The first cassette tape Mike ever owned was MC Hammer's "Too Legit to Quit." He has spent the following years trying to repair his severely damaged "indie cred." He first recognized the power of cover songs when he heard Dave Matthew's Band cover Soul Coughing's "Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago." As part of his musical education, he is working his way through Tom Moon's excellent book, "The 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die" and tracking his progress at Recording the Recordings and on Twitter. Mike currently lives in Wisconsin but his heart still bleeds for Cleveland sports teams (yes, really).
One Great Cover looks at the greatest cover songs ever, and how they got to be that way.
In the documentary It Might Get Loud, Jack White is shown putting a record on a turntable. He sits, listening intently, as we hear Son House’s “Grinnin’ in Your Face.” After a few bars the camera zooms in on the record cover and we hear Jack’s voiceover: “By the time I was about 18, somebody played me Son House. That was it for me.”
He elaborates that the song has been his favorite since the first time he heard it, and he was taken in by the simplicity of the music. “I didn’t know that you could do that, just singing and clapping.”Continue reading »
Back in 2020, we listed the Save Stereogum album, a compilation of 55 artists covering songs from the ’00s, as the 21st best covers album of the year. The compilation featured an eclectic lineup, including experimental rap trio clipping. doing a noise-driven clipping. cover of J-Kwon’s club hit “Tipsy.” This week clipping. gave the song an official 7″ release on Sub Pop and have added it to streaming services.
clipping. have been around since 2009 but they’ve grown their fanbase thanks to rapper Daveed Diggs’ prominent role in Hamilton. Fans of that performance might be slightly jarred by the soundscapes created by Diggs’ partners William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes, but fans of noise-rap (or listeners with an open mind) will be delighted by the feedback-heavy production combined with Diggs’ precision wordplay and delivery.
The J-Kwon track here is paid due homage, both through the chorus and the use of the countdown starting each verse, but Diggs uses the song as a springboard for his own lyrics. Thematically, Diggs sticks to the storyline of the club, alcohol, sex, and violence, but as he’s known to do, he describes a scene with an additional layer of danger and darkness to it. The beat here is punctuated by static, beeps, and distortion of all kinds that solidify the griminess of this track. If you’re looking for a feel good hit to play in the club or at a party, this isn’t going to replace the J-Kwon original unless you are trying to get yourself a lot of quizzical looks. But if you want to hear a song that’s in that gray area between uncomfortable and catchy, this cover, like a lot of clipping. offerings, has you covered.
Bruce Springsteen‘s Nebraska isn’t the album with the most radio plays, but as the “cool” Springsteen album, it’s certainly generated a lot of covers from musicians who appreciate its incredible songs. The Boss’s storytelling is dark throughout the album, and the songs are wide open for reinterpretation due to the sparse instrumentation. Liverpool duo King Hannah recently took “State Trooper” and expanded its simple premise into a noodling jam session.Continue reading »
Tenacious D is widely known for rocking your socks off, sometimes with the help of Dave Grohl on drums (or as a demon). However, many of the songs from their debut album had first drafts that fell within the rare subgenre of acoustic-metal. “Kyle Quit the Band” is one of those songs, where the studio version has added plenty of electric guitars and frantic drumming but the original version was just Jack and Kyle and their acoustic guitars. Recently, Amy Lee (previously of Evanescence) decided to take this lesser-known track back to its acoustic roots.Continue reading »
As we covered back in March, the horn-fueled Brass Against are a group you need to know. They’re back with a new cover of Tool, who they’ve covered a couple times previously. This time they take on “Stinkfist” and it’s a blast.Continue reading »
If there was ever a year to go ahead and start the Christmas music early, this might be it. Christmas music means it’s almost Christmas means 2020 is almost, finally, over. And what better way to get started than with everyone’s favorite Christmas song “Little Drummer Boy”!
