Oct 062017
 

In Defense takes a second look at a much maligned cover artist or album and asks, “Was it really as bad as all that?”

punk goes pop covers

It’s clear that many people despise the erroneously titled Punk Goes cover compilation series. Much has been said and written about how awful they are. Yet, just like the emo and pop-punk genres generally, they are wildly popular with teenagers despite not getting any critical respect. Since the series began in 2000, there have been 17 volumes and over two hundred songs released in the series. In the U.S. the cover series has sold one million albums, nine million tracks, and it streams in the hundreds of millions. But most people out of high school seem to hate them.

Well, I’m here to defend some of these as great cover songs. I’m an insider, you could say – I was the Fearless Records salesperson behind nearly all of these albums. During my 13 years at the California independent label, I was the head of sales and also served as general manager. I didn’t contribute to the Punk Goes compilations as a curator or A&R. My role was to make sure the albums and tracks had the best positioning at major retailers like Target, Best Buy, iTunes, Amazon, etc. Continue reading »

Sep 162011
 

This Week on Bandcamp rounds up our favorite covers to hit the site in the past seven days.

Today’s set begins all in the family, ends with some lo-fi indie favorites, and takes an unexpected detour to a folk hip-hop medley in the middle. You know, just another week on Bandcamp. Continue reading »

Jan 172011
 
Lil Jon on Cover Me

Some cover to pay homage, others to challenge, and still others to mock. Re-interpretations of contemporary Top 40 hits often seem to wind up in the latter category. Hip-hop club jams in particular have been butts of some of the greatest jokes of satirical imitation (e.g. Alanis Morissette finally got the concept of irony with her torch song treatment of the Black Eyed Peas‘ “My Humps”). Perhaps sensing that simply ballad-izing hyperbolic urban odes of braggadocio has become a bit cliche, the new tongue-in-cheek cover band Emmett and the Black Mountain Scorpion Bluegrass Experience Gang debut this week with a decidedly uptempo cover of Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz’ inescapable 2003 crunk rap single “Get Low.” Continue reading »