This Week on Bandcamp: Zosia Kowalewska, Marwood Williams, Jason Parker Quartet, Clouded Son, Empire

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

This week’s Bandcamp spotlight goes back to the basics on a set of (mostly) classic songwriter covers. I say mostly, because one of the five is an MGMT song, and another is only sort of a Bob Dylan cover. Still, it’s hard to argue with the revered status of the other three tackled: Neil Young, Nick Drake, Chris Bell.

Bob Dylan wrote the chorus to this one, but Old Crow Medicine Show made it a classic. Zosia Kowalewska’s solo piano cover doesn’t do anything drastically different from plenty of other covers, but the honest emotion in her vocals puts it over the top.

Between “Cinnamon Girl,” “Down by the River,” and “Cowgirl in the Sand,” Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere offers a constant stream of cover opportunities. Marwood Williams looks beyond the classics though in this sensitive backporch take on the deep cut.

Full album covers seem to be all the rage. Why, just earlier today we saw one group cover Vampire Weekend’s entire debut. Well, “Time Had Told Me” is the first track off the Jason Parker Quartet’s jazz performance of Nick Drake‘s Five Leaves Left. This thoughtful and loving tribute is pay-what-you-want at Bandcamp and well worth your time.

Clouded Son do everything right on this covers EP, from the name (The Copyright Infringement EP) to the guests (Ben Folds plays backup on his own song). Their version of Chris Bell’s “I Am the Cosmos” sounds like Seattle circa 1994. Still grungy, but with a little added spitshine.

Let’s be honest – every one of these sets could include an MGMT cover. In fact, two of them already have (1, 2). Quality covers just keep popping up though, including this latest “Electric Feel.” It opens with space keyboard, transitions to grungy guitars, then goes all gruff-but-emotional singer for the lyrics.

Check out previous installments here.