Saturday, February 17, 2007

Simulacra Saturday

For some reason, in the mp3 blogosphere, Saturday is traditionally Covers Day.

(I might just have made that up, but it seems like a good tradition to me.)

So here for your entertainment are four lovely tasteful covers that will bring joy to your ears and a wanky postmodern knowingness to your music library:

The Magic Numbers - Crazy In Love (mp3) [Buy from Amazon]
Lo-fi acoustic cover of chavtastic Beyoncé floor-filler. Genuinely makes my stony little heart feel quite skippy. Is that wrong?

Lambchop - This Corrosion (m4a)
Lo-fi, ponderous version of everyone's favourite overblown goth anthem, with lovely piano bits. Still my favouritest cover ever.

Devotchka - Venus In Furs (m4a) [Buy from Amazon]
I've never really listened to the Velvet Underground original, but Devotchka make it sound like an itinerant crew of whirling dervishes having a party in Castle Dracula. Which can only be A Good Thing.

(With thanks to Occasional Poster of Comments for introducing me to Devotchka in the first place.)

Nina Gordon - Straight Outta Compton (mp3)
Thanks to the lovely Mr BC for this one, erm...lo-fi acoustic cover of top sweary NWA gangsta rap classic. Strangely beautiful.


NB If anyone has any noisy, obnoxious covers of lo-fi acoustic songs, please do send 'em over. It would be nice to get a balance.

10 comments:

Valerie said...

Wow, the Nina Gordon.. I'm simultaneously moved to laugh my ass off and cheer. It is, indeed, very pretty. And the whole concept is hilarious.

I love, love the Lambchop. But I must admit to having enjoyed the Sisters' original, as well.

Like all these, actually, in different ways.

patroclus said...

Oh, I love the original 'This Corrosion'. And I love the Sisters too, almost as much as I love Stylus Magazine's retrospective review of my favourite Sisters song, 'Adrenochrome', which goes like this.

Annie said...

thanks, they all look fab. The nearest I have to a noisy, obnoxious cover of a lo-fi acoustic song is Dinosaur Jr's metal cover of the Cure's Just Like Heaven, which I can send you - it is very funny, and makes you realise how fey the original is.

Occasional Poster of Comments said...

Glad you liked Devotchka. That was one of the first tracks I heard. They used to have a live version to download on their site. And of one of their other tracks. (Hmm. May as well take advantage of having a website host: How It Ends (Live); Venus In Furs (Live)).

Have you heard Nina Gordon's cover of Skid Row's 18 and Life*? Not as good, but kind of fun, nonetheless. Well, possibly more so if you were a teenage metaller, but anyway.

I'm sure I must have some noisy covers of acoustic tunes, but damned if I can think what...

*right at the bottom of the page.

Occasional Poster of Comments said...

I just listened to that live Venus In Furs again; I'd forgotten how irritating American crowds can be.

Valerie said...

That review of Adrenochrome is hilarious. Adrenochrome was, again in some bizarre kind of synchronicity, the name of my friend Dan's last band (the one who died New Year's Day '06, who ran TOPY, who caused me to comment on your posting the cover of that PTV song way back when).

Ooh, I didn't know Dino Jr covered the Cure. That's funny. I like much Cure, I hate that song, Dinosaur Jr's version must be hilarious.

The Devotchka is great. Sorry we Yanks are irritating, OPoC. I'm sure it's all a part of our apparent grand scheme to annoy the world. Seems to be working.

patroclus said...

Ooh yes, synchronicity indeed. If I remember rightly, 'adrenochrome' is a drug in Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas; it is adrenalin taken from a fresh human corpse or something. No idea if this is real or a product of Hunter S. Thompson's imagination.

Re-reading that review has also provided me with a splendid new tagline, hurrah!

In noisy Cure covers, there's also Creaming Jesus's admirable thrash version of 'A Forest', as covered in Quinquiremes passim.

Anonymous said...

I like the Dave Eggers tribute compilation mixtape title ... (note to self: make compilation tape for loved one. INclude Magic Numbers cover of Crazy In Love)

Anonymous said...

and, re: noisy covers of lo-fi songs, the single of the You and Me Song by the Wannadies has, on the B side, their own excellent noisy punk version of the same song. If you don't know it I'll sling a copy over.

patroclus said...

Thanks Rafael, I can't take credit for the mixtape title, I'm afraid - that's what it was called on the mp3 blog I originally downloaded it from.

And an mp3 of that Wannadies song would be great, thanks!