The Best Cover Songs of October 2023

 Posted by at 1:31 pm  No Responses »
Oct 312023
 
Deer Tick – Dancing In The Dark (Bruce Springsteen cover)

“For me, ‘Dancing in the Dark’ isn’t a song about romance, but instead a desperate plea to break out of some degraded, stagnant situation. The narrator is filled with angst, self doubt, and the only way out is to the sheer force of unwavering will power,” says Deer Tick guitarist/vocalist Ian O’Neil. “Bruce really shows us who he is on this one and it looks an awful lot like the rest of us.”

Die Sauerkrauts Polka Band — Now That’s What I Call Polka! (Weird Al cover)

There are a lot of Weird Al covers out there (okay, maybe not a lot, but more than you might think). This is new though. This band didn’t cover one of Weird Al’s parodies. They didn’t even cover a Weird Al original, like “Dare to Be Stupid.” They covered one of his polka medleys (a subject I interviewed Al about in Cover Me the book—excerpt at The AV Club). Meaning, they covered polka versions of hits by Miley Cyrus, One Direction, Gotye, and many more, all in a brisk medley. A very silly music video brings it home. Continue reading »

Julia Jacklin Makes It Smooth on Bill Fay Cover

 Posted by at 11:08 am  No Responses »
Feb 232022
 
julia jacklin bill fay

As a part of a retrospective on English folk singer-songwriter Bill Fay, Julia Jacklin has just released a cover of his yearning ballad “Just To Be A Part.” The original version has Bill Fay at the piano, with a persistent high hat and a can-filling contribution by the rest of the band. There is urgency in his vocal, with the electric guitar wailing like yells and groans of desperation.

Jacklin’s cover builds more slowly, starting with her trademark indie guitar sound, before building the rest of the band and double tracked vocals in for a swelling, powerful finish. The song structure of starting solo and then adding more band elements as the song progresses is still here, but the clean crisp indie tones take this song to another level. Check out the track below.

The Best Cover Songs of November

 Posted by at 12:00 pm  1 Response »
Nov 302021
 
The Best Cover Songs of November
Barbaro – Believe (Cher cover)


Progressive bluegrass quartet Barbaro takes on a few obvious inspirations on their new EP Under the Covers. Gillian Welch’s “Dark Turn of Mind,” makes sense. Wilco’s “Jesus Etc,” sure. But the other two tunes venture a little further afield. Sheryl Crow’s pop hit “If It Makes You Happy” makes for a jaunty fiddle and banjo number, as does, surprisingly, Cher’s “Believe.” Continue reading »

The Best Cover Songs of 2012

 Posted by at 12:30 pm  12 Responses »
Dec 212012
 

Adele dominated the cover song landscape in 2011, but Two-Aught-Twelve saw no similar galvanizing figure. Yes Lana Del Rey got covered a lot, but Leonard Cohen and Arcade Fire also seemed to garner an unexpected landslide of great covers (and speaking of landslides, so did Fleetwood Mac). “Call Me Maybe” was a huge hit that didn’t lead to much in the way of classic covers, and few seem to have even bothered attempting the Korean raps on “Gangnam Style.”

Which means that cover songs in 2012 were more diverse, ambitious, and left-field than ever before. A given YouTube search or Hype Machine browse would be as likely to turn up forgotten hits or underappreciated songwriters as it would the latest Top 40 smash. Find a sampling of all the diversity in Cover Me’s official Best Cover Songs of 2012 countdown. Start with #40-31 on the next page, and check back daily as we’ll be adding more til we hit #1.

Celebrating Bill Fay’s Second Wind with Wilco, Okkervil River, and More Covers

 Posted by at 4:00 pm  No Responses »
Aug 212012
 

Over the past three decades, Bill Fay was, as he refers to it now, “deleted.” His albums went out-of-print; his music was forgotten by the very few who knew it in the first place, and his legacy seemed destined for the 25-cent bargain bin.

It’s a good narrative, and it’s mostly true. One group, though, never forgot Fay. Like-minded musicians twenty years his junior carried the torch throughout his absence with covers and shout-outs. Jeff Tweedy and Wilco led the pack, covering “Be Not so Fearful” in concert regularly over the years, even once dragging the reclusive Fay himself onstage. Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus titled a song “Bill Fay” (though he later changed it to “Share the Red”). Continue reading »

Okkervil River Release Free Covers EP

 Posted by at 11:00 am  1 Response »
Nov 292011
 

Back in 2007, Okkervil River released their free Golden Opportunities covers mixtape. It featured Will Sheff and co. paying homage to some of their favorite songs and songwriters. Four years later, that mixtape has a sequel, in the form of the Golden Opportunities 2 EP. The five tracks find the band digging even deeper than before, covering songs by Bill Fay, Ted Lucas, Jim Sullivan, and David McComb (via his band the Triffids). Continue reading »

 Older Entries