Aug 152016
 
leonardcohen

A few days ago, country star Eric Church treated a crowd at Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheater to a new cover: Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” He said it had special meaning for him there: “Last time I was here — this is a true story — I played here, and…I was leaving here, and we pulled out, and the light was still on the rocks, like it is right now, and this song was playing in my headphones.”

Church did the cover solo on electric guitar, and did a fine job. But “Hallelujah” has been covered thousands of times, and it’s hard to argue that this one adds much. Which isn’t to knock Church: it was probably exciting if you were there! And it’s fun to watch once even if you weren’t. But I doubt we’ll be playing this video again in a year’s time. Continue reading »

Sep 122011
 

As film buffs will surely know, this past weekend was the prestigious Toronto Film Festival. A lot of highbrow movie stuff happened, none of which has anything to do with us. What does interest us, though, is this cover Eddie Vedder, Régine Chassagne, and Owen Pallett did of Bruce Springsteen’s “My City of Ruins” up there. The performance occurred at a $1250-a-ticket fundraiser for Haiti relief organization Artists for Peace and Justice. Continue reading »

Jul 262011
 

July is becoming a big month for free anniversary full-album tributes. Last week SPIN gave us their tribute to Nirvana, and today Stereogum surprises us with Stroked, a collection of covers from the Strokes’ game-changing debut Is This It. Eleven indie icons and upstarts cover every song on the album, just as they did with Radiohead’s OK Computer. Continue reading »

Jun 282011
 

Oh, Lewis. You’re always doing things. Back in March we heard “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt,” the Owen Pallett cover by Sondre Lerche. Now we have the companion piece, also off last year’s Heartland: “Lewis Takes Action.” Synth-pop quartet Hooray for Earth just released a free cover of the song that eschews Pallett’s trademark violin for chunky grooves and guitar squeaks. Continue reading »

Mar 212011
 

For the first time, Cover Me attended SXSW and we return with a ton of new favorites. Over the next couple days, we’ll tell you what we found. None of these artists have appeared on the site before, but you can rest assured you’ll be hearing from them again soon. Continue reading »

Nov 182010
 

Most musicians would find the task of covering Joanna Newsom daunting. The songs are not uncoverable, but she infuses each performance with a uniqueness and delicacy such that each track becomes almost untouchable. Fortunately, some artists possess more vision and creativity than the rest of us.

Due in December, Versions of Joanna (thumbs-up for the title) collects 22 Newsom covers to benefit Oxfam. The usual suspects turn up – if you want to compile a tribute album to anyone, you call M.Ward. That Owen Pallett takes on “Peach, Plum, Pear” isn’t shocking either; he seems to occupy similar artistic and intellectual space to Newsom. More surprisingly though, folk-punk legend Billy Bragg turns in a cover of “On a Good Day”. Continue reading »