28 September 2012 - Andrea Corr - Pale Blue Eyes

Andrea Corr is best known as the lead vocalist for her family band, The Corrs, this time alone. I've been admiring this cover of a Velvet Underground song for a couple of years.  It's quiet and understated, and still powerful, building to be more bombastic as the song goes on.  In my opinion, this is the strongest version of this song I've heard, including the original.  I hope you enjoy it.

27 September 2012 - Bulletboys - For The Love of Money

One of our greatest one-hit wonder hair metal bands of the late 80's, The Bulletboys released this cover of an O'Jay's classic as their 2nd single, long before "The Apprentice" brought this song back into the spotlight.  To say that this ain't good old Philly soul is an understatement.  Still, the Bulletboys brought a little bit of the soul to the pop-metal.

26 September 2012 - Morrissey - You Say You Don't Love Me

Today was one of those days where I had no idea what to post (believe it or not I usually plan ahead). When these days happen, I end up typing a band name into YouTube followed by covers and see what comes up. Usually it's a pretty slow/trying process, but sometimes I stumble upon something good. Luckily I found this cover pretty quickly. While Morrissey doesn't really add much to this Buzzcocks classic, it's still pretty cool to hear him sing one of my favorite songs.

25 September 2012 - Ani Difranco - Wishin' and Hopin'

It was a year ago today that I proposed to my future wife, Lisa, on Soapstone Mountain, in Somers, CT.  That happens to be one of my five favorite places in the world, and that made it better.

So it seemed appropriate that I post this cover of a Dusty Springfield classic, made for the movie My Best Friend's Wedding, a movie that was surprisingly enjoyable for a lightheaded romantic comedy.  I remember seeing the movie - and this opening scene - and needed to stick around for the closing credits to see who did this song.

When I saw it was Ani Difranco, known for her angry guitar-based folksy music, I was in shock.  It's simple, quiet, and brilliant.  The bass/kettle drum/tambourine combination makes for an enjoyable remake for a song that was a little more lively and heavy on the instrumentation in its original version, which needed to highlight Dusty's huge voice.  Ani's has a quiet brilliance here.



By the way, she said yes.

24 September 2012 - Lou Barlow - Bulletproof

I had totally forgotten about this cover from a few years ago. I love how Lou Barlow (Sebadoh/Dinosaur Jr) makes this song his own and turns an infectious pop song by La Roux into something that would seamlessly fit on any of his solo albums/projects.

21 September 2012 - The Promise Ring - Rumour Has It

It takes a brave artist to cover Adele. I've posted a few lately, including this straightforward cover by David Nail. Leave it to 90s emo kings The Promise Ring to completely go out of their wheelhouse and just have fun with it for The Onion's AV Club. Is it the best Adele cover I've ever heard? No. Is it the most fun? Certainly...and sometimes that's all that matters.


The Promise Ring covers Adele

20 September 2012 - She and Him - Fools Rush In

Honestly, I got a little lazy today. That's why I turned to Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, with their skills singing standards.

"Fools Rush In" was written in 1940, and originally performed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra.    It's been covered several times since. It's a quiet, jazzy song, that seems almost peppy in the hands of this duo.  So, enjoy!

19 September 2012 - The Band Perry - Fat Bottomed Girls

I was pretty surprised when I saw The Band Perry cover this Queen song Monday night on the CMA Music Festival broadcast. Apparently, they've been playing it for sometime, as evidenced by this 2011 video from Billboard.com.

18 September 2012 - Hole - Closer

My quest for a cover today didn't start with Hole, even though Courtney Love's raspy snarl lends itself to covers.  However, I stumbled upon this fantastic cover, recorded live in 2010, of a big Nine Inch Nails hit.  It's interesting to hear a female perspective on the song - it sounds completely different.

I should add that I saw Hole live in 1995, when Courtney was still in obvious mourning over the death of her husband the year before.  They were awful.  This performance - so much better.

17 September 2012 - David Nail - Someone Like You

So last night was the big Sunday in the Country show here in the Baltimore, Maryland area (Columbia, Maryland to be exact...but let's keep it simple and say Baltimore...close enough). Such a great day of country music. The all-day show was headlined by Eric Church (one of my favorite country singers at the moment). Also on the bill were the ridiculously cute Thompson Square, the adorably heartbreaking Jana Kramer, and good old country boys Craig Campbell and Justin Moore. Slapped right in the middle was country crooner David Nail. Unsurprisingly, most bands played at least one cover song last night (or a medley) and well...Nail...errr...nailed it with his surprising (to me) cover of Adele's Someone Like You. I hoped to maybe find a grainy live version of it on the old YouTube, instead I found a nice slick professional video. I had no idea that he had recorded and released it earlier this year.

14 September 2012 - They Might Be Giants - Tubthumping

I don't know what possessed me to look for Tubthumping covers this morning, but I'm glad I did because this version by They Might Be Giants is so much fun (and it sure looks like the band and AV Club staffers were having a blast performing it). Please note that there is a short intro/interview with the Johns before the song starts. Trust me, it's worth the wait.

13 September 2012 - Gael Garcia Bernal - Quiero Que Me Quieras

I'm not going to tell you what the English language title of this song is.  Not yet, anyway.  I want you to listen to this Mexican cover of a classic song, and appreciate it for what it is.  Appreciate the accordion played in the Mexican style. Appreciate the colourful video!


I could see this song playing in almost any Mexican restaurant.  I am pretty sure this wasn't Cheap Trick's intention when they wrote the song.

12 September 2012 - Brandi Carlile - Folsom Prison Blues

I write a lot of notes to myself because I can be kind of forgetful. Today I unearthed a post-it note attached to the back of an old ESPN The Magazine that simply said, "BC FPB ACL 4TC." So after about 20 minutes I finally figured out what the cryptic message meant. Here's Brandi Carlile playing the Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues on Austin City Limits.

11 September 2012 - Verbal + Yoon - Cherry Bomb

You might recall that last week, we featured a cover from the Dr. Martens 50th anniversary album.  This song, a collaboration by (married) Japanese artists Verbal and Yoon, is a cover of the Runaways classic and most enduring tune.  It keeps the bombastic rebellion of the original, while adding an electronic slant and a scream to rival anything Joan Jett ever did.

And no.  I don't understand the flying fish. However, it does add to an otherwise already interesting video.

10 September 2012 - Ben Kweller - Today

I always get this Smashing Pumpkins song stuck in my head whenever I'm having one of those days where even the simplest of tasks completely overwhelms and befuddles me. Today is one of those days...and I wouldn't exactly call it the greatest day I've ever known.

7 September 2012 - The Ramones - Spider-Man

After walking through a spider web for the seemingly 400th day in a row today while going out to my truck, I started to spontaneously break into this song (OK, after cursing and flailing about...hoping beyond hope that there wasn't a creepy arachnid on my head). I'm pretty sure this song was on The Ramones' last studio album, but I first heard it on the wickedly fun Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits comp.

6 September 2012 - The Raveonettes - I Wanna Be Adored

A couple of years ago, Doc Martens commissioned an album of covers to commemorate their 50th anniversary.  My favorite of the set is the dreamy cover of this Stone Roses' classic single by Danish duo The Raveonettes.  It's very faithful to the original, but does stray a little poppier and dreamier, which I think are good adds to an already excellent and quietly angry song.  Their very close harmonies further enhance an already well-written song.

The video itself is a reinterpretation of the 1971 film Harold and Maude.   I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

UPDATE: The original video was removed from YouTube.  I have replaced it with another video of the same song, which I believed to be fan-made, but it's still worth it for the tune.



UPDATE: The original video is back, and it's great, so I put it back.

5 September 2012 - Duffy - Wonderwall

Here's Welsh singer/songwriter Duffy playing an oft covered Oasis tune and doing a pretty good job at it as well.

4 September 2012 - The Gourds - Gin 'n' Juice

Rather than give you a long dissertation on the merits of gangsta rap as musical genre, I'd going to let the mandolins, violins, and drums of The Gourds do that for me.  Truly, they see the artistry in the lyrics, and the rhythms of hip-hop translate well to country.

Also, notice how they cleverly slip a couple of other covers in the middle here, including Cheap Trick's "Surrender".