There are an unbelievable amount of Christmas covers that i could have chosen for this post but i’ve picked out a select few. They’re not necessarily the best ones or my favourite ones though……no, i’m keeping them for my Christmas Mixtape! These ones are some more traditional/classic Christmas songs that have been covered.
I couldn’t end this without posting the always slightly disturbing video of David Bowie and Bing Crosby doing “Little Drummer Boy”. Don’t ask me why but there’s something about it that always freaks me out. It’s not the song itself but the video. The conversation in the build up also makes me uneasy for some reason.
It’s been a while since i did a good old fashioned cover post without a theme or main focus on one artist. So without further ado here are a few random covers that have been pleasuring my ears recently. And of course the originals for you to compare too.
Unless you’ve been living on the moon for the past few weeks you’ll know that the World Cup is on. It is after all the single most watched sports event in on this planet of ours, with millions (billions if you believe FIFA) tuning in worldwide. You can’t escape it at the moment. Not that i’m complaining, i love it. But it’s everywhere. Every time you turn on the TV, every little advert that pops up online, every time you open the paper it’s there staring back at you. To be fair that is the case with most World Cups but this one even more so because it’s the first time it’s been held in Africa and it’s been celebrated just that little bit more. And so it should be.
Since the World Cup is now past the cat and mouse tactics of the group stages and is actually getting exciting it’s time to dedicate a post to it. So to celebrate this momentous World Cup i’ve compiled a list of songs in honour of the great continent of Africa. I’m not gonna lie i could only come up with about 7 or 8 tracks i knew so i had to search for some more online and came across two Paul Simon and David Bowie tracks i could use. The first songs that came to mind for the list were the obvious ones by Toto, Errors, The Very Best, Leftfield and The Chemical Brothers then there were one or two i found by searching my external hard drive then i got stuck and reverted to Google. The song that actually made me think of doing the post was “Bloemfontein” by a band i’ve just got into called Junior Fencing Club (post more soon). I was listening to them on the way to work this morning and the idea came to me to do an African based post after seeing the song title. For those unaware, The Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein is one of the venues used during the World Cup and is coincidentally the stadium at which Germany beat England 4-1 yesterday 🙂 Apologies to any English readers but with me being half Scottish half German you can imagine that i was very, very happy with that result.
As another bonus i thought i’d put in a bit about this man….
Mr Lucas Radebe. He’s so much more than a footballer. He’s a national hero in South Africa where he holds almost god like status among the fanatical football fans. He’s also the influence behind (i shudder to say the name cos i HATE the frontman) the Kaiser Chiefs. Yes, this pain in the arse of a band are all Leeds United fans. Radebe played for Leeds United for almost a decade and was their favourite player so they decided to name their band after Radebe’s first club a South African team named Kaizer Chiefs. So, it was with the swift swapping of an “S” for a “Z” (probably to avoid legal wrangles) and the band formerly known as “Parva” (Parva? Kinda fucking name is that anyway?) became the Kaiser Chiefs and proceeded to irritate the ears of the world.
The Good Kaizer Chiefs
The Irritating, Evil Kaiser Chiefs
Ok, so maybe i’m being a bit harsh. It’s not the actual band i have this massive dislike for, it’s just the main dude. Singer Ricky Wilson looks and acts like an overweight, arrogant, smarmy, chipmunk on speed. I’m not and never will be a fan of the group, i don’t really like their music, it doesn’t do anything for me but seeing as i’ve verbally denounced them so much tonight i suppose it’s only fair they get a song up.
It could’ve been worse for them. They should be grateful that Lucas Radebe’s team before signing for Leeds wasn’t a club called Moroka_Swallows. Sounds more like an African XXX effort than a football team.
Just for the record, my money’s on Argentina for the World Cup. I stand to when a fair old amount of crispy notes if they win it.
Recently i’ve been randomly listening to and enjoying a lot of cover versions from my music collection and realised that i haven’t really done a post about covers in quite a while. So to make up for it i’m gonna do two.
Straight to the point then….
ORIGINAL: Tom Petty – I Won’t Back Down
The first song is a Tom Petty cover courtesy of Dawn Landes. A respected artist in her own right but maybe unfairly mainly known for her appearances alongside the likes of Alexi Murdoch, Jose Gonzalez and her husband Josh Ritter. The Kentucky native has put her own relaxing Americana tinged spin on this already American rock classic. There are a few cover versions of this song floating around but this is my favourite one.
MP3: Dawn Landes – I Won’t Back Down
ORIGINAL: Queen and David Bowie – Under Pressure
I love this song. I love the original but i love the uniqueness of this cover. It manages to stick quite close to the original version yet somehow manages to throw in all sorts of jangly,chimey, instruments/weird noises that fit in perfectly. Yet another track that has been covered several times. The most famous of which are probably the Keane version and the My Chemical Romance/The Used version. Both of which were comprehensively shit and not worth mentioning. Even though i just did. Shit. But let’s try and imagine those ones never existed. The only one worth checking out is Xiu Xiu’s version.
MP3: Xiu Xiu – Under Pressure (Feat. Michael Gira)
ORIGINAL: Dee-Lite – Grrove Is In The Heart/Beach Boys – California Girls
This is essentially two covers. As if hearing the scuzz merchants use their filthy guitars to do THAT catchy lead line from Dee-Lite’s disco classic wasn’t enough they then go and mash it up with the Beach Boys track “California Girls”. The Crocodiles deserve your love and praise simply for the fact that they were brave enough to attempt this track and the fact they’ve successfully transformed a disco anthem and a sunshine pop gem from the 60’s into a groovy, disturbingly good cover.
MP3: Crocodiles – Groove Is In The Heart
ORIGINAL: Erma Franklin – Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart
Jaguar Love hid this track away as a bonus song at the end of the album “Hologram Jams”. They decided to take this ode to heartbreak from Aretha Franklins big sister Erma and turn it into a mad psychedelic synth and guitar filled shriek fest. The vocals certainly take centre stage followed closely by the slightly deranged solo around the 2 minute mark. Bonus points for replacing the line “I’m going to show you baby that a woman can be tough” with the line “I’m going to show baby that a JAGUAR can be tough”. Brilliant.
MP3: Jaguar Love – Take Another Piece Of My Heart
ORIGINAL: Dolly Parton – Jolene
Treading safe water here. Ellie Goulding has the perfect voice to tackle the legendary Dolly Parton number. The guitar plucks steadily alongside the fragile yet assuring voice. It’s nothing new and doesn’t really add anything extra to the original but is a good cover nonetheless. I love The White Stripes version as well.
MP3: Ellie Goulding – Jolene
Remember if you wanna download any of the MP3’s just right click and save as.
This is just a collection of songs from one of my favourite films. I watched it for the first time in ages tonight and forgot how good the soundtrack actually is.
Angelo Badalamenti and Barry Adamson where the main contributors to the atmospheric and sometimes disturbing sounds and backgrounds in most scenes but there were more than a few big names from the world of music willing to help out David Lynch when it came to the soundtrack. None more so than Trent Reznor who didn’t just write the short piece “Videodrones: Questions” for the movie but actually went and wrote a brand new Nine Inch Nails song specifically for the film, the song in question being the now legendary cult classic “The Perfect Drug”. I say “cult” classic because even though the song is a fan favourite and was released as a single it’s never been played live by Reznor or the band, hence it’s cult status and unfortunate resignment to being played in nightclubs, rooms and headphones the world over. Oh and Lost Higway obviously.
Other bands/artists who added songs to the soundtrack were Smashing Pumpkins, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Rammstein and Marilyn Manson. I would seriously recommend looking up and buying the OST for Lost Highway, a great collection of tense and eerie music that will take you back into the mood, atmospherics and flashbacks of the film itself. Which is quite ironic given the “reality?/dream?” and flashback themes throughout the film.
$elling Out (Out $elling) i$ thi$ weekend$ mixtape. I came up with the platform for thi$ mix during my night$hift$ in the early $ummer month$. I thought it would be a good idea to have $ong$ that were “commercial” and have chopped/ma$hed/$pliced/de$troyed ver$ion$ of them all on a mixtape together and i al$o decided, that, ju$t to take away from the whole ma$h up feature i would throw in a few remixe$ of $ome other “commercial” $ong$ i like a$ well. I fir$t $tarted putting thi$ mix together in June, i let $ome friend$ hear a demo ver$ion of the mix at a pre-Union of Knive$ BBQ on the 25th of June….the night Michael Jack$on died……the mix went down rea$onably well but there were one or two element$ of it that i wa$n’t happy with $o i changed a few bit$ and bob$ and made the fini$hed article. It took me quite a while to get round to fini$hing the mix a$ a whole and there wa$ one $ong that no matter how much i altered i couldn’t fix the quality, $o i’ll apologi$e in advance for the bad $ound quality on the mp3 of the Metro $tation remix, it i$ noticeable, you can hear the $ound drop radically and it $ound$ really di$tant but thankfully it only la$t$ a few minute$ then the quality i$ back to normal for the re$t of the mix. Once again, plea$e accept my apologie$…i’ll make up for it with $omething $pecial.
$elling Out (Out $elling) Tracklist
———————————————
1. Rolling $tones – Gimme $helter
2. The Who – Baba O’Riley
3. The Cla$h – $hould I $tay Or $hould I Go
4. David Bowie – $uffragette City
5. Norman Greenbaum, MGMT, $oulwax, $antogold Ma$h Up
6. King$ Of Leon – $ex on Fire
7. Hot Hot Heat – Bandage$
8. The Kill$ vs $ugababe$ – Round and Cheerful
9. Culture Beat vs Katy Perry – I Ki$$ed Mr Vain
10. Timbaland vs $nap! – Rhythm I$ The Way I Are (Original $.I.T Wolf Track)
11. Metro $tation – $hake It!
12. Ju$tin Timberlake – $exy Back
13. U$her – Love In Thi$ Club (M$TRKRFT Ver$ion)
14. Keli$ – Milk$hake
15. Kanye We$t – Love Lockdown
16. King$ Of Leon – U$e $omebody
Money Can Buy Anything.......Right?
*Kudo$ for $ome of the /remixe$/track$ on the Mixtape go to the Illuminoid$, Alavi, WhiteChokolate and Tenzin.*
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Someones In The Wolf 