2008

The voting is still taking place (Actually, come to think of it, polls are still open for all of them) and turnout remains to be on the rise with Volume 5 of Cover Wars. Early on in the week it looked like Scarecrow Collection was going to pull it off, but Mr. Blotto is running away with it and Hidden Track can now project that Mr. Blotto will carry the 50 Ways edition of Cover Wars. Talks of a ‘Dream Ticket’ with both Mr. Blotto and SCC are being dismissed by both candidates.

Let us move onwards and upwards into this week’s edition where we’ll examine covers of David Bowie’s Space Oddity. You know this song, it’s called ‘Ground Control to Major Tom’, you can find it playing at happening college party sing-along’s with The Who’s ‘Teenage Wasteland’ and ‘Dirty Woman’ by Pink Floyd. This is a song that appears to be inspired both by the Apollo 11 moon landing and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bowie first recorded this song in 1969. Did you know that Rick Wakeman of Yes plays Mellotron/Keyboards on the original? I didn’t. I guess you learn something new everyday.

Assembly of Dust: Reid Genauer’s group used the tune as the countdown to ring in the year 2007. This is a good call when the song’s already got a countdown from 10 in it. Well played.

Read on for the full report on nine other versions of Space Oddity…

In our never-ending quest to dig up some great bands that cost less than a corned beef sandwich at Katz’s Deli, we bring you another round of Blips. Blips highlights some great bands that are largely still in their larvae stage, but will soon morph into their beautiful butterfly. In this edition, we have some really cool new music, so take a sec, poke around their various websites, and see what you think.

Renminbi

Website / MySpace

You what really turns me on? Chicks with huge balls. Renminbi is a power trio of badass ladies that hold nothing back in creating a flustering stampede of sound reminiscient of Billy Corgan meets Shpongle. These girls will not only impress you with their writing and playing, but they will also knock you flat on your ass. Remnimbi’s musical compositions are noticeably mature as they often teeter the line, but never fully cross, into harmonious resolves. Rather they perpetually build tension and give you a lot of mini-releases, but never succumb to the full release. Justin Lin Yifu, a well-known economist, stated at a recent conference with Chinese officials that, “Renminbi’s rise must be controlled.” To that, we say good luck. – Rupert

Read on for three more bands that have caught our attention…

Move over “The” bands I’m declaring Vampire bands the new trend in band namely. Ok well I only actually know about two of them – Vampire Weekend, and new find

Marco Benevento played with some of the best musicians in the scene during a January residency at Sullivan. For Marco’s next NYC gig at Rockwood Music Hall on April 3,

A few months ago, Stormy Monday ran a first volume of the Ghosts of Jambands Past featuring a selection of scene staples from the turn of the century that are no longer with us, bands like Ominous Seapods and Percy Hill. This second installment focuses on the new groove/nu jazz/acid jazz revival movement.

The late 90’s and early 00’s was a golden era for the groove, when backbeats were thumping and the bass was funky, B-3 solos stretched for miles and lavish horn arrangements were the order of the day. Within that world, bands tended to fall into two loose categories- those that crushed the groove, and those that tended to push boundaries, drawing more from Miles Davis-style fusion than from Grant Green.

Addison Groove Project, Boston’s best and brightest, made a name for itself as the former, but in the later years, especially around the time bassist John Hall passed away from cancer, the band began to venture into more open-ended territory, increasingly relying on Rob Marscher’s exceptional keyboard work, as on the opening track, Neo-Geo. By contrast, critic’s choice Fat Mama used to bill itself as inspired by Miles Davis albums like Dark Magus, and their Blood Born Pathogens is a decidedly twisted take on a classic afrobeat idea. It starts out with heavy flourishes that might seem at home in The Budos Band, but it quickly becomes clear that something is very different is going on.

Read on for the rest of the track list…

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When the Beatles put their first road crew together, they enlisted childhood friend Neil Aspinall for the role of Road Manager. Aspinall stayed with the band through thick and thin,

Last week Philly-centric blog Philebrity took a backhanded slap at the Disco Biscuits in a post about this year’s Jam On The River line up. This didn’t sit too well

After a long winter of waiting, the baseball season officially gets underway sometime around 6 AM tomorrow morning with the Boston Red Sox taking on the Oakland Athletics in Tokyo,