Aug 312016
 
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Since Prince died, My Morning Jacket has worked a number of his songs into regular setlist rotation: “Raspberry Beret,” “Sign ‘O’ The Times,” “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man,” “Take Me With U,” and “Purple Rain.” But they have only covered David Bowie once, a “Young Americans” hometown encore in May. This weekend though, they made up for lost time with a knockout new cover of “Rebel Rebel” at Virginia’s Lockn’ festival. Watch it below.

They also debuted another new cover, of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David classic “What the World Needs Now.” It’s a song that can sound trite and cheesy in the wrong hands, but Jim James and co. brought the beauty back to it, complete with some fantastic guitar work by James. Watch that below too, as well as the other two covers they played: Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved” (for only the second time ever) and, yes, “Purple Rain.” Continue reading »

Aug 312016
 

Working at an elementary school fundamentally changes the way you listen to and critique music. After only a year of working with children, I have become something of a pop music – dare I say it – enthusiast. I have listened to (and danced) the Nae Nae more times than my angsty-and-holier-than-thou-17-year-old-self would have ever though possible. I know all the words to even the Bieber songs that aren’t on a continuous radio loop.

I’m not even mad about it though. Pop music is fun as hell, and artist JLiNE knows this, too. His club-ready originals have a genuineness about them; he unabashedly calls on the listener to get in on the good times he is clearly having in his videos.  Cover Me has an exclusive of his cover mash-up of Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” and  Justin Bieber‘ “Where R U Now?” and I dare you not to bob your head along. Continue reading »

Aug 302016
 
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We get a lot of Ariana Grande covers submitted to us, and they tend to follow a formula: a young woman showcases her best arena-filling belt on YouTube. Like Mariah Carey before her, Ariana Grande songs offer an occasion to show off one’s vocal chops. Some of the belting is pretty good, but big, powerful singing doesn’t make an Ariana Grande cover any different than an Ariana Grande original. But now, finally, we have a musician taking a very different approach.

J Hacha De Zola hails from the town of Rahway, New Jersey and exhibits the state’s blue-collar work ethic: he’s already released two albums this year! And if that wasn’t enough output, he’s now got a bonus cut, his wild new cover of Grande’s “Bad Decisions.” It’s a wonderfully ramshackle production, a huge, swaying barroom roll somewhere between Tom Waits and the Pogues (longtime Waits saxman Ralph Carney in fact plays on his latest album, Picaro Obscuro). If you know Grande’s original, this cover is barely recognizable – and if you don’t the recording stands on its own. Continue reading »

Aug 302016
 

A few months back, Nashville’s iconic Ryman Auditorium hosted two star-studded tribute concerts to Bob Dylan to celebrate his 75th birthday. Kesha performing “I Shall Be Released” was the big news-maker as her first high-profile performance during her ongoing legal battle, but many other members of country and Americana royalty also took the stage for an amazing couple nights. The full thing was webcast, but it hasn’t been archived anywhere, so if you missed that you were stuck with grainy YouTube videos – until now. We’ve got every song to stream below (except Kesha, which wasn’t webcast, presumably for legal reasons). For the first time since that night, you can hear pristine recordings of Jason Isbell, Kacey Musgraves, Kurt Vile, Emmylou Harris, Butch Walker, Wynonna Judd, Boz Scaggs, Langhorne Slim, John Paul Williams of the Civil Wars, Ann Wilson of Heart, and more covering their favorite Dylan songs, many for the first time ever. Continue reading »

Aug 292016
 
TheSmittens

Though you may not know the name Rose Melberg, she pioneered the sort of indiepop brought to a wider audience by bands like The Magnetic Fields and Belle and Sebastian. Both solo and with her many bands (among them: Tiger Trap, The Softies, Gaze, Gigi, Brave Irene, Imaginary Pants), she helped pioneer the style of music sometimes called twee: short, super-melodic songs indebted to early ’50s rock and pop. And next month, February Records is releasing the album Constant and True: A Tribute to the Songs of Rose Melberg where like-minded bands cover 21 of her best songs. Even if you don’t know her name, anyone who like catchy, offkilter pop music will find a lot to dig into here. Continue reading »

Aug 262016
 

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.

hem

Writing an “Under the Radar” piece inevitably forces the writer to address the elephant in the room: Why is an artist you like enough to spend time researching and crafting a piece about considered to be “Under the Radar” by the vast majority of people? Hem, a band that formed in 2002 and sporadically released music until last year, would seem to have had so many advantages – intelligent songwriting, fine musicianship, a distinctive sound and, maybe most importantly, a lead vocalist with a scarily gorgeous voice. Seven of their songs were used in national commercials for Liberty Mutual Insurance, a classic Christmas cover was used in an ad for Tiffany’s, and other songs have appeared in television shows. They created music, which was well received by The New York Times, for a production of Twelfth Night for New York’s legendary Shakespeare In The Park program, featuring Anne Hathaway, Audra McDonald and Hamish Linklater. They were touted by outlets as diverse as NPR and Entertainment Weekly. Yet it appears that radar just doesn’t pick them up.
Continue reading »