Shuffle: Top 10 Covers

I'm often on the fence when it comes to covers. I think it was because this one time I was told about a really, really, really good rendition of "Whole Lotta Love" some chick did on American Idol, and when I finally checked it out, I got burned. She butchered it.

 After that, it took awhile before I could open my heart to covers, but I was finally able to see how incredible they can be. Emphasis on CAN. A good cover should present an old song in a completely different light. It shouldn't replace the original but take place in your heart right next to it. It should be like hearing a new song you already know the lyrics to. Musicians have the ability to completely own something, make it their own, and then push it back out into the universe to be enjoyed by all, and that's what a cover should sound like. So here are my favorite cover songs.

It says "Top 10" but I refuse to put them in order because that makes me nervous. And these are my favorites AS OF RIGHT NOW.

  Tom Waits - Somewhere

This song is originally from one of my favorite movies, West Side Story. When Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer sing it, it is a song about a 1950s rough, New York Romeo and Juliet, torn apart by gang violence and prejudice, and it is beautiful. When Tom sings it, however, he is singing to everyone who has ever felt out of place and alone in this crazy, mixed-up world. I hear such hope in his harsh, gravely voice. It is a truly wonderful rendition, unexpectedly soft and gentle. It proves that even when he isn't singing his own lyrics, Tom Waits is still a poet.


  Jay-Z - Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)

I'm pretty sure this is the first hip hop song I liked without my brother's influence, which was kind of a big deal for me. Watching it again now as an adult, I'm stuck by how fearless Jay-Z always has been. This is what I was talking about earlier when I said covering a song is to make it your own. Jay-Z takes the chorus from a musical song about a little red-headed white girl, and makes it a striking commentary that resonates to this day. He can easily call a song from Annie the "ghetto anthem", and when all the video does is show adults in a black New York neighborhood staring angrily, apathetically, sadly into the camera while young black youths sing "instead of kisses we get kicked" around them, Jay-Z is making a statement that academics and scholars take whole books to explain.


  Hugo - 99 Problems

And bouncing off of Jay-Z, we get this insanely addictive Hugo cover. This is truly taking a great song, completely shifting the genre, and making it fresh and just plain awesome. I'm really into this folk-country-rock sound recently. This is just a fun song to listen to. I can't really sing along to rap songs without looking like a total idiot, so it's nice when indie or rock bands cover the songs so I can a) sing the lyrics and b) learn the lyrics so I can then sing to the original and still look like an idiot, but an idiot who knows what she's doing.


  Johnny Cash - Hurt

"And here is the four saddest minutes in the history of music." So says the top Youtube comment for this video. I'd heard this song several times before I even realized it was a cover song. To be fair...to me, I don't particularly like NIN. In my opinion, when Nine Inch Nails sing it, it sounds like another whiny, childish metal song written to cater to miserable kids to give them something to listen to while lighting candles to play with the wax. When Johnny sings it, there is real hurt in his voice. There is an age and a wisdom you can't fake. The video showing old footage of his career and himself, an old man, singing these lyrics alone - will bring a tear to the eye of even the toughest men.


  Frank Turner - Thunder Road

 I may be watching this video with my chin in my hands while deeply sighing. This is the love of my life, okay? He sings to my heart. And this cover of one of my favorite Bruce Springsteen songs is so beautiful. For one thing, it's easier to make out the lyrics. And I had this dream of me driving down a highway, with the window down and this song playing. I finally did it, with the original and this version, and it is just as incredibly satisfying. Springsteen's version is to played driving when the sun is setting. Frank Turner's is to be played driving in the early morning. I don't know what makes me thing that. Maybe I just want to see Frank early in the morning, hey-yo!


  Florence + The Machine - Addicted to Love

That video is just a compilation of her face, which is not a complaint. Anyway, Florence can always been trusted to take a poppy, happy 80s song and fill it with melancholy and beauty. You don't expect to softly sway to a Robert Palmer song, but that's what you end up doing. The Robert Palmer version is about how awesome and exciting it is to have an addiction! To love! When Florence sings it, she's staging a personal intervention with herself because she has a problem and needs to go to Lovers Anonymous. I just want to be friends with Florence Welch.


  16 Horsepower - Sinnerman

 I mentioned this song on Monday. Whatever, it's a great song. So atmospheric! Basically, this is a great song to listen to if you want to hear this creepy, creepy song sung in a creepy way by a man. If you want to listen to this creepy, creepy song sung in a creepy way by a woman, definitely check out the original by Nina Simone. Although 16 Horsepower's version is more folk while Simone's is more blues, but either way, it's the song you'll hear when you've got the devil walking up to your front door.


  The Puppini Sisters - Wuthering Heights

When I look at the Puppini Sisters, I feel so strongly the desire to achieve that Pin-up Girl look, but then I remember how much of an effort I'd need to put into that every day, and the desire subsides. I will make due with listening to their jams. Their shtick of being modern day Andrews Sisters suits me fine, because I may have been one of the only 14 year-olds in 2003 listening to "Rum and Coca-Cola". Anyway, this is a cover of a great Kate Bush song, and somehow the lyrics are even creepier when sung in a jaunty, retro tune by three girls in red lipstick and with big smiles. It also makes the song incredibly catchy.


  Miley Cyrus - Jolene

Okay, so this song is a little different than the others because Dolly Parton and Miley Cyrus are both country singers and they sing this song in a country style. However, the reason I love this version is because it shows how incredibly talented Miley Cyrus really is, when stripped of the Disney Channel nonsense. I will go down to fisticuffs defending Miley Cyrus because of this song, she sings it so well. You may click play skeptically, but I guarantee you will play it til the end because it is so very good.


  The Vaccines - We Are Never Every Getting Back Together


I am all about the Vaccines right now. In fact, they will probably be features in my post on Monday, so I won't talk too much about them right now. I won't lie when I say I know the Taylor Swift original. I know it, I sing it, I like it, okay? But it's so fun hearing proper bands singing music candy like this. The lyrics are so fucking goofy, and I'm aware of it in the original, but it's heightened and made even more hilarious in this cover. And now I can blast this song and sing aloud without ever getting grilled by my family and peers! LIKE EVER!

Throwback Thursday - get the Led out

Okay, so for some people this is a REAL throwback. Like, a couple decades throwback. For me, this is a three year throwback but whatever, it's my blog.

 Here is the story about how Led Zeppelin became my favorite band, and is to this day.

 So my final year at Florida State University was marked by classic rock. Well really, all I listened to since I was a freshman in high school was classic rock. I had become extremely comfortable in my classic rock grotto. I just played the oldies radio stations on FM or Pandora, I downloaded greatest hits albums because I was too lazy to actually pick out specific records. Honestly, I was content and ignorant about what I claimed to love.

 Then Allie, one of my best friends and roommates, one fateful evening, became obsessed with the Rolling Stones. It hit her like the plague. One day she was watching an old episode of the Ed Sullivan Show, and then her love of the Rolling Stones, and in particular Keith Richards, consumed her. She listened to all their music, she watched all their documentaries and interviews and performances, she papered her walls with pictures, she bought and waited and spazzed and inhaled Keith Richards's autobiography.

 And it spurred me on. I guess I felt a little jealous. Even then, I had the desire to know all about music, but then I didn't have the drive, I guess. I don't know why I focused on Led Zeppelin. I listened to them before, a lot, and really liked them. This was a time when I listened to my iPod on shuffle rather than picking an artist to listen to. But I loved it when "Kashmir" came on. That was my really big Zeppelin jam at the time. I had this awesome Led Zeppelin poster above my bed, the one with the four of them standing in front of their plane. I couldn't tell you, in the poster, who was who.

 So, I educated myself. I downloaded all their albums, I knew their faces. I could tell you who was Robert Plant, who was John Paul Jones, what happened to Bonzo (I became able to call him Bonzo!). I learned about Jimmy Page buying Aleister Crowley's home, I learned about the Shark Incident and promptly ignored it immediately. I listened to them constantly.

 I became a proper fan. I had a favorite album, and more importantly, I had a least favorite album, which is the mark of a true fan: being able to admit when something sucks. It was awesome.

 When I listen to Led Zeppelin now, I think back to this particular day, my final semester of my undergrad.

 I didn't have a real job. What I did for money is, I walked this dog. Ginger. She was a psycho. But cute. I didn't have a car, so when I had to walk her, I had to get a couple buses.

 On this particular day, I got up after my roommates had left for school and work. I got dressed, grabbed my iPod, walked out the door. I walked ten minutes to the bus stop, waited for and got the school bus, got off on campus, walked another ten minutes to the bus station, waited for and got on the city bus, got off at the dog's house, got the dog, walked in the park for 45 minutes, took her home, waited for and got the city bus back to the bus station, walked back to campus, waited for and got the school bus, walked back home.

 This all took about five hours. And this one day, when it had finally warmed up, I put on my only Led Zeppelin shirt, which was ripped and covered in bleach stains and had a picture of Led Zeppelin I album cover on it, put my iPod on the first Zep song alphabetically, and listened to every single song I had. I'm guessing now since my iPod has changed over the years, but I'd say it was probably Led Zeppelin I-IV, Physically Graffiti, and Houses of the Holy.

 Then, that evening, I watched The Song Remains the Same. It rocked. The video at the top is the full 28 minute performance of "Dazed and Confused". I recommend watching all of it. That song is really showcasing Jimmy Page's ability, and if you ever encounter anyone who doubts the importance and skill of Led Zeppelin, or writes them off as just another old heavy metal band, show them this video.

Then punch them in the face. Because you're not hardcore unless you live hardcore.

Place + Playlist = flying home

A couple days ago I flew back from winter break in Florida to Boulder, where I go to school. I'd been away in the sun for a month, joyously eating with my friends and family, but I like living in Colorado. There are seasons, and I have my own place, and my bed is a queen-size here rather than my childhood twin.

 But travelling sucks. Especially when I'm doing it from 7:45am to 3:50pm, all with my cat Sassy strapped around my neck. She travels well, don't get me wrong, but she's miserable and so am I. Especially when I have a FOUR HOUR LAYOVER in Atlanta.

 No offense, but I hate Atlanta. Had a bad experience there. The layover didn't really warm me up to it.

 So here is a playlist sample of what I listened to during the day. These are selections of the albums I listened to while draining all my battery life.

 

FLL -> ATL -> DEN from vowelinthug on 8tracks Radio.

| Little Lion Man - Mumford & Sons | Pilot Jones - Frank Ocean | Arcane Effigies - Sharks | Die Young - Ke$ha | Genesis - Grimes | Man on Fire - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros | Werewolf - Fiona Apple | Do My Thang - Estelle feat. Janelle Monae |  Island in the Sun - Weezer | Cold Weather Gear - The Menzingers |

VotD - "Lover of the Light"

Mumford & Sons - Lover of the Light
 Let's be real here, folks. Here is a music video you can watch with the sound off. I would happily pay money to watch Idris Elba watch paint dry. What a gorgeous, gorgeous man.

 But if you, you know, actually care about music and stuff, this is a wonderful song and a wonderful video. It perfectly captures all the emotions I feel when listening to Mumford & Sons - being alone on a cold, beautiful day, the simple sadness that comes with being alone that is almost rapturous, frolicking with deer, almost cliff diving, breakfast.

 Then I read the comments on the video, realized that Idris is meant to be blind, and had to restart the video and actually pay attention to something other than his beautiful, beautiful face.

 It's funny how that single plot point can turn a video of seemingly nice if random images into an incredibly moving story with serious depth. I thought this was just a great song with a beautiful (BEAUTIFUL) video, and now I'm near tears. Thanks a lot, Mumford!

MM - soul, psychedelic, and the creeps

Gin Wigmore – Holy Smoke (2009)

Maybe it is because my heart is still mourning the loss of Amy Winehouse, but Wigmore definitely reminds me of her. True, Winehouse was more blues while Wigmore leans heavily on rock, but the voices are eerily similar to me. Wigmore has that old sound in her voice, a twanging, sultry edge that I would probably sell a foot for. I’d be a peg-legged songstress and I’d make millions, I tell you. Her EP Man Like That is a bit more punk rock, while Holy Smoke has a wider range of sound that is all fun to sing along to. As a bonus, she’s from New Zealand, so her talking voice is just as wonderful to listen to as her singing voice.


Allah-Las – Allah-Las (2012)

One thing I’m very concerned with now is getting stuck in the past – especially when it comes to music. I know new music is often if not always inspired by older generations and fads, but I don’t want to only listen to the golden Oldies and completely ignore the new stuff either. For a long period of time, that’s what I did. Scorning my Warped Tour past, I listened only to classic rock my dad listened to as a kid. Anyway, what I’m trying to get at is I’ve finally discovered a band that is modern and is a beautiful mash up of British rock, California psychedelic rock, and garage grunge rock. Finding Allah-Las on Spotify was like coming home again after wading through the rough seas of crappy or confusing new music. Except it’s not the home I left but a cleaner, sharper home that is mostly the same but is set up with wi-fi. Allah-Las makes me want to put on my platform knee-high pleather boots and start doing the Monkey on a raised platform.


16 Horsepower – Folklore (2002)

Alternative country band. There’s a genre I never thought I’d listen to. Spotify calls 16 Horsepower a combination of “rural backwoods kitsch with edge, off-kilter country-rock”, which is accurate, if a little condescending. Folklore is a great album because it makes me feel uncomfortable, but in a good way. There is so much atmosphere wrapped into every drawn out guitar, every fiddle whine, every deep baritone growl. The music and the lyrics are what’d you hear walking through a barren forest at the edge between fall and winter – it sounds like the last thing you’d ever hear again. And sometimes I want to listen to things like that, okay? Their cover of “Sinnerman” gives me chills. Also, they are from Denver, which means they should be all the time so I can see them live, darn it.

Shuffle: Spotify Playlist

I couldn't think of a set idea for every Friday, so it will be a shuffle of whatever random shit I can think of. 

Today is one of my Spotify playlists. This is a two hour playlist entitled "Put the Blame on Mame, and other sultry lady songs", but I privately call it "A Badass Bitch Mix". These are some of my favorite songs by female artists, although this list is by no means complete. Enjoy, and feel free to subscribe!

 

Throwback Thursday

Also does what it says on the tin.

   

 The Fugees released this single in the summer of 1996. I was seven years old, and "Killing Me Softly" was literally all anyone listened at Camp Renegade. That summer is forever remembered as the summer of Tradewind Parks, plastic lanyards, buying soda just to shake them up and spray at each other, and this song. Lauryn Hill sings it beautifully, and watching the video on Youtube reminds me of how it got called in every five minutes on The Box. I tell you, I don't subscribe to that whole "90s generation is the best and today sux!!!" mentality many kids my age are checked in to, but goddamn, did that period of time produce some great music.

Playlist + Place = kayaking

Soundtrack for the places I go. Recently I went kayaking on the Loxahatchee in Jupiter, FL. There was no music playing apart from moving water, bird calls, and me cursing up a storm. Kayaking is hard. Anyway, if there had been music like in a movie, I imagine it'd sound something like this: folk-ish, bluegrass-ish rock with ominous lyrics of doom

.

wild on the Loxahatchee from vowelinthug on 8tracks Radio.

| Bottom of the River - Delta Rae | 99 Problems - Hugo | Ebb and Flow - Larry and His Flask | Paper Ships - Dead Man's Bones | Runnin' Blue - The Doors | Rattlin' Bones - Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson | In a Circle Going Round - Old Man Markley | Rye Whiskey - Punch Brothers | Brimstone Rock - 16 Horsepower |

Video of the Day

Does what it says on the tin.

 This video is E V E R Y W H E R E. With good reason. A lot of the times, a video that's everywhere is like some bullshit Gangum Style, It's Friday stuff that is only everywhere because of how annoying or ridiculous it is. "Thrift Shop" is awesome. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are awesome. I am always a fan of something that presents real social commentary in a hilarious way with phat beats. Their album The Heist is a fantastic album, and "Same Love" was almost the VotD, but that video mostly brings emotional tears. "Thrift Shop" always brings the funk.

New Music Monday

Or New (To Me) Music, because this is a learning experience.

  Japandroids – Celebration Rock (2012)

I think I found out about Japandroids one afternoon going through the “related artists” on Spotify, also known as definitely the best feature about Spotify. I can’t remember why I decided to listen to them, although I have no doubt it had something to do with their name. This Canadian band is the kind of rock I can always listen to, where the music doesn’t drown out the singing but is still infectious and memorable, and the vocals are understandable and pleasing to the ear. Several songs sound like montage music from some inspirational movie that involves a lot of running. This isn’t actually a bad thing. I picture myself dancing to Celebration Rock by throwing my fists and knees up in the air like a deranged marching band leader.  

The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound (2008)

This is 100% my brother’s fault. This is one of those bands he recommended to me a million times and I listened to them while doing other stuff and when I listen to music while doing other things like working or reading, I only really pay attention if it’s godawful. The Gaslight Anthem is not godawful. But I didn’t really start paying attention until he played them on the way back from Orlando a couple weeks ago because he is a control freak when it comes to car music. It was the middle of the night and I had nothing else to focus on apart from the beautiful lyrics, the soft singing, and the punk-blues-rough music. They’ve been around since 2007, but this album will definitely always remind me of 2012-2013 Winter Break, blaring it in my mother’s beat up Lexus with the windows down because it’s 85 degrees out and the air conditioning is broken, and it’s not a bad time to be reminded of.


Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012)

good kid, m.A.A.d city was on almost every Best Album of 2012 list I’ve read, with good reason. This is one of those albums that make me want to learn everything there is to know about hip hop. Occasionally that mood strikes me when I listen to something really good, I just want it to take over me. Lamar combines rap and R&B beautifully, interweaves different music genres so that no two songs sound the same. Listening to this album, you really get the feeling that every song is something Lamar needs to say, and it’s not hard at all to stop and listen.

I am here, you are here

This blog is going to document my musical education, in the hopes that I’ll eventually be able to consider myself a music nerd.

Being a nerd has always been second nature to me. I’ve always thought of myself as one. I spent my childhood reading books instead of playing outside. I discovered the internet when I was around 12, and lurked in those AOL chat rooms for my favorite movies. I hopped from Youtube comments to Television Without Pity forums and Livejournal to Tumblr and individual blogs. I remember clear as day sitting on my friend’s front stoop as she and a few other girls explained to me the fantastic wonders of Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter fanfiction. I spent days sitting in the graphic novel section of my local Borders because I didn’t have the money to spend on comics I’d finish reading in under an hour.

I collect science fiction shows the same way people collect baseball cards or shot glasses. The way me and my friends handle Oscar season is reminiscent of my brother’s Fantasy leagues.

I’ve never been ashamed of my interests. “Nerd” is a term intended to be derogatory towards people who feel uncensored and overwhelming passion and obsession towards something, and that passion is so strong we nerds have reclaimed the title and wear it with honor.

But it’s easy when you surround yourself with like minds. All my friends were right there with me. It’s what we talk about, movies and television and books.

And for the most part, music kind of got left by the wayside.

We listen to music, of course. We love music. But it never went much further for most of us than what we were given to listen to by the music industry. For me, I listened to the pop and hip hop prominent on the radio, on Total Request Live and on The Box. Then it was the alternative rock and pop-punk that slipped onto the Top 40 Countdown. Finally around my late teens I spent most of my time listening to my father’s jazz and classic rock – but the popular stuff they play endlessly on my local radio station. It all kind of jumbled together for me for a long time. I’d burn CDs with “Mr. Big Stuff” followed by “Mr. Brightside”,  Pink Floyd’s “Careful With That Axe, Eugene”, then Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.”

I didn’t listen to albums, I listened to mixes. I was stuck permanently in shuffle.

I’m 23 years old, and today is the first day of 2013. I’m going to grad school in Colorado for journalism, and in my lifetime I’ve own a portable cassette player, and then a portable CD player, and then an mp3 player. I’ve seen the music industry change, and change hard. I want to be fully conscious for the things that are going to come.

There are two people in my life I consider music nerds, two people I care about deeply. They are different music nerds. The first, my best friend Brett, flips through the radio to every single station she’s got access to, can hear only a few notes of a song and instantly know who it is and the name of the song, and some random fact about the band or her own history related to that song. The other is my brother, James. James spent most of his teenage years going to three or four concerts a week, local indie and punk bands mostly, and he’s seen some huge bands at their very beginning. He listens to bands that don’t even exist yet.

My hope is to be something in between Brett and James. 

I plan to post Monday through Friday. This is my 968596856th attempt to successfully manage a blog, but I have actual plans for each day of the week which will hopefully keep my interest and keep me dedicated.

Monday - New (to me) Music

Tuesday - Music Video Night

Wednesday - Playlist+ Place

Thursday - Throwback Thursday

Friday - Shuffle

Let's see how we do.

--GS