The Best Depeche Mode Covers Ever

 Posted by at 1:00 pm  11 Responses »
Nov 062020
 

‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

depeche mode covers

Way back in January, we polled our Patreon supporters to see which 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee they wanted to see get the “Best Covers Ever” treatment. Depeche Mode won, so we started planning our schedule to get it ready in advance of the big induction ceremony on March 24.

Then…you know.

Tomorrow, many months later, the Rock Hall is finally hosting some sort of ceremony – remotely, of course – and we’ve been honoring each artist all week with covers features: Whitney Houston, Notorious B.I.G., The Doobie Brothers, T. Rex, and Nine Inch Nails. Now, many months after we expected to post it, the grand finale: The 25 Best Depeche Mode Covers Ever. Continue reading »

Review: ‘Saving for a Custom Van’

 Posted by at 8:00 am  1 Response »
Jun 292020
 

Saving for a Custom Vanjenn champion the blue album

Adam Schlesinger died on April 1st from COVID-19 complications. Not even three months later, “collaborators, tourmates, friends, and fans” put together Saving for a Custom Van, an extensive tribute album spanning songs from his varied career. Schlesinger is best known for being a founding member of Fountains of Wayne, but he also was in the more indie band Ivy and the supergroup Tinted Windows (with members from Hanson, Cheap Trick, and The Smashing Pumpkins). He also wrote songs for a variety of movies (Music & Lyrics, That Thing You Do!, Josie and the Pussycats), television shows (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), and Broadway (the postponed show, The Bedwetter) that also make an appearance on this tribute album.

The resulting collage of covers is heartfelt and plays like a personal mix tape of sorts. This makes it hard to pass any judgment. Overall, it is a powerful homage that also educates listeners on the history of Schelsinger’s work. In the sad context of the album, lyrics stand out as especially poignant, from the sad irony of “All Kinds of Time” to the evergreen “Troubled Times.”

Continue reading »

The Best Covers of This Years Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees

 Posted by at 7:00 am  No Responses »
Apr 112018
 

Check out more Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2018 cover features here.

rock and roll hall of fame covers

This week we’ve posted tributes to three of this year’s six Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: The Cars, Dire Straits, and Nina Simone. And lord knows we’ve posted plenty of covers of the other three over the years: Bon Jovi, The Moody Blues, and “Early Influence” inductee Sister Rosetta Tharpe. But to celebrate them all in one place in advance of this weekend’s induction ceremony, we thought we’d round up a few of the best covers we didn’t include in all those other features. Continue reading »

Cover Songs to Protest To

 Posted by at 10:00 am  No Responses »
Jan 252017
 
protest cover songs

Well, it has been quite a week in politics. President Trump got sworn in Friday, then on Saturday hundreds of thousands of protesters marched across the country. We don’t need to go into the many (many) controversies and debates the first few days of the Trump administration have already brought us. You know them, and that’s not really our beat anyway.

What is our beat is cover songs, and a whole lot of politically-minded covers came out in the past week. Some are explicitly covers of songs with political lyrics, like Neko Case, kd lang, and Laura Veirs covering Patti Smith’s “People Have the Power” and OK Go covering Morrissey’s “Interesting Drug” (opening lines: “There are some bad people on the rise / They’re saving their own skins by ruining other people’s lives”).

Other covers are only political in the sense that they were released to raise money for groups like the American Civil Liberties Union or Planned Parenthood. Barsuk Records put out a covers comp featuring Nada Surf, David Bazan, Mates of State, The Long Winters (wonderfully titled Sad!). Members of the Philadelphia punk scene came together for a 35-song set of covers by the likes of Laura Stevenson and Jeff Rosenstock, which range from the covers of political artists like Against Me! and Bikini Kill to a cover of the Beatles’ “I’m Only Sleeping,” which would be difficult to find a political take on. Continue reading »

Watch: Nada Surf Cover New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triange” for A.V. Undercover

 Posted by at 3:00 pm  No Responses »
May 102012
 

Nada Surf fans may already be familiar with the bands’ tendency to cover songs. In 2010 they released a covers-only album titled If I Had a Hi-Fi, which aside from being an impressive palindrome, paid tribute to its influences. They covered material by Depeche Mode, Kate Bush, Spoon, among others, managing to acknowledge the original artists while maintaining their own style. For A.V. Undercover, Nada Surf performed New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle,” and while there’s no suggestion that New Order are an influence, Nada Surf certainly played the popular song with a sense of reverence. Continue reading »

Nada Surf Debuts “Enjoy the Silence” Video

 Posted by at 5:00 pm  3 Responses »
Jan 242011
 

When we named Nada Surf’s If I Had a Hi-Fi one of the best cover albums of 2010, we noted that “Enjoy the Silence” offered one of the few nods to well-known material. Perhaps the band agrees, because after pushing single Bill Fox’s “Electrocution” last year, they’ve released the Depeche Mode cover as their latest video. Get ready to emote! Continue reading »

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