They Say It’s Your Birthday: Steven Tyler

 Posted by at 8:00 am  6 Responses »
Mar 262016
 

They Say It’s Your Birthday celebrates an artist’s special day with other people singing his or her songs. Let others do the work for a while. Happy birthday!

steven tyler

Steven Tyler has had one of the most remarkable careers in rock ‘n’ roll history. With his band Aerosmith, he was big in the ’70s and huge in the ’90s, and his hard-earned sobriety allowed him to enjoy the second peak even more. His willingness to change with the times, moving from hard rock to rapping with Run-D.M.C. to pop-tinged rock to power ballads, kept the band relevant for multiple generations. He and the band haven’t forgotten the small towns, either – they’ve appeared on Aurora, IL cable access TV with Wayne & Garth, and they’ve enjoyed a Flaming Moe in Springfield.

He’s shown some skill apart from Aerosmith as well. Tyler has performed guest vocals with Alice Cooper and Carlos Santana. He famously judged on American Idol for two years, putting his flamboyant and playfully filthy personality on display. Now he has a solo country album in the works, proving that even a now-68-year-old dog can learn new tricks.

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Cover Me Q&A: What’s a cover song you like by an artist you dislike?

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  3 Responses »
Oct 072015
 

Welcome to Cover Me Q&A, where we take your questions about cover songs and answer them to the best of our ability.

Here at Cover Me Q&A, we’ll be taking questions about cover songs and giving as many different answers as we can. This will give us a chance to hold forth on covers we might not otherwise get to talk about, to give Cover Me readers a chance to learn more about individual staffers’ tastes and writing styles, and to provide an opportunity for some back-and-forth, as we’ll be taking requests (learn how to do so at feature’s end).

Today’s question, from Cover Me staffer Raphael Camara: What’s a cover song you like by an artist you dislike?
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In the Spotlight: R.E.M.

 Posted by at 5:00 pm  4 Responses »
Aug 092011
 

In the Spotlight showcases a cross-section of an artist’s cover work. View past installments, then post suggestions for future picks in the comments!

For most of their existence, Athens, GA quartet (later trio) R.E.M. has been synonymous with college rock. As early pioneers of the alternative movement that bucked popular trends like hair metal and new wave, R.E.M. gained significant notoriety among their core fan base with strong ’80s efforts like Murmur and Life’s Rich Pageant before finding mainstream success with hits such as 1987’s “The One I Love” and 1991’s monster single “Losing My Religion.” They continue to record to this day, and still have legions of devoted fans. In fact, they released their 15th studio album, Collapse Into Now, only a few months ago, taking them into the 31st consecutive year of their career. Continue reading »

Ben Gibbard, the Dead, Steven Tyler Rock Baseball Playoffs with National Anthems

 Posted by at 2:30 pm  No Responses »
Oct 252010
 

Well, it’s late October. Leaves are turning, temperatures are diving, and the best Halloween costumes are long gone from the shelves of stores across the country (looks like it’s “homeless guy” for me again this year). For many, this all amounts to just one thing: the baseball playoffs. But as the Giants and Rangers get ready to square off in the World Series, it may seem like there’s little excitement in it for those of us unfortunate enough to call ourselves Dodgers, Mariners, or, worst of all, Yankees fans.

Music fans, on the other hand, are having a field day (get it? field day? heh). At last Wednesday’s NLCS game between the Giants and Phillies in San Francisco, Death Cab frontman Ben Gibbard sang the national anthem. As if that wasn’t enough, Gibbard’s wife, She and Him‘s Zooey Deschanel, took on “God Bless America” during the seventh inning stretch. Gibbard and Deschanel – the match made in indie heaven – were a nice lead-in to Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, who sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the game the following day. All three of these performances, available for streaming below, are remarkable in their simple beauty. Continue reading »

Live Collection: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

 Posted by at 3:00 pm  15 Responses »
Sep 032010
 

Live Collection brings together every live cover we can find from an artist. And we find a lot.

You think Vermont music, you might think flanneled hippies strumming mandolins. Not Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. They may come from the great wooded north, but their big soul sound comes straight from Dixie with a side of south-side Chicago. Potter is a vocal tour de force, a skinny white girl with an enormous voice. She can do a two-hour show without fading a bit and her hot four-piece band keeps right in step. Searing guitar solos abound, but nothing can upstage that voice.

Through years of near-constant touring, the band has amassed quite a stack of covers. In our latest Live Collection, we collect every concert cover we could find (thanks archive.org!). That includes blasts through Blondie, My Morning Jacket, and a whole lot of Neil Young – including a 14-minute “Cortez the Killer” that should be required listening for any rock band. Josh Ritter joins the band on John Prine’s “Pretty Good,” but otherwise they don’t need any help in blowing the roof off any building they play.

As a special bonus, below the main set we have the thematic new covers from their 2009 New Year’s Eve show. The band had clearly been spinning the Top Gun soundtrack a lot; they cover seven songs from the darn thing! And not just the original soundtrack either. The band apparently took to the 1999 Special Edition CD, cause they run through three of the four old-school bonus tracks as well. In between ’80s classics like “Take My Breath Away” and “Danger Zone,” the band throws out Top Gun lines as a wink to clued-in audience members. “This is Ghost Rider requesting permission for a flyby!” Permission granted. Continue reading »

Song of the Day: Tom Jones w/ Joe Perry, “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” (Arctic Monkeys cover)

 Posted by at 9:00 am  3 Responses »
Aug 252010
 

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

In 2007 Prince William and Prince Harry held a concert commemorating the tenth anniversary of their mother (Prince Diana)’s death. What could have been an endless stream of moribund sap became something else entirely. Something far stranger.

The boys booked a who’s-who of popular stars to play, but apparently forgot to inform the stars of the cause. As a result the performances seemed completely irrelevant to the occasion. How Rod Stewart singing “Maggie May” or Pharrell rapping “Drop It Like It’s Hot” commemorates the Princess remains unclear. Perhaps the high point of inappropriateness came in the form of Kanye West’s “Gold Digger.” Diana wasn’t born a princess after all…

Next to that, why shouldn’t Tom Jones and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry cover current “it band” Arctic Monkeys? And why shouldn’t it steal the show when said show that was so ill-conceived to begin with? Tom rips open “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” like it’s 1965 all over again, hollering along with backup singers, a horn section, and Perry’s killer guitar solo. Jones never recorded his version, but that’s okay. No way it would have matched up to this. Continue reading »

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