Every Actor on TV Ever Covers the Boss at the Emmys

 Posted by at 12:05 pm  4 Responses »
Aug 302010
 

The Glee cast covering Bruce Springsteen sounds disastrous. Jimmy Fallon covering Bruce Springsteen sounds hilarious. The Glee cast + Jimmy Fallon + Tina Fey + Jon Hamm + Joel McHale + Betty White+ Hurley (!) + Randy Jackson covering Bruce Springsteen sounds crowded. And it is. It’s also pretty darn awesome.

The “Born to Run” montage went down last night in the Emmy’s opening skit. It’s a blast to watch, with a Born in the U.S.A. album cover homage and Fallon imitating Bruce as credibly as he does Neil Young. Even Randy Jackson (a bass-playing Big Man) doesn’t embarrass himself. I’m feelin’ that, dawg. Continue reading »

Song of the Day: JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound, “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” (Wilco cover)

 Posted by at 9:00 am  No Responses »
Aug 302010
 

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

If you know Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, this next one might take some getting used to. “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” of course opened the album, signaling the strange new experimental direction that got the band kicked off the label. The seven-minute alt-country-meets-ambient song served as the title for a famous documentary about a band coming apart at the seams. To many Wilco fans the song holds a special place in the cannon.

Try to forget all that. It will only impair your ability to enjoy this cover. Few songs seem less appropriate to for a Stax soul conversion, but that’s just what J.C. Brooks and the Uptown Sound have done. With a bassline reminiscent of Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” the songs blasts forward with horns ablaze and Brooks busting out his best James Brown impression. Is it forced? Sure. But it’s also a heck of a lot of fun. Continue reading »

Revolver Drop Impeccable Harmonies on 30s Standard

 Posted by at 4:00 pm  1 Response »
Aug 272010
 

This past Tuesday, French trio Revolver’s Music for a While dropped stateside. To promote the release, the band released a video of them singing the Mills Brothers’ 1930s jazz standard “Nevertheless (I’m in Love With You).” Calling it pretty doesn’t do it justice; calling it utterly gorgeous merely states the obvious.

You may never have heard of Revolver. You may never have heard of the Mills Brothers either. Doesn’t matter. You’ve just got to hear this. Recorded in a warehouse, the group’s tricky harmonies require nothing more than a quietly strummed guitar to soar. (via Filter) Continue reading »

Shout Out Louds Go Über-Swede on Band of Horses

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  No Responses »
Aug 272010
 

Everyone loves Band of Horses these days. Last month we saw Gnarls’ Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green (he of recent “F*** You” fame) cover “No One’s Gonna Love You” with a road trip-gone-wrong video. Now Stockholm’s Shout Out Louds put their spacey spin on Cease to Begin standout “Is There a Ghost?” The quintet translate the lyrics to Swedish; the new title “Spöken” is Swedish for “Ghost.” (via Pitchfork via Merge)

The video features the band sadly wandering on some industrial age monstrosity. Water purification plant? Primitive cell tower? Oil rig on land? Whatever is it, it appears to have been the causality of this or some other recession. Desolate imagery for a desolate song. Watch it below, then post your guess of what this place is in the comments. Continue reading »

Song of the Day: Steve Poltz, “The Way We Were” (Barbra Streisand cover)

 Posted by at 9:00 am  2 Responses »
Aug 272010
 

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

San Diego songwriter Steve Poltz is hard to peg. He’s best known for his work with Jewel, co-writing her sappy 1996 hit “You Were Meant for Me.” You’d think that sentence says it all (specifically, it says, “I’ll pass”). But he recorded a whole record of 45-second answering machine records. And it’s one of Neil Young’s favorite albums. Okay, I’m interested again. He’s recorded songs for gooey romantic comedies, but his indie post-punk band inspired a Weird Al song. If nothing else, the man must have a very eclectic Rolodex.

He leans towards his sappier side on his new album Dreamhouse with Barbra Streisand’s “The Way We Were,” the title song to the 1973 movie. It’s schmaltzy as heck, but it’s well-crafted schmaltz. Put it this way: if the schmaltz-instrumentation continuum runs from acoustic guitar to synthesized orchestra, this falls to the former. Naming it one of the 100 best songs of all time seems a stretch (I’m looking at you, Billboard), but in Poltz’s tender delivery it’s perfect for a vulnerable moment. Continue reading »

Morose Indie Madness: Frightened Rabbit Cover the National in San Francisco

 Posted by at 4:59 pm  7 Responses »
Aug 262010
 

If you just heard a timid pop, it was the world of introvert thirty-somethings exploding (meekly). Two of the most wonderfully dejected bands around collided when Scottish sad sacks Frightened Rabbit covered Brooklyn’s bummed-out The National. The quintet chose “Fake Empire,” the lead track from 2007’s classic Boxer. Singer Scott Hutchison is a bit shaky on the words, but it’s nothing a lyric sheet can’t fix. The tune segues seamlessly into the band’s own “Backwards Walk.”

The occasion was a recent performance at San Francisco’s Rickshaw Stop. Filmed by HD cameras for Revision3, it captures seventy minutes of morose magic. Watch the video below. Note: you’ll want to jump to 47:45 to catch the cover. It’s the fourth dot from the right on the slider. Continue reading »

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