Jul 212010
 

Cover Commissions is a monthly series in which a featured artist covers a reader-selected song for this blog. Any artists interested in participating, contact us.

Corey TuT first crossed our radar with his Lady Gaga covers, so it seems fitting that you all picked Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” as the song for him to tackle in last month’s Cover Commissions. The man’s got a talent for off-kilter female songwriters. And off-kilter it is, as TuT took Morissette’s megahit into Nine Inch Nails territory. And you thought the original was angry!

Corey says:

This is definitely one of my favorite songs of the ’90s and I knew I could really squeeze the hell out of the angst in this song, but I wanted to do something a bit different. I secretly was hoping the Nine Inch Nails song [“Something I Can Never Have”] would win, because it is so spare and dark, yet very powerful. When the Alanis song won, I thought, well, what if Trent Reznor was doing it? That was my initial inspiration. I slowed it way down and started playing around with different piano lines. I love a looping, melodic, hypnotic instrumental line, and I really wanted to bring a mix of electronic and organic instruments.

Next I added the strings and some pads with that middle-easterny drum loop, which seemed appropriate for Alanis cuz she wrote that god-awful “Thank you India” song not long after this one. I quickly realized that the entire song would not sustain this treatment. I wanted it to be dark and creepy, but still RAWK! Like I had snuck up and was whispering in the ex’s ear. I knew I had to really let loose in the chorus for the song to hit home, so by the second verse I kicked the tempo back up to the original and decided to bring in the guitars and the screaming, which is sort of my natural state of existence creatively.

Cover Me is proud to premiere Corey’s Trent Reznor/middle east/screaming cover. It’s five minutes of kill-your-ex awesome.


This mp3 may be freely shared with the artist’s blessing. Post it on your blog, send it to your friends, tweet it to the world. When you do though, please include a link to Cover Me.


Cover Me is now on Patreon! If you love cover songs, we hope you will consider supporting us there with a small monthly subscription. There are a bunch of exclusive perks only for patrons: playlists, newsletters, downloads, discussions, polls - hell, tell us what song you would like to hear covered and we will make it happen. Learn more at Patreon.

  8 Responses to “Corey TuT Brings a Little Trent Reznor to Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” (Cover Me Premiere)”

Comments (8)
  1. Awesome cover. You are as amazing as always <3

  2. I have a ‘Fatal Attraction’ to this cover!!! It’s awesome!

  3. At first I thought, hmm a bit sedate. Then Corey kicked in to overdrive with the power vocals his fans have come to know and love and he nailed it, made this song his very own and slam dunked another hit! He could easily cover that whole album and ring up platinum sales all over again!

  4. YOU ROCK!

  5. WOW! i cant describe it in words, it really is amazing! Im looking forward to more awesomeness from you!!! keep up the great work rock star :D

  6. This is amazing!!! Great cover. Can you include the song my heart will go on in your next poll?

  7. OMG goosebumps all over, brilliant : )

  8. I loved this. One of my favorite songs to sing along to when it comes on the radio. You did a great job with this cover.

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