Watch: Street Sweeper Social Club Fly a Paper Plane

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Oct 072010
 

After having performed it live for a few years, Street Sweeper Social Club finally released their cover of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” back in July. With the addition of some crunchy guitar from Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, the song took on a heavier sound more in tune with the lyrics. Now MTV has premiered the video, which restores some of the levity—literally and figuratively.

The fact that the band spends the entire video riding on a paper airplane seems a touch, um, literal. But the paper city they colorize shows more inspiration. Plus, Morello and MC Boots Riley hog the camera enough that their charisma carries it. Notice how Morello hits that high guitar note (the cash register noise in the original) by slamming his guitar above the fret board. Pretty cool. Now can they please release a video for “Mama Said Knock You Out”? Continue reading »

Tom Morello and SSSC Return with Some LL Cool J

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Jul 292010
 

In our post on Street Sweeper Social Club’s “Paper Planes” cover, we predicted their version of “Mama Said Knock You Out” would be “explode-your-face dynamite.” Call it prophesy or just an ear for the inevitable, but now we can hear that LL Cool J cover and confirm that it’s exactly as brain-shattering as expected. Tom Morello bursts forward with shrieking guitar while Boots Riley channels LL almost as well as Bob Dylan did.

The cut comes off their upcoming The Ghetto Blaster EP, due August 10th. Don’t call it a comeback! (via MissInfo) Continue reading »

Tom Morello and Street Sweeper Social Club Cover M.I.A. Guess Which Song!

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Jul 072010
 

Rage Against the Machine guitar hero Tom Morello formed Street Sweeper Social Club in 2006 and it seemed they covered “Paper Planes” almost immediately (though it wasn’t yet released then, so my memory may be a bit off). So while it’s tempting to give them grief for releasing a cover that is so 2008 (maybe even 2000-and-late), they hit the ground running back in the day, before M.I.A. was all, “I’ll have the truffle fries.”

The single comes from The Ghetto Blaster EP, out August 10. It loses a little something without Morello’s machine-gun guitar miming, but that’s what YouTube is for. The EP also features a cover of L.L. Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out,” which in the hands of Street Sweeper’s Boots Riley should be explode-your-face dynamite.

Listen to it over at RollingStone.com. Preorder The Ghetto Blaster EP here.