Tag Archives: covers

October Soundtracks: Romeo + Juliet

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Romeo + JulietRomeo + Juliet
1996
Buy the album on Amazon

I was a big fan of this movie when it came out and (though I still for some reason haven’t seen Strictly Ballroom) it made me an ongoing big fan of Baz Luhrman. It was the coolness and fun and frenetic energy of it, it was Leonardo DiCaprio, fresh from The Basketball Diaries, and the totally cute MSCL-era Claire Danes, and a great cast all around, like Harold Perrineau in drag and John Leguizamo being bad-ass, and it was the music (2 new Radiohead songs!), etc. On a personal level, I also really enjoyed it because in my sophomore year of high school, our theater department put on this play, and I was the Friar, and quite frankly, I didn’t really understand everything that I was saying. Seeing the masterful Pete Postlethwaite at work, it all became totally clear to me.

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Album of the Month: Kick

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Kick
Kick

Kick by INXS
1987
Buy the album on Amazon

Kick by Beck’s Record Club
2010
Download the album

Lance recently posted a full length cover version of this for #CoverFriday. Courtney Barnett’s version was respectable and a cool effort, but honestly didn’t do much for me. I finally finished listening to most of the rest of it this past weekend, and was watching it on YouTube, and then noticed the Beck’s Record Club full album cover version in the related videos. I liked it enough that I was considering just featuring it, but then decided it may be overkill to still do the real Kick later, so here we are. I also just learned on the Slicing Up Eyeballs Facebook page that the album was released yesterday in 1987, so the timing is fortuitous.

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Cover: “House of Pain”

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Californication: Happy Endings“House of Pain”
by The White Buffalo (originally by Faster Pussycat)
from the album Happy Endings: Music from the Showtime Series Californication)
2014
Buy the album on Amazon

I got here in a roundabout way. I was watching an episode of Californication this morning and it ended with a different song which I was going to post, but looking into it opened a Pandora’s Box, so I’ll save that for another time. Looking into that got me to this EP, and this song stuck out for me as well.

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Cover Friday: “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

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Crucify“Smells Like Teen Spirit”
by Tori Amos (originally by Nirvana)
from the album Crucify
1992
Buy the album on Amazon

I had something else totally in mind and was working through what to write, and then I got busy and forgot to post until Lance just reminded me. I’m late for EST and probably Central, but I’m going to make it in Mountain Time. Even though I had already thought through my other choice, this pick just came to me in a flash and seemed like the better choice.

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Cover Friday: Kick (Album)

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Kick
Kick

Kick
by Courtney Barnett (originally by INXS)
from Pure Pop Records’ “Summer Of Classic Albums” concert series
2012
Buy the original album on Amazon

When Chris posted his “Jackson” karaoke post, he included a cover that INXS did, which got me to wondering who has covered INXS? Just as that thought popped into my head, I remembered stumbling across this video of Courtney Barnett performing the Kick album in its entirety.

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Cover Friday: “The Chauffeur”

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The Duran Duran Tribute Album
The Duran Duran Tribute Album

“The Chauffeur”
by Deftones (originally by Duran Duran)
from the album The Duran Duran Tribute Album
1997
Buy the album on Amazon

It’s completely rare to have one of my favorite bands covering one of my other favorite bands, particularly in this case when the genres they occupy are so far apart.  The Deftones could probably best be described as alternative metal whereas Duran Duran best epitomize the 80s dance pop/new wave sound.  That kind of sounds like mixing bacon and ice cream.  But you know what?  I’ve had bacon ice cream and it’s delicious.

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Cover Friday: “Talk About the Passion”

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Surprise Your Pig
Surprise Your Pig

“Talk About the Passion”
by Samson & The Philistines (originally by R.E.M.)
from the album Surprise Your Pig: A Tribute to R.E.M.
1992
Buy the album on Amazon

Continuing with the R.E.M. week, here’s one from a tribute album from way back (pre-Out of Time). I was a big R.E.M. fan for quite a while (I started waning with Automatic for the People), so when this came out I had to have it. As I’ve mentioned before, like with most albums of this sort, the results are very hit or miss, and mostly miss, but I liked a couple of them. The album is comprised of generally obscure bands (at least to me), but I did appreciate that most of the bands gave a unique spin to their versions. I probably still have a copy of the album somewhere, but this song is for some reason the only one currently in my iTunes library. This particular cover isn’t amazing, but it does become interesting to hear it in a different language (errr..spanish?). It certainly doesn’t trump the original, but is worth a listen.

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Cover Friday: “Pictures of Matchstick Men”

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Key Lime Pie
Key Lime Pie

“Pictures of Matchstick Men”
by Camper Van Beethoven (originally by Status Quo)
from the album Key Lime Pie
1989
Buy the album on Amazon

I was totally scratching my bean this week trying to think of a cover song I wanted to blather about for a couple of graphs.  I keep a little notepad of cover songs going so I can write down ideas as they pop into my head or come up on shuffle, but nothing on there was really speaking to me.  So I started looking through recent posts to see if anything would spark a thought.  I saw the post about Cracker’s “Teen Angst” and started wondering if they had done some cover songs as B-Sides or something and then I suddenly remembered this CVB song.  I had always known it was a cover, but I thought it was by Strawberry Alarm Clock, however  I was nowhere near being correct.  But before we get to the original, let’s take a few minutes to watch the amazing, obviously late-80s music video for CVB’s version.  It’s about 120 Minutes-worthy as you can get.

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Cover Friday: “Thunderstruck”

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Thunderstruck
Thunderstruck

“Thunderstruck”
by Ministry, 2Cellos, Steve’n’Seagulls,  (originally by AC/DC)
from all over the goddamned place
Buy the original album on Amazon

I was thinking about picking an AC/DC tune for a #karaoketuesday post, but I’m sober enough right now to realize I could never pull off an AC/DC tune unless it was a swing number or something.  Which got me thinking about covers that are done in a different genre than the original version.  So, ladies and gentlemen, I present “Thunderstruck” as performed by three, radically different groups.  But first, let’s take a listen to the original and still bad-ass AC/DC original.

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Cover Friday: “Get It On (Bang a Gong)”

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The Power Station
The Power Station

“Get It On (Bang a Gong)”
by The Power Station (originally by T. Rex)
from the album The Power Station
1985
Buy the album on Amazon

I love this cover.  The T. Rex original is a classic but this is the version I keep returning to.  The combo of that crazy hi-hat, the crunchy guitar and that slap bass is intoxicating.  On top of it all you’ve got Robert Palmer working his slick, sexy cool swagger through those lyrics.  What the fuck do they even mean?

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