This beautiful performance aired on South Dakota Public Broadcasting and, as of this writing, has 81 views, half of which are mine. (To be fair, presumably more people saw it when it aired on actual TV). But this Sioux Falls singer-songwriters beautiful Taylor Swift cover deserves a far bigger audience. It’s simply done, no frills or gimmicks, but he sells the hell out of it. 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 »
Though not their biggest hit when it came out – topping out at 24 – “Close to Me” became one of The Cure’s biggest hits over time. It’s one of only four of their singles to go platinum in the UK and is their 4th most streamed song. It’s pretty distinct in their catalogue for lacking guitar and featuring toy keyboards and a horn section (and an even more prominent horn section in the popular 1990 remix, which actually reached higher on the UK singles chart). Continue reading »
In the UK, the John Lewis Christmas TV ad is kind of a big deal. The ads are known for being very well made, with a story and soundtrack with a strong emotional resonance – reducing some viewers to tears. For the 2021 ad, John Lewis tapped young singer-songwriter Lola Young to provide a version of the Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder classic “Together in Electric Dreams.” Continue reading »