Scary Pockets Archives

Noel Gallagher Covers Manchester Anthem “Love Will Tear Us Apart” with the BBC Orchestra

Posted by Mike Tobyn at 9:24 am No Responses »

Jun 132023

Manchester is on a roll. Manchester City is the best football team in Europe, and probably the planet. In addition to sport, music plays a central role in Manchester’s vibrant recovery. On a recent weekend, fans sang along at separate stadium gigs from Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys. Sir Elton John had an arena farewell on. Cover Me fans might have been at Scary Pockets‘ triumphant first visit to the city. Next year, a concert venue with input from Bruce Springsteen and Harry Styles aims to be the best venue in the UK for acoustics and attendee experience. Manchester icon, and City Fan, Noel Gallagher’s visit to The Radio 2 Piano Room to pay homage to one of the city’s most treasured songs had potential, at least. Continue reading »

Scary Pockets Drops Iconic Piano Riff from Coldplay’s “Clocks” on Funk Cover

Posted by Riley Haas at 12:00 pm No Responses »

Apr 112023

Though not their biggest hit in terms of sales or charts, “Clocks” is certainly one of Coldplay‘s most iconic songs. This is in part due to to the insistent piano riff, which made the song stand out among the other big hits of 2003. But also: it has been sampled bunch of times since, including by many hip hop and R&B artists. Continue reading »

Scary Pockets Transform “Purple Haze” Into a Funk Jam

Posted by Riley Haas at 9:00 am No Responses »

Jan 172023

Though “Hey Joe” was his first single, it was “Purple Haze” that really introduced the world to Jimi Hendrix and his revolutionary guitar playing. It’s iconic, but because it’s so iconic, it can be a hard song to reimagine.

Reinterpreting iconic tracks is Scary Pockets‘ thing, of course. The funk band have a long history of reinterpreting famous songs by major artists, fronted by a guest vocalist. So it’s no surprise their take on one of Hendrix’s most famous songs is an interesting one. (It’s fun, too!) Continue reading »

Five Good Covers: “Faith” (George Michael)

Posted by Patrick Robbins at 4:30 pm 2 Responses »

Jun 242022

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

The title track from George Michael’s Faith album saw the former Wham! member further shedding his bubblegum image. After the shock of the lyrics to the first single from that album, “I Want Your Sex,” the second single was more about the music, combining blue-eyed soul with rock ‘n’ roll, mashing up Bo Diddley and Duane Eddy into a very hot and tasty stew. “Faith” wound up being Billboard’s number one single for all of 1988. Accept it before it destroys you, it said. Oh, wait – sorry, that was Dana Carvey as George Michael.

As “Faith” covers go, Limp Bizkit made the biggest impression with theirs, racking up over 25 million YouTube views and over 55 million Spotify plays. But not everyone liked it, including Michael himself: “What we’ve heard from George Michael’s people is that he hates it and hates us for doing it,” said guitarist Wes Borland. So we decided to seek out five other covers that may be less famous, but which have something that hits us just right.

Pomplamoose Gets Funky with “Such Great Heights” Cover

Posted by Aleah Fitzwater at 9:00 am 1 Response »

Jun 232022

Pomplamoose is a duo consisting of multi-instrumentalists Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn. They are a husband and wife duo pair are veterans at putting pop songs into indie, funk, and jazz genres. Their latest, a funk cover of The Postal Service’s top hit “Such Great Heights,” comes recorded with Conte’s other group Scary Pockets. While Nataly takes over the soft vocals, Jack nabs the keys. The couple has invited other musical guests, including Panic! At the Disco’s bassist Nicole Row, to join them, along with Ryan James Carr (drums), Jude Smith (guitar), and Ryan Lerman (guitar). Continue reading »

Five Good Covers: “The Scientist” (Coldplay)

Posted by Seuras Og at 1:30 pm 2 Responses »

Sep 172021

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

“The Scientist” is the one song that even the most ardent Coldplay phobes can grudgingly admit to, if not actually liking, agreeing that it’s a good song, with nine out of ten subconsciously singing along with it, sotto voce, should it ever appear of the radio. Which it does really quite often. Despite the near impossibility of recreating Chris Martin’s falsetto, you just can’t stop yourself from trying, hating yourself as you then have to.

No, that’s unfair, but the band do present an easy target, being so damn successful and so damn ubiquitous. In the time old time old of an unreconstructed music snob, I like to prefer their old stuff, always finding a tall poppy anathema to my enjoyment. From their second album, 2002’s A Rush of Blood to the Head, “The Scientist” is the insanely catchy standout ballad in a record chock-full of earworm melodies. Catnip both to the lovelorn and those in love, it has become a favorite of slow dancers, although quite who or what the scientist was or is remains enigmatic. He sounds genuinely sorry enough.
Continue reading »