The AppleTV+ mystery comedy Bad Monkey‘s full soundtrack album is now out, revealing the complete list of Tom Petty covers for those who haven’t been watching the show. (See flipturn’s cover of “Don’t Do Me Like That” for one of the covers that was released before the album dropped.) Sharon Van Etten is one of the more high profile artists to contribute to the soundtrack, though hardly the highest profile given the presence of Eddie Vedder and Weezer. Continue reading »
“Mary Jane’s Last Dance” was a bit of a weird hit for Tom Petty and the Hearbreakers. Recorded during sessions for Petty’s upcoming solo album but released for the band’s Greatest Hits album, it became one of his biggest ever hits in terms of chart position, reaching the Top 15 on the Hot 100.
American metalcore group Atreyu will soon be releasing their own greatest hits record, The Pronoia Sessions, but for this record they have re-recorded their hits in new arrangements, along with two covers. Last month we talked about their Aduioslave cover and this month it’s their cover of “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”
The iconic guitar riff that opens the song is completely transformed, slowed down and played on echoey guitar without distortion and another guitar with a spaghetti western feel, backed by a keyboard. For the chorus, they go even further afield, as there are acoustic guitars and a string section. For the post-chorus guitar fill, they replace it with a wordless vocal reminiscent of Imagine Dragons.
The effect is to really emphasize the ballad nature of the song over the rock part. It’s a cover that really feels 21st century rock band, even if lacks the usual rock elements. It’s a fascinating spin on a song that is very much identified with its guitar and harmonic riffs.
For the new AppleTV+ series Bad Monkey, set in Tom Petty‘s home state of Florida, a bunch of different bands and artists were recruited to cover his songs for the soundtrack. One of the less famous bands on the list is Florida’s own flipturn, indie rockers who have been putting out music since 2017. They haven’t chosen the most obscure song on the soundtrack by any means, but it’s not one of the most obvious covers on there.
Continue reading »
Sometimes it is the lower key and lesser heard that most catches the ear, and Adam Holmes a prime example. If you follow the contemporary Scottish folk (and beyond) scene, you may well know Holmes already, for having one of the more soulful instruments in the country, a warm burr with a distant flavor of John Martyn. Starting off as a member of neo-trad outfit Rura, Holmes’ singing and songs were a tidy contrast to their instrumental elemental fare of fiddle, flute and pipes. With time, the mix became perhaps too schizophrenic, he needing a platform to stay on stage the whole set. This he found, forming a band, the Embers, lasting for a well-received year or three.
Since then he has been on his own, give or take a duo, with Heidi Talbot, and a brief membership of Anglo-Scots folk-rock supergroup, The Magpie Arc. A veritable one man industry, he releases his own albums and sorts out his own gigs and shows, no middlemen to sour the pitch. As such, the gap between he and his audience is thin; if you fancy him writing a song for you, or for him to play in your own home, he will; contact him, via his website.
Songs for My Father, the second of two recent releases, each dedicated to cover versions, is in his father’s memory, the songs of his childhood and his father’s record collection. (The earlier one, last year’s The Voice of Scotland, covered more the traditional songs he grew up with, together with a couple that have near earnt that same soubriquet: we included “You Are My Sunshine” from that set recently.) Holmes’ father, dying of throat cancer, made a last request his son record his favorite songs; it was a task that took Holmes ten years to work up the initiative to address.
Continue reading »
Tom Petty was always open in his love and respect for country music. Debt, even, with many of his songs a mere pedal steel away from sounding that way. So the new tribute album Petty Country: A Country Music Celebration of Tom Petty is not remotely any leap into uncharted territory. And, go figure the number of existing covers of his songs, effortlessly traversing into the full Nashville, Bakersfield or wherever you want to be the center of the genre. And then go figure who is lined up here, with Dolly and Willie, to start with, they who need no surname, right through Steve Earle and Margo Price and to more conventional hat acts like Chris Stapleton and George Strait.
Made with the full co-operation of the Petty estate, and, particularly, the oversight of his daughter, Adria, Petty Country unsurprisingly contains a Heartbreaker or two to beef up the instrumental chops. The songs contained herein also take a good walk through the catalog, unafraid of both picking the obvious candidates and digging deeper.
Continue reading »