Mar 052014
 

Welcome to Cover Me Q&A, where we take your questions about cover songs and answer them to the best of our ability.

Here at Cover Me Q&A, we’ll be taking questions about cover songs and giving as many different answers as we can. This will give us a chance to hold forth on covers we might not otherwise get to talk about, to give Cover Me readers a chance to learn more about individual staffers’ tastes and writing styles, and to provide an opportunity for some back-and-forth, as we’ll be taking requests (learn how to do so at feature’s end).

Today’s question comes from Cover Me staffer Mike Misch: What cover song shouldn’t work as well as it does?
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Nov 072011
 

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” is a three-and-a-half minute clarion call about the joy of sex. No “take my heart” sentiments, no “our love’s gonna last” – just one loud, raunchy, glorious celebration of a one-night stand, bypassing the brain and going directly to the gut (and points lower). There’s something primal about it – the simple beat, the easy to remember words, the sheer volume of the performances – that gives the listener a feeling both of power and control over that power. Little wonder that the song is de rigueur for pole dancers: it empowers both the men and the women; its instant familiarity makes hearing the opening notes like welcoming back an old friend; and by God, it’s fun. Continue reading »

Aug 222011
 

With the release of their 2009 album, Yeah So, Sheffield, England duo Slow Club (aka Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor) took the folk world by storm with their lovely perspective on relationships encompassed in an inventive package. The band’s love songs, such as “When I Go” and “Let’s Fall Back in Love,” were made even more beautiful with the use of percussion like glass bottles and chairs, and through the band’s cute, but not too sugary songwriting. Now the duo is back with a new album, Paradise, which includes a really different (and funky) new track, “Two Cousins.” Continue reading »