Cover Wars: Young Lust Edition
After a few past Cover Wars appearances, the Ryan Montbleau Band can now claim a victory after scoring the majority of votes from last week’s edition when we looked at ten covers of John Lennon’s Jealous Guy. I wouldn’t be a responsible writer if I didn’t point out that Donny Hathaway also deserves much credit as Montbleau’s cover is part Lennon part Hathaway.
This week we’re taking a look at seven covers of Pink Floyd’s Young Lust off of their 1979 epic The Wall. In the ongoing story of The Wall, this tune depicts a part of every rock star’s career that just doesn’t get enough songs written about it. I am talking about banging groupies in hotel rooms.
Anyway, be sure to register/login to imeem to stream the playlist below.
RSS Readers: Click here to launch the playlist
READ ON after the jump for the tale of the tape…
Cover Wars: Jealous Guy Edition
Has it really only been a week? There were no real surprises last Tuesday, and by this I mean that Pearl Jam has emerged victorious from last week’s edition where we looked at eight covers of Rockin’ In The Free World.
The general election may be over, but Cover Wars goes on. This week we will be featuring one of my favorite John Lennon solo songs: Jealous Guy. There are many covers of this tune out there, so this week’s contestants are by no means the only artists to have covered the song, but rather a sampling. Lennon originally wrote the melody to Jealous Guy on a trip to India in 1968 when the song was called Child Of Nature. The song would get new lyrics three years later when it was released on Lennon’s second studio album Imagine. You can read more about that here.
Be sure to register/login (opens in new window) to imeem before starting the playlist below.
RSS readers, click here to launch the playlist
READ ON for the tale of the tape on this week’s competitors…
Cover Wars: Rockin’ In The Free World
No big surprise, after we looked at six covers of And It Stoned Me last week – the Jerry Garcia band version was the clear winner. Jerry’s soulful late-JGB style vocals are pretty damn hard to compete with.
For Election Day, I figured we’d throw together some covers of Neil Young’s Rockin’ In The Free World. Much like Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The USA, the song’s seemingly patriotic chorus is contrasted with negative imagery and politically themed verses.
As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM before starting the playlist below.
RSS Readers: Click Here to launch the playlist
READ ON after the jump for a collection of contestants that are included via YouTube videos and not on the IMEEM playlist…
Cover Wars: And It Stoned Me Edition
My apologies for not getting a Cover Wars up last week. I was fighting off what I affectionately refer to as the “Tour Flu” after logging a four-day-weekend full of live music from the likes of Trey Anastasio and Umphrey’s McGee. The extra time provided an opportunity for Widespread Panic and The Punch Brothers to duke it out for the title of best cover of Ophelia. Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers ultimately walked away victorious.
This week, we look at six renditions of the first track on Van Morrison’s 1970 release Moondance: And It Stoned Me. The song, while adopted as a stoner anthem, seems to have more to do with what’s in the gallon jar mentioned in last verse than it does to smoking anything. In the artist’s own words, taken from a biography [via wikipedia]:
I suppose I was about twelve years old. We used to go to a place called Ballystockart to fish. We stopped in the village on the way up to this place and I went to this little stone house, and there was an old man there with dark weather-beaten skin, and we asked him if he had any water. He gave us some water which he said he’d got from the stream. We drank some and everything seemed to stop for me. Time stood still. For five minutes everything was really quiet and I was in this ‘other dimension’. That’s what the song is about.
As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM before starting the playlist
RSS Readers, Click Here to launch the playlist
READ ON for the tale of the tape on this week’s competitors…
Pullin’ Tubes: Jaco Demos the Moog Guitar
On October 9, I had the pleasure of seeing Umphrey’s McGee at Clifton Park’s best music venue in a strip-mall: Northern Lights. While the concrete box that was the room left something to be desired, the packed house received two blistering sets of Umphrey’s and guitarist Jake Cinninger played his new Moog Guitar prototype the […]
Second Anniversary: Geeking Out, Revisited
The geeking out piece – this was fun. For me this was a great couple of days in Hidden Track history because it displayed a bit of the community that we’ve got going on right here inside the blog. We have thousands of people viewing the site everyday but often times well thought-out posts go by without a comment posted.
This wasn’t one of them, readers were eager to supplement the piece with information. For example, I had no idea The Radiators had logged such a rigorous consistent touring schedule over the years, but reader “chicofishhead” was nice enough to paste in the data for us. UM’s archivist McL chimed in and asked for an additional graph that displayed all bands on the same line chart – and he got it.
As a follow-up, here’s the raw numbers on what is on the books for 2008. The Disco Biscuits will close out the year with 56 shows assuming Barber stays out of the air ducts at the Nokia Theater this December. moe. (the inspiration for the piece in the first place) ends the year with 78 shows after sneaking in one extra appearance at Farm Aid after moe.down. While it could be argued Phish played one show in 2008, I think the real question is: With three shows already in the books in 2009, will Phish play more or less shows in ’09 than they did in ’03 (which was 44). UM shows no signs of stopping, logging 113 shows this year. With their next studio album set for an early 2009 release, I’d say it’s likely they will either meet or exceed this number next year.
READ ON for the original Geeking Out, We’ve Got Seven Line Graphs post…
Cover Wars: Ophelia Edition
U-Melt ran away with last week’s edition when we looked at eight covers of The Boy In The Bubble. U-Melt proves that clever setlist construction goes a long way, as the performance that was selected was in the middle of MMW’s Bubblehouse (Boy in the Bubblehouse?). Congrats to U-Melt on their first CW trophy, well it’s an imaginary trophy, put it on the mantle.
Moving on to this week, we will be taking a look at a tune Robbie Robertson wrote for The Band that was originally released on the their 1975 release Nothern Lights – Southern Cross.
Remember to register/login to IMEEM before starting the playlist below.
RSS Readers: Click Here To Launch The Plalist
READ ON for the tale of the tape on this week’s competitors…
Cover Wars: The Boy In The Bubble Edition
The Bridge once again had a strong showing and walked away as the sole victors of last week’s edition when we looked at eight covers of Them Changes. The Bridge should be thankful for their energetic fans on their message board that helped drive up the number as the week went on to push past 2nd place PBS. The Bridge hits the road again on October 14.
Moving on to this week, we’re going to take a look at the first track on Paul Simon’s legendary 1986 release Graceland. We’ve got a wide variety of performances this week: Solo acoustic, bluegrass, bands that have covered the whole album, studio renditions by punk-rock legends, the works!
As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM before starting the playlist below to ensure you are listening to full-length clips.
RSS Readers: Click here to launch the playlist
READ ON after the jump to cast your vote for the best version…
Review: The Dodos @ Museum of Fine Arts
I’m not big on writing reviews of concerts or albums. I’m more of a compile information compare/contrast kind of guy, that’s why I like writing Cover Wars every week. But walking out of The Dodos show last night at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston made me want to write up a couple of […]
Cover Wars: Them Changes Edition
I’m going to go ahead and declare a tie from our edition two weeks ago with The Bridge and Mr. Blotto refusing to quit as the votes go higher and higher – so we’ll call them both winners from when we looked at covers of Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys. Last week’s however has a clear winner, no big surprise here as Jerry Garcia & David Grisman received the majority of votes when we examined covers of Sitting In Limbo.
This week, we look at the title track off of a Buddy Miles album from 1970: Them Changes. While not as well known as the version on Band Of Gypsies, the studio cut features a funky groove with a horn section whereas the live Hendrix cut is more of your straight power-trio rocker. What’s great about this week’s Cover Wars is that we’ve got some bands with horns that play the lines from the studio recording and some guitar bands that are a little closer to the version most people know. Lots of good guitar work this week.
As always, please register/login to IMEEM to listen to full-length clips in the playlist below.
RSS Readers: Click here to launch the playlist
READ ON to cast a vote for your favorite Them Changes cover…
Cover Wars: Sitting In Limbo Edition
We do not as of now have a winner to report from last week when we looked at six covers of Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys. At the time of publishing this post, The Bridge & Mr. Blotto are literally tied, so if you haven’t already: Go listen and place your vote.
This week’s song, originally by Jimmy Cliff, first appeared on the 1971 album Another Cycle but is more well known for its inclusion on the 1972 The Harder They Come soundtrack which was produced and compiled by Cliff.
Be sure to register/login to IMEEM so the playlist below loads full-length tracks.
RSS readers, click here to launch the playlist
READ ON after the jump to vote for your favorite cover…
The B List: TV Paid The Radio Stars
For this week’s B List, I have compiled my Top 10 favorite television commercials that have benefited from the use of music by some of my favorite artists. Some of these spots were more controversial than others. In case you missed it, just last week Jack White issued a terse statement expressing disappointment that the Bond theme he wrote for Quantum of Solace debuted in a Coke commercial instead of the movie.
And some of these have ruffled some fan feathers as well…but in the modern era of music – where hardly anyone purchases albums, and touring acts are forced to put $4 per gallon gas in their vans and even more expensive fuel into their buses and trucks – who can blame bands for making a few bucks on TV? Plus, it’s just cool to hear good music during commercial breaks.
For an interesting read, check out Kevin Barnes and his piece: Selling Out Isn’t Possible
1) Phil Collins – In The Air Tonight (Cadbury Milk)
READ ON for nine more commercials that have great soundtracks…
CW: Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys Edition
We’re happy that the winners of Cover Wars are continuing to diversify. For a while, a few usual suspects were consistently walking away victorious from this weekly feature. But we saw Martin Sexton earn the most votes two weeks ago when we looked at covers of Wind Cries Mary, and the winner of last week’s Doobie Brothers Edition is none other than Dolly Parton!
Traffic – Santa Monica, CA (1972):
This week we are taking a look at the title track of Traffic’s 1971 album Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys. The song structure and shear length of the tune makes it quite conducive for an interesting Cover Wars.
As always, be sure to register/login to imeem to ensure that you will be hearing full-length tracks and not snippets.
RSS Readers: Click Here To Launch Playlist
READ ON after the jump for the full scoop on Low Spark…
Cover Wars: The Doobie Brothers Edition
I’m happy to report we have a first-time winner (actually it was his first entry too) to last week’s edition when we looked at nine covers of Wind Cries Mary. The winning artist: Martin Sexton.
Moving on to this week, we’re doing an artist’s version of Cover Wars where we take a look at multiple songs by the same artist, and this week we’re tackling the Doobie’s. Happened to be a fantastic coincidence that Wade just today alerted me that the folks that created Yacht Rock will be posting up in New York this Sunday. If you’re not familiar with Yacht Rock, here is episode #1:
As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM before starting the playlist below to ensure that you are streaming full-length tracks.
READ ON after the jump to vote for which doobiest cover be grooviest…
Cover Wars: Wind Cries Mary Edition
Last week’s Radiohead Cover Wars was one of the most popular to date. Eleven of the 16 artists received votes, but Gov’t Mule by a large margin received the most for their renditions of Lucky and Creep. In 2nd place was the Benevento Russo Duo and their four contributions. It was a fun one to put together.
This week, I take a look at another Jimi Hendrix classic that has been performed by an interesting collection of artists. I believe this edition features more pop artists than any of my prior pieces. A few solo performances and a couple of very original arrangements of this 1967 single from Jimi are below.
As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM so the playlist below loads full-length clips and not 30-second snippets.
READ ON for the tale of the tape on this week’s competitors…
Cover Wars: Radiohead Edition
Checking on last week’s edition, we had two popular choices for covers of Bell Bottom Blues. Once the votes were counted, Trey Anastasio had a slight edge over Umphrey’s McGee – so Trey takes home his first Cover Wars trophy sans Phish.
This week we’re taking on one of the most ambitious Cover Wars to date. We’ve compiled the most entries we’ve ever had as we take a look at covers of Radiohead’s catalog. Musicians in the 21st century seem to be more reluctant to cover other modern artists than bands were say 30-50 years ago. However, a few artists can be influential enough that bands just can’t help themselves. We saw a little bit of this in the Nirvana Cover Wars as jambands, jazz acts and pop artists paid tribute to the grunge era. We have a similar cross-section of artists this week as well, the contemporary jazz guys love Radiohead.
As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM so the playlist below loads full-length tracks.
Be sure to READ ON after the jump as some of the best covers this week are embedded via video clips and are not included in the playlist above.
Cover Wars: Bell Bottom Blues Edition
Looking back at last week’s Spanish Moon edition, Gov’t Mule has walked away with a narrow victory over Robert Palmer. In what was surely a coincidence: A day after last week’s Cover Wars, Mike Gordon welcomed one of last week’s contenders The Bridge to the stage during his encore at The Highline Ballroom for – you guessed it, Spanish Moon. Thanks for reading Cover Wars, Cactus!
This week, I have selected a track off of Derek & The Dominos 1970 release Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. If you don’t already know about Eric Clapton in the early 70’s, let’s just say it’s safe to assume the original recording was probably captured while Slowhand lay on the ground really high on heroin…and trying to steal away George Harrison’s wife.
As always, be sure to register/login to IMEEM so you hear entire songs and not just 30-second clips.
READ ON after the jump for the voting, some videos and more…
Cover Wars: Spanish Moon Edition
Normally, Phish has no problem winning an edition of Cover Wars regardless of their performance of the song in question. But the hardcore fans of Bonerama (can I call you people Boneheads?) made their virtual voices heard and their band has walked away victorious from last week’s Frankenstein Cover Wars.
This week’s selection was inspired by flipping through my RSS feed of shows added to bt.etree.org on Monday. I saw two sources of the Gov’t Mule’s show from 8-8-2008 get posted and I thought – hey, Spanish Moon could be a great Cover Wars to throw together. Written by Lowell George, Spanish Moon was first released on Little Feat’s fourth studio album Feats Don’t Fail Me Now. It would appear again four years later on the band’s first live recording Waiting For Columbus. Both recordings feature the Tower Of Power Horn Section.
We use imeem to embed these playlists, so be sure to register or login to hear the tracks in their entirety.
READ ON after the jump to see your options and cast your vote…
Cover Wars: Frankenstein Edition
If you’re paying really close attention, you know I had a good weekend when Cover Wars doesn’t make it onto the blog on Tuesday. Well yeah, my car may still smell like wet festival, but the trip that brought me to two ports (Newport for the Folk Festival and Bridgeport for Gathering Of The Vibes) was totally worth it. Following up from last week, PBS has walked away as the clear winner of the Spanish Castle Magic edition.
“Everyone knows rock n’ roll attained perfection in 1974; It’s a scientific fact”. This is according to Homer Simpson in the episode Homerpalooza, where he is questioning the need for “new bands” as he has realized he is out of touch with the music of the young people. Frankenstein was actually released in 1973, though Homer may have been referring to a specific experience WITH the song and not just the song’s release. The song titled originally titled “Double Drum Solo”, the Edgar Winter Group renamed the tune Frankenstein in reference to the fact that it had been spliced together from numerous separate recordings. The result? One of the most bad-ass rock instrumentals ever written.
You gotta register/login to IMEEM to listen to the songs below in their entirety:
READ ON after the jump for some versions not included in the playlist, voting, info on each version and much much more of the original Cover Wars…
Umphrey’s McGee Lights Up The Northeast
07/24/08 Roseland Ballroom, New York, NY
Sound Tribe Sector 9 opened
Set I: JaJunk> Higgins, Soul Food I> Ocean Billy, Nothing Too Fancy> Got Your Milk (Right Here)> Jimmy Stewart> Nothing Too Fancy, Syncopated Strangers, Rocker Part II> JaJunk, Come Closer
Famous words from Levon Helm about the first time The Band played NYC:
“New York, it was an adult portion. It was an adult dose. So it took a couple of trips to get into it. You just go in the first time and you get your ass kicked and you take off. As soon as it heals up, you come back and you try it again. Eventually, you fall right in love with it.”
My count has this as UM’s 30th gig inside the borough of Manhattan, their first appearance being nearly nine years ago at the Wetlands Preserve in October of 1999. These trips have brought UM through: Lion’s Den, Irving Plaza, The Knitting Factory, Bowery Ballroom, B.B. King’s, The Rocks Off Boat Cruise, Nokia Theatre, Central Park and CBGB.
The beginning of the set leaned heavy on improvisation and at the 30-minute mark of the set, the sold-out crowd was whipped into a frenzy by the screaming vocals of Ocean Billy. UM finished off the night with a cover of a mash-up that’s titled Come Closer (that’s a mash-up of Come Together by The Beatles and Closer by Nine Inch Nails).
READ ON after the jump for more pictures and reviews of the next three shows, as well as the link to download full-resolution pictures of the stage…