Sunday Music

Another rainy Sunday passes and brings with it Sunday Music. I'd planned a couple more posts for this week but lack of time and a surfeit of procrastination killed them, or at least pushed them back a week. A review of comic The Fuse will show up next week. I had planned to do a My Favourite Albums post about Leonard Cohen's New Skin for the Old Ceremony but I'm thinking I might do Salutation Road by Martin Stephenson & The Daintees instead. 


The Wind Cries Mary - The Jimi Hendrix Experience One of my very favourite tracks on one of my very favourite albums. Hendrix's brilliance is pretty much universally acknowledged but I think Mitch Mitchell's genius is too often overlooked. Listen to this song and pay particular attention to how he's drumming. This is a jazz fusion song as much as a rock song and that's down to Mitchell's drumming and the way he and Hendrix feed off each other.

Ghost Riders In The Sky - The Shadows (originally by Stan Jones) This isn't my favourite song by The Shadows or my favourite version of this song but I needed a cover and I'd never posted a song by The Shadows before; I decided to put that wrong right.

After Hours - The Velvet Underground Originally this was going to be I'm Sticking With You but I'll leave that for another two weeks. After Hours seemed the perfect song to use instead. Another song with Mo Tucker's vocals but in many ways an opposite to it.

Darker By The Day - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds The standout track from And No More Shall We Part, a turning point album for Nick Cave, this really shows off Nick Cave's abilities as a story teller. This was the first bad Seeds album I owned and this was the first song from that album I loved.

Depth Charge Ethel - Grinderman Over time the Bad Seeds changed from a raw post-punk band to something much more orchestral and polished. Grinderman was formed by 4 Bad Seeds, (Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Jim Sclavunos and Martyn P. Casey), and produced two raw rock albums that still feature Nick Cave's story telling lyrical style.

Past Mistake - Tricky Tricky sounding very Tricky-ish from the 2008 album Knowle West Boy, with guest vocals from Lubna. A song with roots in his earlier albums, I'll be discussing this album sometime next week.

Sunday Music

Today is the first sunny day we've had all week. Thankfully my neighbour's Elvis album has yet to make an appearance. Long may it continue. On with the music.

After yesterday's post on Hometowns I don't want anyone to be of the impression that it was The RAA's only album worth listening too. As proof, here's the first single from their second album Departing.
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Stamp

I've been meaning to feature this for a couple of weeks now. It gets stuck in my head on a pretty regular basis.
Broken Bells - The Ghost Inside

Another song that gets stuck in my head on a pretty regular basis.
The Black Keys - Next Girl

This was an easy choice. A cover by Tricky from the album that we're up to in his discography, (Vulnerable), this is a cover that's more re-imagining than straight copying. Those are the best type of covers.

Tricky - The Love Cats (originally by The Cure)

I love the open, cinematic sound to this song. It sounds nothing like actual Blues music but still captures the feel of Blues.
Timber Timbre - Bad Ritual

REM spent 15 years making great album after great album and then Reveal came out. It wasn't bad but it was a major step down from everything else they'd done, except for 2 or 3 songs. That was followed by Around The Sun which was, again, not bad. Just average. Average in a way that makes you never want to listen to it again, possibly apart from Final Straw. It seemed that REM's time was over. It happens and two less than good albums wouldn't detract at all from their legacy but still, it wasn't how it should have ended. Thankfully REM released too more albums before they quit and they more than made up for the disappointments of Reveal and Around The Sun. This is the first track from their penultimate album Accelerate. When I heard it, I knew REM were back.
REM - Living Well is the Best Revenge

Sunday Music

I know technically this is early Monday morning not Sunday but I consider that if I haven't been to bed it's not morning yet. 

Rural Alberta Advantage - Don't Haunt This House From their fabulous debut album Hometowns which will be the subject of a My Favourite Albums blog in the coming week.

Radiohead - A Wolf at the Door Just a great song, from a great band, with a great video. 

Dax Riders - I Was Made For Lovin' You (originally by Kiss) I don't watch a lot of TV normally. Outside of sports the only programme I regularly watch in The Simpsons, with my daughter. Kiss' original I Was made for Lovin' You was on one of the episodes last week and we've spent most of the weekend end singing it at each other. This cover is in celebration of that.

Foo Fighters - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (originally by Van Halen) While we're on the subject of late 70's rock...

Die Toten Hosen - Guns of Brixton (originally by The Clash) I almost posted this in my Weltmeister post but decided to save it for Sunday Music instead. It's in English.

Wash My Soul - Tricky One last track from Juxtapose before we move on with Tricky. There'll be another Tricky post during the week.

Sunday Music

A neighbour of mine is playing Elvis songs, a selection of his saccharine songs that must come from an album called 'Absolutely not the best of Elvis', at a volume that is frankly un-neighbourly of them. This is the problem with summer in northern England. We're so unused to the sun that we don't know how to handle it; I suspect my neighbour is playing Elvis in an attempt to appease the angry ball of fire in the sun.

Enough of my environment, now for the music. I know I didn't post any covers last time; I've included two this week to make up for it.

The List by Defiance, Ohio Defiance, Ohio is a real place, but the band are from Cleveland, Ohio. This comes from their third album The Fear, The Fear, The Fear. In this blog's first go round I featured Defiance, Ohio a time or two. For those of you who are new to them, they are a mostly acoustic punk band. Defiance, Ohio are close to the top of my list of bands I'd love to see live.

Lump by The Presidents of The United States of America I ended up with this song stuck in my head earlier in the week and I decided that it had to go here. If nothing else to get it out of my head and into yours.

Teardrop by Brad Mehldau (originally by Massive Attack) The first cover and the latest in my slow process to turn people on to jazz. I've posted a lot of Brad Mehldau over the years and come to love his virtuoso piano playing. This is a solo cover.

Serenade for the Renegade by the  Esbjörn Svensson Trio This may be my very favourite piece of modern jazz. The song itself is brilliant but this performance of it turns it into something more than that, to use an over-used word, it makes it epic.

All My Life by Frank Turner (originally by the Foo Fighters) The second cover this week and part of my attempt to slowly turn you all on to Frank Turner. Truthfully I suspect most of you are already fans of Frank Turner: if that's the case you'll still be happy to hear this.

The Moment I Feared by Tricky From Angels with Dirty Faces. I think we need a post or two focusing on Tricky's discography rather than just having a video or two every week here. Look for at least one of those in the upcoming week and for now enjoy this.

Weltmeister and fulfilling a promise

I said on Sunday that if Germany won the World Cup I'd post a particular song that my wife wanted me to post on Sunday. For a bit of background, my wife is German, I'm English and our kids are smart enough to support Germany when it comes to football and once England are eliminated I want them to win too. On Sunday night Germany did win the World Cup, their fourth, hence this post.

Germany had previously won the World Cup in 1952, 1974, as hosts, and 1990 while competing as West Germany. The 1990 World Cup happened after the fall of the Berlin Wall but before German reunification, which was officially completed on 3rd of October, 1990. (After the post-World War II split of Germany the West German team started up in 1950 and got to keep the legacy of the pre-war team. The East German team started up in 1952. They appeared in one World Cup, the 1974 tournament in West Germany. They were drawn in the same group as West Germany in the first round and beat West Germany 1-0 in the final group game to win their grooup. East Germany were knocked out in the second round while West Germany went on to win, as mentioned above. The match between the two sides was the only time they faced each other and was the only match West Germany failed to win in the whole tournament. East Germany won the Olympic football Gold medal in 1974 and I'll stop there before this turns into a too long digression about East German football).

I'd like to take a moment to recommend the film Good Bye, Lenin! set around the time of German re-unification which features the 1990 World Cup in a small but important role, without too much of the turgid football that tournament produced on display. It also has one of the best shot scenes in cinema history.

My wife has since amended her request to two songs, and I've added a third from my brother-in-law's favourite band.

The first song she requested is Extrabreit's cover of Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne, (Flyers, Say Hello To The Sun) which was released in 1990. Extrabreit were very popular in the early 1980's, coming along at the time of the Neue Deutsche Welle (New German Wave), but not really a part of it. (Neue Deutsche Welle was a movement based on British punk & new wave, although it developed away from that into something very unique. It also featured lyrics in German, something not too common in rock music in Germany at the time). The original version of the song was by Hans Albers, a phenomenally popular German actor in the 1930's and early 1940's, and comes from the soundtrack to the film F.P.1 antwortet nicht  (Floating Platform 1 Doesn't Respond). Again, I'll stop here before I spend an hour talking about Weimer film.

The next song is Die Elf vom Niederrhein (The 11 from the Lower Rhine) by Böhse Onkelz. Niederrhein is an area of Germany and the 11 from there are Borussia Mönchengladbach, sometimes just referred to as Gladbach, team. My wife is a Gladbach fan, hence this song.  Böhse Onkelz are from Frankfurt which isn't exactly close to Gladbach and there are two clubs in Frankfurt, Eintracht Frankfurt being the biggest and FSV Frankfurt playing in the second tier, so I have no idea why they are singing this song.

Lastly, this is Zehn Kleine Jägermeister (Ten Little Hunters) from Die Toten Hosen (literally The Dead Trousers. It's less literal translation is more like The Dead Beats). Die Toten Hosen are from Düsseldorf, the capital of Nordrhein-Westfalen, of which Niederrhein is a part. Die Toten Hosen are, at least as far as I'm aware, the most successful German punk band. This is their biggest hit, it came out in 1996 and reached No.1 on the German charts, they wouldn't have a second No.1 until 2012.

Although you're probably aware of Jägermeister as a drink it means 'master of hunters' and can be used to apply to gamekeepers.

Sunday Music

I had hoped to get more posts up this week but instead I have 4 or 5 partially completed posts for future use. On to the music.


I first came across Spearmint only a couple of years ago. They are one of the rare brand of UK post-Britpop but still kid of Britpop sounding bands that are actually good. Sweeping The Nation by Spearmint

Easy Star is a record label most well known for recording dubbed versions of classic albums. Each album has different musicians selected to fit the songs. The first album released was Dub Side of the Moon, followed by Radiodread (a cover of OK Computer) and these two albums are two of my very favourites. Eventually I'll get the time to listen to Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band, I'm pretty confident that'll be equally great. Time by Easy Star All-Stars

This version of She's Lost Control is my favourite Joy Division recording by far. I'd talk about it more, but there's really nothing to say, just listen to it. She's Lost Control (Peel Session version) by Joy Division

These two tracks are from Tricky's second album released under his name, Pre-Millennium Tension.  This is a much heavier and darker album than Maxinquaye as part of a deliberate attempt to get away from the trip-hop label that he disliked.Christiansands by Tricky

Tricky Kid by Tricky

Finally one of my favourite songs with one of my favourite and weirdest videos. The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song by The Flaming Lips

Sunday Music

It's Sunday, you're here for the music so let's get straight into it.

Earlier this week I posted about Lazy Bird by John Coltrane and how I think it's a perfect introduction to jazz. It's a great track from a great album but it was released in 1957. Sometimes jazz can be pictured as rooted in the past. I don't want jazz to come across that way on this blog so here are a couple of tracks from The Bad Plus. This trio may be my favourite current jazz band. Both of these tracks are from their 2004 album Give.

First, a live version of an original composition And Here We Test Our Powers of Observation

and next a cover version of Iron Man, originally by Black Sabbath. This, in particular, is fantastic in a menacing and broody way.

Our tour around Tricky's back catalogue continues with another two songs. This is Black Steel, a cover of Public Enemy's Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos, and is very, very different from the original. It comes from Tricky's debut Maxinquaye.

This next track is I Be The Prophet from the album Nearly God. This was released under the name Nearly God as a side project rather than under Tricky's name. Tricky is joined on this track by Martina Topley-Bird who provides vocals, just as she did on most of Maxinquaye.

Gang of Four are a post-punk band who had they're biggest impact in the late 70's & early 80's. Although there best known song is almost certainly Damaged Goods, a John Peel favourite, my favourite song is Natural Is Not In It. Here's a live version from 1979 that I think really captures the urgency that great live music can bring.

I posted Frank Turner's Photosynthesis a while ago. He's nowhere near as famous as he should be so there's a good chance you're not that familiar with him. Here's some of his music to start and fix that, Reasons Not To Be An Idiot.

Sunday Music

Another Sunday and some more music. In case you only read my music posts I'll repeat from one of my earlier posts, last Sunday was Father's Day so I didn't have time to post anything. One day I'll be organised enough to get things written in advance so we won't have any missing weeks or long parts of the week without any posts. 

Originally I'd planned on using this song when I posted Here's the thing but I decided it didn't fit. I think it would have come across as a little narcissistic in the context of the post. Without that context I think it's time to post Regina Spektor's cover of Radiohead's No Surprises. I think this version really highlights the clarity and pureness of her voice.

On the basis that more people need to hear Fela Kuti and people who have heard some Fela Kuti need to hear more of him here's his song Water No Get Enemy. At the very least you should all own The Best of The Black President, two discs of music and the DVD 'A Slice of Fela'

His 'N' Hers was Pulp's fourth album and their breakthrough. It was nominated for The Mercury Prize but narrowly lost out to M People's Elegant Slumming, which is a superb album title. Back to Pulp, this was the album that broke them to a mainstream audience in the UK and lead to them being labelled as part of the Britpop movement. Their next album Different Class came out at the end of 1995 and won the 1996 Mercury Prize. This is the title track from His 'N' Hers and serves as a perfect example of their mid-90's output.

Possibly my favourite hip hop track ever Harder Than You Think by Public Enemy. If you're from the UK you may now this better from the 2012 coverage of The Paralympic Games. Channel 4's usage of the track lead to the track reaching number 4 in the single charts 5 years after it's original release. The themes of persevering and not giving in to outside pressures and the tribulations of life of course tie in perfectly to with The Paralympics but the songs success really is down to how good it sounds. A lesson in how well songs can do with the right amount of exposure. If you still need convincing to listen to this, the horns are sampled from a Shirley Bassey track.

 Trenchtown Rock by Bob Marley & The Wailers. You should know this is a great track already. This is from the Live album recorded in London in 1975. It may be the greatest live album I've ever heard.

As promised I'll be including a track by Trick in every edition of Sunday Music for the immediate future. This week it's Tricky's cover of Something In The Way, originally by Nirvana. As you can imagine it is very different from the original and very much worth listening too.

Sunday Music

Time for some more Sunday music. Just the three songs today, but I think they pack in enough quality to make up for the lack of quantity.

Let's start with a cover. First, a bit of Velvet Underground history. The band were signed with Verve and released their first two albums (The Velvet Underground & Nico and White Light/White Heat). They then moved to MGM, Verve's parent company, and released a third album (The Velvet Underground) in 1969. MGM were going through some financial troubles and released The Velvet Underground from their contracts. (This would be much easier to follow without all the eponymous records, I'm sorry). The band then signed with Atlantic and released Loaded. However between the release of the album The Velvet Underground and the band's release from their contract with MGM they had recorded 19 tracks, the so called Lost Album. Verve eventually (in 1985) released most of these tracks on what was essentially another eponymous album, VU. One of the tracks on VU is Temptation Inside Your Heart. The song is recorded in a much more light hearted, traditional rock and roll style than is common for The Velvet Underground. This cover bu the Crystal Stilts sounds much more like a Velvet Underground song. A band reimagining a covered song and making it sound more like the sound of the original band than it was at the start is unusual enough for me to include it here. And of course, it's really good.

A few recent conversations with a good friend have led to me re-listening to a lot of Tricky lately. It's not that I'd forgotten that his music was good, more that I'd forgotten just how good it is and how much of it he's released. Expect to see a lot of Tricky showing up on the blog in forthcoming posts as I go through his discography. For today here are a couple of live performances from his debut album Maxinquaye. If you do not have this album in your collection you are missing out and you should remedy that as soon as possible. First up, Hell Is Round The Corner from Glastonbury's jazz stage in 1995:

This is Overcome. Tricky co-wrote Karmacoma with Massive Attack, Overcome is his own version of the song:

Sunday Music

In this blog's previous incarnation every, (well most), Sunday I would post 6 covers. The posts were called, descriptively but not imaginatively, Covers for Sunday. They were by far the most popular posts I did. Even today, 3+ years on from the final Covers for Sunday, the most viewed post ios an old Covers for Sunday.

I don't want to do Covers for Sunday again. I want the blog to be different now, and searching for 6 different covers every week is surprisingly time consuming. I do, however, want to post some music every Sunday. So the plan is every Sunday I'll post at least 3 songs and at least one of them will be a cover. Those are the only rules I'll impose upon myself.

Here are this weeks songs:

Firstly a cover. You may or not like folk, you may or may not like Springsteen. You may not even like music and have happened upon this looking for film talk. Regardless, you owe it to yourself to listen to this cover, truly one of the best covers I've heard in years. It is Hayward Williams covering Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road:

I've posted Fela Kuti before, one of the most interesting people of the second half of the 20th century in my opinion and a great musician. Not enough people have heard his music, because everybody should have heard it. If you haven't heard any of his music here's your chance to change that. Fela Kuti with Lady:



Let's have another cover, and this one too is a folk cover. Anais Mitchell covering Bob Dylan's A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall. There's not much to say about this except it's an exceptional live cover. The type that makes you wish you'd been in the room to experience it in person:

Someone else I've posted about before is Christian Scott. In the comments for this video someone describes it as jazz for the 21st century. I think that sums it up perfectly. This track comes from the album Anthem, which you really should own. Christian Scott Quintet performing Litany Against Fear:

It's no secret that The Velvet Underground are my favourite band so it's only fitting they should be featured here. This is from their third album, The Velvet Underground and was the only single released from that album. What Goes On by The Velvet Underground:

Finally, a live version of Karmacoma by Massive Attack. Already a great song, this version manages to make it even better:

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.

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.

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".

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Covers for Sunday - R.E.M. edition

So far I've done four Covers for Sunday band editions and it occurred to me that of the four bands two are from New York and two are from London. Now I've got nothing against either of those cities, except that London's full of southerners of course, but I wanted something a bit different this time. So I went with R.E.M.



From Athens, Georgia R.E.M. have been one of my favourite bands ever since I started listening to music I wanted to listen to instead of whatever my siblings or parents were listening to. Automatic For The People was the first album I ever bough, on cassettes, and Monster was the first CD I ever bought. They've released 14 studio albums and despite a couple of mediocre efforts, Reveal and particularly Around The Sun, they've been a consistently excellent band.

Longevity, indie success, popularity and a huge song book should make them an excellent source of covers and by and large they are. However it was disappointing to see how many covers are of the same few songs, Losing My Religion and Everybody Hurts in particular.

Having said that, I am pleased with the variety of covers I've been able to find, I've also been surprised by how many covers R.E.M. have performed, several of which are included below. I haven't included any of the covers that appear on Dead Letter Office, except the two The Velvet Underground covers that I've featured before, so if you want those you'll have to buy the album.

Enough talk from me, here are the covers. I hope you enjoy them.



First here are the covers by R.E.M. that I've featured on this blog before.

Pale Blue Eyes (live) originally by The Velvet Underground.

There She Goes Again originally by The Velvet Underground.

All I Have to Do Is Dream originally by The Everly Brothers

Wall Of Death originally by Richard and Linda Thompson

I Will Survive originally by Gloria Gaynor

Gentle On My Mind originally by John Hartford



These are the covers of R.E.M. that have been posted on here before.

Hairshirt by Glen Hansard

So Central Rain by Grant Lee Phillips

You Are The Everything by Redbird

It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by Great Big Sea



Now for this week's new covers. I've tried to use different songs rather than repeating the same two or three over and over and I've tried to use covers of less well known songs as well as their more popular radio hits.

Fall On Me by Cry Cry Cry

Orange Crush by The Editors

The One I Love by Rosie Thomas

The One I Love by Sufjan Stevens

Losing My Religion by Tori Amos

Everybody Hurts by Vic Chestnutt

The Great Beyond by the Fray

Losing My Religion by Craig's Brother

The Apologist by Fink

Falls To Climb by Lizzy Banoffee

Try Not To Breathe by This Unique Museum

Wendell Gee by Klifton Filente

Country Feedback by Doug McKenna

It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by ZSK

You Are The Everything by Go South



In 2007 Stereogum released Drive XV to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the release of Automatic For The People. The album featured covers of each track, some tracks were covered more than once and are included as bonus tracks.

Drive by The Veils

Try Not To Breathe by Dappled Cities

The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite by Rogue Wave

Everybody Hurts by Meat Puppets

New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 by Figurines

Sweetness Follows by Sara Quin (Feat. Kaki King)

Monty Got A Raw Deal by Catfish Haven

Ignoreland by The Forms

Star Me Kitten by Blitzen Trapper

Man On The Moon by Shout Out Louds

Nightswimming by The Wrens

Find The River by Dr. Dog

Bonus tracks:

Try Not To Breathe by The Narrator

Everybody Hurts by Amanda Palmer & Cormac Bride

Man On The Moon by Ferraby Lionheart

The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite by Oxford Collapse

Find The River by Blanche

Nightswimming by You Say Party! We Say Die!

New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 by Jana Hunter

Everybody Hurts by Elk City

Everybody Hurts by Frida Hyvönen

Everybody Hurts by Bodies Of Water



There are times R.E.M. have covered other bands, apart from the first song all of these are live covers.

Superman originally by The Clique (vocals by Mike Mills)

Favorite Writer (featuring Linda Hopper) originally by Magnapop. Linda Hopper is the vocalist for Magnapop, so technically this might not be a cover, but I don't care. My blog, my rules.

Love Is All Around originally by The Troggs (vocals by Mike Mills)

Munich originally by Editors

NYC originally by Interpol

California Dreaming originally by The Mamas & the Papas

Midnight Blue originally by Lou Gramm



Lastly, some songs that really aren't covers, even with the my blog my rules standard, but they fit in nicely with this post.

E-Bow The Letter by Thom Yorke & R.E.M. Thom Yorke does the vocals that Patti Smith performs on the New Adventure's In Hi-Fi version of this song. I believe this version is from a Free Tibet concert.

One by Automatic Baby. Automatic Baby were a combination of R.E.M. and U2 that performed only once and played just one song. It's Michael Stipe on lead vocals, Mike Mills on guitar, Adam Clayton on Bass and Larry Mullen Jr on drums. According to wikipedia this was played on MTV for Bill Clinton. I don't know if MTV had some sort of concert for bill Clinton or these four musicians decided to get together and perform One for him, neither sounds particularly likely to me.

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.