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Covers: One Republic does Jeff Buckley (well)
2008-02-14 00:29:00
Jeff Buckley covers are dangerous. He had a very soulful distinctive voice, and most covers of his songs fail by comparison. One Republic , who are currently sidestepping the one-hit-wonder curse, released a cover of "Last Goodbye" on their new EP, and it's really not that terrible. I found a live acoustic version that they did of the song, and it's actually better than their studio version. This version actually holds up pretty well to Buckley's version, even though nothing will top the original.
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Covers: The "All Along The Watchtower" Playlist
2008-02-12 23:19:00
I listen to too much music to have a favorite song, but if I was forced to pick one, the Jimi Hendrix cover of "All Along the Watchtower would be a definite contender. Dylan writing and Hendrix performing might be the greatest collaboration to have ever existed in the music industry. I went through iMeem and dug up the best covers of the song, and here's the top six: Dylan, Hendrix, Paul Weller, The Fratellis, Eric Clapton and Lenny Kravitz, and U2. There are plenty of other brilliant covers out there, but right now I'm just working with the best of what's available.
More About: Playlist , Covers

Live Music: West, Winehouse, Keys, and Underwood @ the Grammys
2008-02-12 03:03:00
First of all: Yayz to Amy Winehouse for taking home the most-deserved 5-win haul since Alicia Keys . Now let's get to the important part: the live performances.I don't really care about country. Actually, I'm pretty sure we have post labels for every mainstream genre except country. But even I can't deny how amazing Carrie Underwood performed last night. I don't care if country's not your thing, you WILL cheer on the inside when she says "The next time he CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEATS... you know it won't be on me..."Online Videos by Veoh.comAmy Winehouse took home some much-deserved awards, but her performance was really disappointing. It was probably the most talked-about thing of the night though, so we're posting it so you can judge for yourself if you missed it last night:Amy Winehouse 2008 Grammys RehabUploaded by guitarvillianKanye West 's performances completely owned, and we tried to post "Stronger", but for whatever reason the videos keep getting taken down from streaming vid...
More About: Music , Live Music , Live

Live Music: Damien Rice
2008-02-09 16:54:00
I don't just love Damien Rice because he's an amazing musician who makes the most emotional music with the most minimalistic production. I also love him because I have never once seen him give a bad performance. Ever. Here's "Rootless Tree" from French TV last year:
More About: Music , Live Music , Live , Damien Rice

Covers: Kaiser Chiefs, Dan Merriweather, Stephanie Kennedy cover Klaxons
2008-02-07 23:39:00
The Klaxons' "Golden Skans" was one of last years most addictive singles that too many people haven't heard of. A ton of people have covered it recently, so here's a best-of post to brief you on the highlights.I know this is my second post in a row to feature both Daniel Merriweather and Mark Ronson, but oh well. It's a damn good cover. I actually have no idea where this came from, all I know is that it showed up on iMeem somehow. Their version is a little more understated, a little more soulful, and of course, includes Ronson's signature trumpets. Next up is Kaiser Chiefs , who bring the expected acoustic-indie dynamic to the song when they covered it on Radio One.Finally, we got Stephanie Kennedy , an indie-acoustic performer from the UK, we slows the song down to give it a down-tempo-jazz feel that works better than expected.
More About: Cover , Covers

Covers: NEW AND IMPROVED Daniel Merriweather White Stripes cover
2008-02-06 23:45:00
OK, so that little acoustic cover that Mark Ronson and Dan Merriweather did of "You Don't Know What Love Is" (originally by the White Stripes ) was more than just a spur-of-the-moment whim on Mark's radio show. We posted the audio from it, and we still get more search hits from that post than anything else we've written about. A full-scale studio version of the song is now in the works, and the official demo track was played on Mark's show a couple weeks ago. I have some issues with it, but I'll save final judgements for when the final track surfaces. So far, I'm gonna say that it has a lot of promise. I heard the demo track of the Winehouse cover of "Valerie" on Amy's last B-Sides album, and it was several shades weaker than the borderline-classic final product, which gives me hope that this can grow into a kickass single later this year.
More About: Daniel , Cover , Covers

New Music: Nada Surf and More Duke Spirit
2008-02-05 23:37:00
It's a spectacularly uninteresting week for new music, but here are two cool new releases to hold you over until next Tuesday. Nada Surf just released "Lucky" and The Duke Spirit just released "Neptune". Neither is perfect, but they're still really enjoyable. My favorite from Nada Surf is "Beautiful Beat", the ultimate representation of the album's pure, simple, genuine pop-rock euphoria. Expect Pitchfork-style music elitists to turn their back on the whole album before even finishing the 30-second samples on iTunes, but meanwhile you can still love the hell out of this album. God knows I will.Elsewhere, The Duke Spirit is holding on to their title of "Best Psychadelic Indie Soul Band in All The World" with their latest album. Aside from "Lassoo", which I've already posted two forms of, my favorite track was "The Step And The Walk". It's got a bassline and backing vocals that create a phenomenal partnership that really makes the song, a dance-along combination of indie-soul and...
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Live Music: The Methadones
2008-02-05 03:48:00
God bless The Methadones. They are one of the very, very few bands that aim for modern punk-pop-rock and actually succeed really well. I haven't really figured what makes these guys seem so much more exiciting and genuine than all the pop-punk bullshit infecting our radio waves right now, but whatever they're doing is working for them. Here's them performing "Say Goodbye to Your Generation" at a Chicago show a couple years ago.
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Music Videos: The Duke Spirit
2008-02-02 01:49:00
Honestly, this isn't the best music video in the world, but this song is just so fucking awesome and I wanted an excuse to post about it again. It seriously was one of my favorite songs of '07, and it sorta angers me that no one's heard of it. Here's "Lassoo". Tell your friends.
More About: Videos , Music , Music Videos , Duke , Spirit

Live Music: Franz Ferdinand on Jools Holland
2008-02-01 00:06:00
This is one of my favorite performances ever to be on Jools Holland's show. It's the Franz Ferdinand closer, "Outsiders", a performance remembered for its ridiculous amount of drummers. A+.
More About: Music , Live Music , Live , Franz Ferdinand

Covers: Tori Amos does Kylie
2008-01-31 23:36:00
Here's an old clip I found from a year and a half ago. It's Tori Amos performing "Can't Get You Out of My Head" on the day that it was announced that she had cancer. She brings this really chilling, haunting quality to the song that no one but Tori could pull off this well.
More About: Kylie , Covers

Live Music: Adele
2008-01-30 01:30:00
We promised we'd deliver a full stream of Adele 's Mark Ronson collab "Cold Shoulder", and we sorta came through. Here's a fantastic live performance of the song on Mark's Electric Proms '07 event (by the way, there a thousand vids from that concert, and they're fantastic, and we'll be posting highlights from it in the future). It's not quite the same as the studio performance, but she's such a strong live performer that it's almost as perfect as the original. She completely deserves all the "Next big thing in '08" hype that she gets.
More About: Music , Live Music , Live

Old Music Videos: Flogging Molly
2008-01-30 00:59:00
This video isn't anything new (Three years old, to be exact), but it's one of my favorite music videos ever and it needs to be posted for the people who are unfortunate enough to not have this video in their life yet. It's the video for "Seven Deadly Sins", and it features the band as paper cutouts dancing about in some kind of pirate puppet show. It's lolz all around.
More About: Videos , Music , Music Videos , Flogging Molly , Olly

Acoustic Covers: Adele does The Strokes
2008-01-25 23:56:00
Here's yet another awesome cover performed on BBC's Radio 1. If you follow Mark Ronson's radio show, an up-and-coming musician named Adele has probably been on your radar for a while now. If you haven't heard of her, most people compare her to Amy Winehouse. To me, she sounds exactly halfway between Winehouse and Sia (both of whom have shown up on this blog multiple times). God bless whoever Youtubed this cover yesterday, because it's so loveable. Adele did an acoustic-jazz-like cover of "Last Nite" by The Strokes , and shows off the ridiculous amount of charisma she has. Her Ronson collaboration, called "Cold Shoulder" is also really cool, and if you like this, I really recommend seeking out the bootleg. I'll post an audio stream as soon as I get the chance.
More About: Acoustic , Covers

Remixes: Amy Winehouse vs 50 Cent
2008-01-24 23:24:00
This right here is a perfect example of what a good rap/non-rap mashup should sound like. It's an instrumental loop from "You Know I'm No Good" underneath the vocals of "I Get Money", and it works extremely well. I never liked most of 50 Cent 's work, but after hearing this I think it's because he settles for really dull beats most of the time ("Ayo Technology" being the exception to the rule-- thank you, Timbaland). But here, "I Get Money" really comes alive thanks to Mark Ronson's ridiculously dynamic instrumental. Anyway, this mashup comes with a cool video to stare at. Enjoy.
More About: Amy Winehouse , Remixes , Winehouse , 50 Cent

Undiscovered Talented: Jessica Heckel (a.k.a. GemiiniiRiisiing)
2008-01-24 03:47:00
After sitting through multiple hours of generic crap on American Idol auditions, I decided to start a new segment about extremely talented people that no one's heard of. It's not really a new concept for us, since in the past we've promoted Leticia Wolf, Dan Tharp, and Merit, all of whom are complete unknowns to 99%+ of the country. But today, we've found our blog's most underground talent yet. I accidentally ran across her acoustic cover of Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm" this afternoon, and loved every second of it. There was no artist name on the video, so I assumed it was a really amazing B-side that Annie Lennox or possibly even Shirley Manson recorded that I had just never heard of. But when Google didn't help me, I took a closer look at the poster's Youtube page and realized it was posted by an independent musician who posts music on Myspace under the name GemiiniiRiisiing. I actually had to email her to find out her name. Well, her name is Jessica Heckel, and she could v...

Covers: Hallulujah on Nintendo DS's Jam Sessions
2008-01-22 23:04:00
A few months ago I bought Jam Sessions , the Nintendo DS game that turns the DS into a virtual guitar. Besides the steep learning curve, disappointing collection of preset songs, and unexplainable lack of power chords, the game is terrific and has really enhanced my learning how to play a real guitar. It's helped me with things like rhythm, strum patterns, key, so on and so on. A great example of how powerful the free play mode is these Youtube vids of people playing along with Rufus Wainwright's cover of "Hallelujah". The top video is more like a how-to video with the original song playing in the background, and the bottom is a short performance of what the song sounds like with just the singer and DS, no backing track (the guy can't sing, but he plays the DS very well).
More About: Covers , Nintendo Ds

Random Track of the Day: Dan Tharp (Via Amiestreet.com)
2008-01-19 15:38:00
Here's a website that anyone who gives two fucks about music needs to know about. If you're looking for new music that you've never heard about, go to Amiestreet.com for suggestions. Seriously, legitimately talented people who are complete unknowns are hard to find, but this place helpfully compiles them all into one place. Plus, if you register, you can make money by making good recomendations. One example of really cool, random obscure tracks you can find is an amazingly well-produced acoustic intrumental by Dan Tharp called "Amber". You can find plenty of more mainstream-sounding tracks at Amiestreet, but I thought it would be more fun to post the most left-of-center thing I can find.
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Remixes: Gorillaz vs No Doubt vs Deep Purple
2008-01-18 22:04:00
Here's a feel-good new wave mashup to start your weekend with. I don't know who the original DJ (Myspace us if you know so we give credit where it's due), but it's really well-crafted. It's a Gorillaz instrumental underneath the "Hella Good" vocals, with a cameo by the famous "Smoke on The Water" riff towards the end. The way the three songs flow in and out of each other throughout the entire track is really well done, and I hope I can find the mixer behind it so I can discover more of his/her work.
More About: Purple , No Doubt , Deep , Remixes , Doubt

Live Music: Radiohead
2008-01-18 00:35:00
First things first: I loved "In Rainbows" from open to close, and I love that it's marketing experiment paid off in spades. Arugably the best song on the album was "Nude", and it's been getting enough buzz in the last few weeks to attract attention from people who didn't even know much about Radiohead before. A lot of it might have to do with the use of the song in a fantastically slutty ad for the British show "Skins" (It's like a British "O.C.", but with awful awful writing). It will probably show up in more TV/Movie soundtracks later on since this song is just built for underscoring emotional scenes. Enclosed is a fantastic live performance of the song, and the "Skins" ad that has caught a lot of attention lately.
More About: Music , Live Music , Live

Live music: Flogging Molly
2008-01-17 00:21:00
FUCKING CHEERS! This band is one of the best things to ever exist. "Drunken Lullabies" is one of my all-time favorite songs, and Flogging Molly is one of the best live bands I've ever seen, and this video just made me love the band and the song even more. Irish pride, bitches!
More About: Music , Live Music , Live , Olly

Music Videos: New Timbaland single
2008-01-17 00:12:00
After the huge success of "Give It To Me", "The Way I Are", and "Apologize, Timbaland 's about to attempt a fourth hit single from "Shock Value" with "Scream", which features Keri Hilson and Nicole Scherzinger. Pros: The song is really good (by bullshit pop standards of course); Keri Hilson is really good at what she does, so hopefully another hit for her will advance her solo career enough for her to move past some of her less talented peers; it'll be cool to see Timbo continue his winning streak, which he probably will, because I'd be shocked if this song didn't pick up decent radio play. Cons: Nicole Scherzinger is completely useless, uninteresting and untalented, and I resent anything that forwards her completely undeserved career; "Throw It On Me" featuring The Hives really deserved to be the new single (but it's placement in a Verizon commercial suggests there's still hope); the video itself looks a little ridiculous; and finally, that fucking ski mask.
More About: Videos , Music , Music Videos , Single

Covers: John Mayer guitar-ifies Timberlake song
2008-01-16 00:35:00
OK, John Mayer 's music does nothing for me, but judging by his blog posts, I'm still pretty sure that he's an awesome human being. I never really thought much about his abilities as a guitar player before, but I think this video more than proves that he's a pretty amazing player. He reinterprets the "I Think She Knows" interlude from "FutureSex/LoveSounds" into a ridiculously cool-sounding electric guitar solo, and I'm not gonna lie, it's kinda hot once it really gets going.
More About: Timberlake , Guitar , Song

Acoustic: Gnarls Barkley salvages "Transformer"
2008-01-11 23:15:00
I loved Gnarls Barkley s' "Saint Elsewhere" album, but I hated "Transformer " with a fiery passion. It was a weak effort, and it just seemed so far beneath them. But I had no idea that the song had so much potential until I saw an acoustic performance of it that slows it down into a chilling, soulful ballad that's shocking without losing any subtlety. It's actually really brilliant, and I'll never understand why this version of the song didn't show up on the album. It's honestly the best thing I ever heard from them. As a single, it never would have sold as well as "Crazy" did, but it would have earned them a hell of a lot of respect in the industry and among devoted music fans (think the trajectory of Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black"'s title track).
More About: Acoustic , Ages

Live Music: Sia (dressed like a crayon drawing)
2008-01-10 23:23:00
Sia's new album, "Some People Have Real Problems" (love the title) came out this week in the US, and the closing track is the bizarrely addictive single "Buttons". There have been some really cool live cuts of the song floating around since the music video was released. The best and strangest vid to surface was a performance at Bush Hall where Sia spends the entire performance dressed like a crayon drawing (you have to see it to get it). She's a shockingly good live performer, and here's some proof. The first vid is a complete but very distant video of the performance, and under that is a minute-long exerpt that shows you a close-up of Sia's costume (and what appears to be some kind of interpretive dance that goes with it).
More About: Music , Drawing , Live Music , Live

Video Remixes: Gorillaz vs The Cure
2008-01-09 21:08:00
This is one of the best video mashups I've seen in months. The audio of the mashup takes elements from "Lullaby" by The Cure and lays them over "Tomorrow Comes Today" by Gorillaz , and the video connects pieces of both of the original music videos. It really does sound like a "real" song and doesn't have "mashup sound" at all. Very, very well done.
More About: Video , Remixes

Live Music: Babyshambles
2008-01-08 22:09:00
Despite Pete Doherty's issues with instability, Babyshambles is a much better live band than you would ever expect them to be. I found a partial video of an amazing performance of "Fuck Forever". I'm posting this alongside a request: if you know where I can find the complete vid of this performance, Myspace me with the link. This performance is so good but cuts off in the middle of the best part!
More About: Music , Live Music , Live

Live Covers: Dustin Kensrue does Imogen Heap
2008-01-08 00:09:00
We're back! We promised that we'd return with our favorite live cover that we discovered in '07, and here it is. It's from Dustin Kensrue (Thrice)'s solo tour in '06, where he performed Imogen Heap 's "Hide and Seek" several times. There's a ton of videos of various performances of the cover floating around, and this is the best we could find. I never could get into Thrice, but I really do respect Dustin as a musician and think he's an amazing live performer solo, especially acoustic. His voice really adds a lot to the song and makes it work in a whole new way. He adds just a little acoustic guitar to make the song even more his own, but he doesn't let the guitar dominate the performance, so it's just as subtle and affecting as the acapella original.
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Returning soon
2008-01-03 23:52:00
Sorry the orignal announcement got lost in the server somewhere, but we haven't fallen off the face of the Earth. We're still taking our holiday hiatus to gather new content, and we'll be back on Monday with a cover of an Imogen Heap song that was our favorite cover of '07. Until then, enjoy '08!

New Music: New Goldfrapp
2007-12-28 17:25:00
Okay, so the bootleg of Goldfrapp 's new "Seventh Tree" album has been floating around the internet for the last couple weeks now, but I didn't notice it until Perez Hilton got to it. Oh well. Anyway, the Youtube link he posted to the song was broken, so here's an embed that works. I was apathetic at first, but it's growing on me. First thing you need to know is that this is nothing like anything I've heard from Goldfrapp before. It's very acoustic and mellow and... Alanis-ish? I don't know, I'm having trouble placing it, but this sounds a lot like something else. Comment if you have any ideas.
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