Category Archives: covers

Discovery

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“I do not seek. I find.”

-Pablo Picasso

It’s interesting how I discover music. It’s like a rabbit hole. One song leads me to another album then to other bands, and suddenly I am discovering a new band altogether. New to me at least.

I was checking the blog email box and saw that Philip Selway just leaked a track off an upcoming solo album.

Latest tracks by Philip Selway

You know Mr, Selway, the drummer for a an itty bitty UK band called Radiohead.

I start to do some other searches for Radiohead and Selway. I start to head down the road of the band 7 Worlds Collide, a band Selway contributed to. Instead, I come across something I thought was much better.

I discover that there is a new Stereogum project out called OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer that celebrates the 10th anniversary of Radiohead OK Computer. The idea was to get a bunch of musicians to cover every song of the album. One of the standouts was a cover of Exit Music (For a Film) by Vampire Weekend.


Download Vampire Weekend – Exit Music (For a Film)

Here is what Ezra Koenig had to say about the original and the cover the band did:

“Exit Music (For A Film)” was the first Radiohead song I really got into. My friend Olympia put it on a mixtape for me. At the time I was struck by how much it sounded like classical music. Now I hear trip-hop and maybe a little Pavement (?!?!). No matter what I hear in it, this song is still 100% high-style Radiohead, a super-ambitious, pre-millennial banger.

Then I realize…Pavement? I thought Pavement was a heavy metal band…wait…have I ever listened to Pavement? huh.

I delve into the bands history and discography. An indie band that stayed indie for every release. 5 full length albums and 9 EPs in 10 years. Not metal… alternative rock. Apparently they only experienced moderate commercial success but had a strong cult following.

The group broke up in 1999 but has a reunion show scheduled in New York’s Central Park on September 21, 2010. The tickets sold out in two minutes.

I checked out the albums “Slanted and Enchanted” (1992 and their first full length release) and “Terror Twilight” (1999 and their final full length album) and I like what I heard, but it felt dated. I mean they are old albums, but sometimes an album can still fell cutting edge and fresh years later. These two releases were not that. I can see how they must have influenced many bands that I love. Modest Mouse, Silver Jews, Built To Spill, Wavves all feel like they might have been influenced by Pavement.

That’s how I discovered the band Pavement.


Download Pavement – Ann Don’t Cry

I thought about jumping…

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I was so sure that I had written about William Fitzsimmons on the inALLcaps Music Blog. I was beginning to panic that I never actually published it, or maybe I dreamt it.

Then I realized what I had wrote was in fact research for a podcast we mentioned him on.

William Fitzsimmons, if you haven’t caught that particular episode of the podcast, was born the youngest child of two blind parents who were the occasional musicians. William was a psychotherapist before deciding to record some songs at home that would become his initial debut CD, Until We Are Ghosts.

Fast-forward past two more albums, 2006’s Goodnight and 2008’s The Sparrow and the Crow, both about divorce (the former about his parents, the later his own) and we have 2010’s Derivatives.

It’s fitting to find a great cover on this album, since it was his cover of Kanye’s Heartless that I found meandering around the many networks of music blogs I frequent. This time it was a rendition of the Katy Perry hit “I Kissed A Girl,” which he says he covered “to see what the tune would be like with that dark undertone as a more obvious context.”


Download William Fitzsimmons – I Kissed a Girl (Katy Perry Cover)

I love it. But, William Fitzsimmons is not all about covers, but he is down with a remix or two. In fact, Fitzsimmons has never had a problem with combining electronic music with with folk music. Derivatives, according to William’s website, is a multicolored re-imagining of several prominent tracks from The Sparrow and the Crow, Fitzsimmons’ well-received 2009 release. Derivatives contains several remixes of Fitzsimmons largely folk-inspired tunes – revisited and remixed in an electronic fashion – while still retaining the emotional and heartfelt core of William’s songs.

One such remix is the Mikroboy remix of “If You Would Come Back Home”.


Download William Fitzsimmons -If You Would Come Back Home (Mikroboy Remix)

If you would come back home
We could start all over
If you would come back home
I swear it would be better

There’s room left in the house
There’s food still in the pantry
I could fix you lunch
Or take you out for coffee

CMJ recently spoke with William about his new release, and he had this to say:

“I started to learn that people weren’t experiencing these songs with the same measure of darkness. For some reason, they were hearing a certain amount of hope in them, and to be honest, that began to change the way I understood them myself. So I wanted a way to hear the songs in that more positivistic way.”

They’re not the happiest songs, but I DO hear some hope. Most importantly I hear an amazing album from an artist you need to know about. Buy the albums and share this post with your friends.

Try this trick and spin it…

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With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head will collapse
But there’s nothing in it
And you’ll ask yourself

Who is Gobble Gobble? I dunno…I’m writing this as I understand it. All I know is that they covered, they call it molested, one of my favorite Pixies song.

“Where Is My Mind” is supposedly about being chased by small fish, but whatever…it’s a song about losing your mind. It could be seeing giant Oreo cookies in the road while driving to a Grateful Dead concert with a head full of LSD. That might have happened to me, I’ll never admit it though. One of my favorite parts of watching Fight Club is the final scene where this song comes on. Fucking great choice in songs for that scene.

Download GOBBLE GOBBLE – Where Is My Mind? (PIXIES BLASPHEMY)

PHOTO CREDIT Jennifer SilverGobble Gobble seem to be a bit deranged. They have an unhealthy fetish for animated gifs and making music. They cite The Pixies as an influence and I think it shows in the reworking/covering (I really don’t know how to define it…) of the song. It’s got all the great elements of the song plus a healthy seasoning of elctro fuzz. It’s a part of the White Guys with Beards Friends Vol. II Cassette Compilation that is also fantastic, and should be downloaded by you as soon as you finish reading this. (You should also pay for the pre-order of the physical copy…)

Where is my mind?
Way out in the water
See it swimmin’?

They are not the first group, and won’t be the last, to cover this amazing song. It’s been covered/remixed by The Toadies, Nada Surf, Emmy The Great, BassNectar, James Blunt, and Isreali musician Yoav:

Download Yoav – Where Is My Mind? (PIXIES COVER)

Merry Happy!

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Christmas.

It’s not a holiday that I am terribly fond of. The one thing about Christmas I like is the music. There have been amazing covers of traditional Christmas songs and new holiday tunes throughout the years, and I want to share some with you.

The holiday season to me is about music. No surprise since music is such a big part of my life. When we are young, the Christmas Carol Standards are quickly ingrained to our psyches. Most of us can recite a few lines of any of the countless xmas songs out there. For me though, the covers and deep cuts of the holidays are what I want to hear.

If inALLcaps.com has a Christmas party next year, this is what you can expect to hear while you drink egg nog and nibble on Winterdoodles!

For any party, you have to start the music selection on the more calm/background tip. You want to get people in the mood yet create and environment for people to chat and mingle.

Download Sufjan Stevens – Come On! Let’s Boogey to the Elf Dance!

That’s when you bust out the Sufjan Stevens Songs Box Set. It’s an amazing collection of holiday favorites and originals, like “Sister Winter” and “Star of Wonder”, by an amazing artist that you should already know about. If you haven’t let me fill you in.

Sufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. His musical styles range from indie folk to symphonic orchestra to electronica.

The name “Sufjan” means “comes with a sword.”

Ok. Well. It’s something. I mean there is a lot to tell you in regards to Sufjan, but I gotta stay focused. Did you boogey to the elf dance? I bet you did!

The box set is 5 EPs that Stevens has made over the years for friends and family. Many of the songs are religious in nature as Stevens is a devoted Christian, but there are some fun carol-like songs in the collection. In fact during Stevens’ international tour in the later half of 2006, he regularly performed the original song “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever” while releasing inflatable Santas into the audience. It’s not quite as lively as the Elf Boogey.

Download Sufjan Stevens – That Was The Worst Christmas Ever

Once the party gets warmed up you can get into the more rockin’ tunes!

How about a Ska version of “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” by one of our favorite Punk/Ska bands to watch live!

Download Less Than Jake – Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer

That track comes of the album It’s a Punk and Ska Christmas Gone Wrong from Drive-Thru Records. It’s a clutch holiday album for all of you that rock non-stop!

One of my favorite bands, of all fucking time, is Bad Religion. You would think a band with a name like that would not sing a Christmas song. Well you would be wrong!

Download Bad Religion – Joy To The World

I can’t remember anymore
Of this crazy song
But hey it’s chrismas time
But hell it’s chrismas time
And he he, and ho ho ho
It’s chrismas time

That’s right. Bad Religion did a Christmas album for kicks in like 1992. It’s super rare and hard to find. If you do find it…drop me a line. I gotta get a copy of it!

Don’t be silly, Toto. Scarecrows don’t talk.

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Courage! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the “ape” in apricot? What have they got that I ain’t got?

Run Toto Run!

Cool name for a band. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain though, because it’s a woman that we should be looking for.

Rachael Kitchenside, the lead vocalist and songwriter, seems to be the wizard of this magical group.

Like Dorothy, she is not alone. She is joined on a fantastic journey by her band mates Mike, Cazz, and K!d Farthing.

Mike Colombian born Mike or “The Hobo” as the rest of the band like to call him is the nicest guy on the face of the planet. Fact. Mike cut his musical teeth at the YMCA roller disco, and often fondly reminisces about it. (synths, backing vocals, keys and guitar).

Cazz is way prettier without the mask. Hot even. She used to drum for Stickboy, She is the only remaining UK Hanson fan. (keyboards, backing vocals, percussion, recorder, electronics)

K!d Farthing has a tattoo in Hungarian reading “born under a bad sign” and is the coolest kid to ever graduate from the RNCM with a first-class honours degree in violin. (violin, keyboards, electronics and clever stuff)

I was sent an amazing cover of Passion Pit’s Sleepyhead in my DropBox 4 days ago, recorded by Run Toto Run. I fell in love. Then I watched the video for the cover, and fell in love further. Like falling down the rabbit hole.

[Download
Run Toto Run – Sleepy Head (Cover)]

Isn’t that voice angelic? I also love the re-imagining of the music and ambiance of this. It’s fantastic. The video is adorable. Rachael looks adorable and the animals are so silly you can’t help but smile! Especially the very end…

You may have noticed that there is only one hot chick and two animals in the video. Shouldn’t there be a fourth? Rachael sent me an email this morning telling me that Cazz was at work when they recorded the video. I wonder if Cazz was mad about being left out? I’m a little sad about it. Maybe she’s the tin (wo)man that can’t get her feelings hurt, since she has no heart?

I suggest picking up their new EP from iTunes. It’s called The Plastic Gold. If you live in the UK, you can catch them on tour starting this Friday.

BONUS TRACK:
The B-Side of the bands first single was called Alice. Enjoy this remix of “Alice” by welsh synth-pop wizard Rod Thomas.

[Download
Run Toto Run – Alice (Rod Thomas Remix)]