I first heard of this delicious group when, believe it of not, I saw The Thrills, Phantom Planet, and Stereogram play a little show north of Indy. For some reason they were handing out little Franz Ferdinand flyers at the door and it served to pique my interest a bit.
Now that was all years ago. Before the ‘nand hit it big both in the states and elsewhere. Before they sold out shows and jet setted around the globe, buying pints of milk and going out for a smoke every now and then. That was also years before they took a Gwen Stefani staple dance tune and made it their own. Pay special attention to the way they incorporate some brilliant Billy Idol lyrics into the end of the song. It’s glorious.
If I could hang out with one musician for a day I would have to admit it would be a toss up between Ben Folds, Ben Gibbard, or John Samson from The Weakerthans. They all have such interesting musical styles and they can flat out write lyrics. For me that’s essential to liking a bit of music. It must have great lyrics. Well that is unless you’re Sigur Ros or some other ambient/sings in a different language band.
Anyway, lately I’ve been thinking about doing a week long tribute to Mr. Ben Folds, similar to the Seven Days of Sufjan series I ran last December, just to show how much I love the guy. He’s brilliant in concert, he’s quite affable in person, and he genuinely seems to like being a brilliant musician. Which, I might point out, is quite rare in the scene today.
So, instead of starting up a week long tribute to the new, and less drunk, piano man I thought I would throw this little gem up and see how much traffic Mr. Folds attracts. I’ll probably do the week tribute regardless as to whether or not it gets friends and family to see this site, but it’s always fun to know if something you love is loved, in turn, by others.
Ben preformed this track live at JTV in Australia. The story goes that he forgot he was supposed to play a cover tune and picked this song as it was, at the time, the most played song on his iPod. So he figured out a piano arrangement, grabbed three random percussionists from the studio, found some boxes and a glass lying around, and threw together a brilliant cover of a great song.
If you don’t believe me, just watch the video below.
Or you can watch this version of the song which he preformed live on his myspace gig webcast.
The man is quite literally a piano playing robot. And seriously, what other musician can ever claim to have invented the “guitarchestra.” [think guitar + orchestra]hypesitemyspace
Well, the Foo Fighters never seem to disappoint. I’ve heard it said that they are one of the most consistent rock bands currently out there and I would have to agree. Each and every album they turn out seems to be a pure and wonderful rock album. And, to be honest, we don’t get those very much anymore. Even the venerable RHCP seem to dabble a bit much in psychedelic funk to be called simply a rock band.
The Foo Fighters do have a new album coming September 25, available for preorder now, and I’m going to go ahead and say that it will be the best rock album of 2007. There, I said it, and there’s no going back now. And seriously, just check out the below video for the song The Pretender, and you’ll have to agree; Dave Grohl and company are genius.
First of all the Arctic Monkeys cover the Strokes. Which is fun, because until this cover I didn’t really like the Arctic Monkeys at all, ever. Yeah, I didn’t like the Arctic Monkeys and I guess I’m the first person in the world to admit it.
Then I stumbled across this wonderful cover by the Strokes. And as we all know by now the Strokes and I have shared a long and fulfilling love affair. I’ll even go this far; I loved them long before Rolling Stone did. There, I said it.
I can’t remember where I found this slightly rare Radiohead track, but it is worth the download and the listen. Even if just for the novelty of hearing Radiohead cover Neil Young. To be quite honest this isn’t my favorite Radiohead track, but we’re not all about only listing our favorite music here. Sometimes it’s best to bring you your favorite music too. Enjoy.
Yes, I do realize that I’ve already posted this song by this particular artist. But since then a couple of things have happened. First of all the fileserver I was using crashed. Hard. Then I found out that only a few other blogs had posted the song and most of their links were dead as well. Finally I stumbled upon the above YouTube capture of the music video for this song and it really grabbed my attention. All these things considered I decided it was time for a repost of what really could be the greatest cover of all time.
I cannot remember what it was that I was watching the other day. I really cannot recall what it was. Granted it was some form of entertainment, but whether it was a television program, a miniseries, or a movie I just cannot remember. And the following situation occurs in my life more than could be deemed simple random occurrences. I’m sitting around, absorbed in some form of entertainment, and yet at the end of the night all I can remember is this one song that I really wanted to listen to again.
And here, with Roberta Flack, is one of those songs. She’s a classic singer and an amazingly talented songwriter. Here though I’ve posted a song written by other legends, Simon and Garfunkel. I’m not sure why Roberta decided to cover this song, but it is gorgeous.
I first heard of this delicious group when, believe it of not, I saw The Thrills, Phantom Planet, and Stereogram play a little show north of Indy. For some reason they were handing out little Franz Ferdinand flyers at the door and it served to pique my interest a bit.
