Tag Archives: covers

Cover Friday: “I Want U 2 Want Me”

August 22, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 90s, alternative, cheap trick, covers, lyrics, propagandhi, punk, songsChris

“I Want U 2 Want Me”
by Propagandhi (originally by Cheap Trick)
from the album How to Clean Everything
1993
Buy the album on Amazon

I grew up not really knowing about Cheap Trick at all. Maybe in a peripheral way, but that’s it. Some time in the past 5 years I picked up their Greatest Hits album, but it was a combination of the That 70’s Show opening + hearing some people sing their songs at karaoke + seeing a guy from a company we used to work with (hello Hothead!) sing this song at a live karaoke night for our former coworker Jen that drove me to it.

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Cover Friday: “Theme From NARC”

August 15, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 80s, 90s, alternative, arcade games, convenience stores, covers, high school, junior high, pixies, video gamesLance

“Theme From NARC”
by the Pixies (originally by NARC)
from the album Complete ‘B’ Sides
2001
Buy the album on Amazon

Every time this track shuffles up, I’m instantly transported back to high school. My buddy Houston and I would spend a good portion of Friday afternoons playing video games at the local convenience store or Wal-Mart (our pseudo arcades). Between bags of Chili Cheese Fritos and cans of Cherry Coke we’d play whatever they had in stock that month. Wal-Mart usually offered up far such as Double Dragon, Super Off-Road and our favorite co-op, Silkworm. Minit Mart kept Bad Dudes, GI Joe, Bubble Bobble and NARC in the corner between the beef jerky and the fountain drinks for what seemed like years. Which was just fine with us. Particularly when the machines of the late 80s/early 90s put out such good theme songs:

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Cover Friday: “Against All Odds”

August 15, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 00s, 80s, alternative, ben gibbard, coveroke, covers, death cab for cutie, karaover, songs, soundtracks, the postal serviceChris

“Against All Odds”
by The Postal Service (originally by Phil Collins)
from the album Give Up (Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition)
2004
Buy the album on Amazon

Keeping it simple this week and doing a karaoke/cover pair. Karaover? Coveroke? I’m a fan of the Postal Service and of course of this song. This is a much “colder” (in feeling) version and less heartfelt than the original. Wikipedia tells me that this cover was named by the NY Post as one of the best covers of all time. I wouldn’t go that far, but it is enjoyable.

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Cover Friday: “War Pigs”

August 8, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 80s, alternative, black sabbath, covers, faith no more, metalLance

“War Pigs”
by Faith No More (originally by Black Sabbath)
from the album The Real Thing
1989
Buy the album on Amazon

Let’s get things straight. “War Pigs” is a bad-ass song all on its own. Even if you’re not an Ozzy-worshiping Sabbath fan, you can most definitely appreciate the bad-assedness of “War Pigs” I mean the lyrics alone are the fucking jam, but you layer in some sludgy bass and rusty chainsaw guitar licks over the top and that’s a recipe for successful head-banging. But what happens if you add about 25% more funk?

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Cover Friday: “Treat Her Right”

July 25, 2014Music#CoverFriday, covers, motown, movies, music videos, songs, soulLance

“Treat Her Right”
by The Commitments (originally by Roy Head and the Traits)
from the soundtrack to The Commitments
1991
Buy the album on Amazon

The Commitments was one of our go-to movies for late nights at college. I don’t remember seeing it in the theaters, so I think it was almost exclusively watched on VHS rentals from More Than Video. I’m not sure who in my group found it, but we could recite it from memory, at least the parts we could make out through the Irish brogue. This movie hit some soft spots for me: Motown/soul/blues music, ensemble pieces and weird accents. Plus, what a fun band to listen to. Case in point, the opening song to the movie.

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Cover Friday: “Forever Young”

July 25, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 00s, 80s, alphaville, alternative, covers, music videos, songs, youth groupChris

“Forever Young”
by Youth Group (originally by Alphaville)
from the album Casino Twilight Dogs
2006
Buy the album on Amazon

I’m going to keep this one short. It’s 1 in the morning, and I’m exhausted, but I’m not going to get a chance to post during the day and I can’t very well give Lance a hard time about Karaoke Thursday if I don’t post for #CoverFriday.

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Cover Friday: “Money”

July 18, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 120 minutes, 90s, afghan whigs, alternative, beatles, covers, foo fighters, gumball, karaoke, motown, music videos, nirvana, r.e.m., songs, sonic youth, soul asylumLance

“Money”
by the Backbeat Band (originally by Barret Strong)
from the soundtrack to Backbeat
1994
Buy the album on Amazon

Oh man, I had two songs in mind for my cover selection today, both covers of Motown classics, but this one gets the nod today because I’ve been listening to a lot of Afghan Whigs lately. I’ll file that other one away for later. This is actually an all-star 90s alternative cover of a Beatles cover of a Barrett Strong track. It features members of REM, Gumball, Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, Soul Asylum and Afghan Whigs.

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Cover Friday: “Jessie’s Girl”

July 18, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 00s, 80s, covers, folk, matt the electrician, rick springfield, songsChris

“Jessie’s Girl”
by Matt the Electrician (originally by Rick Springfield)
from the album Made for Working
2003
Buy the album on Amazon

Not a ton to say on this song. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but just a nice, mellow version of a classic song. I’ve said before I have a weakness for cookie cutter emo and punk bands doing covers, but also included in that list are acoustic covers in most genres. I’m not very good at it, but I occasionally check the rss feed for http://coverlaydown.com/, and I’m pretty sure that’s how I came across this song one day.

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Cover Friday: “Like a Prayer”

July 11, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 80s, 90s, bigod 20, covers, dance, madonna, songs, workoutChris

“Like a Prayer”
by Bigod 20 (originally by Madonna)
from the album On the Run
1992
Buy the album on Amazon

To show how bad my memory is, I didn’t remember I posted a Madonna cover last week as well until I came to post this.

I’ve never enjoyed going to a dance club that just plays electronic music, but, though I haven’t done it in years, I used to love going to dance at clubs with industrial/goth/alternative nights. I like to dance but I want music that has words, that I can sing along to (even if it’s just in my head), that I know has an end and that I know well enough to dance to the timing of it. This is one of the songs I used to love hearing and dancing to. It’s such a great dance song and also such a great subversion of the original. The original was the only Madonna single I ever bought, and I listened to it a ton, so it made me love this version more.
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Cover Friday: “Like a Virgin”

July 4, 2014Music#CoverFriday, 80s, 90s, alternative, covers, madonna, songs, teenage fanclubChris

“Like a Virgin”
by Teenage Fanclub (originally by Madonna)
from the album What You Do to Me
1992
Buy the album on Amazon

I’ll write some other time about how I came by Teenage Fanclub (and some #CoverFriday I’ll post Buffalo Tom covering Teenage Fanclub), but decided to go with this for the week. This cover was first released a year earlier on Teenage Fanclub’s second album The King, but I know it from this EP/”maxi-single”, which I picked up along the way.

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