Sep 302020
 
cover songs september 2020
Amigo the Devil – Before He Cheats (Carrie Underwood cover)

When we last heard Amigo the Devil, he was stripping down a Tom Jones song to create a haunting murder ballad. Now he does the same to another highly polished pop song – but a much more recent one. “[The original is] this very confidence-boosting, really good-feeling, power-infusing song,” Amigo’s Danny Kiranos told Rolling Stone. “I was curious what it would sound like if you took away the positive nature of it and kept the lyrics, essentially the emotions they are portraying.” Continue reading »

May 112020
 
brian fallon license to kill cover

“License to Kill” is one of the most well-known tracks from Bob Dylan‘s notorious reggae-influenced album Infidels. At the time, Infidels was viewed by some as a bit of a return to form, as he stopped singing explicitly Christian songs for the first time in half a decade. Working with Sly & Robbie, Dylan delivered his new songs in a style he’d never attempted before. Continue reading »

Feb 222017
 

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

joshi

Jaime Joshi lives in South Florida amidst geckos, 24-hour Cuban coffee and soup-like humidity. She has been writing for Cover Me since 2013; of all her pieces, she is particularly proud of her pieces on Bruce Springsteen and Madonna. (She’s the one on the right.)
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Dec 022011
 

Back in September, we posted a shaky live cover of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” by the Horrible Crowes, the new project by the Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon and guitar tech Ian Perkins. Now, they’ve covered Perry’s song live at WFUV radio in New York, and listeners can get a way better idea of how well these guys rock Perry’s pop tune. While it may seem like a strange choice for the band, Fallon hits every note in Perry’s tune with such effortless charisma that listeners are bound to ask for more genre crossing covers from the Crowes in the future. Continue reading »

Sep 092011
 

When Brian Fallon of the Gaslight Anthem covers a song, he generally looks to classic rock– Tom Petty, the Clash, and, of course, Springsteen. When he latches onto a cheesy pop song though, man oh man. We heard him deliver lightning in a bottle once a few years ago with his stunning version of Kelly Clarkson’s “I Do Not Hook Up.” Now he does it again with the Horrible Crowes, his new band with guitar tech Ian Perkins. They played their first show ever last night at New York’s Bowery Ballroom and let loose with a cover of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.” Continue reading »

Oct 072010
 

In the Spotlight showcases a cross-section of an artist’s cover work. View past installments, then post suggestions for future picks in the comments!

brian fallon covers

The Gaslight Anthem is a band that inevitably draws comparisons to other artists, whether they’re channeling the sound of Social Distortion, the spirit of Johnny Cash, or the lyrics of the Boss. It only makes sense, then, that this group of Jersey Shore boys has a knack for covers. This blog has spotlighted some of their best work before. Who could forget their haunting full-band reading of Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” or singer Brian Fallon’s totally sincere and totally amazing reworking of Kelly Clarkson’s “I Do Not Hook Up”?

For this installment of In the Spotlight, though, I wanted to dig a little deeper and find some less-represented Gaslight covers. This is a band that is totally about context—their place in rock ‘n’ roll seems wholly dependent on those that have come before (for example, try to find a Gaslight review that does not mention Bruce Springsteen. Go ahead, I dare you). The goal here was to find a range of covers to show that the band is not only aware of those comparisons, but is also aware that their audience knows them too. Thus, while some of their choices in cover songs—Springsteen, Tom Petty—are pretty obvious, others—the Replacements, The Who—are a bit of  a curve ball. Even a song that’s essentially become a standard for our era (Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”) receives a fresh treatment complete with new vocal melody. In a nutshell, the songs below illustrate that Gaslight knows what their fans want, but also knows how to keep them on their toes. Continue reading »