Jul 232010
 

Under the Radar shines a light on lesser-known cover artists. If you’re not listening to these folks, you should. Catch up on past installments here.

Bands are a dime a dozen in the Big Apple, but edibleRed has a special claim to fame: they’ve been on the fantastic TV show Cash Cab! Can Lady Gaga say that?

Now their Cash Cab appearance (which you can watch here) isn’t strictly relevant to their music, but it does tell you this crew has a knack for being on camera. This fact is confirmed in music videos for three covers. The radio-ready rocker “Hey Ya” goes from domestic bliss to plate-smashing in a matter of minutes, “Straight Up” journeys into a seedy burlesque basement for some dark dance-grind with DJ Peter Shalvoy, and the churning “Blister in the Sun” shows just how far a few MacBook effects can go. Continue reading »

Jul 232010
 

The parody is the cover’s evil twin. While a good cover keeps the lyrics and changes the music, a parody does the exact opposite. As such, much of what “Weird Al” Yankovic does falls outside this blog’s purview (though covers of Weird Al songs are always popular). His polkas, however, fall strictly in the cover camp. On every album he creates a medley of popular hits set to polka tunes. The lyrics stay intact, the music goes oompah-oompah. Sounds like a cover to me!

He has been opening the shows on his latest tour with a brand-new polka featuring Justin Bieber, Ke$ha, Kid Cudi and more. It will presumably appear on his next album as a track titled “Polkaface.” The bummer flipside is that any song included in a polka is now off the table for parody, but you can count on another Lady Gaga song getting the Al treatment. Continue reading »

Jul 232010
 

Song of the Day posts one cool cover every morning. Catch up on past installments here.

Oh, Yoko. Your husband gets killed and six months later you put out an album in which you openly deal with the tragedy through song. It moves everyone who hears it. But on the album cover you put Lennon’s actual bloody glasses. Was that part really necessary?

Creepy cover or not, with Phil Spector along to ring out every drop of emotion the songs will break your heart. “Nobody Sees Me Like You Do” in particular features the tearjerking line “I want to see us together again / Rocking away in our walnut chairs.” Holly Miranda, frontwoman of New York rockers the Jealous Girlfriends, gives the tune an indie-art update on her new covers EP, Choose to See, which also features covers of Lauryn Hill, David Byrne, Swans and more. TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek takes Spector’s spot in the production chair, so it’s got the Brooklyn arty groove to it without losing the feeling. Continue reading »

Jul 222010
 

Back in June Barack Obama honored Sir Paul McCartney with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song (the first non-American to win). The man’s got lots of awards, but this one came with a bonus: a tribute concert featuring Jack White, Dave Grohl, Elvis Costello, Stevie Wonder, Emmylou Harris, and the Jonas Brothers (for the Obama girls). The whole thing airs on PBS July 28th, but PBS.org has released two videos. Jack White lends his delta-blues yelp to “Mother Nature’s Son,” leading to the potentially confusing headline: White Covers White at White House. Always fond of the mashup, he mixes in a little “That Would Be Something” while he’s at it. Joined by Paul’s band, Grohl screams his way through a by-the-books “Band on the Run,” which is pretty darn fun.

“Paul, you’re definitely my hero,” Grohl quipped. “Mr. President…you’re my other hero.” The Foo Fighters have covered “Band” before, but this is Jack’s first attack at “Mother Nature’s Son.” Hopefully it isn’t the last. Check out both videos (and MP3s) below, then tell us whose cover is better in the comments. Continue reading »

Jul 222010
 

Song of the Day posts one cool cover every morning. Catch up on past installments here.

“Freebird!” you shout as the intro begins. The classic slide guitar riff gets you swaying, ready to raise your voice (and lighter) for the singalong. Then it begins: “I see a bad moon rising.”

Wait, what? Turns out that intro was a trick, a red herring. Lynyrd Skynyrd be damned; this right here is some old-school Creedence Clearwater Revival. L.A. duo Sean and Juliette Beaven, who record as 8mm, transform the swamp-rock into a soaring country duet. Alternative Press called them a “Top Band You Need to Know” and we call this a “Top Cover You Need to Know.” Continue reading »

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. Continue reading »