As long as the snow emergency continues I will continue to use it as an excuse for these posts being pathetically short. Anyway, another cover today, guys! I’ve made fun of certain folks for doing cheesy acoustic covers of classic hip hop (see the third installment in this series), but what I didn’t make clear is that if your acoustic cover of a classic hip hop song is really good, it’s totally not cheesy. If you’re anything like me (unlikely), you first got your hands on today’s recording via Napster, when it was attributed to the great jam band/drug haze soundtrack artists, Phish. But as we all learned eventually, it was actually an “american alternative country” band from Austin (what is it with Austin bands and great cover songs?) called The Gourds, and as you have probably figured out by now the song was a cover of Snoop Dogg’s seminal work, “Gin and Juice“.
So what’s great about this? Well, the initial appeal is the contrast between the kinda old-fashionedy sound of the music and the profanity of the subject matter. But after a few hundred listenings you start to realize that the arrangement is actually really good, and so is the performance. And, I swear, after you get halfway to a thousand plays, you start to think of this cover as the quintessential version of the song. And then you track down the Gourds’ performance on Austin City Limits and you realize these guys rule so much that it kinda sucks that most people will never think of them as anyone but the guys who had that cover of “Gin and Juice” 10 years ago. Okay, you get the idea. Enjoy the song.
Live version embedded below, studio recording here: Gin and Juice – The Gourds.
Sorry for the brevity today, guys–we’ve got a bit of a snow situation in DC at the moment. This is a cover of a classic song by the Four Tops–”It’s the Same Old Song“. This recording was made by the great DC ska band, the Pietasters. I basically just like the song, but it is interesting how its subject matter is the way that the same song can sound different once circumstances change. Anyway. Enjoy: It’s the Same Old Song – The Pietasters
All right, let’s listen to another cover. Today’s song comes from, of all things, the soundtrack to a video game. For some reason, the makers of Stubbs the Zombie decided to get a bunch of awesome bands to cover classic songs from the ’50s and ’60s (the game takes place in 1959). The bands I have heard of that, amazingly, contributed to the soundtrack: Ben Kweller, The Raveonettes, Death Cab for Cutie, Cake, The Walkmen, The Dandy Warhols, The Flaming Lips, Phantom Planet, and the band behind today’s song, Clem Snide. Honestly, I’m not sure I’d ever even heard the original version, by Little Anthony & the Imperials, when I first came across the Clem Snide version, but it resonated nonetheless. The great thing about the Clem Snide version is how it differs in phrasing and melody enough to distinguish it from the original (and to make it an improvement, I think), yet how it preserves the feeling of being an oldie. It’s a really interesting arrangement that takes advantage of Clem Snide’s strengths while still making great use of a simple, catchy tune. It’s lively but melancholy–a combination that almost always works for me. Enjoy.
Over the last 11 installments I gave you a bunch of great music, running the gamut of emotional resonance and technical sophistication. Today we take a break from all that and explore a song so mediocre, so unnecessary, so painfully soulless it makes one question the very purpose of existence. I’m not even sure exactly what to say about this bizarre experiment in pointlessness, so I guess I’ll just post the song and let you determine for yourself why this recording was ever made. Bonus questions: Why is Biz Markie involved? And how do you think they convinced him to take part?
That’s the Way, I Like It – the Spin Doctors
As an aside, this isn’t coming from someone who thinks the Spin Doctors suck. I loved Pocket Full of Kryptonite (and not just “Two Princes” and “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong”), and I think there are some decent songs on the more recent You’ve Got to Believe in Something. I just find it baffling and hilarious that they thought this cover was a good idea.
Nope, we’re not done with Michael Jackson quite yet. I’ve long argued that “Beat It” was the best song of the 80s (not to mention the best video), and I like to think that, as far as I can tell, that’s why nobody has managed to make a decent cover version. However, there are people out there who argue that “Beat It” isn’t even Michael Jackson’s best song of the 80s. Okay, most people argue that. And the song that is usually put forth as superior is “Billie Jean”. I’ll be the first to admit it, “Billie Jean” is a pretty excellent song (and has an excellent video of its own). It’s catchy and fun, but very dark (primary takeaway message: look out for creepy stalkers who will claim that you impregnated them!). And, unlike “Beat It”, “Billie Jean” actually has been covered well. Now I have to admit something I’m not proud of: I first heard about this cover by watching an American Idol contestant rip it off pay homage to it:
I think I enjoyed it as much as Randy did! Anyway, David Cook did acknowledge that the performance was really Chris Cornell’s version of the song, so I tracked down Cornell’s cover and discovered that a) David Cook hadn’t actually done much of anything to distinguish his performance from Cornell’s; and b) Cornell’s performance was really good. Yesterday’s cover of “I Want You Back” deconstructed the original and put it back together with detachment, irony, and perhaps humor. Cornell’s rendition of “Billie Jean”, however, really strips away all but the raw, emotional essence of the original–there’s nothing glamorous, distant, or ironic about this–it’s just an acoustic guitar and a voice. So let’s just listen to it: Billie Jean (Chris Cornell).
Let’s pivot smoothly from yesterday’s Oasis/Jackson Five mashup to today’s Jackson Five cover–two very different interpretations of the same song (“I Want You Back”). Discovery’s cover is an admirably-odd reworking of one of the great pop songs (maybe not odd enough, though–Pitchfork called it “teeth-gnashing“, which I think is a bad thing). I think it’s safe to say that Discovery intended this cover to make a statement about their perspective on music as well as pay homage to a great song. I leave it to you to figure out exactly what that perspective is, but this is what I think cover songs are about–if you’re not playing someone’s wedding or learning how to play an instrument, the only reason to take on another artist’s work is to put your own stamp on it. With their low-fi, soul-inflected electronic rendition of a pop classic, Discovery definitely does that here. I’m not sure I’d like to live in Discovery’s musical world all the time, but it’s a nice place to visit.
Check it out: I Want You Back – Discovery
Another mashup today, this one with fewer moving parts than yesterday’s. However, the two songs have one of those moving parts in common: “Wonderwall. This is a pretty straightforward mashup (although it does include a few other samples), combining “Wonderwall” with the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back“. This actually isn’t my favorite mashup–the audio quality of the Jackson Five sample is kinda crappy–but I’ve already written all this stuff so I guess I’ll post it anyway.
For download: I Want Your Wonderwall
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