So much goes on here at Cover Me, it can be easy to fall behind. So, today we begin a series where we collect the biggest news stories of the month in one place. If the pace sometimes becomes overwhelming, get up to speed right here. Think of it like Cliff Notes: Covers Edition.
• Amy Winehouse died, so we looked back at her career in covers.
• Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon teamed up for another “History of Rap” medley.
• The White Stripes released their first ever recordings: covers of Love and Otis Redding.
• My Morning Jacket and Andrew Bird both covered the Muppets.
• Ryan Adams began a series of Vampire Weekend covers that he may never finish.
• The Adele love continued to pour in, with “Rolling in the Deep” covers from Patti Smith, Jackson Harris, and, against all odds, Linkin Park.
• For her part, Adele herself released a new cover. After canceling some tour dates due to laryngitis, she returned to perform Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me.”
• Zooey Deschanel and Ben Schwartz recorded an adorable “Tonight You Belong to Me” cover.
• A whole slew of free tribute albums dropped this month. Download tributes to the Strokes, Nirvana, Gordon Lightfoot, and, more generally, the genre of outlaw country.
• Bruce Springsteen hopped onstage at a Clarence Clemons tribute show to cover soul classics.
• St. Vincent melted faces on a Tom Waits tribute tour.
• We premiered Anna Rose covering Arcade Fire, Land of Leland covering Fleetwood Mac, ChuCha Santamaria Y Usted covering Lene Lovich, Stephen Browser and the Silent Majority covering Neil Young, and the Diamond Family Archive’s new covers EP.
• Amanda Palmer paid tribute to Radiohead in her animated video for “No Surprises.”
• Trip-hop fav Natalie Walker went in a poppier direction with her cover of Smashing Pumpkins’ “Galapogos” (and our commenters got annoyed).
• Xiu Xiu drastically deconstructed Rihanna’s “Only Girl (in the World).”
• The A.V. Undercover series continued its streak with Matt Nathanson covering Prince, the Get Up Kids covering Blur, and They Might Be Giants covering Chumbawamba. They also released a summer covers series, featuring Maps & Atlases, Yellow Ostrich, Josh Caterer, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Owen, Crooked Fingers, and Les Savy Fav.
• Mayer Hawthorne covers Chromeo…again.
• The Civil Wars broke our hearts again on an Elliott Smith cover.
• The following artists celebrated birthdays this month and got the cover tribute from us: Mick Jagger, M.I.A., and Ian Curtis (R.I.P.).
Th-th-th-that’s all folks! See you next month.
