When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week José González takes on Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Joy Division singer Ian Curtis took his own life shortly after the release of “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” He was only 23. The title of the song was inscribed on his tombstone. Even though the other members would go on to form New Order, the two JD albums recorded with Curtis have proved to have a lasting impact, inspiring new generations of bands, fans and Hot Topic customers in the 30 years since. In 2008, Curtis’ tombstone was mysteriously stolen from Macclesfield Cemetery, but later replaced with a new one. Ultimate memorabilia piece? Where would you even put that? Here is Sweden’s José González giving a proper tribute, with a touching, acoustic performance of the song.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Head Of Femur takes on Neil Young And Crazy Horse’s “Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Neil Young co-wrote this song with Crazy Horse member Danny Whitten, whose struggle with (and eventual overdose from) heroin served as partial inspiration for 1975 album Tonight’s The Night. Originally released as a live version in 1970, the song was later recorded in a studio for inclusion on the next year’s Crazy Horse. The show at the Fillmore from which the track was originally pulled was eventually released as a full-concert bootleg as part of Young’s Archives series in 2006. Here is one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen, Chicago’s Head Of Femur, performing the song at Emo’s in Austin, Texas. Dig that fiddle.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Radiohead takes on the Smiths’ “The Headmaster Ritual.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
For the original recording of “The Headmaster Ritual,” Johnny Marr used a Rickenbacker that belonged to Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music; the guitar was alleged to have at one point been owned by the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn. Marr told Guitar Player magazine that when he wrote the song, he “fancied the idea of a strange Joni Mitchell tuning, and the actual progression is like what she would have done had she been an MC5 fan or a punk rocker.” In 2007, Radiohead did a webcast of several songs from its rehearsal space, one of which was its take on the classic track from 1985’s Meat Is Murder.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Albert Hammond Jr. takes on Guided By Voices’ “Postal Blowfish.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
The mythology of the Strokes holds that the band was discovered, at least in part, by Robert Pollard, after tossing a demo tape onto the stage after a Guided By Voices concert. It would be more than a little naive to assume the band would not have made it eventually without Pollard’s help, given the members’ industry connections (guitarist Albert Hammond Jr.’s dad is British pop singer Albert Hammond, and frontman Julian Casablancas’ father is the founder of one of the world’s top modeling agencies), but Pollard’s seal of approval at least added to the Strokes’ credibility. Not many people know that the 2006 debut solo LP by Hammond Jr., Yours To Keep, is better than anything the Strokes have done as a band. The North American CD release of the album featured two bonus-track cover songs, Buddy Holly’s “Well…Alright” and GBV’s “Postal Blowfish.”
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Superchunk takes on Spoon’s “Anything You Want.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Superchunk and Merge Records founder Mac McCaughan introduces this song by talking about the label problems Spoon faced and how the band came to Merge. When he launches into this acoustic version of its song, it’s easy proof for why he and fellow Superchunk member Laura Ballance are running the best record label in the U.S.—you can tell McCaughan is obviously a big fan. This clip is from a 2009 performance at the University Of North Carolina’s student bookstore.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Jay Reatard takes on Beck’s “Gamma Ray.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
It’s a fucking shame that we’re not going to get any more new music from the late Jay Reatard. (His final album, Watch Me Fall, made MAGNET’s list of the 20 best albums of 2009.) Two years ago, Beck asked Reatard to re-record “Gamma Ray” for the single’s b-side. Frantic, multi-tracked vocals and a jolt of adrenaline were all he needed to make you forget who wrote the song in the first place. You will be missed, Jay.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Minor Threat takes on Wire’s “12XU.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
When Wire recorded this song, it took multiple takes for the band to get it right because it was so fast. Minor Threat’s version is twice the speed of the original. Try not to trash your place when you hear it.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Hüsker Dü takes on the Byrds’ “Eight Miles High.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
When the original version of this song was released, it was temporarily banned from U.S. radio due to perceived drug references. At the time, the Byrds steadfastly denied the allegations, and it was only years later the band admitted that at least part of the song was inspired by its members’ drug use. When Hüsker Dü released its version, the trio had its own controversy to deal with: What was a hardcore-punk band doing covering a song by some acid-headed hippies? Oh not much—just breaking down walls and destroying convention. Read our 2005 cover story on Hüsker Dü, the Replacements and the ’80s Minneapolis scene.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week the Langley Schools Music Project takes on David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
In 1976, Hans Fenger, a Canadian music teacher, got the idea to record a bunch of school kids singing popular rock songs in the gymnasium. Two LPs came from the project, pressed only for posterity among the students and teachers. It wasn’t until 2000 that one of the records was unearthed in a second-hand shop and re-released on the Bar/None label that the recordings became a critically acclaimed media sensation. The emotional resonance with which these children (most between the ages of nine and 12) sing remarkably outweighs the original, even on mature lines like “Tell my wife I love her very much/She knows.”
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Robyn Hitchcock takes on the Psychedelic Furs’ “The Ghost In You.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
For an acoustic in-store performance at Tower Records in New York in 1989, the former Soft Boys frontman pulled out this Psychedelic Furs classic to close out his set. Without the drum machine or ’80s synth, the song stands strong on its own, and Hitchcock’s rendition is captivating even through blurry videotape.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Dr. Dog takes on Architecture In Helsinki’s “Heart It Races.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
For the release of 2007’s Heart It Races EP, Australian band Architecture in Helsinki enlisted some friends for cover versions and remixing duty of the single. Dr. Dog practically owned it. The Philadelphia band put a rootsy, jammy twist on the island-beat psychedelia of the original, slowing it down and adding hand claps and a slide guitar.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week the Gaslight Anthem takes on Bruce Springsteen’s “Backstreets.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
The Gaslight Anthem is a band that wears its influences on its sleeve, going even so far as directly quoting songs that have influenced the group in its lyrics. The biggest and most obvious touchstone for the New Jersey foursome has been Bruce Springsteen. At the Glastonbury Festival earlier this year, the Boss even joined the band for a duet of its song “The ‘59 Sound.” Here, Gaslight frontman Brian Fallon gives a restrained take on the epic “Backstreets” from one of the greatest albums ever recorded, 1975’s Born To Run.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Eddie Vedder, Neil Finn and Liam Finn take on Chris Knox’s “Not Given Lightly.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Pearl Jam just wrapped up its 2009 tour with a leg Down Under, where the band was supported by Liam Finn and Ben Harper. For the start of the encore in Auckland, New Zealand, frontman Eddie Vedder was joined by Finn and his dad Neil Finn (Crowded House, Split Enz) for a dedication and cover of the Chris Knox tune “Not Given Lightly.” Knox suffered a stroke earlier this year, and a benefit album has just been released to assist his family with the medical costs. Stroke: Songs For Chris Knox (Merge) features Knox covers performed by the Finn Family as well as Jeff Mangum (yep), Jay Reatard, Yo La Tengo, AC Newman and Lambchop, among others.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Lambchop takes on Bob Dylan’s “You’re A Big Girl Now.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
“You’re A Big Girl Now” originally appeared on Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks. Historically, the record had been interpreted as being about Dylan’s 1977 divorce; however in his autobiography, Chronicles Volume One, Dylan played the revisionist, stating the album was misinterpreted by critics and was actually based on some short stories by Anton Chekhov. This doesn’t really seem plausible, given the emotional density of the album, not to mention this is coming from a guy who’s been performing under various pseudonyms for 50 years. But why would he lie about it after all this time? Why does Dylan do anything? Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner plays the tune by himself on an acoustic guitar in a Paris hotel room. This sparse rendition splays the song wide open, baring the tenderness and making it seem even more unlikely this was all about some cold and dusty Russian literature.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Neil Young takes on the Beatles’ “A Day In The Life.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
During the recording of “A Day In The Life,” the Beatles brought in a group of 40 classically trained musicians from the London Symphony to play during the noisy, atonal crescendo in the middle of the song. Paul McCartney asked the stuffy bunch to don costumes during the session in order to lighten the mood and present a party-like atmosphere. For Neil Young, his custom Les Paul guitar “Old Black” is enough to fill in for an orchestra. Be sure to watch the end when Young gets beastly, strangling and gutting the instrument, ripping out the strings and bouncing it on the stage.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Sun Kil Moon takes on Modest Mouse’s “Ocean Breathes Salty.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
In 2005, Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters) and Sun Kil Moon released Tiny Cities, an album of stripped-down, acoustic Modest Mouse covers, with the songs rearranged to the point of being barely recognizable. The new rhythms and calm timbre cast the songs in an entirely different light, forcing listeners to take their time and pay closer attention to the lyrics and what the song was actually saying. The album was critically polarizing upon its release, but probably only because it was taken too seriously. Four years later, it doesn’t feel like Kozelek was trying to prove something for himself, so much as he was unlocking and opening something about Modest Mouse.
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http://www.metacafe.com/watch/sy-18502745/
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week Pavement takes on Echo & The Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Pavement is going back to those gold soundz. The band’s first reunion shows are slated to take place next spring in Australia, with additional shows at the U.K. All Tomorrow’s Parties festival (which the band is curating) and a four-night stint in New York City’s Central Park. In 1997, the band played a cover of the Echo & The Bunnymen classic “The Killing Moon” for a BBC Session, later releasing the track on the What’s Up Matador compilation, the Major Leagues EP and the reissue of Brighten The Corners. Switching out a minor chord for a major and laying some hipster slack down on the vocal line, Pavement removes some of the preciousness of the original and gets noisy at the end.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Ryan Adams takes on Oasis’ “Wonderwall.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
The former Whiskeytown frontman takes all the Lennon flavoring out of this track. It was recorded for Adams’ Love Is Hell, but you may have heard it while watching some guilty-pleasure TV. It has soundtracked Smallville, The O.C., Cold Case, Brothers And Sisters and Lie To Me, probably rivaling Jeff Buckley’s version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” as cover song most overused by cheeseball music coordinators. But don’t let that deter you: Oasis liked Adam’s version so much that the band changed the way it played “Wonderwall” live.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Fischerspooner takes on Wire’s “The 15th.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Fischerspooner is usually known for its earnestly ironic electroclash, but here the band panders to the bearded, bespectacled indie set with a cover of Wire’s “The 15th.” A group notorious for its grand, choreographed glam productions eschews the eye makeup for sweaters, Chuck Taylors and vintage amps, reminding you that it’s all an act, even if not having an act is your act.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Beck takes on the Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Beck recently launched his website-only Record Club project: a collaborative effort to re-record entire albums in a single day without rehearsal. The first installment was, appropriately enough, the touchstone for alternative and indie music: the Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground & Nico. Employing the help of drummer Joey Waronker, producer Nigel Godrich and actor Giovanni Ribisi, among others, Beck and his crew deftly tackle the track-by-track tribute to the influential classic, considering the immediacy and lack of commercial value of the recordings. They’re having fun. Here the band runs through “Sunday Morning” and sonically splits the difference between Beck’s Mutations album and the original recording.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: The Flaming Lips take on Madonna’s “Borderline.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Growing up in Oklahoma, I was told that more astronauts were from there than any other state; probably because you can see more stars there. So it almost makes sense that America’s biggest psychedelic band also claims the red dirt as its homeland. Here, the Flaming Lips (featuring Stardeath and White Dwarfs) show you what a Madonna song sounds like while speeding down I-44 on mushrooms with the windows rolled down in the middle of the night.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Gnarls Barkley takes on Radiohead’s “Reckoner.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Cee-Lo lays some thick soul on the Radiohead number. This is the world’s biggest R&B band covering the world’s biggest alternative band. Thom Yorke and Co. could probably do a killer version of “Crazy,” but it’s likely we’ll never hear it.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Petra Haden takes on the Who’s “I Can See For Miles.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Prompted by Mike Watt and his gift of an eight-track tape recorder, Petra Haden covered The Who Sell Out a cappella and by herself. The Who originally recorded the album as a fake pirate-radio broadcast that consisted of songs interspersed with their own commercial jingles. While the Who has since licensed songs for gas-guzzling Hummer commercials, Haden is writing jingles for Toyota Prius ad campaigns. Here she performs “I Can See For Miles” with her group, the Sell Outs.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: The Polyphonic Spree takes on Nirvana’s “Lithium.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Tim DeLaughter and his cult share the Kool-Aid and cast some sunshine on “Lithium,” Kurt Cobain’s dark ode to finding religion as a last resort. This version was released on the Spree’s 2006 Wait EP. When Nirvana cut the original, Cobain blew out his voice. The Spree probably blew some minds.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Richard Thompson takes on Britney Spears’ “Oops! … I Did It Again.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
The former Fairport Convention member and godfather of folk rock gives this performance with such a straight face, you question if his tongue is in his cheek or not. The jazz hands at the end might give him away.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Elliott Smith takes on Cat Stevens’ “Trouble.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Cat Stevens’ original was part of the soundtrack for 1971 seminal black comedy Harold And Maude. Elliott Smith recorded his version for 2005 film Thumbsucker shortly before his death. Director Mike Mills said, “I saw him five days before, and he’d just finished the cover. It’s one of the last things he must’ve done.” It will break your heart.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: A German choir takes on Guided By Voices’ “Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Amid selections from the soundtracks of Footloose, Mamma Mia! and The Lion King, a school choir from Eschwege, Germany, breaks into a majestic rendition of Guided By Voices’ Bee Thousand classic “Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory.” The unexpected song choice must have left the audience wondering if the director smelled faintly of Miller Lite and cigarettes.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Crystal Antlers take on Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Crystal Antlers build walls behind the Bob Dylan classic, then hammer it into place. The original version is full of the wry, smug detachment that became Dylan’s trademark, but Jonny Bell sings it like he actually feels it. It’s over.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Frank Black takes on the Beach Boys’ “I Know There’s An Answer” (a.k.a. “Hang On To Your Ego”). MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
Frank Black pumps Brian Wilson’s dreamy bedroom tune into a dance number. Later released as a bonus track for the Pet Sounds reissue, the original version of “Hang On To Your Ego” was changed to “I Know There’s An Answer” before the album’s final release over fears it would associate the band with LSD. Mike Love was behind the change: “The prevailing drug jargon at the time had it that doses of LSD would shatter your ego, as if that were a positive thing,” he said. “I wasn’t interested in taking acid or getting rid of my ego.” Check out the psychedelic video from Black:
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Sparklehorse And Thom Yorke take on Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
This reverent rendition of the lonely stoner anthem appeared on the soundtrack for 2005 skater film Lords Of Dogtown. Thom Yorke adds something the original didn’t have: distance; the Radiohead frontman sings his part over the phone from a hotel room. The sounds you hear at the end? He’s switching the channels on his television.
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: The Shins’ James Mercer takes on Neil Young’s “Harvest.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
With a faithful take on the acoustic original, the Shins frontman shows the kids that the “New Slang” isn’t that new. Young should be used to people sounding like him by now. It started almost immediately. Fun Fact: 1972’s Harvest was knocked out of the number-one album spot by America’s self-titled debut on the strength of Young clone “Horse With No Name.”
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When is a cover song better than the original? Only you can decide. This week: Dinosaur Jr takes on the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.” MAGNET’s Edward Fairchild pulls the pin. Take cover!
In 1989, Dinosaur Jr speared the weepy original with a wah-wah pedal and a warm blanket of Big Muff fuzz. J Mascis told Musician magazine, “We recorded it for a compilation album, but when we finished it we liked it so much we didn’t want to give it to them.” Reportedly, it’s Robert Smith’s favorite version as well: “Mascis sent me a cassette, and it was so passionate. It was fantastic. I’ve never had such a visceral reaction to a cover version before or since.” Like the ending? Supposedly Mascis didn’t know how to play the end of the song, so he just stops.
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