The Cure‘s Robert Smith curated this year’s lineup for the Teenage Cancer Trust Benefit shows in London and, so far, the performances have been stellar. (Acts have included My Bloody Valentine, Mogwai and Chvrches among others.) Continue reading »
Screamo Oasis? That’s sure to piss some people off! Can’t wait for the Gallagher brothers to weigh in. This reminds me of Biffy Clyro’s highly divisive “Modern Love” a few years back. Not generally my genre of music, but I do love when a band takes a swing like this.
For a couple weeks this months, my Google Alerts were taken over by some TV-performance show called Chefsache ESC 2025. Which I’d never heard of, and still only vaguely understand what it is (some sort of Germany-only Eurovision?). It produced some wild covers though. The Feuerschwanz medieval-metal version of “Dragostea Din Tei” must be seen to be believed. But we’ve written about that song before—they released it on an album a couple years ago—so, instead, here’s a group called The Great Leslie performing Coldplay like they’re Franz Ferdinand. Continue reading »
Garbage has released a new cover of the Psychedelic Furs’ ’80 classic “Love My Way.” The cover appears on a new compilation Copy/Paste, which was released as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday event. The album collects 10 covers by the Shirley Manson-led band, but the Furs cover is the only unreleased track on the album. (Other songs & artists covered on the record include U2, Big Star, David Bowie and Patti Smith.) Continue reading »
This month, Bambie Thug represented Ireland in Eurovision, coming in sixth (the country’s highest placement since 2000). Shortly before the finals, they released this cover of The Cranberries’ “Zombie”amidst criticism of their outspokenness about the devastation in Gaza. The top YouTube comment puts it well: “The significance of Bambie choosing to cover this song will not be lost on anyone in Ireland or the UK, or many places outside them. It’s just about the most impactful call for peace an Irish person can give, and they’ve done it as well as anyone ever has.” Continue reading »
“Song to the Siren” is Tim Buckley’s most popular song to cover, and it’s not even close, despite never seeing release as a single. It has four times as many covers as any of his other songs. It’s likely due to nothing Buckley himself did during his lifetime but rather due to the This Mortal Coil cover, which was a hit in the UK, from 1983. Most of the covers of this song come from well after the famous cover. Continue reading »
Willie Nelson’s giant 90th birthday concert in Los Angeles featured a whole host of covers. Some of them featured the man himself. Admittedly, that makes those not really covers, so we’ll feature a couple Willie-less Willie tunes. First up, Beck tackles Willie’s Red Headed Stranger classic “Hands on the Wheel.” (Find another cover of this song in the Best of the Rest list.) Continue reading »