Lunar Noon, the project of San Francisco-based musician Michelle Zheng, have released a mesmerising cover of Massive Attack‘s hit “Teardrop.” Continue reading »
Sep 112024
Sep 062024
Cover Classics takes a closer look at all-cover albums of the past, their genesis, and their legacy.
[W]hen I sing other people’s songs… I’ve known them so long that they feel like they’re my songs, you know? Obviously, I don’t get the publishing for them, but I feel like they’re part of me, because they also formed the way I write songs. Those songs are like my parents or my elder brother, you know? [Laughs.] I may not possess them, but they’re certainly family. I don’t know if family is something you possess or something that possesses you. – Robyn Hitchcock
If Robyn Hitchcock sees Bob Dylan’s songs as family, then 2002’s Robyn Sings was him organizing a great family reunion. It was a two-CD collection of live Dylan covers; the second CD recreated the famed “Royal Albert Hall” concert. It’s got a bootleg sound and one clown who thinks it’s funny to yell “Judas!” after every song, but it gets the job done. The real treasure, though, is on the first disc, which is what we’ll focus on here today.
Sep 052024
The Last Dinner Party spent their pupal years in the pandemic. Their years behind a mask, or a veil, were spent honing their aural and visual craft. In 2023, they burst from their chrysalis as a fully conceived, fully formed, art-rock entity. They have spent this year barnstorming across sell-out tours and festival appearances. In March we praised their live cover of Sparks’ “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both of Us.” Now, in preparation for a new album release in October, featuring several covers, they have released a pro recording of the Sparks tune with a video covering their performances of the classic over Brat summer. Continue reading »
Sep 042024
One of my favourite things is seeing bands play tribute to other musicians as a part of their live shows, something Coldplay have a good track record of doing. While performing in Vienna, lead singer Chris Martin made reference to Taylor Swift‘s cancelled shows in the city, and asked Maggie Rogers and two dedicated Swifties from the audience to join him in a cover of Swift’s massive hit “Love Story.” Continue reading »
Aug 302024
‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
One of the things everyone enjoys about the Beatles is the band’s equality. Take John, Paul, George, or Ringo out of the equation, they say, and the magic is over. Well, the same is true for the Who (something they proved, sadly, after Keith Moon’s death). Only the Who were bigger. Louder. More proficient at their instruments of choice. They could be more powerful, but they could be more vulnerable too. They were one of the best studio bands of their time, and one of the best live bands of all time. And when they were at their peak, they could be the best band in the world.
Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon combined to form a force of nature. Starting as one of the great singles bands, they segued into being masters of the LP. Townshend led the way with pioneer guitar playing – both slashing power chords and controlled feedback were part of his palette before any other Guitar God – and a pen that produced not one but two full-length operas for the band (three, if you count the belatedly released Lifehouse), as well as three-minute expressions of defiant angst. Daltrey gave voice to that angst, developing a roar that could surf the wave of noise or blow through it. Entwistle may have looked stoic, but they called him Thunderfingers for a reason. His bass lines were nimble yet forceful, and his sense of the macabre in his songs gave the band even more colors. And what can be said about Moon and his drumming that hasn’t already been said?
The Who’s songs will remain long after they’re gone. Not just for the performances the Who gave them, but for the songs themselves. They conveyed anger, regret, humor, and more, searching low and high within their psyches. The stories they told were both theirs and ours. Here are thirty-five of those stories, telling those stories in ways that approach and occasionally surpass the band that created them.
– Patrick Robbins, Features Editor
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Aug 262024
Steve Marion lends his considerable guitar skills to artists who need virtuosity tinged with eccentricity. Over the years, artists such as Paul Simon, The Black Keys and Miley Cyrus have utilized those skills. As Delicate Steve, he leads his own muse, and band, which occasionally ventures into covers, including his amazing “Hallelujah” that we covered a few years ago. His new album Delicate Steve Sings subversively does not contain vocals, while packaged as a classic standards album from the likes of Chet Baker or Willie Nelson. Where Frank Sinatra used his voice as an instrument, Marion uses his instrument as a voice. The album includes a version of Otis Redding’s “These Arms of Mine.”
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