May 202011
 

Download This scours the web’s dark corners for cool cover freebies. View past installments.

Toronto-based indie label Paper Bag Records boasts an impressive roster of bands, featuring both Canadian and international artists. SXSW breakthrough band P.S. I Love You, The Rural Alberta Advantage and Born Ruffians all call the label home. You Say Party! also worked with the label before breaking up last month.

A couple years ago the label celebrated seven years in existence by releasing a compilation of covers titled, suitably, Seven Year Itch. Featuring artists from their eclectic lineup covering an even more eclectic group of songs, the label posted the comp on their website as a free download. The song selection ranges from punk – Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” gets an electro makeover – to ‘80s Canadian hit parade “classics” like Gowan’s “Strange Animal.” Oh, and of course the requisite ultra-obscure track: Danish actor Peter Malberg’s “Du er min øjesten,” a song featured in a ‘50s-era Danish movie.

Montreal’s CFCF, aka. Michael Silver, kicks off the affair with an impressive version of one-hit wonder OMC’s “How Bizarre.” The track sounds like classic New Order with a dreamy descending keyboard riff and groovy synth bass. Indie folksters Rock Plaza Central take on Bob Dylan’s “I Want You,” giving the track an acoustic, back-porch makeover. The vocal recalls Leonard Cohen’s early work: plaintive and dramatic, half singing and half poetry reading. Slim Twig sounds vaguely Iggy Pop-ish when crooning the extended vowels in the chorus of Outkast’s “Behold a Lady.” He transforms the track from beatbox to new wave punk with echo-drenched keyboard and a huge, Albini-style drum sound. Download all three below.

By the way, you’re not just having a bad case of deja vu with the label name. We recently featured their tribute compilation to Madonna’s True Blue here. Check out the samples of Seven Year Itch below and then head to the label’s website to download the rest.

MP3: CFCF – How Bizarre (OMC cover)
[audio: DownloadThis/SevenYearItch/HowBizarre.mp3]


MP3
: Rock Plaza Central – I Want You (Bob Dylan cover)
[audio: DownloadThis/SevenYearItch/IWantYou.mp3]


MP3
: Slim Twig – Behold a Lady (Outkast cover)
[audio: DownloadThis/SevenYearItch/BeholdaLady.mp3]


Seven Year Itch
Tracklist:

01. CFCF – How Bizarre (OMC cover)
02. Winter Gloves – Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana cover)
03. Woodhands – Electric Avenue (Eddy Grant cover)
04. Sally Shapiro – Dying in Africa (Nicolas Makelberge cover)
05. You Say Party! We Say Die! – Falling Out (Rikk Agnew cover)
06. Josh Reichmann – Daniel (Bat For Lashes cover)
07. Laura Barrett – Gamma Ray (Beck cover)
08. Rock Plaza Central – I Want You (Bob Dylan cover)
09. The Acorn – Strange Animal (Gowan cover)
10. Little Girls – Heinz (Artery cover)
11. Slim Twig – Behold A Lady (Outkast cover)
12. Under Byen – Du er min øjesten (Peter Malberg cover)

Download the full set here.

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