Apr 012024
Mar 152024
2012’s song of the summer, “Call Me Maybe,” launched Carly Rae Jepson’s career with a little thanks to Justin Bieber. If you were a tween when it came out, it likely made as much of an impression as it did on the members of Australian duo Teenage Joans.
Teenage Joans, whose name echoes no wave legends Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, are an Adelaide-based punk-ish guitar-and-drums pair that have received considerable acclaim in their native state. But they grew up with pop like “Call Me Maybe” and decided to honour that heritage for Triple J’s legendary cover program “Like a Version.” Continue reading »
Jul 082021
Under the Radar shines a light on lesser-known cover artists. If you’re not listening to these folks, you should. Catch up on past installments here.
Do supergroups still exist these days? Definitely! Fans of these folks might not think they are quite under the radar, but these groups are either generally framed less as supergroups or their prior musical experiences may have been under the radar themselves. There are many more supergroups under the radar to explore. Tell us about your favorites in the comments!
Jun 032020
Cover Classics takes a closer look at all-cover albums of the past, their genesis, and their legacy.
Jack Antonoff gives us serious writer/producer/performer triple threat vibes (a la Timbaland and Pharrell). He’s been in a variety of musical acts himself, including Steel Train, fun., and Bleachers, and been involved behind the scenes in the creation of others’ award winning albums. Just to give you a sense for all of the pies he has his fingers in, Antonoff:
- co-wrote and co-produced some songs on Taylor Swift’s 1989, Reputation, and Lover,
- co-wrote and co-produced Lorde’s Melodrama album,
- co-produced Lana del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! album,
- co-wrote and co-produced the soundtrack for Love, Simon,
- co-wrote Sara Bareilles’s song “Brave,”
- co-produced Saint Vincent’s Masseduction,
- co-wrote and co-produced songs on The Dixie Chicks’ upcoming album, and
- co-wrote and co-produced tracks on Carly Rae Jepsen’s Dedicated (including the B-Side version).
We see some of these collaborations either forming out of or being foreshadowed by ties within this cover album.
The “Terrible Thrills” tradition started with Terrible Thrills, Vol. 1, an all female cover album of Steel Train’s eponymous album. Terrible Thrills, Vol. 2 was a follow-up project that again featured all female covers, this time of Bleachers’ first album, Strange Desire. Afterwards, although it does not include covers of the entire album, Terrible Thrills, Vol. 3 followed, containing female covers of four songs from Bleachers’ second album, Gone Now, as well as demos and new versions of songs from the album. (I was bummed to not have a female cover of “Don’t Take the Money.”) This cover album was only sold on vinyl, but you can listen to it here.
Every single one of these covers is great, so I had a hard time choosing just a handful to write about. But here goes…
May 232019
Long before Disney began remaking its animated classics into live-action films famed director Robert Altman made Popeye. The 1980 musical starred Robin Williams as the spinach-eating sailor and Shelley Duvall as his love interest Olive Oyl. Upon its release, the film underperformed at the box office and earned mixed reviews from critics. Time has been kinder though, as some have praised it in recent years. “Altman imbues in Popeye a madcap mania that bares more than a few ‘Felliniesque’ touches, with its own intricate orchestration of audio-visual chaos, animated sound effects, breakaway props, and frenzied pratfalls,” writes Screen Mayhem. Continue reading »
Feb 112016
If pop songs could die, this is what I imagine their souls would sound like.
Those are the only guiding words enigmatic artist Radiochaser offers on his social media pages – and with that single sentence, he perfectly encapsulates the nature of his music.
Rather than keep the blaring feel-good vibes of the tunes he covers, the NY-based musician opts for exposing the raw emotion behind each piece, expertly stripping them down and reworking them into a haunting blend of stirring guitar acoustics and serene, ghostly vocals – resulting in chilling covers of Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepsen and Selena Gomez in the style of a Radical Face or Bon Iver track.
Piqued your interest? Radiochaser has mine. Continue reading »