Umphrey’s McGee recently played three nights at the Pink Creek Lounge in Livingston, Montana and their sets over the three days included a few new covers, along with some favorites. The band, who are still without guitarist Jake Cinninger, who announced a leave of absence in March for personal reasons, busted out a new cover of Green Day‘s “Longview” during their Saturday night show. This was the first time the band had covered Green Day. Continue reading »
‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
Earlier this month, Matt Cameron announced he was leaving Pearl Jam. He wasn’t their first drummer—or their second, or third, or fourth—but he’d been there longer than all the rest combined. So it felt like the end of an era. Or, at least, an opportunity for us to celebrate their catalog through covers.
As big as Pearl Jam was, and is, they don’t get covered as much as you might expect. No doubt they’re sick of constant comparisons to Nirvana, but, in this respect, Kurt and co. get ten covers for every one of Pearl Jam. But that means the artists who do bother to cover Pearl Jam really care. Find 30 such artists below.
Photo by Danny Clinch
‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
Up the irons! Iron Maiden turns 50 this year. They’re still going strong too, releasing music, playing shows, engaging in mock sword battles with a towering Eddie. So we felt it was time to honor them with a Best Covers Ever. Personally, I feel the list should rightfully be 666 covers long, but that seems like a lot of blurbs to write.
We haven’t done that many heavy metal bands in these lists. The reason is simple: Metal bands often only get covered by other metal bands. This is particularly true for bands that are either a) niche or b) extremely technical. Iron Maiden is neither. Like Metallica, who we tackled a few years ago, their songs are versatile enough to be easily covered in any number of genres. You don’t need to know insane time signatures or ridiculously complicated riffs to find a way in. Many are essentially pop songs in metal garb—well, pop songs about the number of the beast, that is.
A few of the covers below come from metal acts, but most don’t. Nevertheless, we recommend headbanging to them all. Even the klezmer one.
Huey Lewis has been buddies with South Bend jam band staples Umphrey’s McGee for many years, and their relationship has now yielded a collaborative cover of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” Poignantly, this could be the last recorded work from Lewis, who is now suffering from hearing loss due to Meniere’s Disease. Continue reading »
Umphrey’s McGee is an indie/jam band from Indiana that is known for its experimental genre-blending and unique improv. The six-piece group just completed their 25th-anniversary tour this past Sunday. While on the tour, the group paid tribute to David Crosby with a cover of “Helplessly Hoping” at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY.
“Helplessly Hoping” is one of the iconic tracks on Crosby, Stills & Nash’s self-titled debut album. The song was about love, and writer Stephen Stills’ struggle to make ends meet back in the day when he was a session musician. Umphrey’s McGee kept the tune true to the original and did justice to the late singer. These vocal harmonies sound oh-so-sweet.
Opening act Eggy also performed a commemorative Crosby cover at that show, tackling “Carry On” off the first CSN album where they added a “Y” for “Young.” Watch both videos below.