On Shuffle

Checkout Blue by Eels. It's strange, I love Eels, but I don't play them often. Everytime I listen to one of their songs I enjoy it and resolve to listen to them more and then promptly forget. I should make it a New Year's resolution.



Little Girl by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse feat. Julian Casablancas. This came out not long before Julian Casablancas' solo album Phrazes For The Young, and it kind of got lost in shuffle, especially given the difficulties surrounding the release of the album Dark Night Of The Soul. I think it's worth listening to again, it's certainly grown on me.

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.

Covers for Sunday - The Strokes edition

I decided earlier this week that I'd like to do Covers for Sunday with just covers of The Strokes songs. There one of my favourite bands and as they're starting to tour again I thought it'd be a pretty good time to do it. Of course I only actually started working on it tonight, because I hate getting to bed at a reasonable time I guess.

Anyway, I've decided to include songs covered by The Strokes as well as covers of The Strokes songs. Here they are.

Walk On The Wildside (originally by Lou Reed) I wish The Strokes would do more Lou Reed covers, that'd be pretty perfect.

Life Is A Gas (originally by The Ramones)

It's Not My Place (originally by The Ramones). I know the sound quality is pretty subpar on this but it's the only version I have and I can't find a better one. If anyone has a version with better sound quality send me an e-mail.

Clampdown (originally by The Clash). This is just absolutely phenomenal.

So, here we go. Varying quality and styles of music, there should be something for everyone here. Not just in terms of what musical genres you like, but I think there should be at least one song here that is new to every reader. Of course it will probably be a different song to every reader.

The End Has No End - Metric. I'm surprised this wasn't posted before, it's one of my favourite covers of The Strokes and one of my favourite Metric tracks.

Last Nite (live) - Ryan Adams

Last Nite (live) - Ryan Adams. The first 1:20 or so of this is actually a cover of Like A Virgin. Yeah, the Madonna song.

Last Nite - Yellowdogs

The Modern Age - The Tetris

Someday - Elliott Sussman. A solo banjo cover, well worth listening too.

Last Nite - Seven Eleven

Take It Or Leave It - Primatas Modernos

Last Nite - Pixie Lott. Because I know some people like Pixie Lott's music, even if I don't know why.

Last Nite - Jumbonics. Just brilliant. Takes a few seconds to kick in but is, well, just brilliant from there until the end.

I'll Try Anything Once - Alex Montanez

12:51 - Luc & Noé. If you ever wondered how it would sound if 12:51 was covered by a singer channeling John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats backed by a violin this is the track for you. This is a pretty good cover, but it takes a couple of listens.

Someday - Built To Spill. A fairly straight-forward cover. That's not a criticism of course.

Someday - Basia Bulat. A lovely folky female vocal cover, of not for the chatter.

I've featured covers of The Strokes before, so just in case you missed them here they are again.

Reptilia - Punch Brothers. This is one of the most popular covers I've hosted, so the chances are you did catch this first time around. If not, it's a bluegrass kind of cover, recorded live with some great mandolin playing.

Last Nite - Ryan Adams. Different from the Ryan Adams cover above.

Take It Or Leave It - Arctic Monkeys.

Last Nite - Detroit Cobras

Now on to mash-ups. You're either gonna love them or hate them and there's no way to tell until you listen to them.

A Stroke Of Genius (Hard To Explain and Genie In A Bottle by Christina Aguilera) The Freelance Hellraiser. This was one of the first big mash-ups in the UK.

Jus' A Reptilian (Reptilia and Jus' A Rascal by Dizzee Rascal). I have no idea who this is by, sorry.

Taking On Reptiles (Reptilia and Take On Me by Aha) Mike Devine. If you read the post on Blade, this is the same guy who has a mash-up on there. You all seem to have enjoyed that, so I hope you'll enjoy this.

I Get The Hang Of It (Julian Casablancas River Of Brakelights and I Get It In by Omarion feat Gucci Mane) DJ STV SLV. Alright, I know technically this isn't a mash-up of The Strokes, but it fits too well with this category not to include it.

That's it. Enjoy the music and if you have any different cover of or by The Strokes that aren't featured here feel free to e-mail me. Of course you don't have to have different covers to e-mail me, just send me an e-mail if you feel like it. Unless you're a spambot, in which case don't bother.

The Strokes - side projects

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

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

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

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

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

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

River of Brakelights

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

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

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

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

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

and

¿Cómo Te Llama? (buy)

GfC.

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

No One's Better Sake
Brand New Start

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

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

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

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

Brandy Of The Damned
Back From Exile

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

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

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

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

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

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

Absence

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

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

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

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

11th Dimension - Julian Casablancas

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

Alternative Ulster - Stiff Little Fingers

Five Man Army - Massive Attack

Bell Bottoms (live session) - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

I Don't Want To Grow Up - Tom Waits