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.