Bob Dylan has been on a covers roll this year. On tour, he has primarily covered a number of Dead (“Truckin’,” “Stella Blue,” “Brokedown Palace”) or Dead-associated (“Not Fade Away,” “Only a River”) songs. But he’s dipped into other classic catalogs occasionally too. He did Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic” for the first time and then, not long after, maybe the deepest cut yet: Merle Haggard’s 2016 track “Bad Actor.” The tape took a while to surface. It was worth the wait.Continue reading »
Aaron Taos ft. Jordana — Under Control (The Strokes cover)
Aaron Taos says: “When Jordana and I met for the first time, we realized very quickly that we both shared an obsession with the Strokes. What’s more surprising is that we also share the same favorite Strokes song, “Under Control,” an album cut off of their second LP Room On Fire. Naturally, we decided that we had to cover this amazing tune. Reimagined as a minimalist duet, this slow burn produced by Blake Richardson (formerly artist Sage Baptiste) also comes with a lo-fi vid shot in Brooklyn, NY. We just want to make Julian Casablancas proud.”Continue reading »
Nothing But Thieves are a 5-piece rock band that has recently covered “Flowers” live for Like a Version, the series of covers that are featured on the Australian radio station called Triple J. The tune “Flowers” had loads of covers before the chart-topper had even been around for a month. We’re now at three months in, and this song has a lot of versions to sift through. But this one is more unique than some of the other dime-a-dozen covers that have been floating around the internet.
To me, the bass line in “Flowers” always sounded straight out of the ’80s. But Nothing by Thieves added in lush synths and bright drums in their edition, and it really sealed the deal in making it sounds like it was from four decades ago. Conor Mason’s (intentionally) lackadaisical vocal diction in this one is purely charming, and the addition of the vocoder was a pleasant surprise.
Nothing But Thieves kept the basic outline of Cyrus’s hit while adding layers and layers of new textural material. Check it out below.
