Cover of the Week

New Hype BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD Covers MGMT – Time To Listen!

Posted on by JL

16 February 2021

To my ears, 2008 single TIME TO PRETEND still is the best thing
American electro pop eccentrics MGMT ever did. A gloriously
catchy fantasy tune about being a rock star.

New British hype BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD launched their
highly praised art rock-jazz-pop debut LP For The First Time two
weeks ago. Just before the release, they shared their interpretation
of Time To Pretend. They slowed it down and turned it into a
stunning, melodramatic ballad.

Here’s their pretty WOW version…

I’m feelin’ rough, I’m feelin’ raw
I’m in the prime of my life
Let’s make some music, make some money
Find some models for wives
I’ll move to Paris, shoot some heroin and fuck with the stars
You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant cars

This is our decision to live fast and die young
We’ve got the vision, now let’s have some fun
Yeah, it’s overwhelming, but what else can we do?
Get jobs in offices and wake up for the morning commute?

Original…

BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD: Facebook

MILEY CYRUS And BILLY IDOL Have A Rocking White Wedding

Posted on by JL

8 February 2021

MILEY CYRUS played her first live show in a year with
her TikTok Tailgate pregame show performance in Tampa
Bay before the Super Bowl 55.

At one point former face and voice Billy Idol of 70s punk Brits
Generation X took the stage and had a steamy White Wedding
(Idol’s massive 1982 hit) with Cyrus who overwhelmed poor Billy
with her high-powered act.

Watch and rock out…

Idol’s wedding…

MILEY CYRUS: Facebook

MILEY CYRUS Covers MAZZY STAR – Here’s Dark Pearl ‘FADE INTO YOU’

Posted on by JL

2 February 2021

Artist: MILEY CYRUS
Born Destiny Hope Cyrus
in 1992 in Franklin, Tennessee.

Song: FADE INTO YOU from – 1993

Original: by California band Mazzy Star featuring
amazing gloom and doom voice Hope Sandoval.

Not as dark as the original,
but impressive nevertheless…

Original by Mazzy Star

MAZZY STAR: Facebook

When WIDOWSPEAK Covers DIRE STRAITS You Get Magic

Posted on by JL

13 January 2021

Last August Brooklyn‘s daydreamers WIDOWSPEAK – singer Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earl Thomas – released their highly acclaimed fifth LP Plum with a 4/5 review from AllMusic writing: “Plum finds them at their most immediate and compelling.”

And they start 2021 with a new 5-track EP, planned to go online on 22th January. Honeychurch, like the 17th-century tile on its cover, is a nod to E.M. Forster’s A Room
With A View and was originally a working title for Plum.

All EP info here.

One of the tracks is a Dire Straits cover of their 40-year old song (released as a single
on 9 Jan 1981 – from the band’s third LP Making Movies) Romeo and Juliet . Thomas’ glimmering guitar glow and Hamilton’s sensuous voice make it sound as if they wrote
the humdinger themselves. Magic, just magic!

Have a listen…


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WIDOWSPEAK: Facebook

LIV STRANGE Covers THE DOORS With A Wayward Version Of ‘PEOPLE ARE STRANGE’

Posted on by JL

6 January 2021

LIV STRANGE is a Chicago born, Los Angeles based artist whose music has both a melodramatic and enigmatic sonority. Her cover of The Doors‘ classic People Are
Strange says it all, as she turns the song into a slo-mo electro groove with a Gothic
touch and somber vocals. Wayward and arresting. But also weirdly sensual and
overall ghostly.

“I decided to cover ‘People Are Strange’ because I’ve always been enamored by the oddities
of the ‘average’ individual, the hidden secrets and twisted mind of your next door neighbor.
We are all strange in our own way. In knowing that, it can either keep us connected to our personal freedom or burdened by its ghastly shadow,” says Strange.

Be strange here…

LIV STRANGE: Facebook

Irish Indie Rockers FONTAINES D.C. Cover Anglo-Irish Legends THE POGUES

Posted on by JL

7 Decmeber 2020

This year the young Irish wolves FONTAINES D.C. rocked their way to
the top of the indie universe with their second album A Hero’s Death.

Today we feature them with a magnificent rendition of sepia-colored
ballad I’M A MAN YOU NOT MEET EVERY DAY.

Actually, a traditional Irish music hall song recorded by THE POGUES
for their superb 1985 album Rum Sodomy & The Lash sung by Cait
O’Riordan, ex-wife of Elvis Costello, who played bass with The Pogues
for four years.

The Fontaines‘ version is glorious. Frontman Grian Chatten‘s melancholic
voice, the Xmassy harmonies, and the overall Fairytale Of New York feel is
just exquisite.

Listen here…

The Pogues take…

THE POGUES: Facebook

ALISON MOSSHART Covers THE BOSS With An Electro Take Of ‘STATE TROOPER’

Posted on by JL

1 December 2020

ALISON MOSSHART, half of the splendid The Kills, released her
first far-out solo tracks this year with Rise and It Ain’t Water.

And as so many artists did before, while sitting at home instead of being
on the road, Alison also came up with a cover. She picked State Trooper,
a haunting masterstroke from Bruce Springsteen‘s 1982 album Nebraska.

In an interview with Forbes she said: “One of my favorite car songs, which I just
covered and I f**king love is “State Trooper,” by Bruce Springsteen. I’m obsessed with
that song. I just can sit and sing it all day. I love how cinematic it is, I love it’s so visual.
So that may be my favorite car song.” Full interview here.

Here we go, Alison…

Bruce‘s version…

ALISON MOSSHART: Facebook

20th Century Metalboy AL JOURGENSEN Covers T.REX

Posted on by JL

25 November 2020

AL JOURGENSEN, the disturbed spearhead of Chicago’s veteran metal act
MINISTRY teamed up in 2018 with LA-based Goth rock supergroup BEAUTY
IN CHAOS for a titanic and back-breaking cover of 1973 glam hit 20TH CENTURY
BOY by T. REX.

Their take is over the metallic moon. Steamed-up, hot-tempered, and filthy
with Jourgensen‘s horror-ific vox adding a Satanique craziness and heated
harmonica fragments reinforcing the stampede force of this blowout.

Aaaargghhh…

I actually picked this ripper as cover of the week in the light of the recent event of MARC
BOLAN, rightly so, becoming a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His son ROLAN did the acceptance speech in name of his late father…

Rolan himself covered T. Rex‘s 20th Century slam, last year, together with
The Mission‘s frontman Wayne Hussey and also a Beauty In Chaos mix…

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BEAUTY IN CHAOS: Facebook

(photo on top: cover ‘Relapse’ album)