Alicia Keys in the Live Lounge

Here is Alicia Keys’s cover of The Fray’s How to Save a Life.

Enjoy.

 

Foundations

Recently, I was driving around with my mother and heard the wackiest song. It was a Live Lounge cover with a man singing something about “got sick on my trainers” and “hands like a crustacean.” We listened to it twice on the Shuffle, so I had no idea what we were hearing.

After we parked and wandered along through the tiny park, I decided to do a google search on my low-tech phone. Nothing. Twenty minutes later, mom thought she remembered a couple of more lyrics “fingertips are holding on to cracks in my [foundation].” It was close enough to get me to Kate Nash’s Foundations.

The song we heard and fell in love with was Newton Faulkner’s Live Lounge cover of “Foundations.” In my humble opinion, it’s far superior to the original.

Kate Nash, Foundations.

Newton Faulkner, Foundations (Kate Nash cover).

 

Bedouin Soundclash Cover on Live Lounge?

If anyone knows where I can find Jamie T’s Bedouin Soundclash cover, please leave a comment below. Thanks.

 

Radio 1 Live Lounge Covers — The Greatest Source Ever

If you know me or have ever read this site, you know I collect cover songs — preferably covers of crappy British pop songs by crappy British artists. I am passionate about my collection, as anyone who has ever sat next to me at a Genius Bar knows (when I lost almost my entire collection last fall in the great Mac Book Pro motherboard failure of 2006 and then had to rebuild it. Three times.)

Many of my favorite covers in my collection come from BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge, hosted by Jo Whiley. Bands come in, sing a couple of songs acoustically and then sing a cover or two. The covers are amazing: Charlotte Church covering Mario’s “Let Me Love You,” Corinne Bailey Rae covering Editor’s “Munich,” Jamie Cullum covering Pharrell’s “Frontin’,” Lemar covering The Darkness’s “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” Maximo Park covering Proclaimers “500 Miles.” Obviously, I could go on and on.

Unofficial Live Lounge has scores of tracks from 2004 until now including the new Alicia Keys cover of How to Save a Life. It also has two songs that I thought I’d lost forever: Willie Mason’s cover of Grandmaster Flash’s The Message and Franz Ferdinand’s cover of Pulp’s Mis-Shapes.

 

Music of the Week – Anita O’Day, Arctic Monkeys, Amy Winehouse, Feist, The Unmixed Tracks

This week, I have been listening to a blend of new and old. These songs have stuck with me as I have wandered around town making and trying to implement plans.

Anita O’Day, I Didn’t Know What Time It Was.

This has long been a favorite song. It’s Rodgers & Hart, and though I have heard it dozens if not hundreds of times, the meaning eludes me. Perhaps, because it’s reflective, it’s quite sad, though the lyrics would suggest happiness.

This is the refrain:

I didn't know what time it wasthen I met you.Oh, what a lovely time it was,How sublime it was too!I didn't know what time it wasyou held my hand.Warm like the month of May it was,and I'll say it was grand.

Grand to be alive, to be young,to be mad, to be yours alone!Grand to see your face, feel your touch,hear your voice say I'm all your own.

I didn't know what time it waslife was no prize.I wanted love and here it wasshining out of your eyes.I'm wise,and I know what time it is now.

Buy Anita O’Day on iTunes.

Arctic Monkeys, You Know I’m No Good.

I actually love Arctic Monkeys, and I am looking forward to buying their new album. Here is there cover of another of my favorite songs, Amy Winehouse’s You Know I’m No Good, which has followed me around all week.

Buy Favourite Worst Nightmare.

Feist, Tout Doucement.

I have been humming this all week. It’s lovely and lounging.

Buy Let It Die this week and The Reminder next week.

The Unmixed Tracks.

The most exciting thing I have heard this week is an unmixed guitar/bass/drum track from the album. I literally jumped up and down when I heard it. It was as I had imagined it would sound when I first heard the demo. I am tempted to play it again, but getting my heart racing would be extremely foolish when I really should be falling asleep.

 

Don’t Stop Believin’

A condition of a recently negotiated deal involved the mastery of “Don’t Stop Believin’” in the key of C.

When I mentioned this to my mother as she was awaiting her Aer Lingus flight yesterday, she reminded me that my brother and his crew often fill those random, standing-around, smokin’ and jokin’ on-set moments singing the same song over their headsets.

Listen:

Of Montreal, Don’t Stop Believin’ (Journey cover).

Journey, Don’t Stop Believin’.

Buy:

Journey, Greatest Hits.

 

Blog Round-Up — Amy Winehouse, Andrew Bird, Annuals, Bloc Party, The Cinematics, Kaiser Chiefs, Mark Ronson

Culture Bully has 13 live songs from an Amy Winehouse show in February.

Good Weather for Airstrikes has a review of the Annuals/Kaiser Chiefs show in NY. I am a huge fan of Annuals (Complete or Completing is still a favorite) and I also really enjoy Kaiser Chiefs, so it’s an interesting read. Plus, mp3s.

Good Weather for Airstrikes also has an mp3 from Bloc Party’s appearance on BBC Radio ’s Live Lounge: a cover of Nelly Furtado’s Say it Right. Plus, more mp3s from my favorite source of wacky covers.

BBC’s Collective, which is not technically a blog, has an interview with Mark Ronson about his new covers project.

30 frames confirms why all music videos look the same.

The Music Slut covers Spinner’s coverage of The Cinematics covering Jeff Buckley at SX, under the headline “Jeff Buckley’s Mother ‘Teary Eyed’ After Cinematics Cover.” An impressive example of great pr at work.

I Guess I’m Floating reviews Andrew Bird’s Armchair Apocrypha.

 

Editors on Road to the Final Four

It took me about 3 seconds to look up from my budget analysis (yay! Saturday conference calls! yay!) when I heard the unmistakable opening to Munich on CBS’s Road to the Final Four (for the Vanderbilt vs George Washington match-up).

Munich was one of my top 10 of 2006 in both the original and cover versions.

Listen:

Editors, Munich.
Corinne Bailey Rae, Munich (Editors cover).

Buy:

Editors, The Back Room

 

"Worst Cover Songs In Pop Music History"

Stereogum posted today about Cracked.com’s list of worst covers ever:

20. “You Shook Me All Night Long” — Celine Dion and Anastasia
19. “Downtown Train” — Rod Stewart
18. “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” — Guns N Roses
17. “Demolition Man” — Manfred Mann
16. “American Pie” — Madonna
15. “My Generation” — Hilary Duff
14. “It’s My Life” — No Doubt
13. “Video Killed The Radio Star” — The Presidents of the United States of America
12. “Walk this Way” — Macy Gray
11. “Another Brick in the Wall” — Korn
10. “I’m A Believer” — Smash Mouth
09. “Satisfaction” — Britney Spears
08. “Sweet Child O Mine” — Sheryl Crow
07. “Big Yellow Taxi” — Counting Crows
06. “911 Is a Joke” — Duran Duran
05. “Anarchy in the UK” — Motley Crue
04. “Behind Blue Eyes” — Limp Bizkit
03. “Feel Like Making Love” — Kid Rock
02. “Dock of the Bay” — Michael Bolton
01. “And It Stoned Me” — Bob Dylan

They left out some of the worst ever:

Polyphonic Spree, Lithium (Nirvana cover).

It’s actually nauseating. It’s the only cover I’ve ever intentionally deleted from my collection. The first time I heard it, I had to play the Pixies over and over again to cleanse my palate.

Unholy Trio, Bring the Noise.

As I have written before, I hate cutesy covers of hip hop songs. This is awful. Nina Gordon barely misses this list for “Straight Out of Compton.”

Elbow, Independent Women, Pt. 1 (Destiny’s Child cover).

Crimes against music: Goofy instrumentation, laughing through the performance, and not taking it seriously. Yes, it’s a dumb song, but you chose to cover it, and presenting it straight is a much more effective send-up.

I may add to this list later when I have had some time to think about it. Lou Reed’s cover of This Magic Moment is close, since it sounds like a parody of his own singing style.

I am Fuel, You Are Friends has a great list up right now.

 

Arcade Fire Cover Yeah Yeah Yeah and Talking Heads

In honor of all the Arcade Fire buzz in anticipation of the release of Neon Bible on March 6th, I present two files I have had in my cover collection for years.

The first is Arcade Fire’s live cover of Talking Heads, Naive Melody performed on CBC Radio 3 in 2004.

The second is a live cover of Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Maps live in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge from 2005.

They are both entertaining. You can hear them below.

Tonight, Arcade Fire performed on SNL. I missed it (because it’s SNL), but you can download the performance of Intervention and Keep the Car Running on The Smudge of Ashen Fluff.

Arcade Fire, Maps (Yeah Yeah Yeah cover).

Arcade Fire, Naive Melody (Talking Heads cover).

Pre-order Neon Bible now.