Riley Haas

Riley is a digital marketing trainer and strategist in Toronto. He obsessively writes and talks about music and once had a classic rock radio show in university. His favourite cover of all time is Uncle Tupelo's version of the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog." He's also a movie fan, having seen approximately 4,400 films. You can follow him on Twitter @riley_haas.

Mar 262024
 
july talk hand in my pocket cover

“Hand in My Pocket” is the second single from Alanis Morissette‘s breakout album, Jagged Little Pill, as well as her first ever Canadian #1 song. As much as this album was big in the US, it was even bigger in her native Canada where it went double Diamond and produced four #1 songs as well as a #2. For some reason “Hand in My Pocket” wasn’t released as a single in the US so it had less of an impact, though it still received enough airplay to chart well.

Still, it makes sense that it would be a little less popular of a cover than the biggest songs in the US from Jagged Little Pill and that a Canadian band like July Talk would be a little more likely to perform it. July Talk have been around for a little over a decade with a fair amount of success, due to their famous live performances.They were invited by CBC to cover the song in honour (with a u) of the upcoming Juno Awards (Canada’s Grammys.) They were a little nervous of doing it because of how big Alanis and this album were in Canada at the time. Continue reading »

Mar 252024
 
Prong

“Working Man” is far and away Rush‘s most famous song from their brief pre-Neil Peart era (i.e. their first album), before they went fully prog rock. Never a single, it was often a part of their live shows. It’s primarily known for its open riff and its extended guitar solo.

The famous opening riff could almost qualify as proto-sludge metal so it’s no surprise that it appeals to thrash and thrash-influenced metal bands. American thrash/groove metal legends Prong recorded a cover of this song for their 13th studio album last year, and they’ve released a longer version of it just in time for the song’s 50th anniversary. Continue reading »

Mar 152024
 
teenage joans call me maybe cover

2012’s song of the summer, “Call Me Maybe,” launched Carly Rae Jepson’s career with a little thanks to Justin Bieber. If you were a tween when it came out, it likely made as much of an impression as it did on the members of Australian duo Teenage Joans.

Teenage Joans, whose name echoes no wave legends Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, are an Adelaide-based punk-ish guitar-and-drums pair that have received considerable acclaim in their native state. But they grew up with pop like “Call Me Maybe” and decided to honour that heritage for Triple J’s legendary cover program “Like a Version.” Continue reading »

Mar 132024
 
alex melton jump cover

There’s been a trend for a quite a while now on YouTube for transposing a particular song into a new genre. One prominent purveyor of this, um, genre of internet cover is Alex Melton. Melton is perhaps most famous for his pandemic-era cover of Third Eye Blind’s “Semi Charmed Life”…as if Blink 182 were the original artist. Melton has been at it for over a decade, most often in this similar style, a pop punk cover of a major hit from now or the recent past.

“Jump” was Van Halen‘s first number 1 hit. Infamously, it was their first single driven by a synthesizer, which proved divisive among fans. Though Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth had both played synthesizers on Van Halen tracks before, this song appeared, “Jump” does really feel like a change in kind compared to their previous material. Continue reading »

Mar 062024
 
patrick watson perfect day

“Komorebi” is a Japanese word meaning “sunlight leaking through the trees,” or so the internet tells me. It seems to conjure up images of a particular kind of autumnal, pastoral sunlight for Japanese speakers. It has found it’s way into English lately as English does not have its own word for this particular image or feeling.

Canadian singer-songwriter Patrick Watson has dubbed his new piano instrumental cover of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” the “komorebi version” and has even taken pains to give it artwork featuring a Japanese man lying on the floor in this particular type of sunlight. He’s leaning hard into the imagery. And that’s appropriate because his new cover is very much the right music for “komorebi” if I understand the word correctly. Continue reading »

Mar 012024
 
Screaming Jets

“We are Never Ever Getting Back Together” was, like, only Taylor Swift‘s fourth biggest hits of the 10s despite going six times Platinum in the US and nine times Platinum in Australia. Somehow, three other singles were bigger in both countries. But it’s clear this one made an impact, because old school Aussie rock band The Screaming Jets have covered it ahead of Swift’s Australian leg of her Eras Tour.

The Screaming Jets are one of those bands that are huge in their native country but kind of unknown outside of it. They have released nine albums and numerous singles since 1989 (infamously the year of Swift’s birth), and they have multiple Top 40 Aussie hits (including one Top 5) but zero chart presence in the rest of the world. They would seem like an unlikely band to cover Swift except that her popularity is world-conquering at this point. Legendary Australian radio station Triple J assembled a group of Australian bands that would unexpectedly cover Swift ahead of her latest tour of Australia and The Screaming Jets answered the call. Continue reading »