Jul 022018
 
cover songs june
Andrew Combs – Reptila (The Strokes cover)


The Strokes’ Is This It songs have been covered to death, so musicians are digging deeper. We heard a killer Angles cover in April from Billie Eilish (more on her in a minute), and now singer-songwriter Andrew Combs takes on this Room on Fire track. His own music leans Nashville Americana, but from the crazy horns here, sounds like he’s been spending time in New Orleans. Continue reading »

Apr 112018
 

Check out more Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2018 cover features here.

rock and roll hall of fame covers

This week we’ve posted tributes to three of this year’s six Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: The Cars, Dire Straits, and Nina Simone. And lord knows we’ve posted plenty of covers of the other three over the years: Bon Jovi, The Moody Blues, and “Early Influence” inductee Sister Rosetta Tharpe. But to celebrate them all in one place in advance of this weekend’s induction ceremony, we thought we’d round up a few of the best covers we didn’t include in all those other features. Continue reading »

Aug 052013
 

In Memoriam pays tribute to those who have left this world, and the songs they left us to remember them by.

One of Walt Whitman’s most famous lines is, “I am large, I contain multitudes” and nowhere is this more evident than in Adam Yauch.

He was MCA – one-third of legendary hip hop troika, Beastie Boys. He was Nathanial Hornblower, Sir Stewart Wallace and Nathan Wind as Cochese. He was an MC, a bassist, a director, a film distributor, a punk, a hip hop head, a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a practicing Buddhist and a staunch advocate of civil rights and the Free Tibet movement. He was a son, a husband, a father, and (despite being an only child) a brother. He was cooler than a cucumber in a bowl of hot sauce.
Continue reading »

Jun 062012
 

Beginning a 10-day fundraising effort called (RED) RUSH TO ZERO, experimental afro-beat pop artist tUnE-yArDs and The Roots’ ?uestlove have joined forces. Offering up a high energy cover of Fela Kuti’s “Lady” featuring rapper Akua Naru and African singer Angélique Kidjo, the track was recorded for an upcoming tribute called Red Hot + FELA. The album which is scheduled for release in the Fall will include songs paying tribute to Nigerian musician/singer and social activist Fela Kuti. Continue reading »

Apr 182012
 

The 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held in Cleveland on Saturday. Sadly due to his struggle with illness, the Beastie Boys‘ Adam Yauch announced he would be unable to join his bandmates in celebrating the evening. Telling Rolling Stone “The Beastie Boys regret that Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch will be unable to join Mike ‘Mike D’ Diamond and Adam ‘Adrock’ Horovitz at the band’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April. Mike, Adam, and Adam are truly grateful for the honor but with only two of the three Beastie Boys attending, they will unfortunately not be able to perform at the ceremony.” Continue reading »

Feb 102012
 

In 1961 the Freedom Riders set out to protest segregation in interstate travel, leaving from Washington, D.C. into the Deep South. Their buses were ambushed and set on fire, their bodies beaten by mobs, the Klan and Southern police. Many of them ended up in Mississippi’s Parchman Penitentiary. Expressing their determination, the prisoners would often unite in one voice singing “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round.” The song is based on a spiritual called “Don’t Let Nobody Turn You ‘Round.”  With recordings and performances by Joan Baez and other artists, it became known as a freedom-song for civil rights. Continue reading »