This Week on Bandcamp: The Sour Notes, Stephanie Lauren, Folks, Maigan Blank, Thomas Collins

This Week on Bandcamp rounds up our favorite covers to hit the site in the past seven days.

A somewhat mellower set today, perfect for the official start of summer. The first few tracks take us into folk and folk-rock, but things get a bit dreamier at the end on covers of David Byrne/Brian Eno and, of all people, Will Smith. Party in the city when the heat is on!

Neil Young’s gentle “Harvest Moon” gets rocked a bit harder by the Sour Notes. Originally arranged for an Austin tribute concert, the band liked it so much they decided to take it to a studio. We’re sure glad they did.

California singer Stephanie Lauren doesn’t put much instrumentation behind her voice on free covers album Masquerade, but she doesn’t need to. The white-girl belting power reminds us of Florence Welch, so this knockout Florence and the Machine cover couldn’t be more appropriate.

Damien Rice hasn’t released an album in five years, but the music world hasn’t forgotten him. Here, Denver duo Folks craft a folk-rock cover of Rice’s O standout “Volcano.” They channel Rice’s duet work with Lisa Hannigan, but with a little more oomph.

Maigan Blank covers many of the usual suspects on her free set, but one of the more unusual choices is the title track of David Byrne and Brian Eno’s 2008 collaboration Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. The dreamy ballad uses clever stereo production to turn a simple acoustic performance into a half-whispered lament.

With all the delays and crises surrounding the Men in Black III filming, maybe Will Smith should take a break and become a chillwave artist. Brooklyn duo Thomas Collins imagine what that might sound like on this whacko cover of “Miami.”

Check out previous installments here.