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

Uncovered on Saturday

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

Uncovered on Saturday

Uncovered on Saturday is like the less attractive sibling of Covers on Sunday. It gets less visitors, less comments and e-mails and is generally less popular. One of the best things about Uncovered is that it can throw up some really random combinations of artists and songs. Because an artist can only ever be featured once on Uncovered it's not uncommon that the artists of two or even three Covers for Sunday posts are brought together. And of course you have bands I'd never ever normally feature, like last week's Judas Priest and Placebo, and that makes things more interesting. For me anyway, and I guess for the people that read this. Judas Priest were the second most popular of last weeks tracks so it seems plenty of you liked the song. Placebo's song was the least popular track I've ever posted here. Works all ways I guess. Anyway, the point of this intro is that I feel this week there's an exceptionally eclectic mix of music, it's the sort of week that really shows the worth of Uncovered on Saturday.

A Little Less Conversation - Elvis Presley. It's hard to choose an Elvis song just because there are so many of them. But I went for this because the JXL remix of this got to Number One of the back of a Nike advertising campaign for the 2002 World Cup. This is the original Elvis version and very good it is too.

Sliver - Nirvana. Originally released without being part of an album it was later included on the compilation Insecticide. Yet it's still one of the most well known Nirvana tracks, very easily recognisable.

Getting Better - The Beatles. The same problem with The Beatles as with Elvis, there are just so many songs to choose from. In the end I chose this because it's not massively well known, although it's certainly not ultra-obscure, and I wanted something that not everyone had already heard over and over again.

Kinky Afro - Happy Mondays. Just the best Happy Mondays song ever.

Hateful - The Clash. London's Calling is a great album and this is my favourite song from it, it almost makes me smile.

Past Mistake (live session version) - Tricky. I think because Maxinquaye is so good and it set expectations for subsequent albums it's far too easy to consider Tricky's non-Maxinquaye output as disappointing and that's just absurd. He may not have done anything like Maxinquaye since but he's still produced plenty of great music.

Uncovered on Sunday

Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - The Arcade Fire. The first track from their first album, Funeral. I know it's unlikely that anyone reading this hasn't got this album but if you haven't listen to this. The rest of the album is just as good, a really consistently good album, you should buy it immediately.

Work - Mo Tucker. From the album Life In Exile After Abdication. That's such a great album name for an ex-member of The Velvet Underground. It's a shame that Mo Tucker's solo work is so over-looked. Of course it's hard to make something when you'll be compared to Lou Reed and John Cale's solo work as well as The Velvet Underground. But it is a shame because her first three solo albums (Playin' Possum, Life in Exile After Abdication and I Spent a Week There the Other Night) are all pretty much essential purchases.

Seether - Veruca Salt. The first single released by Veruca Salt, it was a pretty big hit at the time in the US, but didn't really trouble the charts in the UK. John Peel was a pretty big fan of it though and if it's good enough for him it's good enough for me and for you.

Chickamauga - Uncle Tupelo. From Uncle Tupelo's last album, Anodyne. If you've never really listened to Uncle Tupelo you're probably expecting this to be an alt-country song. Not at all, it's a pure rock song and a very good one.

Living After Midnight - Judas Priest. So, one of my closest friends is a huge fan of Judas Priest. I came across a cover of Johnny B. Goode and played it for him. He loved it of course and I thought it was pretty good. So I posted it on Covers for Sunday without really thinking about this. This is one of the few songs by them I know, so this is it. I'm sure there are plenty of better choices, but I don't really have the willpower for an in depth conversation with my friend about their discography. This, in case you're interested, was on the album British Steel. Once upon a time British Steel was a real thing, but not anymore. Thanks Maggie,

Battle For The Sun - Placebo. From the album of the same name. It's Placebo, you know exactly what you're going to get. If you like Placebo you'll love this and if you don't then, you won't.

Uncovered on Saturday

We had a family picnic today and I spent several pleasant hours playing football with the kids. It's good to remember football can at least give my some pleasure today.

In The Sun - She & Him. The first of the two tracks mediafire wouldn't upload last week. I know I've mentioned this lots of times before, but I really like M Ward. The video to this is one of my favourites as well.



Reflection Of The Television - The Twilight Sad. The second of the tracks held over from last week.

Mista Mista - The Fugees. I decided not to go for one of The Fugees' songs that everyone has heard, so I chose thise, just to be contrary really. It's totally different from everything else I've ever posted on this blog.

Fly Away (live acoustic) - Lenny Kravitz. This song (the non-acoustic version) was featured on a car advert, Peugeot I think, and ended up at #1 in the UK on the back of that. It's his only UK #1.

Loved You Tonight - John West. It's a nice enough song, although not exactly the sort of thing I'll listen to again. I'm sure some of you will like it though, it's the sort of song that becomes a couple's "song"

That's Entertainment - The Jam. I love this song, it is a perfect slice of Englishness. It's also the first song I ever learned to play on the guitar.

I Can't Stand The Rain - Ann Peebles. Fitting that Ann Peebles should turn up today. I just bought Juiliet, Naked by Nick Hornby today and I first got into her after seeing her mentioned in High Fidelity.

I Wanna Make It Wit Chu (live) - Queens Of The Stone Age. Josh Homme: "Rock should be heavy enough for the boys and sweet enough for the girls." This isn't heavy, but it is kinda sweet. Good enough for boys & girls.

Uncovered on Saturday

Normally Uncovered on Saturday features six songs but for the last few hours mediafire has steadfastly refused to upload two of the songs I had planned, so there are only four this week. If I can get them uploaded tomorrow I'll edit them in, otherwise there'll be eight songs next week.

Big Gay Heart (Demo) - The Lemonheads. A gorgeous song, the video for this is rather good, but it's disappeared from YouTube. This demo isn't too different from the album version, both are great songs.

Sexx Laws - Beck. Gloriously over the top, this is the song that made me fall in love with Beck. He also does a pretty good Marc Bolan impersonation in parts of the song.

Let The Distance Keep Us Together - Britt Daniel and Bright Eyes. It was almost impossible to find something with just Britt Daniel that wasn't a cover. I didn't want to just put a Spoon song in, great though they are, so instead I chose this. I think it's a pretty good choice.

Cosmic Love (live on BBC Radio 2) - Florence & The Machine. Sometimes I find Florence's singing off-putting, too full of audio gymnastics. This is an example of her, more or less, keeping her voice under control and it is great.

Uncovered on Saturday

It's been a long time since I've done one of these. Same with Covers for Sunday, which is back tomorrow. I hope you enjoy the tracks. It's a very eclectic mix this week, I'm sure you'll find something you like.

Secret Beach - Brad Mehldau Trio. I've had this post almost all ready since before my absence. The only track I couldn't find was something by the Brad Mehldau Trio that I thought would be suitable for everyone. But now I've found it.

Stumblefoot - Vitamin String Quartet. This isn't a band that does a lot of original pieces, I think this is one of only two released on record. It's very good though, hopefully there'll be more original compositions in the future to go with their excellent covers.

I Wasn't Made For Fighting - Woodhands. Their cover of Eddy Grant's Electric Avenue was very popular when I posted it, I'll be interested t see if this reaches a similar level.

Wolf Like Me - TV On The Radio. It's TV On The Radio so you shouldn't need me to tell you that it's absolutely fantastic. One of their best songs.

Passion Play - William Fitzsimmons. His cover of King Of Wishful Thinking was my first exposure to William Fitzsimmons and I've been enjoying his music ever since. He's apparently been featured on the soundtrack to loads of different TV shows, so there's a chance you'll recognise his music even if you don't recognise the name.

Summerlong - Emm Gryner. She has a gorgeous voice and is a great songwriter. What else do you need to know?

Uncovered on Saturday

i guess pretty soon I'll be moving this to a different site. It isn't the best blog in the world, I'm well aware of that. But I've put a fair amount of time into it and I'd be pretty annoyed if it got deleted. Actually, I'd probably be raging. So its best all round if I move it. But that's a topic for another post. For now, let's move on to the music.

Jingle Jangle Morning by Mary Lou Lord. Researching her career I came across this quote about a confrontation with Courtney Love "It ended with me wetting myself and hiding from her in an alleyway after both of our tops had fallen down and she had chased me down Sunset Strip." I've got nothing to add.

There's An End by Holly Golightly. Guest vocalist on The White Stripes' Elephant she fills the role of over the top Englishness. There's nothing more we love than a cup of tea. Except football violence of course.

Out Of The Blue by Yonder Mountain String Band. This is pretty much indescribable, you really need to listen to it yourself. It is bluegrass, but its bluegrass for people who hate bluegrass. And for people who love bluegrass.

Velvet Underground by Jonathan Richman. For a long time I disliked Jonathan Richman and I have no idea why. I came across this track by chance on Hype Machine and started listening to more and more of his music. I was a fool to ever hold him in disdain and I try and make amends by playing some Jonathan Richman to more or less everyone I can. This means you too readers.

Another Horsedreamer's Blues by Counting Crows. After Automatic For The People the next album I really fell in love with was August and Everything After. These two albums formed the backbone of my listening habits, aided by Virgin Radio. Recovering the Satellites was finally released after what seemed like the longest wait for an album ever. It took so long to release that I'd already fallen in love with Suede and Britpop. This song is from Recovering the Satellites, I think its a great album but it never really got the praise or success that August and Everything After did.

Things The Grandchildren Should Know by Eels.

Bonus Eels track: Hey Man (Now You're Really Living).

Eels are one of those bands that I find it hard to choose songs from. I was tempted to put Jehovah's Witness here or Theme For A Pretty Girl That Makes You Believe In God or a live version of It's A Motherfucker with strings. That's part of the reason there's a bonus track. The reason I chose Hey Man (Now You're Really Living) in particular though is different. A month or so before I started this blog I was at the fair with my wife and kids and I had this song stuck in my head. I'd been toying with the idea of starting a blog for a while. On the way back from the fair I mentioned it to my wife, she told me it was a great idea and encouraged me to do it. We spent the journey home trying to think of names for the blog. Her favourite was The Music Snob, which I didn't choose because I'm not. Anyway, the whole time we were at the fair Hey Man (Now You're Really Living) was stuck in my head. So I thought I should post it before I moved the blog.

One final thought that probably is interesting only to me. I use Opera as my browser and it has a built in spellchecker. Generally it is a useful addition but it has some interesting omissions from its dictionary. For instance blog isn't recognised but motherfucker is. See you tomorrow for Covers.

Uncovered on Sunday

I'm late with this post for no good reason at all. There's no good reason at all why I haven't posted anything this week either. No increasingly heavy workload or shortness of time. There's not even a lack of anything to post about, I've had something in mind to blog about all week. That'll have to wait until next week when hopefully I'll be free of reasonless procrastination.

Push & Pull by Nikka Costa. She's got a really good voice, but this isn't the sort of song that holds my attention.

For Real by Okkervil River. I chose this particular track because my daughter says 'for real' to me all the time if she's not sure if I'm joking or not.

Still A World Away by The Popguns

There Are No Goodbyes by Sophia

Sam and Mona (the preacher and the teacher) stream by David Potts-Dupre. You can stream this and all the tracks from the album The Preacher and The Teacher here and download the full album/individual tracks here. There are links on the website to a couple of other places you can buy the cd from, or you can download it from Itunes.

Covers for Sunday will be up sometime later today as well.

Uncovered on Friday

1972 Bronze Medalist by The Bad Plus. I like to think this song is about Vladimir Dzurilla, although I'm certain it isn't. Apparantly his day job was fridge repairman. Between Thought and Expression, your source for pointless Cold War ere hockey player trivia.
This song was composed by Dave King who has his first solo album out soon. You can listen to a stream of one of the tracks here.

Gimme Sympathy (acoustic version) by Metric. Easily the best band to be named after a system of measurement.

Written In Reverse (live) by Spoon. I'd love it if Spoon would just record a full album of Kinks covers. Actually, a double album. Not that there own albums are in anyway bad.

Johnny Guitar by Grant Lee Phillips. From the album Strangelet. A strangelet is a group of different types of quarks. There are six types of quarks. up, down, strange and I can't remember the others. These types are called flavours. All of which confirms, physicists are terrible at anming things.

The Dark of the Matinée (live) by Franz Ferdinand. I listened to this album a lot in 2004 when I was recovering from really bad pneumonia. It has lovely memories for me, just listening to it and slowly getting better, it always cheers me up.

Angel Interceptor by Ash. I've never been a huge fan, but this and Oh Yeah were huge songs when I was at college. Probably the best song with a Captain Scarlet reference.

Uncovered on Saturday

It's technically Sunday morning here so this is a short post. You'll just have to come back tomorrow/later today for Covers for Sunday to read the full flow of my wit.


Sleep Alone by Bats For Lashes

Red Sails by Custom Kings

Mari Mac by Great Big Sea. Technically this isn't an original. It's based on a Scottish folk song, but I think it's different enough, and more importantly good enough, to be included here.

Long Road To Ruin by Foo Fighters. This nearly was chosen for my post Some family music but lost out to The Pretender, so it was the natural choice to put here.

Uncovered on Friday

Originally I had another post planned for today and this was going to be posted tomorrow. Due to unforeseen circumstances you're getting this today instead and the post you were going to get today will be up tomorrow.

Mistake - Moby. When I was a first year at university every other student I knew owned Play. people with a few hundred albums owned it and so did the people with two or three albums. It was almost omni-present/ Mistake is from Moby's most recent album, Wait for Me. So, nothing at all to do with Play. Sorry about that.

WTF - OK Go. I know I don't post a lot of new music here. That's not because I don't listen to new music and like it, it's just I'd prefer to have the chance to listen to music for a while before I tell people it is worth their time listening to it. This is new though, the first single from the new OK Go album.

Promises - The Morning Benders. Another new song, this is the lead-off single from the new album from The Morning Benders.

Art Star - Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Back to some old music. this is from Yeah Yeah Yeahs first release, the self-titled EP. This song isn't to everyone's taste but I think it's pretty fantastic.

Crystalised - The XX. I know there debut album was almost universally praised as being fantastic but I've never been able to get into it that much. I'll listen to it and enjoy but there's never any compulsion to put it on again. On the other hand this track is fantastic.

Murder in the City - The Avett Brothers. The very first song posted on this blog was by The Avett Brothers. I guess they're mostly well known for their livlier songs, especially live but this is a slower song, just as good though.

Uncovered

Again, I'm halfway through writing the post, I accidentally close the tab and find that blogger hasn't saved any of it. Rather frustrating, so please excuse my brevity today.

Apply Some Pressure by Maximo Park. Music from Wearside. Music from Tyneside = PJ & Duncan. Just saying.

Lyrics To Go by A Tribe Called Quest (Dan The Automator remix). Dan The Automator's cover of Rappers Delight is by far the most popular track I've ever posted. I was tempted to post a track by Lovage here instead, but there's so little hip hop in this blog I decided to go down that route instead. I'm sure some Lovage will find its way to the blog eventually, and hopefully so will some more hip hop.

Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Strong But... by Arctic Monkeys. I've been listening to this a load lately, the whole album has aged really well.

Knife by Grizzly Bear. It seems like an age since Veckatimest was released, although it's only 8 months. It was probably the most anticipated indie album of 2009. This track is from 2006 album Yellow House, an album I think is overlooked now despite it's excellence.

Sell Out by Reel Big Fish. This sounds like it is a missing track from Mother's Milk. I really got into this song because it was on the soundtrack to FIFA 2000 and we played that all the time at university. When we weren't studying of course.

Uncovered on Saturday.

Protection by Ben Folds. Ben Folds is one of those odd artists where I much prefer the covers he does to his original work.

Untitled instrumental by Elliot Smith. This was discovered/leaked pretty recently. Elliot Smith is the anti-Ben Folds for me, I love his covers and his original work.

Kingdom Of Rust by Doves. Originally I was going to put There Goes The Fear in this post. I love it, it's such an epic song. But more or less everyone who has heard a song by Doves has heard it, so I decided to include a more recent one instead, the title track from last years album.

Millstone by Brand New. I only seriously listened to this band when I was researching this blog. I suggest you all find some of their music and listen to it.

Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown by Neil Young. When I first started Covers for Sunday I featured Neil Young covering a song or being covered (usually by Thom Yorke or Radiohead) more or less every week.

I Don't Live Today (live) by Jimi Hendrix. This was recorded live at San Diego, California, on May 24, 1969. It's vintage live Hendrix, including a brief segue into the Star Spangled Banner. Absolutely brilliant.

Uncovered

The Christmas and New Year period always leaves me slightly disorientated. Too many days off work (well, not enough but you know what I mean( and it all starts to merge into one long weekend. So I've had this vague sort of nagging feeling that I'd missed a post or two here and that I have to go into work tomorrow. Thankfully neither is true. I'm on time with Uncovered and I can enj0oy another day off work tomorrow.

The Gun - John Cale

Do You Realize - The Flaming Lips

Ivory - Calico Horse

Bury This - Amy Millan

No Surprises (early live version) - Radiohead

Let's Dance To Joy Division - The Wombats

Uncovered on Saturday

I've decided to stop the live track posts for a while, or maybe permanently. It's not been as enjoyable lately, and having three series that need posting on the weekend isn't always practical. So instead we'll have Uncovered on Friday or Saturday (but I guess mostly Friday) and Covers on Sunday. I'm gonna try and make more 'random' non-series posts and, sometime soon, start a Wednesday series. More details to come on that, hopefully soon.

Anyway, the uncovered tracks.

Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash. This was a hard song to choose. Johnny Cash recorded for nearly 50 years. I was undecided, should I post one of his more famous songs or one of my personal favourites? Maybe a more obscure song, so there'd be more chance of people finding something they hadn't heard before. However I couldn't get past Folsom Prison Blues. Possibly my favourite Johnny Cash song and certainly one of his most well known, when there's an opportunity to post a song this good it's hard to turn down.

Fatalist Palmistry by Why? My first choice for Why? was These Few Presidents, but checking back I see I've posted it before. Which left a bit of a conundrum. These Few Presidents is far and away my favourite Why? song but I don't really have a second favourite, except perhaps the cover of Close To Me which I posted back in July. That's not to say I don't like this song, I do. There are just a bunch of really good songs and I found it hard to choose a particular favourite. So this was chosen basically at random. I'm sure you'll enjoy it anyway.

Better Together by Jack Johnson. It's such a nice song, and he seems such a nice guy but really this isn't my cup of tea at all. It's the sort of thing my wife will occasionally listen to and I'm happy to listen to it with her.

Housewife by Jay Brannan. Outside of his cover of Zombie I didn't really know much about Jay Brannan. I listened to some more of his music to prepare for this post and I'm still not sure. I like this, but I'm not sure if I'll remember it in a week or so. Perhaps so. Anyway, the cello in this is well worth listening to.

Boy With A Coin by Iron and Wine. The thing I like most in this is the handclap style percussion. It fits perfectly with the song. I can't think of anything else to say except I think this song is really, really good.

Sax Rohmer #1 by The Mountain Goats. Another difficult choice because so much of The Mountain Goats stuff is so good. I'll be doing a post on them soon, so all you disbelievers can be converted then.

Enjoy the tracks.

Uncovered for Friday...on Saturday

There was a full post with these songs, but then blogger ate it and I can't bring myself to type it again. So just assume it was utterly brilliant and we'll all be happy. There's no Live and let live this week, but it'll be back next Saturday, Covers for Sunday will be here as normal tomorrow and, time permitting, I'll get a couple of midweek posts done.


Rules & Regulations - Rufus Wainwright
Second Lover - Noah and the Whale
An End Has A Start - The Editors
Hello Cruel World - E
I Will Follow You Into The Dark - Death Cab For Cutie
Cousins - Vampire Weekend. Love this, perfect pop.

Uncovered on Monday?

So, as you may have noticed today is not Friday. There were no blog posts at all last week, even the regular three.

There's no real, interesting reason for this, it's just that I happened to be very busy on Friday and Saturday evening and then on Sunday my monitor stopped working. I did try and post something on Thursday, but mediafire declined to host the mp3s I wanted it to. So you can blame mediafire for there being no posts at all.

Anyway, the plan is to get caught up this week, and with some luck I'll be able to post the live music and cover posts tomorrow.

Either way, here are six original tracks by artists previously covered in Covers for Sunday.

Be Gentle With Me - The Boy Least Likely To

Another World - Antony & The Johnsons

Grounds For Divorce - Elbow

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart - Wilco (alternative version from the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot sessions)

Atoms For Peace - Thom Yorke

One By One - Jeff Tweedy

Uncovered on Friday

It's busy week at work, so I didn't have a chance to do proper introductions to last Sunday's covers. I'm sure in time you'll all come to forgive me though.

This is the second week of Uncovered where artists that have been featured in Covers for Sunday have an original song featured. Neat, eh?

Homes Still Your Bones - Jason Bajada. Before today all I had by Montrealer Jason Bajada was his cover of Wolf Parade's You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son. A bit of looking around and listening and I've found a couple of tracks to listen to. Neither o0f them are as good as the cover of You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son on first listen, but given how good the cover is that's hardly a big negative.

The End - The Sarcastic Dharma Society. This is one of my favourite band names ever. This song is a very short piano and vocal song. It's also very good, Mat Vuksinich's voice is so distintive and always a pleasure to listen to.

Waitin' For A Superman - The Flaming Lips. I've posted covers by The Flaming Lips on a few occasions and even a cover of a Flaming Lips song but never The Flaming Lips playing one of there own songs. Shame on me. I wasn't sure if I should post this or the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Song. In the end I think there's more chance of you not having heard this before so it got the nod.

For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti - Sufjan Stevens. I had no idea which Sufjan Stevens song to select, so I chose this because, as well as being awesome, I love the title.

When It Started - The Strokes. The song that replaced New York City Cops on the US release of Is This It. I think in a lot of ways this sounds more like it comes from 3rd album First Impressions of Earth.

Even Flow - Pearl Jam. Originally in Covers for Sunday I posted The Strokes feat. Eddie Vedder covering Mercy, Mercy Me. However I don't have any Eddie Vedder solo tracks on my hard drive that aren't covers so instead you're getting a fairly well known Pearl Jam song. I know it's deviating from the rules somewhat but I don't care because they're my rules and it's a great song so the rules can and will be bent.

Uncovered on Friday

I thought this would make a nice companion to Covers on Sunday. The idea is all the bands I've featured covering songs will, as far as possible, be included doing an original song.

I intend to follow the Covers for Sunday order fairly closely. The exceptions will be bands that I can only find covers by (Redbird for example) and bands that have been featured more than once in Covers for Sunday.

I Felt Like Smashing My Head Through a Clear Glass Window - Of Montreal. The first track by Of Montreal I ever heard, I think it's fitting it's the first original track by them I post here.

Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying - Belle and Sebastian. I was going to post a little selection of lyrics from this song, but I can't narrow it down at all, this is just a phenomenal pop song.

Hope - REM. After Automatic For The People and Monster came out there were somewhat look receptions for New Adventures in Hi-Fi and then Up. I loved them both, and I still do. This comes from Hope, which reached number 2 in the charts, REM's previous 4 albums had all reached number 1. Their next album, Reveal, reached number 1. personally I thought it was a weak album rescued by a few decent tracks. An example of a band trying to move back a decade or so and recreate a sound they'd evolved away from. And then came Around the Sun which was utter shite and reached number one as well. It's too late for me to turn this into anything coherent so on to the next song.

Al otro lado del río - Jorge Drexler. Let's keep it short and sweet. This is only the second non-English language track to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song (it features in Motorcycle Diaries).

Hate To Say I Told You So - The Hives. To properly understand why The Hives were so popular in 2001 you only have to listen to some of the music that was being played on alternative radio stations post Britpop. On second thoughts, don't.

Fuel for Fire - M. Ward. This reminds me, I still haven't bought the Monsters Of Folk album, I must fix that.