Music Blog

Full disclosure here and first things first, I love a good cover. The musical kind, I mean-- the kind that finds one musician or group thereof reinterpreting, reimagining, or (in some cases) regurgitating a song first written, recorded, and/or made famous by another. Sure, there are exceptions, but generally speaking I'm a sucker.

So what makes a good cover? Any one of several key elements or their combination. A real or imagined musical distance between the coverer and the covered, for one-- Crooked Fingers' take on Prince's "When U Were Mine," or Lou Barlow's version of RATT's "Round & Round," for example-- often results in something intriguing, for the unexpectedness if for no other reason. Barlow's recording is also an example of a related phenomenon, that being the reimagined version not only improving upon an original, but making something out of what was atrocious, atrocious nothing (I'd argue that Mark Kozelek's take on Bon Scott-era AC/DC tunes, What's Next to the Moon, does this, too, although even I acknowledge that AC/DC's music does not dip to the truly critical nether-regions of a RATT, pictured). Anyway, moving on...

Also satisfying are instances that find one artist whom you love covering another artist and/or song you love. Examples of this abound for me (Lloyd Cole on Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel," Calexico on Love's "Alone Again Or," damn near anyone doing Tom T. Hall's "That's How I Got to Memphis") although unrealistic expectations often keep songs in this category from being the homerun no-brainers they would seem. I would also argue that covers are essential in any on-going pop music education. I can't remember the number of times a compelling new version of a song has led me to seek out more of the original artist's work, often with worthwhile results. Would I have eventually discovered the Velvet Underground and Pylon without R.E.M.'s Dead Letter Office? Probably, but it wouldn't have been as early on, which would have made me less young and less impressionable. 

So then, to the current sea of covers in which we're swimming. Back in March, The Onion A.V. Club of all places launched an exclusive video series of covers with a novel twist. Beginning with a chosen list of 25 "relatively well-known" songs-- from Hall & Oates to M.I.A to The Cure to Superchunk-- the (wait for it!) "A.V. Undercover" series asked artists to choose a song from the list to cover, in each case narrowing the available pool of songs down by one (at the time of this writing, Journey's "Faithfully" was still out there and waiting). I can't claim to have watched all of them yet, but at this point some of the more interesting have been The Clientele's version of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes," Owen Pallett's take on Guided By Voices' "Game of Pricks," and the one that kicked off the series (below), Ted Leo & the Pharmacists' fairly awesome version of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears For Fears.

 

 

Not to be outdone, in recent weeks apparel brands Levi's and Doc Martens have launched heritage-celebrating series that find artists covering someone whose work was and is seminal in forming their own sound, each offered as a download for the price of your email address. Levi's Pioneer Sessions have thus far featured the likes of Passion Pit covering the Smashing Pumpkins, The Shins covering Squeeze and Dirty Projectors covering Bob Dylan, among many others; while Dr. Martens 50 series offers The Noisettes on The Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love," Buraka Som Sistema on Neneh Cherry's "Buffalo Stance," The Duke Spirit's version of Sham 69's "If the Kids Are United," and more.

That's plenty to digest for now-- next time out we'll get into more covers in the form of recent full-length releases, including tribute albums, theme releases and full on one band covers albums. In the meantime, what are some of your favorite (and maybe unfavorite) covers? 

All of this got us thinking about some of the favorite covers that have been laid down in our studios during our sessions over the past three years or so, from the fully planned to the hatched on the spot. We thought we'd take the opportunity to highlight our own covers series of sorts with a few selections from the archives. Curiously, the aforementioned "That's How I Got to Memphis" has been covered twice! Add that to versions of songs by Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Merle Haggard, Tom Waits, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Bruce Springsteen and we're noticing a serious trend. That having been said, The Thermals, as they're wont to do, went against that grain with a version of a rare Nirvana track (stream it below).

Audio Files