This past weekend, Vampire Weekend appeared at The Met in Philadelphia, and during their set on May 31st, they added to their last set a full version of a song that they’d performed before.
Last August, on Jerry Garcia’s birthday, the band incorporated Garcia’s “Reuben & Cerise” into a medley of audience-requested covers, a fun encore gimmick they do every night. But this time, they performed the song properly, in full. Continue reading »
Midway through her set at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona, Spain, Chappell Roan performed a cover of a Heart song that is clearly close to her… well, you get the idea.
After the final notes of “Hot to Go” rang out, the chugging guitar and harmonics that are the instantly recognizably opening to Heart’s “Barracuda,” filled the air. Roan and her band kept close to the original and, given her vocal strengths, hitting some of those Ann Wilson notes did not prove to be any kind of problem. Continue reading »
It’s been 25 years, but finally there is a new Pavement recording! The group (who reformed in 2022, but has only performed live) have released a cover of Jim Pepper’s “Witchitai-To.” The song appears on the soundtrack for the movie about the band, titled Pavements.
The cover was recorded for the group’s 2022 reunion, and then was regularly performed on that tour. Guitarist and Pavement co-founder Scott Kannberg, nee Spiral Stairs, teased the recording late last year, announcing on the podcast Komplete Kontrol that a “new Pavement song” was forthcoming. Continue reading »
At this year’s Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, MJ Lenderman and Drive-By Truckers’ lead singer Patterson Hood shared both a bill and a stage. Lenderman, who opened the festivities, brought Hood out for the two to team up and play Pink Floyd‘s “Wish You Were Here.” The two kept the song similar to the original in both style and tempo, but with an added flute. (The flutist was Ben Hackett who is in Hood’s band.) The highlight is hearing the voices of the two intertwine and play off each other. Continue reading »
Matt Berninger, best known as the lead singer for The National, is currently out on his first solo tour and is adding some covers into the set pretty much every night.
In the past week of shows, Berninger has performed “Kid A” by Radiohead and “All Apologies” by Nirvana. The songs have been performed alongside Julia Laws (better known as Ronboy). This is not the first collaboration for the two; they released a cover of Tom Petty’s “Only a Broken Heart” a few years earlier. (They also performed this song this past Sunday in Toronto.)
At Saturday’s show in Chicago, they performed, fittingly, Tom Waits‘ “The Heart of Saturday Night.”
Watch videos of all four below.
Paul Weller, he of The Jam and Style Council, has a new record coming out and it’s a covers record, but the line-up is a fascinating collection of songs. The album, titled Find El Dorado includes covers of songs by Richie Havens (“Handouts in the Rain”), The Flying Burrito Brothers (“White Line Fever”) and The Kinks (“Nobody’s Fool”). If that isn’t enough, Weller has recruited a wonderful lineup of folks to join him on the record, including Robert Plant, Noel Gallagher and Hannah Peel. Continue reading »