Cover Commissions is a monthly series in which a featured artist produces a special cover for this blog. The song to be covered is usually chosen by blog readers via a poll or suggestions form. Any artists interested in participating in a future installment, please email me at the address on the right.
The Broken Chimneys is the brainchild of one Adam Selzer. Adam’s been making music for years in various incarnations (search his name on iTunes and watch your computer crash) but the Broken Chimneys moniker came out of his other career: a young adult author. The author of Pirates of the Retail Wasteland and I Put a Spell On You, his latest is I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It. If Katy Perry doesn’t sue, maybe Jill Sobule will! He describes how that turned into a new musical project:
The Broken Chimneys were formed to record a “cover of an Adam Selzer song” for use on the “soundtrack” to the forthcoming novel I Kissed a Zombie and I Liked It. The results were so good that a whole album was recorded, featuring “rock” versions of some of Adam’s “greatest hits,” a couple of long-lost songs that were staples of the live set before the first album was out, and a couple of new songs.
What he neglects to mention are the non-Selzer covers the Chimneys have churned out. We’ve already seen four Dylan tunes (reposted below), and the version of “I Get a Kick out of You” below will make you beg for a full The Chimneys’ Tribute to Anything Goes album. Selzer even uncovers a lost Porter lyric: “I get no kick eating brains / One little taste and the rest goes to waste.” Now why wasn’t that in the original?
And that’s just the beginning! Selzer has offered to work up another Chimneys cover specifically for this blog, but he needs your help! Eight song choices are presented below, each with a link to a youtube video so you can easily listen to any tunes you don’t know. Which tune covers is up to you!
Listen to each, listen to the Chimneys’ other music (way more over at his site), then cast your vote in the poll on the right. Voting closes in one week and a brand-new cover of the winning song will debut here in a month or so.
For Your Consideration:
Joan Baez – Diamonds and Rust (7 votes)
John Lennon – Nobody Told Me (6 votes)
Richard Marx – Hazard (8 votes)
Neutral Milk Hotel – Two Headed Boy (11 votes)
Bruce Springsteen – For You (23 votes)
Tom Waits – Innocent When You Dream (14 votes)
War – Low Rider (17 votes)
Wilco – Laminated Cat (aka. Not for the Season) (8 votes)
Voting closes in one week, so hop to it on the right!
