This past weekend, Vampire Weekend appeared at The Met in Philadelphia, and during their set on May 31st, they added to their last set a full version of a song that they’d performed before.
Last August, on Jerry Garcia’s birthday, the band incorporated Garcia’s “Reuben & Cerise” into a medley of audience-requested covers, a fun encore gimmick they do every night. But this time, they performed the song properly, in full. Continue reading »
At the recent Just Like Heaven festival in Pasadena, Vampire Weekend stepped away from their signature sound to pay homage to the indie hits that defined their generation. The band delivered a series of electrifying cover performances that revisited the raw, unpolished energy of early-2000s indie rock and post-punk revival. Dubbed a “salute to indie” medley, they covered iconic tracks from their contemporaries, including Phoenix’s “Lisztomania,” Tame Impala’s “The Less I Know The Better,” Beach House’s “Space Song,” Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks,” and finished off with TV on the Radio’s “Wolf Like Me.” Continue reading »
‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
This spring, Vampire Weekend released their fifth album, Only God Was Above Us. Like all their albums, it was extremely well-received (“Universal acclaim,” says Metacritic), and they’re currently in the middle of a year-long tour supporting it. They take so long between albums that we wanted to strike while the iron was hot and celebrate some of the great covers of their work.
To state the obvious, five albums is not a huge discography. Last month we did The Kinks, and they’ve got 26 studio albums to cover songs from, and that’s not even counting all the non-album singles that include many of their biggest hits. But Vampire Weekend are beloved in a way few modern indie-rock bands are. So even though they don’t have that many songs, and even though they’re hardly in the game of making inescapable pop hits, they get covered a fair amount. And often in unexpected, inventive ways. Fitting for one of the most unexpected, inventive bands in the game.
Read on for our favorites.
This month, Bambie Thug represented Ireland in Eurovision, coming in sixth (the country’s highest placement since 2000). Shortly before the finals, they released this cover of The Cranberries’ “Zombie”amidst criticism of their outspokenness about the devastation in Gaza. The top YouTube comment puts it well: “The significance of Bambie choosing to cover this song will not be lost on anyone in Ireland or the UK, or many places outside them. It’s just about the most impactful call for peace an Irish person can give, and they’ve done it as well as anyone ever has.” Continue reading »
I’m honestly surprised there weren’t more “Total Eclipse” covers during this month’s total eclipse. Perhaps because our total eclipse was of the sun, rather than the heart. Or, more likely, because this song is hard as hell to sing. Best of the bunch came this garage-rocking version from Ontario trio The Dirty Nil. Gritty and raw, and singer Luke Bentham sells the hell out of it. Continue reading »
What’s better than one Indonesian black-metal Dua Lipa cover? Three Indonesian black-metal Dua Lipa covers! Not that you’d ever know these were Dua Lipa songs unless you were listening really closely to the lyrics (and could manage to make them out).
During lockdown, Band of Heathens hosted a regular livestream variety show called Good Time Supper Club. One segment, “Remote Transmissions,” featured them covering a new song every episode – over 50 in all. They’re collecting some of the best on a forthcoming album of the same name: Remote Transmissions. “Making records is always about cataloging any point in time. We wanted to celebrate the unique collaborative aspect of the show,” guitarist Ed Jurdi told American Songwriter. “What better way to document the last year than with these songs?” First up is this take on a Marty Robbins country classic. Continue reading »