For The Mekons, Et Al.
Will Oldham is a fan of the Mekons after all, just like me. But Will doesn’t do things the easy way, so this tribute is twisting and turning and it’s not a straight tribute as such. Instead it is as if he’s tried to write a song the way the Mekons would, and I think he succeeded somewhat — they’re a hard band to mimic.
Listen to the recording of the Mekons Doctors Without Borders gigs in Chicago 2007 where Will and Ted Leo and some others took over for the missing Tom Greenhalgh (his wife was giving birth in London.) Downright brilliant stuff.
But this song is here performed by Unbunny. Don’t know if Jared Del Deo is a the Mekons fan, but that doesn’t really matter does it? It is a lovely rendition anyways.
Hardcore Troubadours — Someday.
Opening Credits start. Fade in. There are fields, trees, close by you can see a village. It’s smaller than it seems when judged at a distance due to the church. A road goes through all this but no cars ever stop. Cell phones die, the wind tries remove as much as possible from the ground and village but something pulls everything back again. The air at the edges almost shivers as man stretches out his hand as there’s this gooey forcefield stopping him from reaching the road.
(This is the first of #themesongs. I love Roger Svensson’s singing voice, this goes for his sister’s too. They got insane pipes.)
Hellsongs — Breaking The Law
Thea Gilmore — I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
I think Thea has bigger balls than most. Do a track-for-track re-recording of John Wesley Harding? Sure, why not? This song might be the oldest one since she recorded it in 2002 but damn, it is one of my favourite covers ever.
The Unthanks — No One Knows I’m Gone
I admit it, I have a crush on Rachel Unthank. A cute Scot Northumberian and a great musician, so how could I not?
It’s Friday! So something nice and wholesome and sunny? Nah, that would be cheating. So instead it’s Hellsongs and their cover of Warpigs. It is pretty though and a bit of a downer but that’s how I like it.
Tingsek – Shake The Disease
While I do like quite a few of their songs, Depeche Mode is too… clean musicwhise, too clinical somehow for me to really enjoy. This is why this cover is far better than the original for me.
I’m in cat mode right now. Four hours of sleep here and there, no real pattern. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem but I’ve got this thing where the bed makes me a bit sad. Don’t know why. Perhaps the relaxation opens the subconscious flood gates, perhaps someone has hidden things I’m allergic to in it. There are lot of options.
Sonic Youth – Electricity (Captain Beefheart cover, of course)
Cowboy Junkies - Lungs
Fingers walk the darkness down
Mind is on the midnight
Gather up the gold you’ve found
You fool, it’s only moonlight.
If you try to take it home
Your hands will turn to butter
You better leave this dream alone
Try to find another.
You could do very much worse than a cover on Townes Van Zandt. Fuck, you could easily make a Townes cover much worse than this as Cowboy Junkies know what they’re doing. Clearly. Obviously.
Cowboy Junkies - Thunder Road
I could write something here, but that would probably just come out very wrong. So imagine a very poignant text that bends and twists based on the line “I just can’t face myself alone again.”
(Note to other people: this is an amazing cover.)
Thåström - Keops pyramid (via askarthur)
I like the studio version Thåström did with Conny Nimmersjö and Pelle Ossler. The guitars from those two is magic, dark grinding magic.
Source: youtube.com
Over at the Myspace/Spin Germs of Perfection Bad Religion site, Ted Leo has a really nice cover of Against the Grain. I did like Tegan And Sara’s take on Suffer too, even if it kind of felt a bit too much like a demo.
Just ton’t read the comments as usual, there are idiots there getting steamed up over that some of the bands doesn’t do a Dutch Rudder cover (i.e. one that tries to sound exactly like the original and therefore being completely useless.) Which gets me pissed off and I hope the commenters gets pissed on.
Rough Bunnies were a Swedish lof-fi band, home recordings and odd tunes and everything else that follows. Gustaf Kjellvander — the good Kjellvander sibling — decided that he and his band The Fine Arts Showcase should do a whole album full of Rough Bunnies covers. Sure,. he knew the persons behind the songs, but never the less, it was a great idea. The songs are great and needs to be heard by more. This is the opening track of the Sings Rough Bunnies album and it’s called Balz Came And Went. Yeah, I know.
Sentimental Marching Song is a song by Jon Langford. You can tell in that it’s bleak and sad and very much… Well, Welsh really. Here with odder electronic instrumentation and wonderful voice of Mekons’ team-mate Sally Timms. It is all in all quite a bit eerie.
Sure, sure, sure. I’ve already posted one Neil Young cover. Do I really have to post one more? And the answer to that is yes. Yes, I do. I could have chosen something else, one fo the Ramones songs on Hold That Tiger — but I figure you all already got that album. This is Sonic Youth and Computer Age.
