Some more covers for Friday

tippi

‘I’ll give you Cat Power…’

OK…meant to do this last week, and then with going away decided to focus on my lovely family.

Anyway…some covers, yes?

Franz Ferdinand -‘Womanizer (Britney Spears cover).’ mp3

Cat Power -‘We Dance (Pavement cover).’ mp3Laura Cantrell -‘Love Vigilantes (New Order cover).’ mp3

Buffalo Tom -‘Going Underground (The Jam cover).’ mp3

Curve -‘I Feel Love (Donna Summer cover).’ mp3

Alabama 3 -‘Speed Of the Sound Of Loneliness (Nanci Griffith cover).’ mp3

Lemonheads -‘Different Drum (Mike Nesmith cover).’ mp3

LCD Soundsystem -‘No Love Lost (Joy Division cover).’ mp3

Flaming Lips -‘Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen cover).’ mp3

Cud -‘You Sexy Thing (Hot Chocolate cover).’ mp3

Some covers for Sunday night

manic_street_preachers_narrowweb__300x3690

Yup, a quick fun post of cover versions…

First up, posted these before but two great and very different versions of one of the best songs of the decade:

Manic Street Preachers -‘Umbrella.’ mp3

Biffy Clyro -‘Umbrella.’ mp3

Meanwhile…I posted Voxtrot’s cover version of ‘Love Vigilantes’ by New Order a couple of weeks ago; here are two other takes:

Hungry Lucy -‘Love Vigilantes (New Order cover).’ mp3

Laura Cantrell -‘Love Vigilantes (New Order cover).’ mp3

And almost New Order…three takes on foreerunner Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ by two different acts…

Susanna and the Magical Orchestra -‘Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division cover).’ mp3

Swans -‘Love Will Tear Us Apart (Jarboe vocal).’ mp3

Swans -‘Love Will Tear Us Apart (Gira vocal).’ mp3

Finally, let’s finish off with some Kate Bush covers…

Placebo -‘Running Up That Hill (Kate Bush cover).’ mp3

Swimmer One -‘Cloudbusting (Kate Bush cover).’ mp3

The Futureheads -‘The Hounds Of Love (Kate Bush cover).’ mp3

China Drum -‘Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush cover).’ mp3

One of my favourite cover versions at the moment is X-Lion Tamer’s take on ‘Tugboat’ by Galaxie 500, available from all good download stores now…

More Peel, anyone?

2homeandfriends

Ok, just as it says on the tin.These are tracks that made John Peel’s Festive Fifty, which have proved difficult to get hold of!

Thanks to everyone who has helped! I’m very grateful to all of you.

Melys -‘Eyeliner.’ mp3 (2004 Festive Fifty, no.38)

Cinerama -‘Don’t Touch That Dial.’ mp3 (2003 Festive Fifty, no.1)

Cinerama -‘It’s Not you, It’s me.’ mp3 (2004 Festive Fifty no.14)

Aphrodisiacs -‘If U Want me.’ mp3 (2004 Festive Fifty no.45)

Ballboy -‘I Lost You But I Found Country Music (featuring Laura Cantrell).’ mp3 (2004 Festive Fifty no.17)

Jah Woosh -‘Freedom.’ mp3 (1977 Festive Fifty no. 24)

Motors -‘Bring In the Morning Light.’ mp3 (1977 Festive Fifty no.56)

Oldham Tinkers -‘John Willie’s Ferret.’ mp3 (1977 Festive Fifty no.52)

Dr. Feelgood -‘Paradise.’ mp3 (1977 Festive Fifty no.33)

Age Of Chance -‘Bible Of The Beats.’ mp3 (1986 Festive Fifty no.27)

Love Vigilantes

John Peel with Laura Cantrell, one of his favourite people

Sometimes, there are some cover versions that completely revisit the original to such an extent it completely rewrites the song almost.

One of those is ‘Love Vigilantes’ by New Order, originally on their Lowlife album, and covered this year by Laura Cantrell on her latest album Trains And Boats And Planes. Eighties electro-indie goes new country? Don’t knock it ’til you’ve heard it…

New Order -‘Love Vigilantes.’ mp3

Laura Cantrell -‘Love Vigilantes.’ mp3

…and don’t forget to let me know what you think.

Keeping it Peel

Looking thorugh the John Peel-related posts on the BBC’s website, particularly relating to the Festive Fifties, it’s kinda interesting to see what gets thrown up, in terms of the bands you rediscover, never heard, or are surprised to see in there. It’s good to see stuff that comes round again…or should. Today’s post is actually quite heavy on 1993, a time when I listened to John Peel’s show pretty regularly, taping it (no podcasts then!) and trying to stay awake until 2AM on Friday and Saturday nights, something that I didn’t manage very often. It’s also interesting to note just how much good stuff there was, and looking back, thanks to John Peel, the NME and Melody Maker, the local library and Radio 1 finally moving forward, just how much aware I was of quite a few of these at the time.

What was it about his show? Oh heck…his enthusiasm for music, the sheer diversity of the music, the fact that he knew so much about music, you felt he was teaching you just as much as your own teachers were. He was cool to me, not in a silly way, but just managing to have his finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist. Or something. When John Peel died in 2004, my mother and another friend were very quick to ring up and see how I was. It’s fair to say no other DJ could make people act this way.

Anyway, on with the music…

Laura Cantrell was a favourite of John Peel and no fewer than three songs from her album Not The Tremblin’ Kind made the Festive Fifty in 2000. These definitely tend towards ‘Country’ rather than ‘Americana.’ This is my favourite of those three:

Laura Cantrell -Two Seconds.’ mp3 (2000 Festive Fifty no.27)

Of course, there were some very angry Americans on there too, perhaps typified by the Dead Kennedys twenty years previous to Laura Cantrell;

Dead Kennedys -‘Holiday In Cambodia.’ mp3 (1980 Festive Fifty no.6, 1981 Festive Fifty no.9, 1982 all-time chart no.14, Millennium all-time chart no.14 )

And it wasn’t all singing either:

Pigbag -‘Pap’s got a Brand New Pigbag.’ mp3 (1981 Festive Fifty no.39,)

I wish I could claim that the first time I ever heard Billy Bragg was on John Peel’s show, as a very clued-up, cool ten year old. That would be a lie, however. I actually first heard this on Now That’s What I Call Music Volume 8 (also featuring the Pet Shop Boys, Run DMC, Cameo…and Nick Berry). Oh well.

Billy Bragg -‘Greetings To The New Brunette.’ mp3 (1986 Festive Fifty no.41)

The first time I ever heard PJ Harvey was thanks to a free cassette (this was 1992, free CDs started appearing a year or so later in the UK),on which was her Peel session version of Water, on a compilation free with a magazine called VOX (a nineties magazine largely written by NME writers), called Radio Daze. A year later Peel played the corrosive and scary 50FT Queenie (including when he hosted a lunchtime show for a couple of weeks), and then one night in early 1995 ‘Down By The Water.’

PJ Harvey -‘Sheela-Na-Gig.’ mp3 (1992 Festive Fifty no. 2)

PJ wasn’t quite a riot grrl (sic) per se but pre-Britpop, there was a lot of angry, politicised music, and no lack of things to get worked up about, and there were a lot of bands leading the way. I remember scrawling Cornershop on my school-bag, much to the complete disdain of my school mates. Bet they all brought ‘Brimful Of Asha’ especially for that line about bosoms. Hmm. Anyway, five great tracks from the 1993 Festive Fifty:

Chumbawumba and Credit To the Nation-‘Enough Is Enough.’ mp3 (1993 Festive Fifty no.1)

Madder Rose – ‘Swim.’ mp3 (1993 Festive Fifty no.2)

Voodoo Queens -‘Supermodel Superficial.’ mp3 (1993 Festive Fifty no.6)

Senser – ‘Eject.’ mp3 (1993 Festive Fifty no.21)

Credit To the Nation -‘Call It What You Want.’ mp3 (Festive Fifty no.24)