Song of the Day: Kingsbury, “Atlantic City” (Bruce Springsteen cover)

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Sep 302010
 

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

Bruce Springsteen first recorded Nebraska with the full E Street Band. Known as “electric Nebraska,” it’s the holy grail for Boss collectors. Why? Because he threw out all those recordings and released the album using his solo demos instead. The bare-bones disc contains the songs and little else, inviting cover embellishment.

Take “Atlantic City.” The original features a double-tracked Bruce strumming on guitar. A nice enough performance, but not one that gives you much to grab onto. The covers, though, morphed the tune into a Springsteen classic. The Band brought in a mandolin hoedown. The Hold Steady blasted forth with some horn-infused rock and roll. Now Kingsbury comes along to bridge the gap. What starts as an acoustic strum gradually adds violin and tasteful synthesizer (it exists). It feels like it’s about to explode, but never quite boils over. Continue reading »

Song of the Day: Crocodiles, “Groove Is in the Heart / California Girls” (Deee-Lite / Beach Boys cover)

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Sep 292010
 

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

B-sides are a wonderful thing. With iTunes and the vinyl revival independently bringing back the single, bands promote songs as much as they do albums. Problem is, when iTunes makes everything a single, how do you convince a fan to pay attention? Why, you press a 7” and slap something else on the B-side. Often that something is a cover.

We saw one yesterday from the Dirty Projectors. Here’s another. In August, when noise-pop duo Crocodiles pressed “Sleep Forever” onto wax, they threw an unexpected tune on the flip side. It’s a cover that melds Deee-Lite’s super-cheesy hit “Groove Is in the Heart” with the slightly-more-classic “California Girls.” It winds up sounding very little like either. Continue reading »

Song of the Day: Judas Priest, “Diamonds and Rust” (Joan Baez cover)

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Sep 282010
 

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

The point of the Song of the Day series is to spotlight a cover worth hearing. Generally, “worth hearing” means “good.” Not today. Sometimes something can be so bad, so horridly unpleasant, that it hits instant gold. Judas Priest covering Joan Baez falls into that category.

On the one hand, you gotta give them some credit. The cardinal sin of cover songs is carbon-copying the original. Judas Priest steered well clear of that pitfall. Too bad they hit every other. They might have even invented some new “Cover Don’ts” with this one. Continue reading »

Song of the Day: May Ling, “Obsessed” (Mariah Carey cover)

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Sep 272010
 

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

As far as celebrity feuds go, the ongoing Eminem–Mariah Carey beef (if you can even call it that) must be among the least interesting. Two artists who have no obvious reason to dislike each other trading media barbs and writing diss tracks? Meh. Being the slightly classier individual, Carey at least had the good grace to deny that “Obsessed,” her fuel to the fire, was about Em. Too bad she then went and dressed up as him for the music video. Sigh.

Let’s just move on. May Ling is a Portland-based musician building a following one raucous house party at a time. On High Score and Records’ free summer mixtape, she covered Carey’s “contribution” to the feud. Removed from the inane cultural context, “Obsessed” improves dramatically. Ling’s ghostly slow-grind vocals help. Continue reading »

Song of the Day: Son of Dave, “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” (Daft Punk cover)

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Sep 242010
 

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

Junior Wells is dead. So is Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, and Jimmy Reed. What if these legendary harmonica players were alive though? Would they still be making music? Would the world have caught up to them? And perhaps most importantly, would they be Daft Punk fans?

Probably not. If they were though, the pairing would have sounded like Son of Dave. The former Crash Test Dummy blues-stomps his way through “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” with harmonica and shaker by his side. The loop pedal offers the only sign it’s not 1947. That and the fact that it’s on YouTube. To call it “different” is like calling Charlie Musselwhite “pretty good.” Continue reading »

Song of the Day: The Vatican Cellars, “Runnin’ with the Devil” (Van Halen cover)

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Sep 232010
 

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

Van Halen’s self-titled debut sold ten million copies. That means ten million people began their Van Halen experience with “Runnin’ with the Devil.” Ten million people heard those thundering bass notes, ten million people heard those even more thundering drums, and ten million people heard Eddie Van Halen. And out of all ten million, I would wager not a single one thought, “This could use some cello.” Their loss.

The Vatican Cellars’ cover of “Runnin’ with the Devil” adds the orchestrated-folk touch you didn’t realize the song was missing. Over strummed guitars, brushed drums, what sounds like an accordion (?), and the aforementioned cello, Simon Hughes and someone who goes by “The Birthday Girl” harmonize so sweetly you forget the leotard-ed origins. Presenting…the most adorable hard rock you’ve ever heard. Continue reading »

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