Full Albums: Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’

 Posted by at 2:00 pm  No Responses »
Jan 182019
 

Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!

blue

At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn’t pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy. But the advantage of it in the music was that there were no defenses there either. – Joni Mitchell, 1979

As many a person has pointed out, Blue works really good if you’re really low. These five girls came up to me once in a bar and said, “Joni, before there was Prozac, there was you.” – Joni Mitchell, 1996

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Tokyo Police Club Grunges Through Some Billy Squier

 Posted by at 12:30 pm  No Responses »
Aug 252010
 

Regular readers know how much we’ve enjoyed The A.V. Club’s Undercover series. It brought us the Swell Season covering Neutral Milk Hotel, Frightened Rabbit covering the Lemonheads, and the Antlers covering Pink Floyd, all in the Club’s unique pick-a-cover-off-the-list system. Sadly, it’s nearing the end. Canadian indie breakout Tokyo Police Club had only two covers left to choose from – Billy Squier’s “Everybody Wants You” and R.E.M.’s “Driver 8.” They went with Squier, which means the last band is stuck with R.E.M. (you could do worse)

The band claims they picked the 1982 hit because they didn’t know it as well. That meant “no one would be bummed if we didn’t do it the great, majestic service it’s owed,” singer Dave Monks explains. Such self-deprecating remarks sell the band short. They put forward a grungey stomp that starts out rocking and slows to a dirty groove.

Watch the video and download an MP3 below, courtesy of The A.V. Club. Check back next week to see who wraps up the series with some R.E.M. Continue reading »