19 March 2024 - Blue Monkey Overdrive - Reasons I Drink

I went hunting for covers of this song for today, given what's going on over at Wicked Guilty Pleasures.

 

There are few Canadian artists bigger than Alanis Morissette.  "Reasons I Drink" is one of her more recent songs.

If you have not noticed, I'm trying to feature Canadian artists over here, too.  I am doing a Maple Leaf March of covers, too. This week, I was especially driven to cover the artists on WGP over here.

Today's post is a special treat for me.  You see, if you don't live in the greater Winnipeg area, you have likely never heard of Blue Monkey Overdrive. I hadn't. And, when I saw that little thumbnail illustrating the band was clearly on Zoom doing this cover, I was concerned it would suck.

It doesn't.  These guys are amazing. The emotion and power that lead vocalist Christine brings could level a corn field.  That's not just us saying that.  Their official bio literally says "Blue Monkey Overdrive is a unique group of veteran performers fronted by a fiery redhead with a voice so powerful it could level a corn field."

With a bio like that, there is no way they were going to suck.  

Also, I love finding local artists out there just killin' it.  

Thankfully, they are also out and performing again, and if we are ever in Manitoba, we are going to check them out.  Guys, they're playing the Rec Room (696 Sterling Lyon Pkwy.) on May 3rd, and you can see their other dates here. 

'

I will absolutely feature these guys again.  I'm a fan now.

22 March 2021 - Winsome Kind - Song for A Winter's Night

This husband/wife duo from Vancouver turn Gordon Lightfoot's mournful Canadian classic into a beautiful direct love song.  You can see the love in their eyes as they each sing the song to their favourite person.  

12 February 2021 - The Din - The Old Apartment

The Din are a Canadian band who took on a very Canadian song with a lot of direct Toronto references.

For a song recorded in their den, it certainly is a terrific, heartfelt cover.  I especially appreciate the commentary prior to the music.  

25 December 2020 - Alyssa Hankey - Back Door Santa

You say you want another cover of "Back Door Santa" today?  

Meet Alyssa Hankey.  If you like raspy voiced women and acoustic guitar, you are going to love this song.  I know I do.  If you do, go subscribe to her YouTube channel and seek out her music on Spotify. Do a small time artist a favor today, on this Christmas Day, and listen to her stuff.   

By the way, this cover is fire.  

18 September 2013 - Julia Price, Taryn Southern, Eliott Yamin, and King Bach - Blurred Lines

Everybody get up!

Yeah, it was only a matter of time before a couple of women tried to take a woman's perspective on this macho song.... But these ladies - each credble musicians in their own rights - bring in an American Idol for a cameo.  In this version of the video, on Julia Price's YouTube channel, Eliott Yamin is prominently featured....



....whereas this version, from Taryn Southern's channel, forgoes any American Idol cameos of any kind.  There are a lot of fun dance moves, though.



Whichever version you choose, know that these are two very talented women who clearly understand the nature of Robin Thicke's original song, and are in on the joke without being offended by it.  They write their own music - I especially strongly recommend checking out Julia's channel, which includes a lot of her original tunes.

Plus, they're clearly friends with American Idols.

17 September 2013 - Kimmi Smiles - We Can't Stop & Best Song Ever

The discovery of this very fuzzed-up version of the modern Miley Cyrus classic started off life as a One Direction intention for my daughter, Isabella, who turns 9 later this week.  I was looking for covers that weren't just some whiny kid with an acoustic guitar in his or her bedroom.

And we found a nice fuzzed-up fun and different version.  But then we found this by the same artist.

Meet Kimmi Smiles, a 21 year old from Melbourne, Australia.  She's truly grown as a musician to the point where she actually has music for sale.  And stream her music 24/7/365 from her website.  This punked-up cover blew me away with its raw energy and remarkably twerk-free video.



In the interest of full disclosure, here is the One Direction cover that started all of this.  It's not as punky, but it is fuzzed up, and still pretty solid.   And if you check out her YouTube channel, you'll see she's still finding herself as an artist.  She seems to have found it in fuzz, but time will tell, and I, for one, am excited.

10 September 2013 - Fine It's Pink - When I'm Small

As some of you may know, the Phantogram song "When I'm Small" is one of my favorites.  I snuck this compelling, different, hypnotic song into a post over on Wicked Guilty Pleasures back in January, and on this blog twice before - I encourage you to go to the original posts (by Lizzy Land here and Antique Firearms here.  They're both fantastic versions of the song, and very different from the original and each other.

What got me thinking about this song is an interesting story.  I was upstairs in my house, and the Bills game was on downstairs.  And I heard this:



And I came immediately downstairs.  Because why the hell was Phantogram playing during football?  Of course, I saw it was a Gilette commercial.  And I tweeted as much.  At that time, I decided that I would post a cover of the song today, my day to do the covers blog.

Fine It's Pink are a Romanian - ROMANIAN - band that decided to take this slow burn of a sound, pick up the pace, and add a little beatboxing.   And it worked beautifully - they captured the raw emotion and despair of the original, while amping up the anger just a bit.  By the way, check out their Facebook page.  They've got a lot of terrific original songs, too!

29 August 2013 - Hannah Trigwell - Wide Awake & Want U Back (Boyce Avenue feat. Hannah Trigwell)

The YouTube Artist Series returns today with a pair by a young woman from Leeds.  Whereas in the past, we have featured a lot of electronics and some looping in this category..... well, today, this is completely acoustic.

Thanks to the magic of YouTube, this onetime street musician has a chance to find a bigger audience than a Leeds street corner.

Let's open with a straight reading of Katy Perry's #2 hit from 2012 and the closing credits of Part of Me.  The song is a little stark in arrangement - slight percussion courtesy of Daniel from Boyce Avenue, but mostly Hannah and her guitar - but spot on.



Of course, this week would be incomplete if we didn't include some sort of Cher Lloyd hook. Her biggest hit (which we featured over on WGP some time ago) is re-imagined (and in several spots, re-lyriced) to be a duet (again with Boyce Avenue).... and one that is far more melancholy than the original.



I encourage you to check out her original music over on iTunes, as well as her official website.  She's really solid, and it's good to support small artists like Hannah Trigwell.  Also, here's a little unbilled bonus for you - her cover of "Electric Feel", a song that we've seen at least twice before on this little blog - once by Katy Perry, a cover that this version seems to emulate.

22 August 2013 - Jon D. and Rebecca Black (!) - We Can't Stop

You read that post title correctly.   Rebecca Black. THAT Rebecca Black.

It's really Jon D.'s song - and well done - but - and I hope you're all sitting down for this - Rebecca Black steals it.  Right out from under him.  His performance is absolutely spot-on and cool, but hers is practically sublime.  It's almost like she knows about partying, partying, yeah, fun, fun, fun, fun.

Now, if I may editorialize for a minute, and elaborate on what I said HERE about Rebecca Black..... "Friday" was a poorly written song, and Rebecca didn't write it.  She only recorded it.  This, on the other hand, is a well-written song.  And, guess what?  She performs it earnestly and she performs it well.

And Jon D. - he's pretty good, too.

8 August 2013 - The Volunteers - Volunteers

I was fascinated by a band covering the song that gave them their name.  I rarely feature covers that are not great on here.  This cover is earnest, at the very least.  Enjoy.

9 July 2013 - Josie Charlwood - Electric Feel

It was time for YouTube Artist Series #2.  I chose young UK singer/songwriter Josie Charlwood, who combined three of my current favorite things into a great package:

1. Looping, which allows a solo artist so much depth.
2. "Electric Feel", one of my favorite songs.
3. Picture-in-picture technology, which gives you a little glimpse as to how all the magic happens.

Josie's voice is near pixie-like, but still shows a proper amount of power to keep up with the song.  Plus, she doesn't just do simple looping here - she mixes up the tracks and harmonizes with herself brilliantly.  I'm simply in awe.

Please go check out Josie's Bandcamp page and support her and artists like her, who are doing innovative musical stuff, often with little support.

 

4 June 2013 - Lizzy Land - Pumped Up Kicks & When I'm Small

I've decided to occasionally feature YouTube-only artists on here, but I have some criteria that I'm going to use to choose who gets posted.  First of all, the artist needs to have at least one video of themselves performing out and live, for an audience.  Second, the artist needs to do something to blow me away.

Lizzy Land, an artist out of the Portland, OR scene currently living in Los Angeles, fits criteria #1 with this heavily beat-boxed version of Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks".  I want you to notice how she layers this completely acapella version in a live setting, starting with her beatboxed background "instruments", and continuing with the vocals.  It's simply constructed, but it gives the song a rich feeling.


Remember what I said Criteria #2 was? The artist has to blow me away.

Lizzy starts with an acoustic guitar piece - a bassline of sorts - then layers a beat on the guitar over that. She adds a 2nd guitar piece on top of that. Layer 4 is a breathy vocal paired with a simple keyboard part.  Then the main vocals start.  There are keyboard accompaniments for parts of the vocals as well.  And yes, near the end, there's a 6th layer - a vocal "ah oh" type thing.

The song in its original form, by Phantogram, is one of my favorites.  So that Lizzy Land - which, according to her Twitter profile, isn't just a stage name, by the way - can make me not hate her version is an accomplishment already.  That she can make me love her version, and make it her own, and blow me away with a well-constructed song, speaks volumes.