May 102011
 

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

Every band likes to end gigs with their biggest song. Arcade Fire must have a hard time drafting a set list, since every one of their songs is massive, but for a long time they’ve been sending off fans with the truly epic “Wake Up.” It’s a grand, soaring song that really requires the dedication of all eight Arcade Fire members. However, it’s also such a gem that other artists can’t help but try to take it on, though most of them tone it down to a more manageable acoustic number. The results are mixed – covering Arcade Fire can be a daunting task – but the five artists below prove up to the challenge. Continue reading »

Nov 232010
 

Quickies rounds up new can’t-miss covers. Download ‘em below.

Tegan and Sara covering any holiday song would likely be adorable, but hearing them do “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” is the auditory equivalent of a thousand kittens.
Continue reading »

Oct 152010
 

For anyone interested in the stats game, Cover Me has seen a lot of big, round numbers recently. Yesterday afternoon we put up our 500th post (Eric Lauritsen’s epic roundup of dozens of live covers by Wilco). Then this morning we gained our 1000th Twitter follower (hi @u2acro!). As I’ve been promising on @covermesongs for a while now, that’s an occasion for a Twit-sclusive giveaway. No, scratch that. Five Twit-sclusive giveaways.

Here’s the deal: Tweet out a link to a page on Cover Me. Could be the homepage, could be a favorite post, could be our archives on a favorite artist (find ’em here). Whatever. Include the hash tag “#CoverMe1000” in your post. Do this as often as you like over the next week—as long as you’re tweeting a different page/post each time. Next Friday I’ll pick five tweets randomly. Those five tweet-ers win one of the following:

CD: John Legend and the Roots’ Wake Up! (more info here)
CD: Garden on a Trampoline’s new compilation It’s Only Love (three copies, more info below)
CD: The Morlocks Play Chess (more info here) Continue reading »

Sep 272010
 

Last week we saw three videos from John Legend and the Roots’ Spike Lee-filmed concert. Since, JohnLegendVEVO has upped many, many more. You can watch them all here. One, however, deserves its own post.

The Legend/Roots album Wake Up! was originally inspired by them covering the Arcade Fire song of the same name. Ironically, that song was cut in favor of a protest-soul theme. We wondered what the heck their cover of “Wake Up” would sound like. Now we know. Epic. Continue reading »

Sep 242010
 

Do the Right Thing. Driving Miss Daisy. John Legend and the Roots at Terminal 5. What do these things have in common? Well, if you read the headline, you already know: Spike Lee filmed them. As part of American Express’ Unstaged series pairing famous musicians with famous directors, Lee brought his Brooklyn touch to last night’s Manhattan concert. He went all out, recreating the Wake Up! album cover onstage and letting the guys do their thing.

So far only two songs have been archived, but if the recent Arcade Fire/Terry Gilliam Unstaged is any indication, the full thing will be rebroadcast in a week or two. Until then, check out Legend and the Roots performing Eugene McDaniels’ “Compared to What” and album highlight “I Can’t Write Left Handed.” As we saw before, this latter features the Roots’ “Captain” Kirk Douglas playing brain-exploding guitar. Screw “best guitarist in hip-hop”; this guy might be one of the best guitarists around period.

EDIT: Added third song, “Wake Up Everybody,” at bottom. Continue reading »

Sep 012010
 

Back in July we got a first peak at John Legend and the Roots’ upcoming protest-music cover album. Their version of “Wake Up Everybody” was tight (in both senses of the word), but nothing mind-blowing. Guess they were saving that for the second look. Well, it’s here, and…wow. Their version of Bill Withers’ 1973 lament “I Can’t Write Left-Handed” is an absolute barn-burner. The studio clip below lets you watch it all come together. They run through cycle after cycle of build and climax, each peak higher than the one before. This goes on for eleven glorious minutes.

Legend croons and Questlove executes some precision drum rolls, but the real star here may be guitarist “Captain” Kirk Douglas. He adds brilliantly understated licks behind each Legend line before unleashing a typically nutso solo. Relegated to the sidelines, MC Black Thought nods approvingly. (via 2dopeboyz) Continue reading »