Archie and the Bunkers
Play the Damned EP
scum stats: my copy on black, apparently there’s a limited quantity on black with red and yellow splatter
If middle fingers on the front cover didn’t piss me off or have me rolling my eyes, then that’s saying something.
What can I say, I’m a sucker for younger folks playing rock and roll. The drums/organ, big brother/little brother duo of Archie and the Bunkers are good. Their heads seem on straight, they’re influenced by all the right shit from the past. And I honestly think that if they keep at it, they will make something GREAT.
As for Damned covers, they dug a little below the surface, ignoring the obvious covers like “New Rose” or “Neat Neat Neat” and I have to give ‘em credit for that. I never spent much time with the Damned, really just a little bit with the first album. So besides the lead-off track, these songs are all kinda fresh to me.
I think the band is still figuring things out and I predict in another year, two tops, they will put out a masterpiece. Until then, this record (and the rest of their increasingly-expanding catalog) serve as moderate placeholders.
In my never-ending quest to keep you weirdos engaged, post in the comments about your favorite releases where one artist covers exclusively another artist. Don’t just LIST something, convince me as to why it is important. Can be Pussy Galore doing Exile, Sonic Youth doing the Fall, Dylan (or Willie) doing Sinatra, whatever. Maybe turn me on to something I’m unaware of? Anyway, most enlightening comment (as determined by me) gets an original Sub Pop pressing of the White Stripes covering the songs of Captain Beefheart. See the connection there? Deadline is a week from today, so get your shit in here already.
The Austin band Brownout has released two volumes of Black Sabbath covers. Sabbath plus Stax horns? Yes, please. They brought a new appreciation of those well-worn classics. Brownout’s latest album is an instrumental cover of PE’s Fear of a Black Planet. It’s pretty amazing to hear the Bomb Squad’s production done with live instruments in real time.
Honestly, it’s the Party of Special Things To Do single for me. I was pretty young at the time and didn’t have a lot of exposure to blues/experimental stuff. I had heard some BB King songs, but Beefheart was different. After talking to my uncle about how the White Stripes covered 3 of those songs, he brought out his old records and we listened to Safe as Milk. It totally turned me on to a new well of music and helped me appreciate the influences that Beefheart seeded for future generations. Probably not super enlightening for anyone else, but connecting with someone from a previous generation over the influences of contemporary acts was enlightening for me.
Angelique Kidjo doing the whole Talking Heads album ’Remain in Light’ earlier this year.
I love when music travels forth and back, like in the sixties with the British Invasion bands doing or being inspired by soul, blues, rhythm and blues, rock’n’roll but still doing their entirely own thing. And a lot of American soul musicians on the other hand doing their own take on the British Invasion bands.
Talking Heads were of course very inspired by African music/rhythms when they did ‘Remain in Light’ and Angelique Kidjo is now taking the whole album back to Africa. And it’s absolutely brilliant. You may actually find yourself in another part of the world.
Zakk Sabbath and Black Sabbath
I love seeing a fan enjoying music they love as much as I do. Black Sabbath has inspired several rock and metal bands, including but not limited to Zakk Wylde and Black Label Society. I was lucky to catch Zakk on tour doing Sabbath covers and I do think he brings his own style and energy to the music making it interesting And yet still maintains the artistic integrity of the original. I think fans love it because it’s new and old at the same time, which is very hard to achieve.
Super sad my formatting on my submission below was butchered. I spent a lot of time on that. I hope it’s still legible enough.
Ben – It sounds like you’re looking for a whole release and not a single cover song – and hands down the correct answer is “Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead On Her Magical Ukulele.”
Originally the singer of the incredible Punk Cabaret band ‘The Dresden Dolls’, Amanda Palmer has done such a crazy array of things.
Not only is it a wonderfully intimate interpretation of some of the most emotionally impactful songs ever written, but the creation and distribution of this album is the LIVING PROOF OF CONCEPT of AFP’s (Amanda Fucking Palmer, as her fans know her) own philosophy.
One of her most iconic songs is “The Ukulele anthem” that talks about the simplicity of music and the importance of art.
In that song she says
So play your favorite cover song, especially if the words are wrong!…
Play until the sun comes up
And play until your fingers suffer
Play LCD Soundsystem songs on your ukulele!
Quit the bitching on your blog,
And stop pretending art is hard –
Just limit yourself to three chords
And do not practice daily.
You’ll minimize some stranger’s sadness
With a piece of wood and plastic,
Holy fuck it’s so fantastic! Playing ukulele!
She takes the simplest of instruments and creates a beautiful piece of art – and beyond that, she uses that to encourage people to do the same. Music is fuel and healing and happiness for so many people, and she has inspired people to do exactly that by not only spreading encouragement, but proving the power of what she is saying.
You don’t have to write music. You don’t have to learn intricate guitar patterns. You don’t need to practice every single day. Just play some music and make the world a better place. It’s magic, but more importantly, it’s easy to start.
JEFF the brotherhood covering Nirvana’s Something In T Way. Based on your posts, I know you enjoy Nirvana. The band name itself is sublime. But Jtb is a band name for it’s own reasons, irreverent might be one. But it’s a great song and the Jake guitar sound is totally there. It’s ok to eat fish. Simple. Complex. Yeah.
Ben! I’d ask that you listen to the little mentioned R.E.M tribute album Surprise Your Pig. I’ll admit that I’m a bit biased because I have been an R.E.M fan for a very long time but this album made me pay even more attention to their early releases because it prodded me to try and understand the reach of their sphere of influence. Best cuts in my opinion from Jawbreaker, Gumball, J Church, Mr. T Experience and Vic Chesnutt, some fun oddities like an Italian cover of Talk About The Passion and King Missle doing Get Up. It’s the only CD I’ve treated like a fabrege egg since it was released in ‘92 even though I could probably buy a replacement for $1 on discogs. Just quirky enough, mostly far from straight covers, I really think you’d like it.
I would like to mention David Bowie. He covered many people during his lifetime but I’m going to mention his 2 songs by The Kinks. The first, ‘Where have all the Good Times Gone’, appeared on the Pin Ups album in the mid 70s where you could argue he was in his prime. The second was ‘Waterloo Sunset’, which was a bonus track on a limited edition of Reality nearly 30 years later, yet his voice is supreme. They both remain very faithful to the originals with only a ‘rockiness’ increase that you come to expect with Bowie, yet sound different enough to make them his own when he sang them. They are excellent covers and you can really hear the love he had for The Kinks in them.
What was unique about Nilsson Sings Newman is that not only is it an album of Harry Nilsson’s cover of Randy Newman’s songs. Randy Newman himself played piano on every track of the album as well as being the writer and composer of every song on the album.
It was a collaborative effort technically but moreao it Harry singing over Randy performing his own songs specifically for Harry’s album.