Covers for Sunday

Heartbreak Hotel by John Cale (originally by  Elvis Presley) Described as a Michelin starred chef working in a hamburger grill, this particular version is a live recording from 1981.

Whiskey In The Jar by Thin Lizzy (traditional Irish folk song) The first known recording of this I can find is Seamus Ennis in 1951, although the songs origins are obviously much before this. The song first became famous through the The Dubliners playing it, it has now been covered dozens of times.

Because The Night by 10,000 Maniacs (originally by the Patti Smith Group) This was recorded for MTV Unplugged and became 10,000 Maniacs' biggest hit in a few countries.

I Know It's Over by Jeff Buckley (originally by The Smiths) I'm not a huge fan of Jeff Buckley, of course I like him, but I've never felt about his music the way a lot of people do, never quite 'got' him, but this track, I get.

Chelsea Hotel #2 by Regina Spektor (originally by Leonard Cohen) Covers by John Cale and Jeff Buckley, the H word is the elephant in the room. Maybe another time. For now here's another Leonard Cohen song being covered.

Respect by Aretha Franklin (originally by Otis Redding) We'll end with one of the all time greats, it's hard to improve on Otis Redding but Aretha Franklin certainly does it here.

Making amends

Yesterday I claimed, lightheartedly, that Arcade Fire were the best thing to come out of Montreal since Jean Béliveau. Obviously none of my selections were meant to be taken too seriously but I did forget that Leonard Cohen is from Montreal. So here's some Leonard Cohen to make amends for the omission.

You Know Who I Am live at The Isle Of Wight in 1970

Chelsea Hotel [#1] live in Israel 1972

First We Take Manhattan from I'm Your Man.

On Shuffle

You'll have noticed, I haven't had much time for blogging lately, and I haven't had much more inclination. So here's some music to tide you over, things I've been listening to as well as the new Radiohead REM and The Strokes albums. Enjoy.

Pepper by The Butthole Surfers, the best thing to come out of San Antonio since Pola Negri.

The Suburbs by Arcade Fire, the best thing to come out of Montreal since Jean Béliveau.

Terrible Love by The National, the best thing to come out of Brooklyn since Peggy Olsen.

A little jazz

I know it seems I've been neglecting you this week, but that's only because one of my blogs was deleted after a DMCA complaint. It was the new song by The Strokes, You're So Right, if you're interested. There are plenty of blogs that still have the song, so hunt it down. It sounds like The Strokes crossed with Kid A era Radiohead, it's well worth the effort.

On to today's posting, here are two jazz tracks for you. They're very different, from different eras of jazz and I think they give a pretty good indication of some of the variety that exists in jazz and some of the ways jazz has changed.

Brewery Of Beggars by Esbjörn Svensson Trio. From the album Tuesday Wonderland, released in 2006. The musicians are:

Esbjörn Svensson - piano
Dan Berglund - contrabass
Magnus Öström - drums

Black Bottom Stomp by Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers. Released in 1925 this is a perfect example of early hot jazz. Morton is sometimes disregarded to a degree because he exaggerated his contributions to early jazz, more or less claiming to invent it. While that's almost certainly not true he was a pivotal figure in the development of jazz, and may well be the first true jazz arranger. Certainly he was an exceptional pianist and band leader. The musicians playing on this are:

Jelly Roll Morton - piano
Clarinet: Omer Simeon - clarinet
Trumpet: George Mitchell - trumpet
Trombone: Kid Ory - trombone
Johnny St. Cyr - banjo
John Lindsay - contrabass
Andrew Hilaire - drums

Covers for Sunday...a day late.

We're a day late with Covers for Sunday this week because some moron decided it would be a good idea if I went in to work at 4am today. Consequently I was in bed very early, so I didn't have time to do this yesterday. I'd complain, but the aforementioned moron was me, so I don't really have the right.



A Change Is Gonna Come by Otis Redding (originally by Sam Cooke) One of the very best covers ever, I've featured the Sam Cooke original and Ben Sollee's and Arcade Fire's covers of this song. Otis Redding's and Sam Cooke's versions of this are both superb, I find it impossible to choose which is better. I think this is the best soul song ever, it's certainly my favourite. I once used this song and the Robert Frost poem, Mending Wall, as the basis for a piece of work in an English literature class 15 years ago. I loved the song then, I still love it now.

Reckoner by Gnarls Barkley (originally by Radiohead). Gnarls Barkley covering Radiohead live, it's as good as you'd imagine it to be.

Dreams the band in Heaven (originally by The Cranberries). One of last weeks most popular bands with their cover of Goodbye Horses the Florida duo are back with a Cranberries cover.

When Doves Cry by Brett Anderson (originally by Prince). Yes, the same Brett Anderson who is Suede's lead singer.

Such Great Heights by Fort deClare (originally by The Postal Service). I know this song has been covered lots and lots of times, but this version has a kazoo. You owe it to yourself to listen to it.

Fortunate Son by Todd Snider feat. Patty Griffin (originally by Creedence Clearwater Revival). To finish us of this lovely folky cover of CRR.

Live - Idioteque

Idioteque (mp3) by Radiohead, live in 2003.

One of my favourite Radiohead songs, in fact one of my favourite songs regardless of artist and this is an excellent live version.

A bit of hip hop.

Periodically I realise that I don't actually post much hip hop here and resolve to do something about. Then I'll post a little bit, get distracted and repeat the cycle a few months later. So, here's some hip hop and hopefully I won't forget, but I'm not counting on it.

Plenty of my friends, even those interested in music say they don't like hip hop. It seems though that what they actually mean is, they don't like the sort of hip hop they hear on the radio. Neither do I. Sure there are some exceptions, but for every genre except classical, I don't like what is played on mainstream radio stations. So here's some hip hop that you won't hear on mainstream radio.



Masters Of The Universe by Binary Star. It took me a long time to find this album, when I finally managed to find it I ended up paying more for it than any other album before or since. It was money well spent.



Deathbed Doctrine by Jedi Mind Tricks. Maybe the most famous non-famous hip hop act JMT have a new album, Violence Begets Violence, due out sometime this year.



Dream Seasons by Blackalicious. There have been no Blackalicious albums since 2005 but they are also working on an album due out this year.

Live - Books From Boxes

The second single from the second album, Our Earthly Pleasures. If you don't already own that album you should do, and you can pick up Paul Smith's solo album Margins at the same time.

Books From Boxes (mp3) by Maximo Park, live on The Culture Show

Covers for Sunday

Nothing Compares 2 U by The Last Royals (originally by Prince). More cover goodness from The Last Royals after their version of EMF's Unbelievable of a fortnight ago.

Unravel by Radiohead (originally by Björk). This is performed by Thom Yorke during a Radiohead webcast and is his favourite song.

Goodbye Horses by The Band In Heaven (originally by Q Lazzarus). This is the song Buffalo Bill is playing and signing along with in Silence Of The Lambs. This is a very nice shoegazing cover, a bit like a dreampop but harder. And very good.

Courting Blues by Lisa Hannigan (originally by Bert Jansch). Lisa Hannigan was Damien Rice's backing vocalist for a while, her excellent cover of Personal Jesus was featured here before. This sounds like a mix of drone music and folk music, obviously it's very good.

My Funny Valentine by Hawk (originally by Mitzi Green) Hawk is the frontman of The Plastic Pals, who I've featured before here and have a new album due soon. Mitzi Green played Billie Smith in Babes On Arms in 1937 and so was, as far as I can tell, the original vocalist for My Funny Valentine.

Fuck You by Anjulie (originally by Cee-Lo). By a female vocalist so some of the vocals are re-written. My favourite being "I guess I'm like Dora, she's a Malibu Barbie".

New Radiohead song and album stream

As you'll almost certainly know by now the new Radiohead album, King Of Limbs, was released yesterday, including the song Lotus Flower.

Lotus Flower by Radiohead.

The following video was released for Lotus Flower, it seems Thom Yorke stole Paul Smith's hat:



On the first couple of listens the album is very good with lots of dubstep influences. So far Codex is the standout track for me, I think it compares well with anything Radiohead have ever done. I suspect we'll be seeing another, companion, album to this sometime soon. You can buy the download album now from Radiohead here and if you're unsure, you can stream it from here.

The Last Royals - review

Update: The EP is available free on noisetrade for this week, go download it.



You'll remember The Last Royals from their cover of EMF's Unbelievable I posted just over a week ago.

Signed to Ooh La La Recordings The Last Royals are Eric James on vocals, synths and guitar and Mason Ingram on drums, percussion and samples. I described the Brooklyn based duo as producing catchy music that's full of hooks. That's not just true of their cover but of their EP.

Catchy indie pop at it's best, The Last Royals craft songs that spend all day stuck in your head. Backseat Lovers sound like an exceptionally talented updated take on late 90's indie. Obviously all band have influences, but that's not to say The Last Royals are solely derivative and offer nothing on their own merits. Crystal Vase is just full and bouncy and fun and catchy and about the desperation, isolation and discord that happens in the aftermath of a marriage breaking up. It's not exactly easy to write a song that combines those elements. Always, To Belong is again steeped in late 90's indie, but much better. Had the indie scene actually been this good in the late 90's bands like The Strokes wouldn't have seemed so necessary. Come Take My Hand is a demo that certainly doesn't sound in anyway unfinished or under-produced. Backseat Lovers (Crayon Remix) sounds less like a remix and more like a complete re-imagining of the original, with a large serving of tenderness.



The track listing for the EP is:

Backseat Lovers
Crystal Vases
Always, To Belong
Come Take My Hand (Demo)
Backseat Lovers (Crayon Remix)

On the off chance you missed their cover of Unbelievable here it is again:

Unbelievable by The Last Royals (originally by EMF)

and you can download Backseat Lovers (Crayon Remix) here:

and listen to Crystal Vase here:



You can visit The Last Royals myspace and youtube

And then you can, and should, go and buy the EP. It's only $2.99 and you can get it from bandcamp and The Last Royals webstore. I've got no vested interest in you buying the EP, I just think you might fall in love with it like I have.

Covers for Sunday - Jazz Edition

It's been a while since we had a jazz edition of Covers for Sunday so here we are. Of course it wouldn't be a jazz edition if The Bad Plus and Brad Mehldau weren't included. Mehldau is on his own this time and The Bad Plus are as fantastic as always. James Carter, who was featured before covering Pavement, is back with Joshua Redman ripping through a Count Basie composition. There are also three first time artists, Stanley Clarke Trio's cover of Under The Bridge is especially good. Jazz Against The Machine cover Soundgarden and Jazzkantine finish with a superb cover of Van Halen, the only song from today with vocals.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World by The Bad Plus (originally by Tears For Fear)

Under The Bridge by Stanley Clarke Trio (originally by Red Hot Chili Peppers)

Bottle Up And Explode by Brad Mehldau (originally by Elliott Smith)

Blues In The Dark by James Carter and Joshua Redman (originally by Count Basie)

Spoonman by Jazz Against The Machine (originally by Soundgarden)

Ain't Talking About Love by Jazzkantine (originally by Van Halen)

Live - If You Wanna

The Vaccines have their debut album coming out 21st of March. I could go on about them, but they're so hyped I'm sure you've heard it all before and anyway, I'm pushed for time.

If You Wanna (mp3) by The Vaccines live on Later with Jools Holland.

New song by The Strokes - Under Cover Of Darkness

Under Cover Of Darkness by The Strokes.

As you'll almost certainly know The Strokes have a new album out on the 21st/22nd of March. The first single from it is Under Cover Of Darkness and you can download it now. Enjoy.

Some trumpet music

Green Bee by Al Hirt. Or at least Al hirt is playing the trumpet on this, but the composition is by Billy May and the orchestra is conducted by Lionel Newman. In 1966 The Green Hornet TV series (the one with Bruce Lee as Kato) was produced. The radio series had Flight Of The Bumblebee as the theme tune and that was rearranged into a jazz version that became this. The song is sometimes known as The Green Hornet.

Rise, Sally Rise by Nat Adderley. You've probably heard of Cannonball Adderley, Nat's brother, rather than Nat himself. But if you've got any of Cannonball's music chances are Nat's playing on it too. Nat played in both Cannonball Adderley Quintets as well as with Ray Charles, Philly Joe Jones, Wynton Kelly, JJ Johnson and Sonny Rollins as well as recording over 30 albums as a band leader. This is from the album The Scavenger and was sampled by Eric B & Rakim on Know The Ledge.

Miles Runs The Voodoo Down by Miles Davis. I couldn't not include any Miles Davis. Duke Ellington once referred to him as "The Picasso of jazz" and I think that sums this up pretty well. It comes from the album Bitches Brew which followed on from In A Silent Way, those two albums together being the creation of fusion jazz. Interestingly because these albums feature long tracks they are ridiculously cheap to buy in mp3, for instance you can go and buy In A Silent Way from Amazon for under £1.40/$2.

Covers for Sunday

All of the songs, bar one, in today's blog are covers that have been sent to me by bands and agents. I have now, I think, finally caught up with my e-mails. If you've e-mailed me and haven't got a reply just resend your original or e-mail me again and I'll get back to you. Sorry for all the delays.



Unbelievable by The Last Royals (originally by EMF). It's hard to pin down exactly, but I get a vibe of The Cure in this cover. I've mentioned before that I particularly enjoy listening to duos, to see how they overcome the limitations caused by the lack of band numbers. These New Yorkers do it by making their music catchy and full of hooks.



Don't Fear The Reaper by Bobtown (originally by Blue Oyster Cult). Bobtown play traditional Americana folkand still make it sound fresh and new with an original take on an old genre, the perfect soundtrack to Southern Gothic.



California Gurls by Lloyd's Garage (originally by Katy Perry). It goes without saying that I'm not a fan of the original version of this, because I have a 10 year old daughter I've heard it a few times. This version is very good, another duo more than making up for the lack of members. In the week when the White Stripes officially called it quits it's lazy but not necessarily unreasonable to look to Lloyd's Garage as a spiritual successor.



So Freely by Snow and Voices (originally by Tir Na Nog). Snow And Voices have been featured before, back in June 2010 with there cover of Mistress by Mark Kozelek (here) and as much as I enjoyed that I think this track, especially Lauri Kranz's vocal, is even better.



Jealous Guy by The PepTides (originally by John Lennon). Last week it was Okkervil River covering this song, now we have Canadian duo The PepTides. Even though it's the same song the two covers are very different, where Okkervil River's cover was very heartfelt and down to earth there's something grand about this.



Toxic by Yaron Herman (originally by Britney Spears). This is the only cover that wasn't sent to me, sadly I don't live in a universe where jazz musicians of the calibre of Yaron Herman e-mail me. One day though.

Afrobeat

Everybody should know Fela Kuti, and I guess most people who're into music do know of him. He's one of my favourite artists so I want to share some more of his music here. He's the pioneer of afrobeat, but there's more to afrobeat than just his music, I've been spending some time lately listening to more of the genre and I decided



Zombie by Fela Kuti.

If you haven't heard any of Fela Kuti's music before this may very well be the best place to start. From the album of the same name this song, and the rest of the album, is directed at the military government of Nigeria. In the aftermath of this song's release and huge popularity in Nigeria Fela Kuti's home/commune was attacked and destroyed, his mother killed and many residents beaten, Fela Kuti included. He sent his mother's coffin to the main military base in Lagos and wrote two songs about it, Coffin For Head Of State and Unknown Soldier. In next year, 1978, Fela Kuti played this during a concert in Accra when riots broke out and he was subsequently banned from the country.



Truth Don Die by Femi Kuti.

Femi Kuti is Fela Kuti's eldest son, but I've no real interest in comparing the two. Femi Kuti's music stands out for it's quality on it's own merits and should be judged by that. Femi Kuti has been recording and releasing as a band leader since 1989. This track comes from Shoki Shoki which, along with Day By Day, are good starting points into his music.



Beaten Metal by Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra.

From New York rather than Nigeria Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra have a heavy debt to Fela Kuti. This track comes from the album Security, their third, where they start to move away from pure afrobeat and introduce a few sounds from other genres. This is still afrobeat, it's just an evolution of it. Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra are responsible for the arrangement and playing of the Fela Kuti music used as the soundtrack for the Broadway show Fela!

The Bad Plus - side projects.

This isn't meant to be in anyway an exhaustive look at the recordings Reid Anderson, Dave King and Ethan Iverson have made away from The Bad Plus. It's just one track from each of them away from The Bad Plus that I think you'll enjoy.



Not Sentimental by Reid Anderson Quartet. From Reid Anderson's debut album from 1997, Dirty Show Tunes. This features Reid Anderson on contrabass, Ethan Iverson on piano, Mark Turner on tenor saxophone and Jordi Rossy on drums.



Very Small Rock by Happy Apple. From Dave King's other trio, this band feature Dave King on percussion, Michael Lewis on saxophone, contrabass and keyboard and Erik Fratzke on fender bass and guitar. This track is from their 7th studio album Happy Apple Back on Top.



Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Ethan Iverson Trio. From Ethan Iverson's album of standards, Deconstruction Zone, released in 1998. This features essentially the same personnel as Dirty Show Tunes. With Ethan Iverson is on piano, Reid Anderson on contrabass and Jorge Rossy on drums, it's worth remembering that this and Not Sentimental were both recorded prior to The Bad Plus forming in 2000.

New Fleet Foxes song

It was released a couple of days ago so chances are you've already heard it, but if not you can get it here:

Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes.

It's from the album of the same name which will have 12 tracks altogether. There's no official track listing yet but the following songs seem pretty likely to be included:

Blue Spotted Tail
Bedouin Dress
I Feel the Same
Midnight Feeder
Tripolee
Sim Sala Bim
Battery Kinzie
Montezuma

as well as Helplessness Blues.

Live - Naima

One of John Coltrane's most famous compositions he wrote this in 1959 and named it after his first wife, Juanita Naima Grubbs.

This performance comes from Antibes in 1965. Antibes is in southern France, home of the outdoor festival Jazz à Juan as well as an Absinthe Museum.

Naima (mp3) by the John Coltrane Quartet live in Antibes, 27th July, 1965.

The musicians on this recording are:

John Coltrane - Saxophone
McCoy Tyner - Piano
Jimmy Garrison - Bass
Elvin Jones - Drums

Covers for Sunday

Jealous Guy by Okkervil River (originally by John Lennon). It's a live version so the sound quality isn't great but this is one of my favourite covers and I think it's well worth listening to. It's one of those songs that I was genuinely surprised when I saw I hadn't already posted it.



Dream A Little Dream Of Me by Dala (originally by Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra). One of the most covered songs in history, this isn't my favourite version (that's Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald) but it is really good.



God Only Knows by Ben Kweller (originally by The Beach Boys). Two Beach Boys covers in two weeks, it's nothing mire than coincidence.



Everybody Knows by Elizabeth and The Catapult (originally by Leonard Cohen). Maybe one day I'll do a Covers for Sunday - Leonard Cohen edition but until then you can enjoy this.



Mansard Roof by Canadian Invasion (originally by Vampire Weekend). Canadian Invasion are a band from Philadelphia so either the US is safe from Canadian invasion or they've already started.



Play The Game by Beach House (originally by Queen). The sleeve for Play The Game was the first one to feature Freddie Mercury with a moustache.

On Shuffle

The point of the On Shuffle posts is to feature music that just pops up on iTunes. Maybe it's something that's been sitting their unheard for a while, maybe it's just under-appreciated. Of course sometimes at least one of the songs is something I want to blog about and the rest of the songs are then chosen at random. But not this time, all of these songs were chosen randomly from shuffle, just like they should be.

Unconscious by The Silencers. A rather excellent but unheard of Scottish band that have been around going on 25 years now. This song is excellent, and not just because it features bagpipes.

Sunday Morning by The Blackhawks. This is lovely, dreamy music, not too far away from a mix of Girls and Beach House. Sadly it's almost impossible to find any concrete information about the band because they share the same name as a war, a long-standing country band and a professional sports team. Still, they're good and worth the effort.

Broken Arrow by Brandi Emma. Something that turned up in my inbox that I didn't really know how to describe. And I still don't. It's very laid back and she has a lovely voice. But there's more too it than that. Guess you'll just have to listen and make your own mind up.

Radiohead and all that jazz

It's generally accepted that Radiohead take influences from different genres. Unless this is your first time reading this blog you probably already know I'm going to talk about jazz.



Life In A Glass House (Full Length Version) by Radiohead feat. Humphrey Lyttelton. This is the version from the B Side to Knives Out and is probably as close to outright jazz that Radiohead have ever got in the studio. They worked with veteran trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton and his band to add a trad jazz sound to the song.



Humphrey Lyttelton had one chart hit in the UK, Bad Penny Blues made the Top-20 in the UK and stayed for six weeks.

Bad Penny Blues by Humphrey Lyttelton

Humphrey Lyttelton - trumpet
Johnny Parker - piano
Jim Bray - contrabass
Stan Greig - drums

Humphrey Lyttelton had a pretty full life. The descendant of one of Guy Fawkes' co-conspirators he was a performing musician from demobbing (he had served in the Grenadier Guards) in 1945 until his death in 2008 and also found time to work as a cartoonist for The Daily Mail, presented The Best Of Jazz on Radio 2, hosted I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue (a comedy show) on Radio 4 and served as the president of The Society for Italic Handwriting. From landing in Italy to calligraphy via jazz.

Humphrey Lyttelton was inspired by Louis Armstrong and Nat Gonella. Louis Armstrong you'll already know as the first superstar of jazz. Nat Gonella was an English trumpeter and singer and was himself heavily influenced by Louis Armstrong with whom he later became close friends.



Hesitation Blues by Nat Gonella



Tiger Rag by Louis Armstrong

Of course Louis Armstrong influenced countless musicians but he wasn't without influences himself, notably Joe Oliver. Best known as King Oliver, he invited Louis Armstrong to Chicago to play in his Creole Jazz Band. Louis Armstrong played with King Oliver from 1922 until 1924.



Riverside Blues by King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.

King Oliver - cornet
Louis Armstrong - cornet
Johnny Dodds - clarinet
Kid Ory - trombone
Johnny St. Cyr - banjo
Lil Hardin - piano (later Louis Armstrong's second wife and sometimes referred to as Lil Hardin Armstrong)

King Oliver was influenced by Buddy Bolden, the band leader who invented jazz, if anyone person did. Sadly no recordings of Buddy Bolden survive so instead I'll finish with another jazz musician that has influenced Radiohead, Charles Mingus.



Freedom Part 2 (Clark In The Dark) by Charles Mingus.

There are well over 30 musicians on the album this comes from, The Complete Town Hall Concert, and I'm not going to list them all here. If you're interested you can see the list here. I'm just going to identify Eric Dolphy, who plays the saxophone solo, and of course Charles Mingus on contrabass.

The Strokes - Angles

I'm guessing that most of you will already know about The Strokes new album, but just in case you don't here are the details.

The album will be called Angles, has 10 tracks and is due to be released on 21st of March in the UK and most of the rest of Europe, March 22nd in North America and 23rd of March in Japan. The first single will be Under Cover Of Darkness, rumoured to be released 9th of February.

Rolling Stone seems to like it a lot, but I haven't read an issue of that in well over a decade, so I'm not taking anything from that. They say, amongst other things, that

Angles is the best album the Strokes have made since Is This It because of the stylistic depth and progressive excitement in those crisscross guitars, the tightly wound rhythms and Casablancas’ dry trademark croon.

Track listing is:

1 - Machu Picchu
2 - Under Cover of Darkness
3 - Two Kinds of Happiness
4 - You're So Right
5 - Taken For a Fool
6 - Games
7 - Call Me Back
8 - Gratisfaction
9 - Metabolism
10 - Life is Simple in the Moonlight

There are no new tracks released from it yet, so here are a few tracks from The Strokes that you may not have heard. I'm not going to call them rare, but they've never been released on an album. There's a b-side, a fanclub track and a live song with special guest. Enjoy.

Hawaii, the B-side to Juicebox.

Elephant Song, fanclub recording.

Under Control feat. Har Mar Superstar, live.

Covers for Sunday

Sorry this is a day late, yesterday I spilled coffee on my keyboard and as one of the delights of living in England is shops that sell keyboards tend to close at 4pm there was no way I could post anything yesterday.

Femme Fatale by Big Star (originally by The Velvet Underground). I mentioned this cover on Saturday's post, it's so good I thought I'd include it this week.

Kangaroo by Beck (originally by Big Star). While we're on Big Star covers I thought this fit nicely.

50 Ways To Leave Your Lover by The Brad Mehldau Trio (originally by Paul Simon). It's been far too long since the Brad Mehldau Trio have been featured so here's another of their excellent covers.

Bulletproof by Lou Barlow (originally by La Roux). I don't like the original of this, it's far too 80's, but this cover is pretty enjoyable.

I Get Around by Red Hot Chili Peppers (originally by The Beach Boys). This sounds exactly how you'd imagine.

Keep The Car Running by Foo Fighters (originally by Arcade Fire). From a radio session for the BBC, sorry for the exceptionally irritating DJ after the song has finished.

On Shuffle

Equipoise by Max Roach.

It seems to me that jazz musicians tend to die very early or live very long lives. Max Roach is in the latter category, living until 83. During his career he was one of the finest bebop, hardbop and modal drummers as well as dabbling in avant-garde/free jazz, the co-founder of Debut Records with Charles Mingus, founder of the percussion orchestra M'Boom and one of the first successful drummers to play solo concerts. Not that he was only a soloist, he recorded with pretty much every important jazz instrumentalist that was active during his lie with the exceptions of John Coltrane and Louis Armstrong. A short list of the musicians he's recorded with: Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, J.J. Johnson, Stan Getz, Bud Powell, Buddy Guy and Freddie Hubbard.

This track is from the 1968 album Members, Don't Git Weary which is a suberp modal recording that I highly recommend anyone with even a slight interest in post-bob jazz acquires. This track sounds not unlike a mournful adaptation of A Love Supreme Part 1: "Acknowledgement"

The musicians on this recording are:

Max Roach - Drums
Gary Bartz - Alto saxophone
Charles Tolliver - Trumpet
Stanley Cowell - Piano
Jymie Merritt - Bass.



Red Headed Girl (acoustic version) by The Soft Pack

To promote the release of the EP The Muslims two acoustic tracks were released, this is one of them. Their eponymous debut album would be one of my top albums of 2010, if I could motivate myself to make a list.



Blue Moon by Big Star

From the album Third/Sister Lovers which is my personal favourite of the Big Star albums. The album contains a cover of The Velvet Underground's Femme Fatale, which I left off the Covers For Sunday - Velvet Underground Edition in favour of a cover by Yo La Tengo and Alex Chilton.

New Avishai Cohen song

You may remember back in August I shared a video with you of the Avishai Cohen Trio playing Remembering (here). The good news is Avishai Cohen has an album due out next month called Seven Seas. The title track has been made available for download so I'm sharing it with you here, although you can also download it from Avishai Cohen's website if you'd rather, further details about the album and his upcoming tour are available there as well.

Seven Seas

Of course, because I'm so good to you, I've got some more songs for you.The first is a recording by The Avishai Cohen Trio and the second is The Avishai Cohen Trio joined by Jimmy Greene on saxophone.

Mark Guilliana's drumming is a real highlight on Eleven Wives, he's up there with Dave King as one of the best drummers around at the moment. Jimmy Greene's presence on the second track gives a much different sound and compliment's the trio's playing very well.

Eleven Wives (mp3) live.



Feediop (mp3) live at the Blue Note in NYC.

On Shuffle

Freestylin' by Greyboy With Harold Todd & Marc Antoine. There's a point where genres meet and make labels more or less worthless. I'd call this fusion or acid jazz but neither really does the track justice. So I'll just say it's really good and you'll have to trust me and listen to it all the way through. It's worth it.


Acid Jazz by Arlo Knox

What Did My Lover Say (It Always Had To Go This Way) by Wolf Parade. From Expo 1986 which, if I were to do a top albums of 2010, would certainly be in the top-15 and maybe the top-10.


Vancouver Expo 86

Up The Junction by Squeeze. The first track by Squeeze I've posted, I'm sorry I've let you all down.


Clapham Junction

Covers for Sunday

Eye Of The Tiger by Rural Alberta Advantage (originally by Survivor). More goodness from The Rural Alberta Advantage, this was the B-side to Drain The Blood. While the original is pretty much the definition of a pump up song this sounds more like a lament of things passed.



New Sensation by Beck, St. Vincent, Daniel Hart, Sergio Dias, Brian LeBarton and Liars (originally by INXS). If you read the Covers for Sunday - Velvet Underground edition you'll have heard some of the covers Beck does as part of his Record Club. So far 5 different albums have been covered, The Velvet Underground & Nico was first and INXS' Kick was fourth. Each album has a different set of musicians on it and they're all worth listening to. If you want to hear them they're all available at the Record Club site.



I'm Waiting by Delta Spirit (originally by Bill Bush). This cover is from their second Daytrotter set, which you can here in it's entirety here.



Folsom Prison Blues by Keb' Mo' (originally by Johnny Cash). It's always difficult to cover a song as classic as this, a song that so many people from different musical tastes have heard and loved, but I think this is an excellent cover.



Born On A Train by Arcade Fire (originally by The Magnetic Fields). One of my favourite covers by Arcade Fire, it's hard to believe that The Magnetic Fields have released their first album 20 years ago.



I'm Goin' Down by Vampire Weekend (originally by Bruce Springsteen). Sometimes when I have iTunes on shuffle things turn up that I had no idea I had on my hard drive. This is one of those songs, I had no idea Vampire Weekend had even covered it, but it turns out it was recorded in September last year.

On Shuffle

Witchfinder by John Zorn. With the Moonchild Trio of Mike Patton, Joey Baron and Trevor Dunn on vocals, drums and bass respectively this is fusion jazz with some avant-garde playing thrown in. Zorn's alto-sax playing is suberp, but if you've never listened to John Zorn's recordings before you've probably never heard anything like this before.



I Want You To Know by Dinosaur Jr. From The Farm, one of 2009's best albums, it shows that Dinosaur Jr. still have it.



The Rifle by Alela Diane. A quiet folk song that's in total contrast to the two songs above. I'm not a huge fan of Alela Diane, I find her pretty hit and miss with more misses than hits. But when a song hits, like this, I love it.