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!

At this writing, Glen Campbell is taking his Farewell Tour. This is not one of those concert tours by a celebrity announcing retirement yet again; rather, it’s Campbell taking a valedictory lap around the country before the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease rob him entirely of his gifts. Reviews of these shows note the occasional stumbles, but also make mention of the standing ovations, Campbell’s still-unerring guitar work, and the fact that this is a man who doesn’t need to make new fans – he needs to say good-bye in style, and he’s doing exactly that. Continue reading »

This was the first year that the  free, three-day music festival Hardly Strictly Bluegrass was without it’s founder Warren Hellman. Warren passed late last year and left a San Francisco tradition that is being faithfully carried out by an army of music lovers, bigger and better than ever. This year’s festival in Golden Gate Park featured 6 stages,  a crowd of 600,000 and 88 acts with a variety of artists like Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, The Lumineers, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, Conor Oberst, The Civil Wars, Son Volt, Ralph Stanley, Nick Lowe and many more. Check out a handful of the many covers from the weekend below! Continue reading »

Are tractors in a barn the first thing you think of when you hear The Beach Boys‘ “Cabinessence?” In case you actually thought about it for a second the answer is no. Philadelphia-based Mock Suns, who are known for playful antics such as giving away chocolate masks molded from their faces, decided that maybe you should think of tractors when listening to the dreamy 20/20 jam. Continue reading »

Cover Classics takes a closer look at all-cover albums of the past, their genesis, and their legacy.

I never liked conventional “children’s music,” which is condescending and ignores the reality of children’s lives, which can be dark and scary. These children hated “cute.” They cherished songs that evoked loneliness and sadness. – Hans Fenger

Hans Fenger was a musician who accepted a job teaching music in a western Canadian school district. He dismissed hi-ho-the-merry-O children’s music in favor of current pop favorites, and his pupils responded enthusiastically enough that he recorded two albums of their performing, pressing 300 copies. More than twenty years later, WFMU DJ and outsider music scholar Irwin Chusid heard the albums and set out to get them released to the world; the end result, Innocence & Despair: The Langley Schools Music Project, wound up on multiple best-of lists at year’s end. Continue reading »

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!

The boy Gedge has written some of the best love songs of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Era. You may dispute this, but I’m right and you’re wrong! – John Peel

The Wedding Present may not be a familiar name in the United States, but in the UK and elsewhere, they need no introduction – they’re the band that took over the “Most Successful Indie Band” label from the Smiths and haven’t recognized any relinquishing since. Led by David Gedge, they have been a feral presence for over a quarter century, and they show no signs of slowing down. Gedge is the only constant, and the band has reflected his evolving from a triple-time songster to a man that still knows how to express being screwed over at half speed. As one YouTube commenter wrote, “If they had told me heaven sounded like this, I would have joined the priesthood.” Continue reading »

French duo Housse de Racket have many clear influences – Brian Eno, Chic, Justice – but for their first-ever cover, they veered in a less obvious direction. Though the Beach Boys‘ smooth summer sound might not immediately come to mind amidst the band’s drum pads and synths, their version of “Til I Die,” premiering here, keeps all Brian Wilson’s whistful melancholy while adding a glossy electropop sheen. We asked them a little about the cover. Continue reading »

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!

In 1984 a band from Glasgow released a song that sounded like the inside of a jet engine factory, only you could hum it. The song was “Upside Down,” and it stayed on the UK indie charts for almost a year and a half. The band was The Jesus and Mary Chain, less content to push the envelope than to blow a hole through it with feedback and distortion. With their first album, Psychocandy, they made it official: here was a group that combined the squall of The Velvet Underground and the tunefulness of The Beach Boys to make torture chamber pop, producing a wall of sound that surely had Phil Spector nodding approvingly. Continue reading »

Little Black Dress is a dreamy, shoegazey duo from Dallas. The Little Black Dress, on the other hand, is an entirely pop-rock quintet from Toronto. Needless to say, this made researching which one of them covered the Beach Boys’ “Don’t Worry Baby” a little confusing. It was the first, article-less Little Black Dress, though, and they did a bang-up job. Continue reading »

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