covers for this week:

Save Me A Place by White Arrows (originally by Fleetwood Mac). I'm sure I've mentioned before, but I've never been a fan of Fleetwood Mac. Covers like this make me think they may be worth revisiting. It's in a similar vein to Vampire Weekend's cover of Everywhere and is worth listening to.

Dancing In The Dark by Julian Casablancas (originally by Bruce Springsteen). This may be the best Springsteen cover I've ever heard.

End Of The World by Girls (originally by Skeeter Davis). Plenty of blog hype for Girls, I'm not sure they always deserve it but this cover is absolutely top notch.

Across The Universe by Fiona Apple (originally by The Beatles). This should be pretty self-explanatory. It's a great song covered by a singer with a really goodd voice. Not surprisingly it works really well.

Cowgirl In The Sand by Julian Plenti (originally by Neil Young). It's been a while since I've featured a Neil Young cover and this, by Interpol's Paul Banks, is a good way to rectify that.

Record Review - 8mm

As I've said before one of the things I like about this blog is discovering new music. Bloggers have trouble with DMCA notices and it can be extremley frustrating but when somebody gets in touch with you and shares music with you because your blog is a good way for other people to come across their music then that's very rewarding.

A couple of Sunday's ago I featured 8mm's cover of Bad Moon Rising, which was pretty popular until a DMCA notice killed it. There's a new link to the file, so chances are if you're reading this you've heard the cover. If you haven't, here's the link again:

Bad Moon Rising by 8m (originally by Creedence Clearwater Revival). Even if you haven't heard the cover, chances are you've heard them on the various TV and movie soundtracks they've featured on in the last few years.

8mm have released an EP called Love And The Apocalypse, and that's what I'm reviewing.



Firstly, the cover of Bad Moon Rising was good, but it's not really that much like the music on the EP. As good as the cover is Love and The Apocalypse is better. A lot better.

8mm have been described as a mix of Tricky, Portishead and PJ Harvey but I don't think that describes this album. To me Tricky and Portishead produce music that's dense, it's the sound of inner-city England but 8mm, despite still being down-tempo, have much airier sound, much freer and almost carefree. It's the perfect music to listen to on a sunny day, the sort of music that brings happy memories to mind. It's pop music in the very best sense of the word.

That's not to say that it's in anyway disposable, throwaway music. The lyrics aren't carefree but they sit perfectly with the contrastingly mellow music. And the comparison of vocalist Juliette Beavan with PJ Harvey is a fair comparison. Mostly they remind me of Viva Voce when they were still a two-piece.

8mm are vocalist Juliette Beavan, her husband and multi-instrumentalist Sean Beavan (who's almost guaranteed to have mixed and/or produced something you own) and drummer Jon Nicholson.

This EP's full of songs that get stuck in your head and is well worth adding to your collection, I highly recommend it.

Here's a couple of videos of Deep Blue You from the EP:



The track listing is:

Los Angeles
Deep Blue You
Mean (my favourite track from the EP)
Never Go Back Again
Life Is Good
One For The Road.

Buy it here from iTunes.

Visit 8mm's website and myspace.



As a bonus here's the video for Stunning from their 2006 album Songs To Love And Die By:

Covers for Sunday

Only five songs for you this week, but you know I'll make it up to you.

Hungry For Your Love by Glen Hansard (originally by Van Morrison). You may remember Glen Hansard's brilliant cover of Hairshirt. If you do ou already know how good this is going to be. If you don't, well, you're in for a treat.

How Come That Blood by Sam Amidon (originally by Bessie Jones). Something that got thrown up on shuffle today and before it was halfway through I knew it'd be posted on Covers for Sunday. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

It Ain't Me Babe by Robin Pecknold (originally by Bob Dylan). Better known as the lead vocalist from Fleet Foxes Robin Pecknold delivers a fantastic cover of this classic.

All I Want Is You by Mark Geary (originally by U2). This is one of my favourite U2 songs, it's got that sort of understated hyperbole that should be impossible but that U2 in their prime pulled off all the time.

Hateful by No Doubt (originally by The Clash). Hateful is possibly my favourite Clash song. Certainly my favourite of their non-singles. This is a pretty good cover from the days before Gwen Stefani decided to be a pop diva.

On Shuffle

Still short on time, here's a short selection of the music I've been listening to lately.

The Future by Leonard Cohen. From the Live In London album recorded in 2008 and released in 2009. This is an incredible version of an incredible song, I think this song is just so well written, I could listen to it over & over. Amazing to think he was only 3 months away from his 74th birthday when he played this gig.

Sometimes I Can't Stand You, But That Doesn't Mean I Don't Want You Around by Icarus Himself. I've featured Icarus Himself before, but this is my favourite song from Coffins. It may also be one of the best song titles ever.

Bagpipe Blues by Rufus Harley. Nothing I type can possibly do justice to this excellent jazz recording so I won't even try. Just download it and love it.

Live - Remembering

I know I've been neglecting you all lately, so here's something by way of recompense.

Remembering (mp3) by the Avishai Cohen Trio

It's beautiful, delicate jazz that I think everyone will enjoy.

Covers for Sunday - Jazz Edition

The second Covers for Sunday this week and the second ever Covers for Sunday - Jazz Edition. Last time I did this it was really popular, I hope you all enjoy this one as well. If you didn't catch the last jazz edition it's here.

The premise is fairly simple, six jazz covers of songs. Some are covers of other jazz songs and others are jazz covers of non-jazz songs. Some of these songs will be pretty well known, others less so. The same goes for the musicians involved.

Hey Ya by 6iJazz (originally by Outkast). 6iJazz are an Icelandic jazz band, they've been around since 2005 but they don't have a lot of recorded music yet, or a complete band line-up (they're looking for a pianist). Still, this is a very good cover. It starts off all lounge/smooth jazz but soon develops into something much, much better. Check them out on myspace.

Wonderwall by Brad Mehldau Trio (originally by Oasis). You knew there'd be something by Brad Mehldau, right? He may be the most featured jazz artist on my blog, I think his covers/interpretations are top-notch and an easy way for non-jazz fans to find there way into jazz. But his work is far more than just covers, he's an incredible talent with a discography far longer than you'd expect from a musician who's been active for only 17 years.



The Creator Has A Masterplan by Louis Armstrong (originally by Pharaoh Sanders). Pharaoh Sanders, one of the free jazz saxaphone Trinity (the others being John Coltrane and Albert Ayler) wrote The Creator Has A Master Plan with vocalist Leon Thomas. It features on his album Karma and is over 32 minutes long. Louis Armstrong covered this towards the end of his life in 1969, the same year as Pharaoh Sanders. His version clocks in at just over 4 minutes. The novelty of Louis Armstrong covering a free jazz song soon wears off and you're left to appreciate just how good a recording this is, just how much talent the increasing ill Louis Armstrong still had.

Autumn In New York by Charlie Parker (originally by Billie Holiday). J. Harold Murray sang this first in the Broadway production Thumbs Up! but Billie Holiday recorded it first, as far as I can tell. Charlie Parker's recording seems to be the first instrumental version of what would soon become a jazz standard and would eventually be covered by everone from Frank Sinatra to Sun Ra.



Black Narcissus by Jim Snidero (originally by Joe Henderson). Ken from Jazz SDP (link in my blogroll) rates Joe Henderson as one of the top 10 jazz musicians from 1950 to 1965. I don't rank him quite that highly, but there's no doubt the tenor-saxophonist's music is very good. Alto-saxophonist Jim Snidero agrees, this comes from his album The Music Of Joe Henderson. If you want to listen to more jazz but you're put off by free or avant-garde jazz this is a great place for you to start. Straight-ahead jazz, really well played.

Evidence by Steve Lacy (originally by Thelonious Monk). Steve Lacy played dixieland, or traditional if you prefer, jazz and he played avant-garde jazz. He played with Thelonious Monk in 1958 and 1960 and regularly played his music. Thelonious Monk is undoubtedly one of the most important jazz composers to ever write (and a fantastic musician) and Steve Lacy interprets his work as well as anyone and better than most.

Covers for Sunday

The first of two Covers for Sunday this week, there'll also be a Covers for Sunday Jazz edition posted soon. Check it out but first, here are six non-jazz covers for you.

No Cars Go by Final Fantasy (originally by Arcade Fire) I'm sure you'll all be aware of the massive amount of Arcade Fire hype at the moment because they've released their third album, suburbs. That's not why this is here though, it's here because I think the violin playing on it is really pretty good.

I'll Keep It With Mine by Mike and Ruthy (originally by Nico). I know technically this is a Bob Dylan song, but Nico's version was released first so it's hard to say she covered it. Apparantly Bob Dylan 'gave' it to her and she released it on the John Cale produced album Chelsea Girls.

Let's Dance by The Futureheads (originally by David Bowie)
The Man Who Sold The World by The Section Quarter (originally by David Bowie)
I hadn't planned on having two David Bowie cover this week, it's just how it worked out. The Futureheads version is pretty faithful to the original and The Section Quartet's is, as you may have guessed, all done with strings.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps by Built To Spill (originally by The Beatles). A long but pretty faithful cover of one of George Harrison's best songs.

The Killing Moon by Pavement (originally by Echo & The Bunnymen). I was sure I'd already posted this, but it seems I haven't. How remiss of me. Now we have two versions of this song in a week (I posted a live version on Thursday).

That's it for now, don't forget to check back soon for Covers for Sunday - Jazz Edition.

Uncovered on Saturday

It's been a while since we've had one of these. In case you don't know the premise of these posts is I take bands that I've featured in Covers for Sunday and feature an original song by them. Each band is only featured once. Obviously cover bands don't feature in these posts at all.

As each band is only featured once in Uncovered for Saturday but can be featured several times in Covers for Sunday it means Uncovered is slowly catching up. That's why I've been making less Uncovered on Saturday posts lately, for instance last Saturday saw a jazz post.

That's enough talking I think, now for the songs.

Hold Me Now by Polyphonic Spree

A Brighter Beat by Malcolm Middleton & The Hold Steady

I Guess It's Gonna Rain Today by Sondre Lercher

Charlie Darwin by The Low Anthem

Mustang Sally by Wilson Pickett

There Are Maybe Ten Or Twelve by A.C. Newman

On Shuffle

It's late so you'll have to forgive the lack of writing, but I'm sure the music will more than make up for it.

Upon Viewing Brueghel's Landscape With The Fall Of Icarus by Titus Andronicus. I love the name of this song, and the song itself is pretty good too. I think The Monitor, there second album, is better than The Airing Of Grievances, their first album which this track comes from.

Here is Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by, possibly, Pieter Breughel:



Icarus' legs are visible below the ship in the bottom right of the painting.

The Killing Moon (live) by Echo and The Bunnymen. I'm sure you've all heard the studio version of this song many times, there's nothing for me to say.

Yulia by Wolf Parade. My favourite song from Expo 86. So far anyway.

Live - Died In Love

Here's some more jazz for you, since last Saturday's selection went down so well. This is some of the best jazz I've come across recently. I'm not going to talk much about it, I think with this track it's best to let the music speak for itself. I'll just say that I think this track is something that can be enjoyed by those who like jazz and those who generally dislike it. It's a pretty good starting point for those of you who are new to jazz as well.

Died In Love (mp3) - Christian Scott, live at the Newport Jazz Festival, 9th of August 2008.

Covers for Sunday

Update: Sorry this post disappeared for a while, I had a DMCA take down notice. It turns out that the cover of Bad Moon Rising was the track behind the notice, something I find incredibly frustrating because, again, it was a song I had permission to post.

People Who Died by Ariel Aparicio (originally by the Jim Carroll Band). I've really enjoyed this cover, it's been on pretty heavy rotation since I first heard it. It sounds a bit like The Strokes being fronted by Iggy Pop, it's a pure slice of garage rock.

I Can Change by See Green (originally by LCD Soundsystem). Pretty different from the original, this is played to the band's strengths and sounds really good because of it.



Bad Moon Rising by 8mm (originally by Creedence Clearwater Revival). A laid back cover, in some ways sounding trip-hopish and at other times countrified. A very nice, understated cover. The guitar playing in this is a real highlight as are the laidback vocals.




Never Tear Us Apart by Fruit Bats (originally by INXS). This is a lovely indie folk cover, just a pleasure to listen to.

Enjoy your covers.

Some Jazz For You

Recently I've posted a few jazz tracks and they have been well received. I've included jazz since more or less the start of my blog. At first it wasn't too popular but over the year or so I've been blogging the popularity of the jazz I've included has steadily increased. I don't know if this is because I've gained newer readers that are interested in jazz or because my older readers have decided to try out some of the jazz I've posted and found they've liked it. Perhaps a combination of the two.

Anyway, it's with this in mind I've decided to feature some jazz songs today. I hope you'll enjoy them.

Rhapsody In Blue by Duke Ellington. This is from his album 'Will The Big Bands Ever Come Back?' that was released in 1965. 11 of the 12 tracks on that album, including this one, were included as a bonus disc for the 1989 re-release of Recollections of the Big Band Era, an album recorded in 1692 & 1963 but not released until 1974.

There's too much that I could write about Duke Ellington, anything I do write would omit so much it'd be selling him short. So I'll just give you some random trivia about him. His first major soundtrack work was for the film Anatomy Of A Murder (possibly the finest court-room drama ever). The film was banned in South Africa because of a scene that sees Duke Ellington and Jimmy Stewart play the piano together.



This song is one of my favourite of Ellington's. It's the track I use on my alarm, it's a lovely way to be woken up every morning.

Body & Soul by Charlie Haden Quartet West. Charlie Haden may be the first free jazz bassist. He played on The Shape Of Jazz To Come & Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, both Ornette Coleman recordings and may be most famous for these recordings. He's recorded with lots more great jazz musicians, far too many to mention. If you read this blog somewhat regularly then you'll probably be aware of Brad Mehldau's Radiohead covers. Charlie Haden and Brad Mehldau played together on Lee Konitz's album 'Alone Together'. You may also remember Petra Haden's cover of Tattoo, originally by the who. She's one of Haden's children.



Body & Soul is one of the most recorded jazz standards of all time, right up their with Round Midnight and When The Saints Go Marching In. This version is one of the best, I think. Along with haden's playing the saxaphone playing of Ernie Watts is great.

I'll Remember April by Ethan Iverson Trio. If you're only ever occasionally glanced at this blog before you'll know Ethan Iverson. Most well known around here as the pianist from The Bad Plus this track is from the album Deconstruction Zone, an album of jazz standards and a companion to the album of original compositions called, as you can probably guess, Construction Zone. Reid Anderson plays bass on these albums, just like he does with The Bad Plus, but it's Jorge Rossy rather than Dave King who plays drums. The Bad Plus is, at least too me, more of an equally partnership of musicians, but the Ethan Iverson Trio is, as the name suggests, much more about Iverson's playing.

Live - Bloodbuzz Ohio

It wasn't my plan to not post earlier this week, but I've just been too busy. If you've e-mailed me I'm sorry I haven't replied yet, but I will very soon.

As part apology for my lack of posts this week here is The National playing Bloodbuzz Ohio live on Jools Holland. This song comes from the album High Violet which I have absolutely fallen in love with in a way that I very rarely do with an album. So if you don't own it I strongly recommend that you buy it at the first opportunity.

Bloodbuzz Ohio (mp3) - The National, love on The Jools Holland Show.

Covers for Sunday - The Kinks edition

Welcome to the 3rd edition of Covers for Sunday with a featured band. This time around I'm featuring The Kinks.



The first time around it was The Strokes. The amount of covers of The Strokes I had suggested the idea to me, so it seemed natural I feature them first. Next Up were The Velvet Underground. My favourite band and a hugely influential band to all sorts of musicians they seemed the perfect choice for the next edition.

And now, The Kinks. One of my very favourite bands, when I first started reading blogs it surprised me how many American bloggers liked The Kinks and how many American bands admired them and covered them. I know they had a lot of success in the US as part of the British Invasion and I wasn't really surprised by people liking You Really Got Me, All Day And All of The Night and Lola, they are great songs that sold well in the US.

But songs like Waterloo Sunset, Dead End Street, Autumn Almanac and Days surprised me with their popularity. These songs, and plenty of others, seem to me to be quintessentially English songs, everything from the music hall influences to the lyrics seem rooted in Englishness. I know it's possible to like music that comes from a different culture, but The Kinks are more than that I think. So I guess it's a tribute to the lyrics of Ray Davies more than anything that these songs became so popular to people who have no experience of what they're about. That's not to anyway attempt to diminish the brilliance of Dave Davies guitar playing and general musicianship. Here's a nice quote from Pete Townshend:

"The Kinks were ... quintessentially English. I always think that Ray Davies should one day be poet laureate. He invented a new kind of poetry and a new kind of language for pop writing that influenced me from the very, very, very beginning."

Let's start with the video for Dead End Street. This is one of the first music videos and it, and the song, were pretty much ripped off wholesale by Oasis for The Importance Of being Idle.



Now, onto the covers. Covers by The Kinks first, of which there aren't many. I know they covered Dancing In The Streets, but I don't have a copy of it.

Louie, Louie by The Kinks (originally by Richard Berry and The Pharaohs). Apparently it was while trying to figure out the chords to this that Ray Davis wrote You Really Got Me.

And now I'm going to cheat a bit. The next three songs were all written by Ray Davies but were first performed by other artists. So they may not be covers in the strictest sense, but it's a good excuse to have more songs by The Kinks here.

I Go To Sleep (Demo) by The Kinks (originally recorded by Peggy Lee)

Dandy by The Kinks (originally recorded by Herman's Hermits)

A House In The Country by The Kinks (originally recorded by The Pretty Things) The Pretty Things got to number 50 in the UK with this, the last time they troubled the chart compliers.

These covers have all been featured before on Covers for Sunday:

Everybody's Going To Be Happy by Queens Of The Stone Age. One of my favourite covers of The Kinks, it's very close to the original and shows Queens Of The Stone Age's range very well.

David Watts by The Jam. The first cover of The Kinks I ever heard. The lead vocals on this are done by Bruce Foxton rather than Paul Weller.

Moments by Spoon
Set Me Free by Spoon. I've said it before, I'd gladly by a double album by Spoon with just covers of The Kinks on it.

Nothin' In This World Can Stop Me Worryin' Bout That Girl by The Morning Benders.

Tell Me Now So I Know by Holly Golightly


Now, finally, here are your Covers for Sunday, featuring the songs of The Kinks:

Waterloo Sunset by Cornershop. This captures the song perfectly I think, the Indian instruments fit very well with the overall feel of the song.

Waterloo Sunset by David Bowie.

Better Things by Dar Williams

Victoria by The Kooks.

Days by Of Montreal.

Lola by The Raincoats

You Really Got Me by Bruce Springsteen. The sound quality on this is a little shaky at first, but it's fine once the song starts. This is a great live cover.

I Go To Sleep by Soulwax. Some covers change almost everything about the original but still sound great, like an evolution of the original. Soulwax do that here, they make the song their own without losing anything of the original's charm.

I Go To Sleep by The Pretenders. Maybe the most famous cover of a song by The Kinks and probably one of The Pretenders five most famous songs.

Strangers by Jason Bajada (feat: Anna Ruddick & Maia Davies from Ladies of The Canyon). I've featured Jason Bajada before, covering Wolf Parade. This live cover isn't up to those, admittedly high, standards, but it is still good.

Too Much On My Mind by Glenn Page

Til The End Of The Day by Christopher Allan Diadora

You Really Got Me by Van Halen. This seems to be a famous cover, but I had no idea it existed until I started researching this post.

I Go To Sleep by Sia

Dead End Street by Backyard Tire Fire

Waterloo Sunset by Elliott Smith
Dead End Street by Elliott Smith

Chances are you've heard both of these Elliott Smith covers before, if not you've been missing out. I think Elliott Smith would be a great musician for a future Covers for Sunday edition like this.

Strangers by Norah Jones. If you're like me you're probably not a fan of Norah Jones. This may not change your mind, it hasn't changed mine, but it remains an excellent cover.

Strangers by Portugal The Man

This Is Where I Belong by Ron Sexsmith. Strange coincidence, yesterday I finished reading Speaking With the Angel, a collection of short stories edited by Nick Hornby and named after a Ron Sexsmith song. Well worth buying & reading as well.

Days by Guster

Waterloo Sunset by Robyn Hitchcock

Act Nice And Gentle by The Black Keys

Victoria by Ema And The Ghosts

Nothin' In This World Can Stop Me Worryin' Bout That Girl by Feist

Art Lover by Holly Ramos

The Village Green Preservation Society by Kate Rusby

Days by Kirsty MacColl

Nothin' In This World Can Stop Me Worryin' Bout That Girl by Mark Lanegan

Situation Vacant by Spoon. More Spoon goodness, a great cover of a lesser known song.

Come Dancing by The Walkmen. I love The Walkmen, Canadian Girl is a favourite of mine. Come Dancing was The Kinks first single to reach the Top-20 of the UK charts in 10 and a half years.

Tired Of Waiting by Green Day. I had no idea Green Day had covered The Kinks, and if I'd been told I doubt I'd have guessed this was the song they'd covered. It is a good cover though.

Dead End Street by The Jam. As the first cover of The Kinks I ever heard was by The Jam this will be the last song for tonight.

Uncovered on Saturday

It's been a while since I've done an uncovered post, the plan is still to do one every Saturday.

Lazy Bird by John Coltrane. It's my belief that John Coltrane is the greatest musician that ever lived. I rarely post his music here, this is only the third time I've done so and it's the first time I've featured an original Coltrane composition. You should then have already guessed that it wasn't easy for me to choose a track for this from all of his recordings. In the end I went with this hard-bop track from the album Blue Train, Coltrane's first real album as leader. Recorded in 1957 this was the last track from the album. The musicians on it are:

John Coltrane (tenor saxophone)
Lee Morgan (trumpet)
Curtis Fuller (trombone)
Kenny Drew (piano)
Paul Chambers (contrabass)
Philly Lee Jones (drums)



All are exceptional on this, although Coltrane's playing towers over them. I really enjoy Lee Morgan's playing on this, incredible to think he was only 19 and already playing so well. Paul Chambers solo is very enjoyable as well, he plays most of the bass on this track by plucking but uses a bow for the solo which is followed by a great solo from Philly Jones Lee.
Anyway. I chose this track because it's great, obviously, but also because it's easy to listen to if it's your first exposure to jazz or you're already a veteran listener.

This Love by Pantera. A rather large difference between the first and second tracks I'm sure you'll agree. Apart from their cover of Cat Scratch Fever the only Pantera songs I own are from a magazine giveaway compilation from, I think, 1997. So I listened to them both and chose this.

Every Little Earthquake by Little Boots. You might be wondering why Little Boots is on this blog, it's not exactly the sort of thing I normally post after all. Nor is it the sort of music I normally listen to. But I did like her cover of Rich Girls by The Virgins, (her cover was called Rich Boys), so that's why there's a Little Boots song here. I know nothing about Little Boots really, but apparently it was also Caligula's nick-name. I do know a few things about Caligula, so here's a random fact for you all. He was the son of the nephew of the adopted son of the adopted son of Julius Caesar.

Electro Snake by Ryan Adams. Just on the off chance you missed this when it was on more or less every blog a couple of months ago.

Deep Dark Truthful Mirror by Elvis Costello. Obviously there are loads of songs too choose from with this Elvis as well. I went with this rather than one of the usual songs that are associated with him. Not to be obscure but because it's a great song, the drums and horns are particularly good.

A New England by Billy Bragg. And this time I decided to go with the obvious choice, just to be contrary. I love this song, "It's wrong to wish on space hardware" is one of my favourite lyrics.

Live - Some Kind Of Nature

It's early, I've just woken up and I have to go to work soon. So, no words, just music.

Some Kind Of Nature (mp3) - Gorillaz feat Lou Reed, live at Glastonbury 2010.

Live - Lord Help My Poor Soul

I'm going to take an educated guess here and say that you probably know Fionn Regan for his fantastic Mercury Nominated debut album The End Of History.

Or perhaps you know him as the possessor of the greatest bowl haircut since Luke Skywalker.



Either way, you probably haven't heard as much of his more electric guitar based music which can be found on his second album The Shadow of an Empire. The album has altogether more of a rock feel than his debut, which sits firmly in the acoustic singer-songwriter tradition.

Predictably there was plenty of criticism at his change of direction. I fail to see why this happens so much. Why do we expect musicians to make record after record sound the same. Don't we like these people because they are creative? To then complain when they don't just create slightly different versions of the same thing over and over seems to me to be fairly idiotic. If the new direction results in poor music then I can almost understand the criticism. But that's certainly not the case here. I think this song shows off the quality of his new material and, in particular, his guitar playing.

Lord Help My Poor Soul (mp3) - Fionn Regan (live at Dolan's, Limerick 6th March 2010)

Covers for Sunday

No posts at all this week. I decided at pretty short notice to take a week off work, so I thought I'd take a week's holiday from blogging as well. I'll make it up to you though.

Here's this week's covers, next week's Covers will be the third Covers for Sunday that focuses on one band. The first two posts, featuring The Strokes & The Velvet Underground, were really popular, next week it'll be the turn of The Kinks.

When by Maximo Park (originally by Vincent Gallo). Very, very different from the original. Pretty far away from most of Maximo Park's music as well. In fact, and this isn't a comparison I make lightly, it doesn't sound too far away from Joy Division.

The Devil Went Down To Georgia by Blues Traveller (originally by The Charlie Daniels Band). A live country rock cover, full of energy, excellent fiddle playing and some really good, drone-esque, guitar playing during the long fiddle solo.

Day n Nite by Chaingang (originally by Kid Cudi). I detest the original version of this. It's one of the songs my kids like and I just can't understand why.

Time Is Running Out by Alex Cornell (originally by Muse). Strips out the bombast of the original without diminishing it at all and compliments Muse's version pretty perfectly.

Romeo and Juliet by Matt Ryd (originally by Dire Straits). I started listening to this and liked it, but I'd managed to change my opinion by the time I reached the end of the song I'd changed my mind. It just goes on for too long. I'm not exactly a Dire Straits fan, quite the opposite, ao I may not be the best person to judge this.

Diamond Sea by Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs (originally by Sonic Youth). Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs seem to be a bit of a love or hate band amongst people I know. There are however some songs almost everyone enjoys. This is one of them.

Covers for Sunday

I haven't been posting as much lately, so apologies for that. Hopefully I'll be back on track this week. And if I'm not you'll still have these six covers to comfort you.

Feel Good Inc by Editors (originally by Gorillaz). This works so much better than I'd imagined. Tom Smith has such a dense heavy voice, this song sounds like it's part of the soundtrack to the end of the world.

No Love Lost by LCD Soundsystem (originally by Joy Division). And so does this. Obviously I don't think that the end of the world would be in anyway a good thing, but at least the soundtrack will be pretty good. Every cloud has a silver lining and all that.

Crossroad Blues by Tom Hanway (originally by Robert Johnson). Crossroad Blues is one of the great early blues recordings, something everyone should have in their collection. This is a bluegrass cover, it's well done and gives a new different look at a very familiar song.

First Of The Gang To Die by Zee Avi (originally by Morrissey). This'd be a lot better if it finished 30 seconds or so earlier, but it's still a good cover. Drawn-out and fragile while the original is punchy and compact this is a nice compliment to Morrissey's recording.

Here Comes Your Man by Meaghan Smith (originally by The Pixies). I'm not sure what to make of this, it seems both similar and different to the original. It's really enjoyable to listen to, either way.

When Love Comes To Town by Declan O'Rourke (originally by U2 feat BB King). Another cover of a song featuring a blues legend. Robert Johnson and BB King are pretty much opposite musically and professionally. Robert Johnson was little recorded and left behind a legacy filled as much with myth and legend as with fact. In contrast BB King has played over 15,000 shows, there are more BB King albums than Robert Johnson songs. However both are blues legends and both have influenced plenty of guitarists.

None of that is anyway related to the song, but it is a great cover.

Enjoy the songs and I'll see you next week. Hopefully more regularly than this week.

Live - The Wagon

I grew up with two elder siblings a sister and a brother. My sister is 12 years older than me and had, and frankly still does have, pretty terrible taste in music. My brother, who is 9 years older than me, had great taste in music. He still more or less has good taste, but I know he has a Best Of The Beautiful South, although he denies it and that worries me.

Anyway. One of the advantages of having an older brother with good taste was growing up around music, starting to appreciate good music earlier and not listening to so much of the rubbish my classmates listened too. I got into lots of music that way, Martin Stephenson & The Daintees, Suede, REM, The Lemonheads for just a few examples.

Another band are/were Dinosaur Jr. The Wagon may be the first song I really fell in love with. Here's Dinosaur Jr. playing it live on The David Letterman show. Notice the house band playing along.

The Wagon (mp3) - Dinosaur Jr (live on The David Letterman Show)

Live - Crazy

Gnarls Barkley's Crazy must be one of the most covered songs of the last five years or so. Understandably so, it's a great and catchy song, hip-hop without rap and it features everyone's favourite producer Danger Mouse.

I remember first hearing it as a small clip on an advert for the Zane Lowe shop and being instantly impressed. A couple of days later I was walking home from work listening to the radio on my phone (my mp3 player wasn't working properly) when it was mentioned Crazy would be played in full in a few minutes on Radio 1 (one of three stations I could get on my phone's rather inadequate radio). I got home, managed to tune the radio on my ancient turntable to Radio 1 in time, listened to it, loved it, and bought it as soon as it came out. I have no idea why I didn't just listen to Radio 1 online.

This is a live version recorded on Top Of The Pops. It features five violinists, a drummer, a bassist, a guitarist and three backing vocalists as well as Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse. You may have seen this before, everyone is dressed as a member of an airline crew. If not, this is even better than the studio version. If you have, well, you already knew that.

Crazy (mp3) - Gnarls Barkley (live on Top Of The Pops)




This was meant to be posted last night, but I had some software problems. So as recompense for it being late here's a bonus track & video:

Crazy (mp3) - Gnarls Barkley (live Star Wars version)