Tuxedomoon’s 1985 new-wave/post-punk single “In a Manner of Speaking” is a deep and affecting song centered around semantics and melancholy. And now, Israeli producer and DJ Guy Gerber got together with the female vocalist Desire to make this feel far more deep-house, techno, and dancey. Continue reading »
The link between Jason Isbell and R.E.M. is pretty well known. He included his take on their “Nightswimming” and “Driver 8” on his cover album Georgia Blue. In June of this year, Isbell inducted R.E.M. into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Earlier this month, he performed with Michael Stipe at a Harris/Walz rally. And during his annual run of shows at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, the lovefest continued. Continue reading »
One of the biggest stories of the past fortnight was the unfortunate passing of One Direction member Liam Payne, who passed away aged 31 in Argentina. Among the tributes that have been shared across the music world, Maggie Rogers chose to honour Payne’s memory by performing the One Direction song “Night Changes” at her show at the TD Garden in Boston. Continue reading »
New Jersey-based nu metal band Uncured have announced a new EP coming out early next year and the record includes a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer.”
It’s a tough song to cover, given the ubiquity of the original, but brothers Rex and Zak Cox were excited for the challenge of paying tribute to NIN, all the while making sure the Uncured sound came through. “It was so good and iconic that we weren’t trying to recreate it,” said Rex. “We were trying to pretend that song was written for us. I’m personally excited about how many different vocal tones and voice and kinds of sounds are on it.” Continue reading »
DIIV’s fourth album Frog In Boiling Water is one of the hits of the year, and the band is taking the opportunity to publicize it and indulge some of their passions. For a recent appearance on SiriusXM, they reprised a song which is part of their live set: Pavement’s “Cream of Gold.”
When completing the song, and the overall Terror Twilight album, Pavement were in flux. Stephen Malkmus did not have to be explicit about who he had a toxic relationship with, just that it was not going to go backwards, and would move relentlessly on, driven by his will to try and find a better place. The band took a hiatus after the album was released. Continue reading »
One Great Cover looks at the greatest cover songs ever, and how they got to be that way.
I got a letter from the government the other day
I opened and read it. It said they were suckers
They wanted me for their army or whatever
Picture me giving a damn, I said never.Public Enemy, “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos,” 1988
Tricky was doing what no one else was doing musically in 1994, as he was pretty much most other years. His audacity (or complete naivete) as an artist knew no bounds, being largely how he got female vocalist Martina Topley-Bird to sing Chuck D’s none-more-Chuck D rap lyrics from Public Enemy’s “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” over an exhilarating rock-dance backing. Which she did in her uniquely seductive tones, bringing melody and wispiness to words that once seemed inseparable from the hip-hop frontman’s testosterone-pumped New York baritone, so renowned for emanating righteous anger in the face of injustice and prejudice.
It was consequently hard to know what the oft-called “trip-hop pioneer” from Bristol UK had, in fact, delivered in the track he simply called “Black Steel” – but there was no doubt it made for one of the most original and exciting singles of the times. No doubt too that it made, in an unprecedented way, for one great cover.
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