Sep 122011
 

We first heard Fitz and the Tantrums’ live cover of “Steady, As She Goes” at Lollapalooza last month. Some low-quality videos of their take on the Raconteurs track have been circulating for a while, but this week Rolling Stone posted a version that improves on all the cell-phone recordings we’ve had to live with. Continue reading »

Jul 012011
 

Anyone annoyed with Rolling Stone’s decades-long cover decline might take heart in their latest contest, in which eight obscure bands compete to land a spot on the front of an August issue. Only two artists remain – the Sheepdogs and Lelia Broussard – and readers vote for the winner.

For their last push, both bands covered a classic songwriter with multiple appearances on the Rolling Stone cover. The Sheepdogs took on Neil Young, giving a pleasant country-rock swing on Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s “Ohio.” It’s not particularly novel, but they perform it well. Lelia Broussard’s cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark,” on the other hand, branches far afield of the original ‘80s pop sound. Sure, it’s the same approach that Tegan and Sara and Amy McDonald previously used with the cover, but Broussard’s percussive strumming adds a slightly harder undertone than those. Continue reading »