In the Spotlight: The Primitives

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Aug 212013
 

In the Spotlight showcases a cross-section of an artist’s cover work. View past installments, then post suggestions for future picks in the comments!

Next month, the Primitives will release the 25th anniversary edition of Lovely, their debut album; it’s a quarter century old, but its sound is deathless. While the band may be best known for Lovely‘s leadoff track “Crash,” their sound combined Blondie and the Jesus and Mary Chain in a way that resounded with fans far longer and deeper than one song could ever account for. As for the Primitives themselves, they disbanded in the early ’90s, but twenty years later got back together to release Echoes & Rhythms, a cover album that pulls off the rare trick of showing them to be just as vibrant and relevant as they ever were.
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Song of the Day: Killola, “Mickey” (Tony Basil cover)

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Sep 132010
 

Song of the Day posts one cool cover every morning. Catch up on past installments here.

The idea of tacking a cover onto an album as a hidden bonus is a good one. We’ve already seen Scottish singer Amy MacDonald do it with a folksy “Dancing in the Dark.” Now, in a much more raucous vein, Killola does the same with “Mickey” (also known as “Hey Mickey” also known as “the cheerleader video song”). Their version is, if anything, even more high-energy that Toni Basil’s original. Just listen to pixie singer Lisa Rieffel’s throat-shredding shriek at the beginning.

The track comes at the end of the L.A. quartet’s just-released album Let’s Get Associated. Though led by a former King of Queens sitcom star and Legally Blonde soundtrack-er, the band has produced as hilariously vulgar an album as you’re likely to find this year. “She’s a Bitch” ruminates on a friend’s boob job while “1-2-3-4” includes the did-she-really-say-that diss “I wish your mama never second-guessed her abortion.” Yikes! Then of course there’s “I Wanna See Your Dick,” which pretty much speaks for itself. Continue reading »