Matt Berninger of The National is currently on his first solo tour. The same day his new album, Get Sunk, was released, he covered New Order’s “Blue Monday,” adding to the repertoire of covers he’s been doing on the road. Just last we watched him tackle Nirvana, Tom Waits, and Radiohead. Continue reading »
Matt Berninger, best known as the lead singer for The National, is currently out on his first solo tour and is adding some covers into the set pretty much every night.
In the past week of shows, Berninger has performed “Kid A” by Radiohead and “All Apologies” by Nirvana. The songs have been performed alongside Julia Laws (better known as Ronboy). This is not the first collaboration for the two; they released a cover of Tom Petty’s “Only a Broken Heart” a few years earlier. (They also performed this song this past Sunday in Toronto.)
At Saturday’s show in Chicago, they performed, fittingly, Tom Waits‘ “The Heart of Saturday Night.”
Watch videos of all four below.
Just before heading out on their most recent tour, Fontaines DC have released a deluxe version of their 2024 album, with a few additional songs, including one cover. The band’s take on the late David Lynch’s “In Heaven,” is a mash-up, fitting in quite nicely with the band’s own “Starburster.” Continue reading »
Post Malone has triumphed as a rapper, a rocker, a pop star, and a country artist. If there’s a solid core within this multiplicity, it’s that Malone is, in essence, a Kurt Cobain fanatic.
It’s literally written on his face: the Nirvana song title “Stay Away” is inked into his forehead. A portrait of Cobain occupies Post’s upper arm. “WHATEVER” is tattooed across his left palm, “NEVERMIND” across the right. If the world needs a celebration of the iconic grunge band, Malone’s the man to bring it.
Post Malone: A Tribute to Nirvana makes its debut on Record Store Day 2025. But the only thing new about the release is its yellow vinyl format. The album’s 14 songs are drawn from Malone’s COVID-19 lockdown performance in April, 2020. That show was a live-streamed fundraiser for COVID victims; the new album is likewise a benefit, with all proceeds going to the nonprofit organization MusiCares. (Specifically, the donation goes to the Addiction Recovery/Mental Health arm of MusiCares, which is in itself a nod to Cobain.)
Joining Malone for the all-Nirvana set were Brian Lee on bass, Nick Mac on rhythm guitar, and Travis Barker of blink-182 fame on drums. And what a set it was! With a righteous cause and a hard-hitting band, Malone seemed large and in charge. On top of his vocalist/guitarist frontman duties, he emceed the fund-raising operation; between songs Post gave shout-outs to the more generous donors, and kept one eye on the chat window for any big names signing in. (Both Courtney Love and Krist Novoselic entered the chat at different points.) Host Malone did it all, and he did it in a dress (yet another bow to his hero). All this without forgetting a single word or chord in the hour-long set.
For the album release, of course, we get only the songs themselves, not the party-down atmosphere, the banter, the beer breaks, the false starts. But that’s kinda the bad news: an electrifying show, a sense of something happening, doesn’t always get encoded into the record grooves. Songs can lose their juice when taken from their context. The livestream raised over $4 million in donations–a huge success–but A Tribute to Nirvana, the record, amounts to little more than a solid if somewhat perfunctory outing.
Continue reading »
Cher’s pushing 80, but, as seen most recent on the SNL 50th concert, she can still command a stage like nobody’s business. At the recent Love Rocks benefit concert in NYC, she reprised her ‘90s “Walking in Memphis” cover, complete with full Elvis costume, pompadour very much included.
A heavy-metal cover of the least heavy group of all time (they are French, after all): Air. Dååth (you “know it’s heavy with that punctuation in the name) writes: “Our version of “Run” has been a long time coming. It’s a creepy, weird song I’ve wanted to cover since I first heard it… This is a weird song. If you haven’t heard it, listen to the original, then ours. To do it justice, we needed an unconventional mix that could also go full metal. Gautier Serre, of Igorrr, was the obvious choice. If he can handle Igorrr, he can handle this—and being French, he already knew the song. The result is truly unique. If you’re expecting pure extreme metal, you might be disappointed—and that’s fine, because we do what we want.” Continue reading »
‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting. – David Bowie
In March 1975, David Bowie released Young Americans, the album that saw him move from glam rock to Philly soul. It was his first top ten album in America, featuring his first number one song in “Fame.” Fifty years later, that golden anniversary is enough of a hook to hang a Cover Me Best Covers Ever feature on. But the remarkable thing about David Bowie is, this was little more than a blip in his career. He had other personas to invent, other forms to master, other brilliancies to create. And he wouldn’t rest until (long after) he did.
Bowie’s influence on popular culture cannot be overstated, and not just in the music world – I’m convinced that roughly one-third of Tilda Swinton is David Bowie. For millions of misfits worldwide, he himself was the freak flag, the one who made it okay to be other than. I’ll help you with the pain, he sang. You’re not alone. Give me your hands. ‘Cause you’re wonderful. It’s a message that still sings out today, in Bowie’s songs and in the work of those he influenced.