Aryl Watson

Aryl Watson wrote for Cover Me from October - November 2010. Aryl Watson works as an engineer, but in real life, he's a semi-skilled musician, soccer coach & music evangelist. He'll never say he's a music critic. Since he can't write music, he won't tell those who can that their music is good or bad. He lets the artist know with his earphones, speakers & credit card. Aryl's music tastes are eclectic, eccentric and expansive. He listens to lots of music & never dismisses a genre; the good music is there, it might just take a while to find it. He believes there are no guilty pleasures in music. If you take pleasure in listening to it, refuse to to feel guilty! That includes Hannah Montana soundtracks, Ke$ha, 'N Sync and Justin Bieber (yep, he likes the Bieber). Covers are his favorite genre of music. Re-interpreted music allows the listener to see artists and songs in a new light or find new favorites. A Run-DMC cover leads to Aerosmith whose cover leads the listener to Chuck Berry and so on.

Oct 192010
 

Darwin Deez, the man and the band, started making waves in the UK in late 2009 and embarked on a world tour this year. During an interview on Australia’s Triple J radio, Deez described his music as “alternative, homemade indie pop.” He then launched into a bit praising the perks of his first tour, many of which are a little too spicy for a family publication like Cover Me (so listen here).

The group originally planned to cover “Stronger” by Kanye West, but scrapped it (a bummer, since it’s always interesting to see how artists interpret Mr. West’s songs). Deez offered no reason for the change, choosing “Scar Tissue” as the replacement simply because he’s “in a Red Hot Chili Peppers phase.” The band’s cover was faithful to the original other than a lyrical change to reference the Anthony Kiedis-Dave Navarro kiss in the Peppers’ “Warped” video. Continue reading »

Oct 192010
 

Song of the Day posts one cool cover every morning. Catch up on past installments here.

Sunday Girl (a.k.a Jade Williams, an English DJ/model/graphic artist) is a big deal in the UK dance scene (check out her stuff here). The moniker came about when she worked in a pet shop every Sunday and no one asked her name, but she recently became the darling of dance remixers everywhere by offering a cappella versions of her songs to anyone who was willing to sacrifice some bandwidth.

Don’t expect any remixes coming from this cover, though. Taking on Ke$ha‘s “Tik Tok,” Sunday Girl strips out the noise and sings liltingly along to an acoustic guitar. Her vocals evoke Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays, conjuring images of a shy teen out for the first time with her wild white-trash girlfriend. Here’s hoping nothing too bad happened on that crazy night. Hanging out with Ke$ha can’t be a good thing. Continue reading »

Oct 152010
 

You’ve heard Lissie plenty of times here before and we’ve seen her work her way through Kid Cudi, Lady Gaga, and Metallica covers. The next step? Led Zeppelin‘s “Stairway to Heaven” of course.

Few artists are willing to take on the Led Zeppelin classic; even fewer are willing to do it live in-studio. Brave little Lissie decided to take the risk, so she tackled the iconic song recently. Her husky, sultry voice echoes the emotion of the original and she channels Stevie Nicks (in a good way) when the song reaches its vocal climax. The video conclusively shows us that she’s into the song and wants to do it justice. Instrumentally, drums and bass stand front and center in Lissie’s version of “Stairway to Heaven” and she made sure not to leave out the recorder intro. Lissie’s risky bet pays off with an excellent version of the classic.

Let’s hope Lissie’s planning to cover Justin Bieber‘s “Baby” next. Think she could pull off Ludacris‘ rap? You bet! Continue reading »

Oct 122010
 

Recording a tribute album is a tricky proposition. Taking on an iconic band like Led Zeppelin increases the risk significantly. And trying it with 39 tracks (51 if you include the digital bonus tracks)? That’s a lot of freakin’ songs. Some of Led Zeppelin’s songs are even covered more than once in this collection. This project is the brainchild of Rob Jones, who runs the Jealous Butcher record label (home of The Decemberists and M Ward among others), and has been over five years in the making.

I, like so many others, love Led Zeppelin. I have all of their albums, box sets, and various paraphernalia. Led Zeppelin soundtracked my teenage years, helped me realize how bad most ’80s hair bands were (thanks guys) and led me to discover other great musicians Led Zeppelin cited as influences. Because their musicianship and writing is so strong, any cover will instantly be compared to the iconic original. Therein lies the rub for an artist attempting a Led Zeppelin cover. Completely re-imagine a song and risk being torn apart by the purists; stay too faithful and be told that your cover pales in comparison to the original.  Some artists on The Land of Ice & Snow are faithful to the original, others…not so much. One of the few times being unfaithful is a good thing. Continue reading »