Apr 282011
 

It doesn’t get much more ‘80s than “Love Is a Battlefield.” Pat Benatar’s 1984 hit features all the telltale signs: shameless synth use, paint-by-numbers drum machine, little human emotion. Well, Thao & Mirah – Mirah’s collaboration with Thao Nguyen of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down – change all that with their new cover. Continue reading »

Apr 282011
 

And the winner for Most Anticipated Tribute Album of 2011 goes to…

Rave On Buddy Holly, coming June 28th to celebrate what would be Buddy Holly’s 75th birthday this fall. This tracklist defines the term “stacked.” From veterans like Paul McCartney and Patti Smith to newer breakouts like She & Him and Cee-Lo Green, every one of the 19 tracks looks to be another potential stunner. My Morning Jacket crooning “True Love Ways”? The Black Keys rocking “Dearest”? John Doe doing who-knows-what to “Peggy Sue Got Married”? Continue reading »

Apr 282011
 

California indie-rockers Delta Spirit showed off their cover skills with a set of Tom Waits renditions for Daytrotter recently, and now they’re back with their take on The Zombies’ classic brit-pop hit “She’s Not There.”  According to their website, the band recorded the track at the request of an unnamed television show, but then decided to post it as a free download on their website instead. Continue reading »

Apr 272011
 

And you thought we at Cover Me were done with Record Store Day covers. Ha! Karen Elson, Jack White‘s model-turned-chanteuse wife, released a special limited edition 7″ on her husband’s Third Man Records. Fittingly, she covers Lou Reed, whose early muse, German model Nico, sang lead on several tracks on The Velvet Underground‘s first album. Continue reading »

Apr 272011
 

There’s been no shortage of covers of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” – the song has been so inundated with covers that we were able to assemble a Five Best Covers (So Far) post for it within a week and a half of its release, and there was a hefty pool to choose from even then.

Of all of them, it seems only Katy Perry had the gall to change the lyrics; it’s possible that she just didn’t quite know the lyrics, but she was met with controversy for it either way. In the song’s most recent high-profile cover, country-pop group Little Big Town has changed the lyrics a bit as well for the latest installment in their “Scattered, Smothered, and Covered” video series. The change is a minor one – rather than talking about the mother helping the singer with hair and makeup, the mother is simply doing her own hair and makeup. While the change may be seen as something of an affront to the song’s status as a gay anthem, it’s no more drastic a change than the gender switch so commonly found in covers. It’s certainly less offensive than Perry’s alteration of “I was born this way” to “you were born this way,” after all. Little Big Town keeps the first person perspective on that chorus and ultimately doesn’t change the song’s meaning. Continue reading »

Apr 272011
 

You don’t hear much from Edie Brickell these days. Perceived mostly as a one-hit (or album) wonder, her 1988 album Shooting Rubberbands At The Stars with band The New Bohemians went double platinum, but she’s only released a few low-profile albums since. Her 1992 marriage to Paul Simon probably took the pressure to perform off as well. Continue reading »