Seattle Subsonic

Cover me! – Some of my Favorite Cover Songs

August 7th, 2008

More than once I’ve fallen in love with a song, only to find out that the band I’m giving all this recognition to for creating such a masterpiece, isn’t even the band who wrote it in the first place. Sometimes the song has been pried out of the archives from decades past for a deserved resurfacing, and sometimes it was last years pop chart topper, just with a totally different take. I’m not sure what the draw to the cover song is, maybe I’m just confortable with the little things are familiar to me. Regardless, in my rotation of all-time-favorites, I’ve been seeing more and more cover songs making the chart.

Here are just a few:

Pale Pacific – Walking on the Moon (Police)

Pale Pacific -formerly the Pale (from Bellingham) created this for the Police tribute album album Policia: A Tribute to the Police released in 2005. As much as I love this cover and consider it one of the Pale Pacific’s best works, let’s pretend that the rest of this tribute just doesn’t exist. Let’s just say it’s less than awesome. Far far less.

[audio:http://www.seattlesubsonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/08-walking-on-the-moon.mp3]

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Mark Ronson – Just (Radiohead)

From the album, Version - which is absolutely chock full of incredible remakes (not really even covers as he’s removed almost all the original instrumentation and replaced it with mixing and orchestral tracks) of songs from all over the map including Toxic by Britney Spears which, I must admit, is incredibly catchy but I’ve got another place for that one…

[audio:http://www.qmd.com.br/2MW/MR_Just.mp3]

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Portland Cello Project – Toxic (Britney Spears – well at least it was performed by her.. it was actually written by Bloodshy & Avant, Cathy Dennis, and Henrik Jonback)

This version by the Portland Cello Project is off their upcoming self-titled album, due for mass consumption Aug 12th. This unique ensemble from our sister city in Oregon plays with anywhere from 8-12 Cellists with past contributors including John Vanderslice and john Darnielle. If you want to catch this act live (and you do..) they play the Triple Door, Sunday Aug 10th.

[audio:http://www.qmd.com.br/2MW/toxic/PCP_Toxic.mp3]

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The Gourds – Gin and Juice (Snoop Dogg)

Not to be confused with Phish or the Dead or whatever other labels this song has been given out there on the internets. I’m not sure if this ever made it to an album, but they are notorious for getting a room jiggin’ when they pull it out at shows.

[audio:http://www.box.net/shared/static/vqjvpk9s08.mp3]

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Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra – Hey Ya (Outcast)

Thiis version is fully re-composed by Shawn Lee’s peeps and can be found on the album Hits the Hits. Thanks to DJ 100 Proof for turning me on to these guys. Fits right into the fold with his Summertime BBQ mix

You can hear Hey Ya on Shaw’s player here

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Rodrigo Y Gabriella – Orion (Metallica)

Rodrigo Y Gabriella are an acoustic guitar duo from Mexico City heavily influenced by the deep dark metal-yeah metal. This is released on their self-titled album. I’ve caught these guys a couple times, once by chance as they opened for Gomez at the Moore Theatre and I (for some reason) decided to forego the obligatory overpriced beers and see who was opening. They completely and totally upstaged the headliner. I was amazed at how much sound came from 2 guitars. The second time I saw them was at Chop Suey after they had gotten a ton of airplay on “The Mountain” and the place was infested with tie dies and soccer moms. It was a weird vibe, but the place rocked nonetheless.

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Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) – Cohen’s masterpiece of writing was made absolutely heartbreaking on Jeff Buckley’s Grace. I have been seeing a large resurgence in this songe lately. It has been covered neumerous times. Some might say that the best version of this was by John Castro on American Idol but then again, some people should have the right to think revoked.

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And my current favorite would be

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LCD Soundsystem – Into the Fire (Harry Nilsson)

This is a bit of a rarity, found on the B-side of the Daft Punk is Playing at My House single. You might know the Harry Nilsson version from Good Fellas.. near the end when they’re being followed around by choppers, making marinara, and transporting lots of guns and coke. I know the LCD Soundsystem version it from the soundtrack I wish I had playing with me every time I entered a room. Now if I can just get my slow-motion strut down, I’m gold.

[audio:http://grabb.it/tracks/258c5322f1f6.mp3]

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There are probably a billion others great covers out there. I must stop here now that the floodgates are open or else I’ll be compiling this for a month. I mean, there is still Dolly Parton’s White Stripe’s Jolene (Dolly Parton) , and TV on the Radio’s masterful – Mr Greives (The Pixies) and.. and.. and..

So you got some faves?

Let’s have ‘em