30 April 2020 - Glen Campbell - Hold On Hope

I never expected that Glen Campbell would do a Guided by Voices cover.  But this song - which we featured in its original version on Wicked Guilty Pleasures five years ago - is a perfect fit for the feel Campbell was seeking.

You see, Ghost on the Canvas was meant to be his farewell album.  This song - about the hope that everyone holds on to - was perfect for him, as he was struggling with Alzheimer's and the end of her career.  He brings a different sadness than the one Robert Pollard brought to the original - this one is a less dark sadness, one of hope and resignation, and not of despair.

By the way, he recorded two more albums.

28 April 2020 - José González - Heartbeats

This song was originally performed by a Swedish electronic duo called The Knife.   Nicely, they were able to stay anonymous for many years.  Until 2009, that is - when José González released an acoustic version of the song that reached #9 on the UK charts.

Here's the video for the song.  It brings warmth and sadness to a song that was a purposefully and beautifully cold breakup song, and still the song works!!



Sony used this version of the song in a commercial - and that sparked interest in the original by The Knife - so they lost their anonymity and took to wearing Venetian bird masks.  I include the bouncing ball video - the Sony Bravia commercial that caused all this trouble,

27 April 2020 - A Brazilian "Stay" Special

Today on Wicked Guilty Pleasures, we feature the Oingo Boingo song, "Stay".  This song was not a huge hit in the United States... but it WAS in Brazil, where it was used in a telenovela named Top Model.

So, this is a song Brazilian artists want to cover.

Take Tallene, from São Paulo .  This one departs wildly from the sound of the original - making the sweet rock song into a metal anthem.  They also seem to be interested in making a video that's more than a performance piece - but that ran into a snag.



Paradox decided to go a little more traditional in their reading.  Paradox are a band from Novo Hamburgo, in Brazil - and they do admirable job covering this song.

 

Not to be outdone, Tonantes Verdes Fritos have a cover of their own.  Hailing from Ribeirão Preto, I think, this faster tempo version accomplishes something even Danny Elfman couldn't - proper annunciation of the lyrics.  Or did you think it was a cat show with prizes at the door, like I did for years?



Let's flip it a little bit.  Here's Rock'n Coaster, from São Paulo, with a female singing the song.  It gives the song a slightly different feel, doesn't it?



Hot Rocks is also from São Paulo, and they bring this post full circle - back to the party band vibe that Oingo Boingo brought in the first place.



However, you know us.  We hate leaving perfect circles.  Liga Joe, from Goiânia, also have a cover of this song - and it's less party and more straight-ahead power rock.   It's different, but still valid...... and they capture the orginal's outro really well!



The song is just a well known song in Brazil.  This performance by Vintage Cult illustrates that well - the crowd is singing along!

 

You got this far.  Now go listen to the original on Wicked Guilty Pleasures.

17 April 2020 - Seven Boots - Peter Gunn

You know that totally adorable thing that I like to do - feature small bands you've never heard of ?

Here's a clearly Jethro Tell-inspired version of Peter Gunn to finish your week.  Performed live by German band Seven Boots (go to www.sevenboots.com to learn more about them) , it features a lead flutist. 

I love this.  That's all I can really say about that.  I hope you do, too!

16 April 2020 - The Cramps - Peter Gunn

Now, let's take this Peter Gunning to the next level.

I firmly believe that this cover - released by the Cramps in 1997, but really released as a Poison Ivy guitar showcase (no Lux Interior to be seen) - is a cover of the Art of Noise version we published two days ago, and not of the original Henry Mancini version.

Either way, Poison Ivy OWNS this song on guitar.  The Cramps are a perfect band to cover this song, combining punk and surf sounds regularly, primarily because of her guitar work.

15 April 2020 - Emerson, Lake And Palmer - Peter Gunn

This week was originally supposed to be a Henry Mancini tribute week.  I found so many covers of Peter Gunn that I couldn't resist.

What happens when Henri Mancini's class meets prog rock?  The answer, of course, is this ELP cover of his classic.   It's interesting to hear so much keyboard in a song that is clearly guitar-driven.

14 April 2020 - The Art of Noise featuring Duane Eddy - Peter Gunn

You think you have this week's theme figured out? 

Two days, two Peter Gunn covers, each very different. Duane Eddy is well known for covering this song in the 1960's - in the 1980's, he teamed up with avant-garde group Art of Noise to bring together the worlds of surf guitar and electronic experimentation.  Doesn't sound like a good combination, does it?  It works.



Tune in tomorrow to see if your guess is right.

13 April 2020 - The Jody Grind - Peter Gunn

This cover is a bit of a revelation.  Who knew that this song even had lyrics?

In its original version, it didn't.  Henry Mancini wrote it without lyrics, in support of the television series of the same name.

In the 1960, Jay Livingston & Ray Evans added lyrics.  This version was originally recorded by Sarah Vaughan - in this version, the song is called Bye-Bye. The Jody Grind - an Atlanta band that released two albums in the early 1990's but disbanded when two of their members were killed in a car crash - covered THAT.  Kelly Hogan's huge, soulful voice completely dominates the tune, and that's a good thing! 

10 April 2020 - Fine, it's Pink ft. Platonic Scale - Teen Spirit (Dreaming of Nirvana) | Fine, it's Pink - This Feeling

I've been a fan of Fine, It's Pink for years.  They've gone back and forth between original music and covers throughout their career.   Although they're Romanian, they primarily record in English - and have a unique, ethereal-but-heavy song not unlike the feel of early Cocteau Twins. 

Ioana Lefter isn't Kurt Cobain, and that's OK - a Nirvana impersonation doesn't do this song justice.  The band teamed with Victor Mihailescu (Platonic Scale) to give the song a darker, modern feel. 



Now that we are in the middle of a pandemic, even in Romania, the band is separated.  That doesn't mean they aren't making new music.....    This is a cover of the Alabama Shakes song "This Feeling" that the band recorded in multiple locations, separated, and released to their Facebook page - please give them a like. 

This might be my favorite song of the moment - both in its original version and this cover.  I think the lyrics nicely capture what a lot of us are feeling right now. 

8 April 2020 - A Cover Me Canada Sundown Special

The video for this was filmed at midnight, in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.... so there was no sundown.  But a Canadian band covering a Canadian classic seemed just too perfect today.

The video itself was made by folk group Come Eat A Cat as an audition tape for a Canadian reality competition in which they could cover one of four Canadian songs.  Don't worry.  I'll be featuring the other three songs soon.... but there were so MANY solid covers of this song that we had to start here.



There were so many good covers that were so different we couldn't help but feature a second.  Valley
are decidedly NOT a folk group - representing my favourite province, Alberta (they're from St. Albert, Canadian friends).



So I don't get shit from my Ontario friends, here's a Toronto band covering Sundown....



..although, for my money, the Credit Valley metal take from Ontario was a little better.



In researching this post, I heard a LOT of really bad covers of this song.  I won't be sharing them..... Honestly, I didn't expect this post to become a tour of Canada... but sometimes, the posts go where they want to go.

Here's a band from British Columbia - Vancouver, to be precise. - to finish up.  High Society goes all Postmodern Jukebox with a horned-up hip-hop take.

7 April 2020 - Foo Fighters - Never Talking To You Again

Hüsker Dü originated this very simple song - originally written by the late Grant Hart - and Dave Grohl does an admirable job covering it. 

The song itself is very simple - it's performed only on guitar, with no additional accompaniment - and yet still stays pretty faithful to the original (which did feature Hart and Bob Mould together on vocals and guitar).