I know just what it takes to make a pro blush.

Mini Pops "Bette Davis Eyes" (Kim Carnes cover)
Decades before Kidz Bop came along and tried to convince us that kids responded better to today's pop hits when an untalented non-famous adult sang it with a group of kids cheering in the background, there was a group of actual British kids rerecording hits of their era. Apparently the group's producers (go K-tel!) thought getting 8-year-olds to seductively sing songs about a manipulative woman who fucks guys on the floor of her apartment was an awesome idea. And they were so wrong they were almost right. Seriously, if has anyone out there has Mini Pops LPs (or 8-tracks!) and can convert them to MP3s and send them to me, I'd ... well, I don't know what I would do. But I'd be ecstatic. (Thanks, Mark, for this one!)

Gwyneth Paltrow "Bette Davis Eyes" (Kim Carnes cover, from Duets)
And this version is even more disturbing!

Also—not related to kids (or celebrities) singing adult themed-songs but related to covers in general—Steve over at Domino Rally has the Bad Plus doing Iron Man, y'all.

I have people all over the world working for me for free!

Reader Tarek just alerted me that local emo types Canasta have a handful of covers, live and otherwise, available on their audio page—including a pretty little cover of one of my favorite '80s one-hit wonders, Peter Schilling's "Major Tom (Coming Home)." (Actually, I quite enjoyed his "World of Lust and Crime" as well, but no one I know seems to remember that.)

Reader Skott sent a track my way that's kinda interesting (especially if you, like me, are a fan of the Vocoder): David Torn's sons Elijah and Cody covering Alicia Keys' "Falling."

And, you're not going to believe this one, but a record label rep actually sent me something covers-related! Usually I get the standard "Hi, my name's Schmo and I'm a big fan of your site. Please check out [insert sucky band who has no covers available] and consider promoting them for me" crap that I suspect all MP3 bloggers get. But Sean from Redder Records let me in on a few new Kind of Like Spitting (whose covers I quite often enjoy, even!) covers available here. Wonders never cease!

They never wanted to kill; they are not naturally evil ... such things they do just to make themselves more attractive to you. Have they failed?

Alison Moyet "There are Worse Things I Could Do" (from Grease)
I can think of no blue-eyed soul songstress I'd rather hear cover this bad-girls-have-hearts-too classic.

Dogstar "Superstar" (Carpenters cover)
Ah, Keanu. You know it's bad when you're playing bass for a band that probably could've been as successful as Matchbox 20 if only they had half an ounce of charisma. Or a quarter ounce of eyeliner.

J. Church "Last of the Famous international Playboys" (Morrissey cover)
I don't care for this punk cover, but I am glad to see bands covering my favorite Morrissey song.

Rabbit in the Moon "Waiting for the Night" (Depeche Mode cover)
It's a cheesy thing to admit, but I'll have you know that Depeche Mode's Violator was the soundtrack to nearly all of my masturbation from the end of my senior year of high school through to the beginning of my freshman year of college. What a dork I was. [Ponders a blog dedicated to teenage alt.Liza's masturbation songs ... thinks better of it.] This version from Florida's most popular [only?] trancesters is pretty good for what it is. Especially if you've just taken two Vicodin and have a lot of candles burning.

Sexy Sadie "Moonage Daydream" (David Bowie cover)
Speaking of sex:

Dear hot Spanish boys,

You may serenade me with David Bowie anytime. Then we will dance on the beach and have a menage a trois. Or tres. Or quatro. Or cinco. Or whatever. I'm perpetually ready and willing to be tu mama tambien. [Pardon the lack of accent marks. I'm too lazy to look up the proper HTML.]

Love, Liza

Toonces "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" (Cyndi Lauper cover)
I can't find any info online about Toonces. Are they Japanese? German? Finnish? Or simply the product of a Cover Fight? Anyone?

I'll never understand why so many people prefer to be catty when it's just as easy to be nice.

So, someone is calling me out in another blog's comments because, supposedly, the files I'm sharing have viruses. This, of course, is news to me. Hell, I didn't even know it was possible for MP3s to have viruses in them. Does this mean I'm stupid? Perhaps. But I scan my computer (including the folders with MP3s in them) for viruses on a regular basis with regularly updated anti-virus software and I've yet to have anything alert me to viruses. So, if you can shed some light on how this all works by letting me know directly or by giving me some solutions to remedy any perceived problems so that I might fix them, that would be most appreciated. Or maybe you could tell me what proof you have that my files have viruses or tell me which files they are. Or, if you prefer, you can choose the less friendly, totally prickish route and just go badmouthing me elsewhere for something I was completely unaware of.

So, yeah. I would be grateful for any helpful input on this matter.

Let me walk down the highway with my brother in peace.

Hey, kids. A random insomnia-inspired Googling of an old friend—who was once in my best pal Ryan's band back in the day in Bloomington, Indiana—led me to her current band's website, where you can download a cover of her singing Bob Dylan's "Let Me Die in My Footsteps." I knew she was in Chicago since I ran into her a year or so ago at a sushi bar, but haven't made it out to see her band yet. It's now on my to-do list. So, yeah, check it out. Ami has a fucking fantastic voice.

And, while we're talking about my old musical pals from my days in Bloomington and their cover songs, PJ from Sardina—a band I've talked about at length in past entries—has a slew of covers available for download here. (A selection which includes the "Me and My Arrow" cover I once posted last year.)

Oh, and as for friends of the online variety, it's Joy Division cover season over at Spoilt Victorian Child.

It's the best I can do.

It's not my intention, really, to keep up with the one-band megasong entries, but I've had Abba in my head the past few days and, seriously, Abba has to be one of the top three most-covered acts of all time and it's hard to narrow it down to one or two tracks. (Plus, I've been so busy the past few weeks, I haven't been able to post as much as I'd like in general.) I could start an Abba cover site and post eight songs a day for a year and there'd still be millions more. Metal, country, new age, Broadway, teen pop, rockabilly, goth, indie acts? They all cover Abba.

Lush "Hey Hey Helen" (Abba cover)
One of my favorite Abba covers by far. I miss Lush.

A*Teens "Our Last Summer" (Abba cover)
The original version of this song was the one stuck in my head earlier this week. As a child in the late '70s, I wore my Abba albums out and quickly tired of the bigger hits. This song was my first introduction to the pronunciation of Parisian landmarks and may well have been what prompted me to study French instead of German or Spanish once I hit middle school. This song is super-sappy, hence its appeal to an 8-year-old. But, even at 8, the line "and now you're working in a bank/ the family man, the football fan/ and your name is Harry" perplexed me. Had he changed his name since that summer in Paris? I chalked it up to English not being Abba's first language. Aaaanyhow, this song is more obscure than most Abba songs covered, so of course it would be done by one of the most perplexing Abba tribute acts. It seems these young Swedes wanted to experience the same level of fame as their elder countrymen and chose to do so by paying homage to Abba by totally ripping them off. And to think I missed the opportunity of posting this on March 7, which—according to various fan sites— was "International Day of A*Teens World-Wide"!

Mad Heads "Money, Money, Money" (Abba cover)
Ukranian psychobilly, eh? Okay.

Yngwie Malmsteen "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" (Abba cover)
Aaah, Yngwie! Always rousing us with his lick-filled covers!

Therion "Summernight City" (Abba cover)
Another Swedish band paying homage to their forefathers via gothy Ozzy-influenced death metal.

Gheorghe Zamfir and Dana Dragomir "Chiquitita" (Abba cover)
It's spring in Chicago and you know what that means: Any day now you can expect to hear pan flute wafting up the city streets into your office from the arts and crafts tent fair below. But Zamfir, it ain't. Pan flute at Chicago street fairs is usually South American. This is pan flute from my Romanian brethren. (Although Dana, the world's first female professional pan flautist, currently resides in Abba's Sweden.) Bow before Zamfir, master of the pan flute!

Sensitive New Age Cowpersons "Dancing Queen" (Abba cover)
The scariest four-word combination in the world: Australian bluegrass comic musicians.

Evan Dando "Knowing Me, Knowing You" (Abba cover)
I've made lots of fun of Evan Dando in my day. I'm guessing this is because everyone I've met who looks like him has been either an asshole or a total freak (or both) and because everyone I've ever met who lists the Lemonheads as a favorite act has been either an asshole or a total freak (or both). But that's not really Evan's fault. Is it?

He hit me, but I knew he loved me.

Twice now I've begun writing my newest post, only to have the following message pop up as I'm attempting to save the drafts:

"The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, support@blogger.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error."

Um. Blogger has a lot of nerve trying to blame me.

Let them know we tried.

You know, so far I think the best Google search term with the potential to lead people to my site is "Blake Babies slash." Also, I appreciate all the cover suggestions I've been receiving lately, but—at the risk of approaching the height of snobbery—keep in mind whom you're dealing with. You have to search long and hard to find covers I don't already have or know about. I mean, really, I talked about Dokaka's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" almost a year ago. It's the covers equivalent of commenting to Matthew Perpetua and trying to turn him onto a "new" acts like LCD Soundsystem or the Bloc Party. /end good-natured tongue-in-cheekiness

Yeah. I'll probably start posting again on a more regular basis after the weekend. I just had insomnia so I thought I'd check in.

Aw, what the hell, here's something with which to horrify yourselves:

Mark Oh "When the Children Cry" (White Lion cover)
See, Darwin? Those techno-trance freaks will co-opt anything.

Load up on guns and bring your friends.

A week ago today marked the 11th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's suicide*. (Or murder, if you're one of those irrational freaks in the "Courtney killed him" camp.) Yeah. I don't really care—since depsite liking them I was always shocked at how immensely successful they became and because it annoys me when people with unlimited financial resources are somehow incapable of finding help—but here are a slew of Nirvana covers anyhow. Man, there sure are a lot of Nirvana covers. It was difficult to narrow it down to these lucky 13. (I figure I might as well celebrate my webspace by testing it with as many downloads as possible!)

*And, sadly, this prediction appears not to have come true.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit"

The Bad Plus

Nonex

Rumal Noorkuu

The Scala Choir

"Come As You Are"

Dani Siciliano

Pink Freud

"All Apologies"

Herbie Hancock

Sinead O'Connor

"Verse Chorus Verse"

Scout Niblett

"Breed"

Steve Earle

"On a Plain"

Rogue Wave

"Rape Me"

Richard Cheese

"Heart-Shaped Box"

Evanescence

Patience, my pretties.

Well, brainiac that I am, I figured out how to be able post more stuff. Why not use the same super deal I used previously for my domain/webspace to create another domain/webspace? Yeah, I'm quick. So, as soon as the 12- to 48-hour span of time it takes for the Internet to recognize the domain passes, those Nirvana covers (and others, no doubt) shall surface.

I always suspected there would be drawbacks to being popular.

So, it looks as if I've exceeded (or am close to exceeding) my host's allowed transfers for the month. This would be fine if said host would disallow transfers once I hit the maximum, but instead said host will allow people to keep downloading and simply charge me money I can't afford in order that they may do so. For obvious reasons, that doesn't sit well with me and I've changed the settings so this won't happen in the future. But, for now, I've removed all mp3s from my host's server and the links below that look active actually aren't. Don't worry, the Nirvana stuff I posted earlier will return in a week or so. I guess I got a little overzealous and didn't realize how many people actually read my various sites. The good with the bad, you know?

Almost immediately, I felt sorry.

Man, it's already Wednesday? I keep waiting for a moment to create a post chock-full of witty insights, and I can't find it. So now it's on you.

2 Play feat. Juxci D "Careless Whisper" (Wham! cover)

Alkaline Trio "Metro" (Berlin cover)

Operation Cliff Clavin "Fuck and Run" (Liz Phair cover)

Delerium "Justify My Love" (Madonna cover)

Trespassers William "Vapour Trail" (Ride cover)

The April fools.

This is all a terrible joke. None of these are real.

Don Johnson "Tell it Like It Is" (Davis/Diamond)

Andy Gibb and Victoria Principal "All I Have to Do is Dream" (Everly Brothers cover)

Claudine Longet "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye" (Leonard Cohen cover)

Dave Stewart (not the one from the Eurythmics) and Barbara Gaskin "It's My Party" (Lesley Gore cover)

Barry Williams (aka Greg Brady, aka Johnny Bravo) "We Are the Champions" (Queen cover)

The Motels "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)" (Crystals cover)

Tiny Tim w/Brave Combo "Hey Jude" (Beatles cover)