Arcade Fire just performed a new song in NYC last week and, from the sound of the shaky live video, it holds promise. The real new Arcade Fire everyone should be buzzing about though is by San Francisco duo Meklit & Quinn. This pair of jazz-educated musicians just released their self-titled debut, covering everyone from MGMT to Patti Smith with grace and delicacy. Their version of Arcade Fire’s “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” belongs in the annals of great AF covers. Continue reading »
In August singer-songwriter Kelly Hogan and her band were featured in the AV Club’s Undercover series, which we’ve covered extensively here at Cover Me, but breaking away from the normal setting, Hogan moved the taping of their cover of The Hold Steady’s “Constructive Summer” out into the summery outdoors. Instead of the familiar graffiti-covered round room, for this video they set up on the front porch of Chicago’s The Hideout, where Hogan used to tend bar. Keeping it simple with only acoustic guitars and a single snare drum, the band’s cover of the youthful, summer anthem turned out impressively accurate. Continue reading »
Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!
Yesterday we took a look at the early years of Neil Young, as represented on the first two sides of Decade (if you missed it, click here to get caught up). Today, it’s sides three and four’s turn; a dozen artists looking at a dozen classics a dozen different ways…
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Composed of brothers James and Andy Ralph, the band Writer is on the rise. The surf-pop-meets-fuzzy-lo-fi-rock duo has toured with the likes of Cults and Margo & The Nuclear So & Sos and will be releasing their LP Brotherface in late October via 3 Syllables. In anticipation of this release, Writer has also released a song and video of their rendition of Santigold‘s “Disparate Youth.” Continue reading »
The AV Club in Chicago admits to catching flack every now and then for only featuring “small indie bands.” These small indie bands usually have a fun time in the AV Sessions (we just saw Calexico do Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone“) but no one will ever be able to top alt-metal monsters GWAR and their take on Kansas’ “Carry On My Wayward Son.” Continue reading »
Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!
The importance of Neil Young‘s 1977 career retrospective Decade, released thirty-five years ago this month, cannot be overstated. It served to establish Young as a major artist in the canon of rock, and was so full of transcendent moments that it needed three albums to hold them all. It offered unreleased tracks at a time when that Just Wasn’t Done, and the quality of those tracks conveyed the impression that Young wrote so many masterpieces he could afford to keep most of them locked away. It gave real insight to the creative process, with Young’s handwritten liner notes saying more in three lines than his critics could in three paragraphs. Its summing up a career with hits, rarities, and deep cuts selected by Young himself made it a sort of Mesozoic box set, one whose template wouldn’t be followed for years but is now de rigueur. Most of all, it’s a way to get some of the greatest music of the ’60s and ’70s in one place – and since Young’s range is so great, there’s always something on it that you’re in the mood to hear. Continue reading »